Candidate Attractiveness - So Important That You'll Outsource Interviews?

One thing we all talk about from time to time on the recruiting side is the presentation of the candidate.  If you have recruited for a living, you've been there.  Sourcing for the position in question is tough, but you work through the bumps and hit the phones.  After aggressive phone work, you locate a candidate that has all the knowledge, skills and abilities to do the job.   Nice work, but the hard part's still to come...

Your time to fill is creeping up and your candidate pool is a little thin, so you make your move - on to live interviews.  Brave soul that you are, you arrange for the candidate to come in to interview with yourself and the hiring manager in back-to-back sessions.  The candidate shows up...and....

Let's just say they have some presentation issues... Could be a coffee stain, could be cosmetic abnormalities.  Regardless of the issue, you are immediately fearful - the candidate may be discounted and dismissed in the process due to the physical drawbacks...

Welcome to the real world - make sure you snap the chinstrap to your helmet.

What got me thinking about this?  I got a solicitation from a recruiting firm last week attempting to differentiate themselves by pitching video interviews they conduct and make available to clients - BEFORE the client has to spend even a minute on the phone with the prospect.

Here's the email from the headhunting firm.

"Greetings, and I hope your 2008 is off to a great start!

For over four years, <Firm Name Removed> search process (honed for the healthcare software vendor industry) has included a Video Conference (VC) interview between our Principals and “seemingly” strong candidates.  For those candidates that are deemed to be “above the hiring line”, <Firm Name Removed> digitizes the video of the VC, uploads it to a secure web site and then sends the web link to our client’s hiring executives.

Our clients have been delighted with this first interview “outsourcing approach”.  No longer is it necessary to conduct relatively unsuccessful telephone interviews to screen candidates sourced by job boards, internal recruiters or outside search firms.  Since <Firm Name Removed> uses these VC interviews to screen out candidates, we only send our clients the best few!

Thus, the net results are fewer but better candidates, much less executive time wasted in the early-to-mid-stages of the interview process, and a vastly improved “time to hire”.  Plus, our VC’d candidates are impressed with our clients’ “state-of the-art” interviewing process which helps in the allure of joining our clients’ team.

If you are interested in learning more, here are two suggestions:  1) view the VC Interview Web demo link at the very bottom of this email for a two minute experience with this great approach; 2) let’s schedule a quick call to discuss your 2008 goals, objectives and related hiring needs to see if partnering with <Firm Name Removed>  would make a big difference in achieving your critical staffing needs!"

In the imperfect world where attractiveness and physical presentation matter, this marketing angle is a pretty good one.  Rather than spending an hour with the candidate out of courtesy, the "selective" hiring manager can now just stop the tape 30 seconds in...  With no worries about the candidate's feelings...

Of course, the downside is that when hiring managers spend time with candidates, what they hear often gets them past their initial objections on the physical presentation side.  Not always, but often enough that it's worth their time to do it.

And that's one of the downsides to living in this digital world...

One thing we all talk about from time to time on the recruiting side is the presentation of the candidate.  If you have recruited for a living, you've been there.  Sourcing for the position in question is tough, but you work through the bumps and hit the phones.  After aggressive phone work, you locate a candidate that has all the knowledge, skills and abilities to do the job.   Nice work, but the hard part's still to come...

Your time to fill is creeping up and your candidate pool is a little thin, so you make your move - on to live interviews.  Brave soul that you are, you arrange for the candidate to come in to interview with yourself and the hiring manager in back-to-back sessions.  The candidate shows up...and....

Let's just say they have some presentation issues... Could be a coffee stain, could be cosmetic abnormalities.  Regardless of the issue, you are immediately fearful - the candidate may be discounted and dismissed in the process due to the physical drawbacks...

Welcome to the real world - make sure you snap the chinstrap to your helmet.

What got me thinking about this?  I got a solicitation from a recruiting firm last week attempting to differentiate themselves by pitching video interviews they conduct and make available to clients - BEFORE the client has to spend even a minute on the phone with the prospect.

Here's the email from the headhunting firm.

"Greetings, and I hope your 2008 is off to a great start!

For over four years, <Firm Name Removed> search process (honed for the healthcare software vendor industry) has included a Video Conference (VC) interview between our Principals and “seemingly” strong candidates.  For those candidates that are deemed to be “above the hiring line”, <Firm Name Removed> digitizes the video of the VC, uploads it to a secure web site and then sends the web link to our client’s hiring executives.

Our clients have been delighted with this first interview “outsourcing approach”.  No longer is it necessary to conduct relatively unsuccessful telephone interviews to screen candidates sourced by job boards, internal recruiters or outside search firms.  Since <Firm Name Removed> uses these VC interviews to screen out candidates, we only send our clients the best few!

Thus, the net results are fewer but better candidates, much less executive time wasted in the early-to-mid-stages of the interview process, and a vastly improved “time to hire”.  Plus, our VC’d candidates are impressed with our clients’ “state-of the-art” interviewing process which helps in the allure of joining our clients’ team.

If you are interested in learning more, here are two suggestions:  1) view the VC Interview Web demo link at the very bottom of this email for a two minute experience with this great approach; 2) let’s schedule a quick call to discuss your 2008 goals, objectives and related hiring needs to see if partnering with <Firm Name Removed>  would make a big difference in achieving your critical staffing needs!"

In the imperfect world where attractiveness and physical presentation matter, this marketing angle is a pretty good one.  Rather than spending an hour with the candidate out of courtesy, the "selective" hiring manager can now just stop the tape 30 seconds in...  With no worries about the candidate's feelings...

Of course, the downside is that when hiring managers spend time with candidates, what they hear often gets them past their initial objections on the physical presentation side.  Not always, but often enough that it's worth their time to do it.

And that's one of the downsides to living in this digital world...