Creative and digital industry recruitment specialist Concept Personnel is blazing a trail in the region with the launch of a cloud-based video interviewing service aimed at slashing the speed of hire time for employers, streamlining the process and making it easier for candidates to attend interviews.
Established in 2002 as the first North East recruiter to specialise in jobs in the design, marketing and digital industry, Concept has a six-strong team working from three bases servicing the North East, Scotland and the Midlands.
Its new service comes on the back of statistics that show UK employers are playing catch up with the US, where sixty percent of employers, including big players such as Apple, Google and Facebook now include video in their recruitment process.
Research by University College London’s Business Psychology MSc programme and jobs board Monster showed that just 48% of UK respondents were using video technology to select candidates.
Delivered via the cloud on a software as a service (SaaS) basis, Concept’s new service can be accessed by clients and candidates from any device, anywhere.
“Finding the best staff is a challenge and it takes time. It’s not just about assessing the candidate’s skill set, experience or portfolio, we are also looking for people with the right culture fit for each team,” says Concept’s managing director Jo Carter.
“Employers look to us to help them solve different pain points in the recruitment process, and building a technology-led early stage screening tool into our service is a logical move.
“It speeds up the shortlisting process and reduces the time and effort they need to invest, as well as giving them a good feel for the candidate’s personality and cultural fit early on in the process, which is invaluable.“
“Sharing videos with clients means they can watch at a convenient time, and include colleagues, helping them become more engaged with the screening process, and supporting them to select the right candidates for interview.
“It means we can help our candidates really shine, and is a much more engaging way to present themselves to prospective employers than simply looking at a CV. Many of the people we place into new roles are looking to return to the North East from outside the region, which makes face to face interviews time consuming and expensive.
“It will never replace traditional interviews, and nor would we want it to, but adding it into the mix makes the whole process more efficient and effective, whether it’s a single vacancy or a high volume campaign.”
The new service launched in January and Ms Carter says the reaction from employers and candidates has been very favourable.
“It gives us an additional layer of screening that will help to narrow the talent pool, improve the quality of candidate reaching the next stage, and reduce the time it takes to fill a position. It’s a win for everyone in the process,” she said.
