Toronto Star
Saturday, September 6, 2003, p. D10

Screening candidates
Use of video interviews is on the rise Employers can recruit long-distance

Barbara Simmons
Special to the Star

People who think they've heard everything there is to know about job interviews better brace themselves for these two words- video interviews.

Use of video conferencing as a recruitment approach has surged, especially since 9/11 and more recently in response to the travel restrictions during the SARS outbreak.

When out-of-province employers shied away from coming to Toronto for in-person interviewing, or from flying a candidate to an off-site job location, they were still able to conduct business because of the capabilities of video conferencing. And its popularity is growing.

Reese Ollmann, sales consultant for the Rostie Group's executive centres in Toronto who co-ordinates the centre's video-conferencing facilities, says the Rostie Group's "in-house video-conferencing business has doubled since SARS hit Toronto."

It is really quite a simple notion: Video-conferencing systems provide the seamless transfer of two-way voice and image communication between two long-distance sites, so that a potential employer or recruiter in Toronto gets to meet, experience and begin to evaluate a job candidate in, say, the Yukon, without the expense and inconvenience of travel.

Or, a job applicant from Toronto gets a call from a company in Boston with an invitation to take part in a video interview conference. The candidate is instructed to go to a particular video-conferencing centre in Toronto where the hookup will take place for the interview to be conducted in real time.

In variations of the video-interview technique, an employer can view (on a secure Web site or CD-ROM) the videos of candidates answering pre-set questions, or candidates can make their own pre-packaged video presentations introducing themselves and selling their qualifications to faraway employers.

Help with this kind of video technology is also available. David Rosenblatt's Toronto-based immigration law firm uses its 60 offices around the world to help international caregivers such as nannies and nurses.

The workers create their own videos and enter them into an online database for employer perusal.

Rosenblatt says "a video enables a potential employer in Toronto to take as little as 30 seconds to two minutes to get a good sense of or feeling about a candidate. Then a candidate's credentials can be evaluated and a telephone interview is set up. It's a great time saver for everyone."

But it is the real-time video interviews that can be most technologically challenging and have the most effect on recruitment outcomes.

Ollmann says her company's clients, which include several Canadian government agencies, universities and hi-tech organizations, expect and receive get a seamless connection with state-of-the-art equipment, with the same sound quality as connecting over the telephone, with no lags or delays.

Ollmann sees a consistent need for video conferencing for hiring purposes.

"It is live, face-to-face and essentially the same thing as being together: You can read facial gestures and movements. We find that people prefer it to the polycom (telephone used for conference calls) as it is more personal."

It sounds, well, almost intimate. Even though, as Ollmann explains, "The video interview might take place across the ocean or out of province- in addition to it being a cost-effective and a convenient alternative to flying people in for the interview process, ($150 dollars an hour to rent video conferencing facilities compared with a several hundred dollar flight)- what makes it even more appealing is that the experience for both interviewer and candidate is one of sitting in a room together, next to one another."

It is compelling to watch remote technology when it is interactive and of high quality. Sitting alone in one of the Rostie Group's conference rooms is candidate Darren Fox.

He is interacting with a potential employer on the TV screen. They both seem comfortable with the experience, as there are no CNN-like lags or delays in the question/answer format. Fox appears calm and assured when he offers examples of his skills; interviewer John looks and sounds interested as he probes.

But can the "chemistry" that all interviewers and candidates covet actually be felt electronically? According to Darren and John (who is conducting the interview from somewhere south of the border), chemistry can definitely traverse the miles.

The two agree after half an hour that their exchange of information is going very well.

It is determined that Darren has both the personality and technical skills to warrant a second video interview- which will be with John's boss, the company vice-president. If successful with this next step, Darren will be flown down to meet in person with the employer.

As the camera is turned off, Darren is smiling and feeling good about the interview.

Surprisingly, some employers hire for positions and candidates accept based solely on the video interview- but that can be a big mistake, according to Gillian Tessis, a consultant with The Bedford Consulting Group of Toronto.

"A high percentage of external hires fail due to a mismatch in corporate culture and fit with the client organization. In our business, we use video conferencing as a substitute for an initial interview when it does not make sense from a timing or financial standpoint to travel to meet a candidate face to face. To make an informed decision on both sides, it should not be used as a substitute for a face-to-face meeting between client and candidate."

Because video interviewing can be a confounding experience for the unprepared candidate, experts suggest practising first with home video equipment to become comfortable with the camera.

Job candidate Darren Fox advises novices not to worry about the video interview experience.

"It really doesn't add any more stress than any other interview," he says.

Maybe video interviewing is just another example of necessity being the mother of invention. It is new, here to stay and proving to be a practical and a versatile way to find the best people for jobs- wherever they are in the world.