COVID 19 has upended our world and the way we work. Using meeting technologies and collaboration tools was for most parts a way to support our main work tasks. But today and post-COVID 19, the same technology has become ‘the way we work’.
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With many countries locking down their cities and businesses, companies were forced to adopt work from home practices. This meant HR professionals didn’t spend countless hours in meetings or endless hours conducting face to face interviews. The challenge thrust upon them was to conduct interviews effectively while being unable to meet them in person.
The use of available technology such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams to supplement the interview process is a stop-gap measure and as with all such measures, there are pros and cons. One of the obvious ones is that it’s not a purpose-built tool therefore it’s not practical to use long term. Also if it’s not purpose-built then the accuracy of what you’re intending to use it for falls short.
With social distancing expected to last for nearly two years according to Bloomberg the requirement for a dedicated tool that supports HR managers to safely, efficiently, and successfully recruit becomes paramount.
The precise need here is a secure tool that lets HR managers screen shortlisted candidates all before doing any live interviews. This is important as it’s highly impractical to use video conferencing tools to interview many candidates especially if you definitely need an impression of how they present and articulate themselves in advance. Keeping in mind that this was not possible even pre-COVID without a face to face meeting. What if you could use a pre-recorded video from those short-listed candidates and then evaluate them on your own dashboard with your peers?
What tools are out there?
There are many tools out there that allow you to connect with individuals and groups, but we will focus only on Zoom and Microsoft Teams, which are popular amongst HR managers, along with the locally built, SIXER VIDEO. Zoom is a web-enabled peer-to-peer platform for video conferencing. Microsoft Teams is a cloud-based workplace collaboration tool with chat and video conferencing. SIXER VIDEO is a locally built video interviewing platform made for HR professionals to pre-screen and interview job candidates.
Firstly, let’s look at Zoom. Currently, it offers support for video calls with up to a maximum of 500 participants. This is provided you have an enterprise account. Since the coronavirus pandemic began, Zoom has enjoyed explosive growth in popularity. Its daily user count jumped from 10 million in December 2019 to 200 million in March 2020.
Some would even call it “the pandemics social network.” Whether it’s hosting a corporate webinar or a casual gathering of your friends, Zoom is a versatile platform to meet your general video conferencing needs, but this versatility comes at a cost. It can’t necessarily adapt to the specialized needs of corporate HR managers.
Enter Microsoft Teams, which was originally launched as a competitor to Slack. Aiming to win over corporates, Microsoft has added several features to meet their needs and facilitate collaboration between teams within organizations. That includes video calls with an unlimited number of participants for those with an enterprise Office 365 account.
Much like its rival Slack, it also includes several integrations into existing systems and apps utilized by corporates. However, when it comes to recruitment and other HR operations, these don’t necessarily offer an optimal approach to manage things. With Microsoft Teams and its integrations forced to meet the needs of every operation within an organization, compromises have to be made.
That brings us to SIXER VIDEO. It too offers support for video calls with an unlimited number of participants. Interestingly, this feature is offered to all users irrespective of their subscription tier. The tool has been designed from the ground-up to meet the recruitment needs of HR managers. It includes a dashboard where managers can collectively screen candidates, thereby reducing bias in the interview process. Another feature that stands out is pre-recorded videos, which isn’t offered by other video conferencing solutions on this list.
SIXER VIDEO’s pre-record feature allows candidates to submit a video before the live interview. For HR managers, it saves time and ensures they can rapidly get a good impression of who a candidate is. One of the biggest risks for HR managers is missing out on talent due to time shortages, and the pre-recorded video feature helps manage this efficiently. Meanwhile, for candidates applying for a job, it allows them to express themselves in their own comfort zone with ample preparation time, allowing some of their personality to come through.
Which one should you use for recruitment?
Having analysed the solutions, one could argue for the case of using Zoom and Microsoft Teams purely on the basis of familiarity. Yet, SIXER VIDEO makes a strong argument for its features being purpose-built for recruitment use.
Fundamentally, it’s about ensuring a transparent process where candidates can clearly express themselves and HR managers can easily communicate their feedback. This has been a challenge even before the coronavirus pandemic. SIXER VIDEO, with its analysis dashboard and pre-recorded videos, makes a strong case towards tackling these issues.
Ultimately, given the pandemic, talent costs have become cheaper and there will be many candidates applying for any available positions as it’s a buyers market. This means it’s essential to have the right tools to supplement and enhance the HR process to handle the influx of candidates efficiently and effectively.
