Recruiters Reveal The Future of Video Recruiting in 2021

Now that companies have made the shift to keeping many — if not all — roles remote, we need to look at the future of recruiting. 

One big question remains: Do you see your recruiting staying remote? 

We asked some recruiters for their thoughts on the future of remote and video recruiting. Let’s dig in and glean advice for how to adjust your strategy based on this year’s changes to the recruiting process:

Embrace Technology

“More organizations than ever will be offering remote work, and many professionals will see it as a desirable, viable option long-term. Those who embrace technology that helps us optimize the remote work and virtual hiring experience will put themselves ahead of the pack when it comes to attracting the best talent. Because, aside from being a practical tool in an increasingly-digitized world, adopting new hiring techniques shows that you’re an employer who is flexible and prioritizes the wellbeing of their employees.”

Zoë Morris, President at Frank Recruitment Group 

One of the biggest takeaways from 2020 has been the increased reliance of recruitment teams on technology. Going into the new year, continue to embrace technology for candidate communication and video recruiting. Use a sustainable approach to create a better experience for your team and job seekers alike. 

Take Lessons Back to the Office

“I don’t think recruiting will continue to stay completely remote. I do, however, see remote interviews becoming more incorporated in a post-pandemic society. I think there’s still an element that gets missed when interviewing in-person compared to virtual interviews, but I think that there will be more remote workers than ever before, and that will lead to an increase in remote interviews.”

David Adler, Founder and CEO of The Travel Secret

If your team returns to an in-person office in 2021, there are plenty of lessons you can take back with you. Rather than defaulting back to old processes, evaluate each step of your hiring strategy to determine if any efficiencies you found this year are worth keeping. For example, if you invested in an interview scheduling software, it will continue to make your process efficient while scheduling in-person too!

Aim for Interpersonal Skills

“Remote work works! This is what has been proven in this pandemic. People will still continue to hire remote workers because they’re useful. You get all the output of a regular worker without any limitations. You don’t settle for the best in your region only. You get the very best in the world because you now can. Now that we all work from home, I look for people who have excellent interpersonal skills. These people tend to do well on their own. They motivate themselves and will look for answers when they don’t know how to do things. They will not just give up. They know how to mingle and, in turn, find the answers. They’re very crafty and will find ways to produce results. This is what the future will look like in a remote world.”

Michael Miller, CEO of VPN Online

Interpersonal skills will continue to be valuable, whether you’re sticking with virtual recruitment or moving to in-person. No matter which way you’re interviewing, you can tell a person’s interpersonal skills by the way they influence you. If you’re smiling when they smile or nodding your head while they speak, they’re doing something right. If a candidate can also elicit them via video, they have the skills you’re looking for.

Leverage Video for Better Screenings

“Remote work has proven to be a better way for employees to stay happy, organized, and productive during the pandemic. It’s important for employees to find a happy medium when balancing work and home life, since they’ve turned into one-in-the-same. Moving forward, I think recruiting will rely more heavily on virtual processes. In fact, a good key for employers to keep in mind to save time as well as give further insights on your candidates is to have them submit a video of their elevator pitch and answer a few quick “knock out” questions. This can help you more quickly vet your candidates and feel like you’ve already gotten to know them a bit before hopping on for the virtual interview. As things are evolving every day, it’s important to maintain a human connection and keep a little fun in recruiting!”

Bergin Sullivan, Marketing Professional at JCSI

Video recruiting has had quite the year. As Sullivan’s team learned, one-way interviews are a great way to conduct those important knock-out questions. Implement this step as an upgrade to your pre-screen to give hiring teams more personal insight into candidates. 

Implement Tech that Works in Any Environment

“Remote recruiting is great for things like sifting through applications and coming up with a shortlist, as this saves a huge amount of time. However, I think I will always prefer to meet a candidate in real life as I believe that you get a much better idea of their personality that way. I don’t see recruitment switching to 100% remote permanently as businesses like ours still prefer the human touch. Although I do think that technology will now take a larger role in the recruitment process in terms of collating and sorting applications. I also think video will continue to be very important for remote working in terms of collaboration and connecting remote teams. And it will still be useful for recruitment where real-life interviews aren’t possible.”

Jack Zmudzinski, Senior Associate at Future-Processing.com

Even if video recruiting is not your preferred long-term method, there are plenty of ways to continue collaborating and connecting with your team over hiring decisions in 2021. While talent management software and remote collaboration tools have made virtual work a breeze, they can also continue to make your team’s processes flow. 

Maximize Efficiency 

“I think that, without a doubt, remote recruitment will be the way forward. The most compelling reason is that remote recruiting saves a massive amount of time. We’ve been using software for vetting and shortlisting candidates and have been conducting interviews by video, all of which has helped to free up my time for other projects. Our business has grown exponentially this year which has meant that we’re constantly recruiting. Remote recruiting has been everything for us as I honestly don’t believe that we would have managed to cope with such a huge number of applications without it.”

Dima Suponau, CEO & Founder at NumberForLivePerson.com

Thanks to one-way video interviews and scheduling platforms, the virtual interview process has never been more efficient. Measure your success from 2020 by looking at changes in your volume of applicants, conversion from applicants to interviewees, the time-to-fill the role, and more. If you see positive changes, keep up the new methods in the new year.