HR Management, HR Updates

Zoom Interviews & HR implications – HR Affiliates Blog

Like remote work, virtual interviews are here to stay.

Just as remote work has continued through the pandemic and recovery, remote interviews are likely here to stay as well. Going forward, industry experts expect businesses to adopt a combination of traditional in-person and virtual interview methods. 

“For senior roles, you may start out virtual, but at some point you’d want to have in-person engagement. Hiring for senior roles is a big investment, and you will want to interview those candidates in person,” Peg Buchenroth, a senior VP of HR at the Addison Group in Chicago, said. “Virtual interviews are not going away,” she added. “Virtual interviewing will remain an option for talent acquisition, depending on the situation.” 

Benefits of the remote interview

Hiring managers are quick to point out the benefits of video interviewing. 

Alexandra Obanion is the lead recruiter and talent advisor at Celanese, a Texas-based chemical technology company. She says that a major benefit of virtual interviews is the flexibility allowed for participants. Rather than taking time off from their regular schedule — work or otherwise — they can simply sign into a video interview. 

Buchenroth of the Addison group agreed. “Some candidates aren’t able to easily travel due to any number of circumstances, and virtual interviews allow them a level of flexibility.” 

Microsoft conducts multiple interview events for engineers every year. “Before going virtual because of COVID-19, we were doing about 15 of these events per month, bringing in about 30 to 65 candidates per event, always in person, at the Seattle campus,” Tiffany Ballve, a senior talent sourcing manager, explained. “We always had space and logistics limitations to interview that many candidates at the same time. Logistics kept us from scaling bigger. But moving to 100 percent virtual removed those logistical complications, so now we’re running 30 to 35 events per month. We’re saving so much money not having to pay travel costs.” 

Virtual interviews also allow recruiters to cast a wider geographic net when seeking candidates. But recruiters aren’t the only ones who can benefit. “The technology gives more candidates the opportunity to apply to jobs outside of their local area, too,” Buchenroth noted.

When in-person is best

Many recruiters and hiring managers are bullish on virtual interviews, but they still recognize the benefit of a face-to-face meeting. 

“For roles that require strong social skills, such as client-facing or senior leadership positions, employers may want to meet candidates face-to-face,” Buchenroth said. “In-person interviews offer a higher level of engagement. You can read body language better and get a better sense of someone’s interpersonal skills.” 

While technology has improved the speed of communicating, often removing geographic barriers, technology can be its own obstacle. “Not all technology is the same, and some of these interview platforms are glitchy,” said Matt Duren, senior manager of talent acquisition at Tenable Network Security, a cybersecurity company in Columbia, Md. “They’ll cut out on you, or there’s Internet connectivity and bandwidth issues or video processing issues. You then have candidates being evaluated on the ability to maintain a video interview, which has nothing to do with the job itself.” 

Another barrier to virtual meetings arises when potential candidates don’t have access to wi-fi or laptops with reliable webcams, or who aren’t savvy enough with computers to figure out Zoom or Google Hangouts, etc. 

For more information on the pros and cons of remote interviewing, contact us today. We’ll even have a real human talk to you in person or on the phone if you prefer.  

Source

https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/pros-and-cons-virtual-in-person-interviews.aspx

 

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