Video Gives More Insight for University Recruiters

In the previous blog, we discussed how employer branding can attract top talent from the university space. We hope you learned a little about how employer branding can be a part of a successful university recruiting strategy and how investing in these opportunities benefits both the employer and the future intern/employee.

While promoting a positive corporate image can bring in many talented and qualified applicants to an internship program, without properly evaluating the candidates, recruiters may not be able to dedicate resources effectively to target top talent. This makes the screening stage of the recruiting process absolutely critical to the overall effectiveness of the program.

One of the most important qualities for trying to find the right student to fill a job or an internship is to find a proper cultural fit; unfortunately, this is also one of the most difficult aspects to quantify, especially with a text-based resume or application. Aspects like personality and environmental preferences become secondary to experience and past accomplishments with these text-based methods, and while those factors certainly are necessary to source students able to handle the workload, they don’t necessarily predict success. Past experience can create a good baseline of what a candidate may be able to accomplish, but cultural fit and potential will ultimately determine his/her value to the company.

Even more advanced screening processes like a phone interview or pre-employment assessment may miss critical factors of a candidate. While they may weed out applicants who do not have immediately what it takes to fill the position, they still can push through a candidate who may have trouble operating in a particular corporate environment because of their limitations.

Determining cultural fit is easier in person because nonverbal communication, appearance, and attitude become readily apparent instead of masked behind text or a phone. However, recruiters should be able to screen out those who would not fit culturally before the in-person interview stage, instead of dedicating valuable time and resources to the wrong candidates.

This is where video can help. While it will never replace in-person communication, video can give additional visual cues and provide recruiters with a better sense of cultural fit before meeting an applicant in person. Using video as a screening tool will more efficiently use time and resources, and potentially create better outcomes for both the prospective intern and the recruiter. Video gives the recruiter more information without making a huge time investment.

Apart from sourcing talent that will function well within a particular work environment, video can also be a tool for top talent to distinguish themselves from everyone else within the screening process. Many students have similar-looking resumes while attending college, because they tend to list the same sort of qualifications such as their GPA, extracurricular activities, awards, achievements, and maybe some work or volunteering experience. They already have done this process in high school in obtaining a good SAT/ACT score, and doing enough outside of the classroom to get into college, so they can repeat a similar process through college to build their resume for internship and working opportunities. “Being involved” is down to a science, so everyone can achieve enough to have a decent-looking resume.

While that’s fine for the students, it makes university recruiting’s job of recruiting from that pool more difficult. How can a recruiter find the best person to fill an internship if everyone’s resume looks the same? A video interview step can give valuable insight to the truly talented individuals. The candidate gets the opportunity to put his/her face in front of a recruiter and demonstrate his/her communication skills, attitude, and intangibles that don’t come across properly over the phone or on a resume.

At InterviewStream, we know that nothing will ever replace the value of an in-person interview, nor the networking opportunities afforded by career fairs and similar events. Recruiting university students and recent graduates will always have space for traditional sourcing techniques, but we think that our platform provides a useful tool for URR to dedicate resources more efficiently and target better talent. We believe we can help bring attract top-notch interns and recent graduates to help build your employer brand and find valuable, long-term employees.

Want to learn more about how video interviewing can enhance your employer brand and attract more top talent to your company? Contact one of our Video Technology Consultants today for a fun 20-minute demo.