As an employer, seeing statistics related to the skills gap might make you feel as if the issue is impossible to overcome. Nearly forty percent of companies have open positions they are unable to find anyone to fill. Even with 44 percent of college graduates unemployed or underemployed, companies are still frantically searching for candidates to hire who possess the right skills.
The skills gap has been a constant problem for companies, but you can come out on top with the power of video interviewing.
Over 60 percent of companies have admitted to settling on hiring people that did not fully meet their skill requirements just to get warm bodies to fill seats. Some of these hires may turn out to be rockstar talent who just need a bit of training to truly shine. However, other companies may not be as fortunate. A bad hire can hurt a company in several ways, but most especially when it comes to the bottom line. A recent study determined that a bad hire can set a company back more than $50,000. This includes money lost from recruiting, onboarding, and productivity.
The wrong hire can also hurt the company culture you worked hard to establish and affect the morale of your other employees. Someone who isn’t a cultural fit and doesn’t possess the right skills can infect other people in the office with their bad attitude and negatively influence employee engagement.
More than six out of ten companies are utilizing video interviews to streamline their hiring process all while making personal connections with candidates. It’s important to consider that just because a candidate has all the skills you are looking for, that doesn’t necessarily mean they will stick around in the organization. However, someone that doesn’t meet your entire checklist of skills might actually have the passion, dedication and growth potential that your company needs.
Video interviews enable hiring professionals to go beyond a candidate’s resume and see who they truly are and how they can contribute to an organization. Furthermore, assessing a candidate for company culture fit should not be dismissed seeing as how 46 percent of small business new hires fail within the first 18 months. If you view a candidate’s video interview and can immediately tell that their personality and passion don’t align with your company’s culture and values, you can simply forget about them and move on to the next candidate.
Avoiding schedule conflicts
One major problem that the skills gap has caused is making highly-skilled candidates the most in-demand and difficult to schedule interviews with because of their packed calendars. It’s very tough to convince these kinds of candidates to meet with you in-person, but video interviews might be the solution you need to stay ahead of competitors trying to scoop up all of the best talent. The one-way interview (where candidates record their answers to an employer's’ questions) allows candidates to apply for positions without having to work around an already busy work schedule or sacrificing their personal time.
Expanding candidate reach
The talent your company needs may not be in the city your business is in or even in the same state. Video interviews allow you to break down geographical barriers so that you can easily connect with superstar candidates that may live thousands of miles away. By utilizing video interviews, you can save nearly 70 percent of the travel costs associated with hiring. Conducting a live video interview with far-away talent is great for making personal, real-time connections with potential hires even if they’re on the other side of a webcam instead of the other side of the desk.
Below are some interview questions you should be asking your candidates that will help ensure that you overcome the skills gap and hire top-notch talent:
By asking questions like the ones above, you will gain insight on important things to know about a potential hire. If you ask close-ended questions, you won’t learn anything about how a candidate works, what they’re capable of doing, and if they will be a successful team member.
Once you embrace the power of video interviewing and implement this technology at your company, the skills gap will no longer be an unsolvable problem. Filling your empty positions with candidates that have great potential won’t feel like an unattainable dream. You will have the ability to find the amazing talent you want and need to bring success to your organization!
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