Josh TolanFor as long as you’ve been in the recruiting industry, you’ve filtered candidates into categories as you make talent assessments. But you may not realize your system of sorting by demographics — gender, age, race, education, experience, etc. — prompts an unconscious response to certain stereotypes.
The trouble is, you have likely fine-tuned your recruiting techniques to attract candidates by virtue of the trends you believe work best for each group. In fact, you may have searched the internet for hacks such as:
- Recruiting tips for millennials
- X questions to ask Baby Boomers
- Best ways to recruit women straight out of college
- Recruiting best practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion
And they worked — sometimes.
But it turns out, what people want from their work-life doesn’t differ that drastically. Organizational leaders are now looking beyond the lens of generational demographics when investing in tools to engage and manage their workforce. Rest assured, today’s candidates benefit from the same tactics in the recruiting process. Moreover, they expect it!
One way you can improve the candidate experience for all applicants? Video interviewing. Here’s why you need to move forward with a multigenerational approach and how updating your interview tools can help:
Work-life balance
Millennials are the largest generation in the workforce. However, the vast age span of the workforce is unparalleled today. The Baby Boomer (65+) generation has grown by more than one-third in the last decade, just as millions of Gen Z reached working age. In short, the workforce is more complex than ever before.
Rather than recruiting through a generational lens, you can reach the widest talent pool by looking at their expectations in common. For example, flexibility is a crucial factor in employee satisfaction across generations.
The majority (78%) of millennials in a Flexjobs survey reported they would be more loyal to an employer if they were offered flexible work options, and 71% of older workers agreed.
Furthermore, a recent study by CommercialCafe found ever since the mass shift to telework due to the pandemic, the majority of workers are satisfied with their work-life balance. However, Baby Boomers (75%), Gen Xers (68%), and millennials (73%) all surprisingly reported much higher satisfaction rates than Gen Z respondents. Less than half (45%) of Gen Zers feel the same way.
It’s unlikely you would have made this prediction through your traditional recruiting strategy. Most people would presume the most tech-savvy and forward-thinking younger generation would thrive in a flexible work environment. Unfortunately, this is precisely why age bias can harm the recruiting process.
Video interviews offer a unique, flexible interview experience for all candidates. No matter their personal or professional obligations, recording quick one-way video interviews fits into any schedule.
Candidates who value work-life balance feel less pressure to interrupt their typical routines to squeeze in video interviewing. And those who struggle with managing their schedules find it easy to submit one-way video responses and put themselves into your calendar for subsequent interviews.
Leadership communication
One primary concern for many employees coping with a remote or hybrid workforce is the feeling of disconnect from leadership. A 2020 study by PwC found workers with zero to five years of experience are more likely to want to be in the office during the week. And they’re more likely to value meeting with managers.
The catch is, anyone from any generation could be in this stage of their career. You cannot assume only young candidates have little experience or confidence in their autonomous work abilities.
Feeling connected to team leadership is one way candidates can gauge their fit and comfort when joining a new team. Creating this connection early on in the recruiting and screening process improves hiring outcomes and retention down the road.
In fact, the majority (63%) of leaders in a Zenefits study agree retaining employees is harder than hiring them. The problem could stem from a disconnect with leadership that is easily headed off through effective video communication tools.
Team leaders can prerecord video introductions that can then be shared with candidates in the beginning stages of the hiring process. The talent will get a feel for the personalities of decision-makers who review their video interviews (and eventually assess them in person). This can help lower candidates’ defenses, so they respond to screening questions authentically.
It also eases some of the stress candidates may experience if they haven’t previously recorded a video interview. They can see how quick and straightforward it is to make a personal impression before they ever meet face-to-face. Their first impression of company leaders will be one of clear communication and genuine interest in their team members.
Organizational collaboration
What better way to show off how effective your team collaborates than with a recruiting process that enables your whole team to make fair decisions together? Right from the start, you can explain to candidates how video interviews remove bias from interview evaluations.
Your team can collectively select the best questions to determine candidate fit without the blinders of generational stereotyping. And by inviting candidates to submit one-way interviews, everyone responds to the same structured questions for each open role.
Not to mention, the predetermined evaluation criteria make it easy for all decision-makers to review and provide feedback along with each candidate’s video submission.
You don’t have to be shy about this process. It’s an incredible way to exhibit how dedicated your team and organization are to facilitating collaboration. This is an essential factor for candidates, especially considering the shift in the workforce to largely remote and hybrid teams.
In fact, the PwC report mentioned above found the No. 1 most important purpose of the office is collaborating with peers. It’s critical talent sees you prioritize working together as a team, regardless of a non-traditional work environment.
Ultimately, video interviewing creates a window through which potential new hires of any age can view how well your team works together. And they get direct experience working through the first step of their potential new career with you.
