Why Millennials are Driving the Need for Video Interviewing

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business people group have video meeting conference at officeMillennials (AKA Generation Y born between 1980 and 2000) believe workers possessing the ability to come up with cutting-edge ideas is critical for future business growth. Why is this nugget, uncovered by a Deloitte-Touche Tohmatsu study, important? Because, Millennials are our next generation of business leaders.  Moreover, by 2025, Millennials will make up 75 percent of the workforce according to the BPW Foundation’s Gen Y Study published in April 2011. In case you haven’t done the math, that’s just 13 years from now!

So what do typical Gen Yers want? Certainly not letter writing, even on the computer. They’ve evolved from in-person interaction to email, Skype, Dropbox for instant file sharing and prefer iPhone texting to telephone conversations. With the exception of jobs that require hands-on service in a specific setting, like patient services, they want freedom. They crave flex time while preferring speed and efficiency. They are some of the digital natives who were almost born with a cell phone in their hands. They value new things and expect the ability to communicate up and down in a corporation. Formal processes for communication only go so far with them. A PEW Study simply stated that “Millennials feel their tech usage is one of the defining features of their generation.”

Video Interviewing is Tech that Appeals to Millennials

Gen Yers are looking for companies that embrace cutting-edge technology, and that’s why it’s critical for employers and recruiters to use new technology, such as video interviewing, as part of their best practices. It meets the Gen Y demand for real-time interaction that takes a fraction of the time of traditional methods. It eliminates wasted time and resources for both interviewer and interviewee.

In-person interviews cost organizations time and money. Many companies are discovering they can ill-afford either. Gen Yers have to expend time, something they value highly. Using a personal computer to interface with recruiters is an easy, efficient and cost-effective way to meet face-to-face and for both parties to make a great first impression. Candidates don’t have to leave home, no travel time, fast-paced, technology-drivenall the things that attract the new work pool. It illustrates to candidates that flexibility, convenience and efficiency, which they crave, are a part of a potential employer’s corporate culture.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Examiner a year ago, Alan G. Frost, director of management development at Home Depot, predicted it wouldn’t be long before more companies would get involved in video interviewing. Frost said that it allowed very accurate hiring and cost-of-labor savings. With Aberdeen talent acquisition research supporting that 54 percent of companies are adopting video, Frost was certainly on the mark. In addition, says Madeline Laurano, author of “Video Interviews Here to Stay,” in Human Resources Outsourcing Today,” the Aberdeen research showed that “those organizations adopting video have a continuous or long-term talent acquisition strategy in place, compared to 18% of organizations not leveraging video.”

With pre-recorded capabilities provided by new web-based software, the ability to choose a convenient time and date isn’t wasted on this group. When using a video interviewing platform like Async Interview, for example, instead of a general video chat service like Skype, companies have the option to showcase their employment brand throughout the entire interview process.  Since Gen Yers are looking for cutting-edge, stock photos and company mottos are so 2000 and late!  Instead, a company should encompass its real employees, stories and attitudes that display their unique cultures. So true online video interviewing allows real company branding.

As companies adapt to the needs of future employees, they will discover the savings in time and resources, and ultimately money, in the hiring process, while demonstrating to younger, tech-savvy recruits that the organization is quick to use technology to improve internal processes.

Additionally, with job-sharing, working from home and non-traditional office spaces and hours increasing, recruiters will need to bend and flex with the new way of doing things. Video Interviewing will show candidates that flexibility, convenience and efficiency are truly a part of your culture.

By Christopher Young