Spark a Conversation: The Technophobic and Video Interviews

Here at Spark Hire, we want to help companies utilize the power of online video to find the best candidates. We get a lot of questions from readers about best practices for using online video in the hiring process. These posts will address those questions about how to find your next superstar employee.

Question: How do I convince the technophobic to video interview? -Maurice from Boulder

Thanks for the great question, Maurice! It’s crazy to think that there are technophobics out there in this day and age, but there certainly are. They don’t really understand technology and try and keep a distance from it. If you are an employer using video interviews in your hiring process (as you should!) then it can be really difficult to recruit these technophobic job seekers. This may not be an issue if your company is technologically advanced, since you wouldn’t want these kinds of job seekers anyways, but if your company is not then you don’t want to exclude any job seekers.

So how can you get these technophobics to hop on the video interview train? There are a number of different ways you can convince these technology-frightened job seekers to start using video interviews. Let’s take a look at a couple:

Explain the Benefits
For starters, if you have a job seeker you are very interested in but they don’t use technology in their everyday lives, then you should explain to them why you choose to use video interviews in the first place. Tell them all of the benefits of video interviews. Specifically, tell them how video interviews benefit them. Job seekers that participate in video interviews with employers save themselves a load of time in the screening process. Instead of having a phone interview they can record video interview answers to the same questions you would ask them over the phone. With this they have more time to prepare better answers and they have the opportunity to not only tell you why they are the best candidate, but also to show you.

Also, if you’re hiring process includes a series of interviews rather than just one, then you can conduct most of them online and save the office for the last interview. This way the job seeker does not have to travel back and forth to your office and spend time and money on something that is not guaranteed. They can have preliminary interviews with you from their home.

It’s Easy to Use
While technophobics probably assume that the technology needed to conduct a video interview is complicated, you can assure them that it’s actually quite the opposite! Tell them how easy it is to get set-up for a video interview. Let them know that all they need is a webcam and a computer. Perhaps they do not have a computer, since they are not big on technology, but chances are one of their friends has one. You can change their idea of video interviews by telling them that all they have to do is turn on their webcam, sit down, and talk. With Spark Hire, it really is that simple. No other technology or devices are needed. In fact, this is probably one of the reasons you started using video interviews in the first place.

If you succeed in convincing this top technophobic candidate to participate in your video interview, then you should be sure to walk them through the process before the actual interview. Set up a small window of time where you can sign onto Spark Hire and virtually meet up with them. In fact, employes should walk candidates through the process regardless. Even though it is very easy, video interviewing is still pretty new and candidates may be unfamiliar with it. Doing so allows for a smooth video interview and comfortable candidates.

Do you have a question you need answered? Spark a conversation with the Spark Hire team by submitting your question to blog(at)sparkhire.com or in the comments below.