5 Indicators You’ve Outgrown Skype as Your Video Interviewing Tool

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So you’ve introduced Skype interviews into your organization and now you’re feeling like the hero who’s grabbed a tiger by the tail. Like you, many of Skype’s 250 million monthly users are HR professionals who try Skype as a way to test video technology with their hiring process.  But when the concept of video interviewing catches on, using a consumer-level video product quickly becomes problematic. You are not alone: Though more than half of HR departments now conduct video interviews, research shows that nearly 60 percent of talent acquisition decision-makers equate video interviewing with a simple chat or conferencing tool.

Here are five  indicators that you’ve outgrown Skype as your video interviewing tool:

1. You’ve become the internal Skype Help Desk. More recruiters and hiring managers are trying to connect with more candidates using video, and they all need technical support. But, you’re so heavily tasked with recruiting responsibilities that you don’t have the time (or the desire) to help set up their Skype accounts or walk them through use of a webcam. As the concept of video interviewing grows within your organization, this burden of support will increase – requiring time, energy and resources that you and your team can’t afford to spend.

2. Your IT department starts noticing. With the expanding use of Skype, your IT department has taken notice that a) more staff members are using consumer-level technology at work, or b) their well-regulated bandwidth is being sucked up by Skype use. Either way, they are going to raise all kinds of red flags, and rightly so. Skype is not like a purpose-built video interviewing solution, which is designed to meet global business needs for security, low bandwidth use, 24/7 live support and system integration.

3. You’re risking your candidate experience.Your use of Skype means exposing candidates of all types to a Skype interview. Research indicates less than a quarter (24%) of active job seekers who were interviewed using Skype agreed that Skype was easy to use for a job interview. That positive candidate experience you’ve worked so hard to create is suddenly at the mercy of a piece of technology that is not within your control. You now risk leaving candidates feeling frustrated and unhappy about their interview experience with your organization.

4. You’re not representing your brand appropriately. A Skype interview sticks out like a sore thumb from the rest of your well-branded, high-touch hiring process. Candidates will notice it, especially those who’ve interviewed via a purpose-built video interviewing solution. More and more are seeing how a video interviewing environment can be so well branded visually it becomes an extension of the company’s career site. They’ll notice there are no welcome videos from a hiring manager or potential colleague, or the absence of a support person to greet them while they wait for the interviewer to arrive.  It’s a missed opportunity to integrate video interviewing seamlessly with your hiring process.

5. You feel limited. Connecting live with candidates via video is a great first step; now you begin to wonder, how else can I use video to make a larger impact? Maybe you wish to pre-screen candidates before inviting them to a live interview or facilitate an onboarding meeting with the new team of colleagues. You’ve outgrown this initial stage. What you really need is a fuller platform that integrates with everything else being used in the hiring workflow plus the security, support and branding capabilities your company requires.

By Michele Ellner