We have all become reliant on video technology; jumping on a Zoom call with family and friends has become commonplace. We love Zoom, Hangouts, and Teams and use them for various social functions. But when it comes to the complex and involved process of recruiting and onboarding new staff remotely, these platforms don't quite offer everything you need. This is where our specialised video platform service comes in.
The SOLA Group video platform, powered by Odro, does far more than the usual video link/screen-share functionality of popular alternatives.
Recruitment is a delicate process that you need to get right – so why would you use everyday tools to conduct it?
Our relationship with Odro spans three years and counting – this advanced video software isn’t new to us, but it is for a lot of our clients. And it
doesn’t take long for them to see the benefits offered by recruitment-specific video.
In this post, we’ll explore the extra features of our video platform, and how it helps our clients recruit top talent in their market.
When Zoom isn’t enough
What you do isn’t generic. Your business is specialised with specific requirements; that means when you interview, you need to ensure candidates
have an authentic skilset. So why settle for a generic video platform to help you make serious, business-changing decisions?
Video can be cleverer than merely a two-way conversation – many businesses just don’t know it. And none of us knows just how long remote recruitment and onboarding will continue, but it’s safe to assume: indefinitely. So investing in a video platform, and a team who can help you manage the recruitment process, is a long-term strategy.
Two areas to consider when using video in recruitment are:
- Sending interview questions to candidates ahead of time to create a pre-recorded video of themselves answering them.
- Sharing interview videos with people across your internal teams as part of the shortlisting process.
Daniel Broome explains how the SOLA Group team encourages clients to use their video platform with candidates:
"You can pre-input a few questions and then send a link to the interviewee who then creates a personalised video answering them. When you know what the questions are, you can prepare for them, and send them back when you’re ready."
Daniel explains that speed of turnaround shouldn’t be a factor: give prospects ample time to create a video as many times as they need to present themselves in the best light. He continues:
"This really helps with shortlisting: if you have 20 candidates, you can send the questions to all 20 people and watch them as they all come back into your portal. You then also have the ability to get multiple people within your business, across different teams, to look through them and give feedback."
Not only does the hiring manager get to review the video answers, but so does the HR manager, or somebody in another team such as sales, marketing or product. Initially, this process was about saving clients' time. Now it's so much more than that – it’s morphed into opening the door for wider visibility of candidates performing at their best, and making a new, better way of recruiting possible.
Ways to improve your outreach with video
Another great use for the SOLA Group Odro platform is sending video invitations in LinkedIn. There are multiple advantages to using video on LinkedIn to approach prospects:
- These introductions are far more likely to get viewed by busy people
- Video shows professionalism and is a chance to illustrate your experience
- A personalised video message shows how keen you are to engage the person; it’s flattering and means they’re more likely to take you seriously.
Daniel Broome has worked with multiple clients to engage excellent candidates for them to interview through video in LinkedIn, and explains why it’s a particularly savvy approach when looking to hire senior roles:
"If you're trying to reach out to a CEO or a sales director that you've never spoken to before, the chances of getting him or her on the phone are zero. The chance of them accepting your request off the back of a one-line private message is probably zero. But if you can explain a little bit about a specific role and why you think they’d be ideal for it, it gives your request more gravitas."
Not only can video be used more in social media outreach, but in improving email engagement, too. Daniel explains why the Odro platform is specially tailored to this style of outreach:
"Our video platform has a “magic button”, which is an add-on in Outlook – if you want to email somebody and send them a quick video, you can do that all from within your email. It's great for a personalised outreach and building those relationships early on.
"SOLA Group has noticed that if we send a standard text-based message to somebody, we're lucky if we get a 20-30% open rate. If we send video links to those same people, we're looking at more like a 50% open rate. So it’s really a no-brainer – the future is video, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the remote recruitment process."
How SOLA Group helps our customers use video
As with anything, getting used to a new platform or process takes some practice – and utilising the Odro video platform to it’s most effective is something we offer training and guidance on. Our clients are never left to their own devices, but instead we make recommendations about how to use video to target key candidates in their industry. We achieve this by:
- Explaining to clients how much easier and less time-consuming the whole recruitment and onboarding process becomes with video.
- Co-branding all outgoing videos so they have your logo on, as well as ours for a comprehensive, joined-up experience.
- Offering clients examples of previous clients who have seen success with video as inspirational use cases.
Helping clients adapt to new, efficient video-based ways of doing things is our prerogative; Daniel Broome explains how this can be a massive time and energy saver for businesses:
"If a client says they want to do a phone screening before moving to the first stage of interviews, we may remind them that this will involve speaking to around 15 candidates individually which is a huge drain on internal resources. The alternative is to give us the questions, and we will send them to the candidates on their behalf. Then they simply have to review the video answers at their leisure – it’s a massive shift from traditional processes but one that is far better suited to the remote set-up many of us find ourselves in."
The great thing about video is that it can work both ways; not only is our platform a chance for candidates to showcase their credentials, but we encourage clients to use it to show the best bits of their businesses, too, as Daniel Broome explains:
"We recently worked with a US-based tech company. They wanted to recruit for roles across the whole of Europe so we got their VP to create a video introducing the company, the available roles, and what they were looking for. Then we used that video in sales to headhunt candidates – the flip side was that we got all potential candidates to do a response video."
This creates a far more “human” experience for all involved. No longer is it necessary to get people in the same room to fill roles; the technology is at our fingertips to enable us to get the same positive outcomes in a remote setting. The interview process can still be reinforced to ensure the most robust candidates are employed, as Daniel found in a recent recruitment drive for a US-based aerospace company:
"We recently recruited for the role of senior manager in central Europe. We had three candidates and after the video round, one was the standout candidate. We advised the client that – because of the difficulty of being able to get in front of these people face to face – it might be a good idea to do a psychometric test as well. After that, the standout candidate from the video was actually least likely to be able to do the role."
Video on its own cannot always be the best tool. But when combined with other tests, it becomes the backbone of any great recruitment process – especially when used innovatively.
When the pandemic struck, SOLA Group didn’t panic because these remote methods have been familiar to us for a long time – and we’re more than happy to pass them on to our clients. It’s an exciting time for expanding businesses, and we look forward to being part of the future of video recruitment.
Key takeaways
- Any old video software isn’t enough to recruit and onboard in today’s world. Businesses need recruitment-specific video software which is designed for the purpose, adding layers of tasks with additional features.
- If you’re relying on Zoom, Skype or another generic video platform, you’re limiting what you can offer and potentially missing out on the best candidates.
- Finding an international recruitment partner who can work through new hiring and onboarding strategies with you is a great solution, helping establish you in the competitive global market, and setting you up for growth.
