How video interviewing software can help add diversity to your workforce

5 mins, 59 secs read time

The value of having a diverse workforce continues to be proven again and again. But saying something is ideal and actually making systematic changes to make it happen are different things, and one is a lot harder than the other.

Many organizations trying to hire more diverse employees and leaders are struggling. They may have the best intentions, but unconscious bias and a small candidate pool can make the best intentions useless. To successfully increase diversity in your hiring process, you need to identify problem areas and make a plan on how to rectify them.

One of the best ways to accomplish this is by implementing a structured video interview process. A structured interview methodology will help you identify issues in your recruitment process, such as unconscious bias, giving your team the opportunity to adjust as needed. Beyond this, the video component helps remove the geographical barriers that limit your recruitment efforts and ensures more diverse people have access to your hiring process, thereby growing your candidate pool and attracting applicants from all walks of life.

Some people might assume that video interviewing software breeds more discrimination than it solves, as it allows for a person’s worst tendencies to be front and center. The truth is that there’s nothing discriminatory about the technology or the practice itself. In fact, a well-designed structured video interview process helps weed out any decision makers who may be hiding behind an unstructured process to justify their bias-motivated hiring choices. By implementing a structured procedure at all stages of the recruitment cycle, the best person for the job will get the highest score for a particular position, period.

5 Ways Structured Video Interviews Can Improve Workplace Diversity

1. Identify Conscious and Unconscious Bias

When using video interviewing software, everything is recorded and stored in one secure location, making it easy to review if you suspect bias came into play during a hiring project. The system will show you if any decision maker broke from the structured process, which could signify an internal bias. It will also provide you with evidence if a complaint arises from a former candidate claiming they weren’t selected for a job for discriminatory reasons.

The software takes it one step further, though, so you don’t have to manually search through all that data to find evidence of bias among your team. Instead, you can use the system to generate reports and see if your staff is acting appropriately. For example, if four people on your panel ranked the same applicant highly, but one other employee ranked that applicant poorly for no obvious reason, you may need to investigate why that happened. It could be related to bias or maybe that one person saw something the rest of the team missed. Either way, better decisions will occur for your organization as a result.

2. Eliminate Distance Between Recruiters and Candidates

A large part of why some organizations are struggling to diversify their workforce is they don’t have a large enough candidate pool. Older recruitment processes favour applicants who live in the immediate area, which means you’re likely getting applications from the same people.

By using structured video interviewing software, you can break down geographical barriers and communicate with candidates all over the country. This will give you a larger candidate pool to choose from, and also allow you to connect with people from a wide variety of backgrounds and cultures, one of whom may be the best person for the job.

3. Increased Convenience for Candidates with Disabilities

For candidates with disabilities, it can be much easier to connect with recruiters via a video interview. If a candidate has a physical disability, it can be exhausting to travel to a location to perform an interview, so they may miss out on a great job opportunity.

When using video interviewing software, all candidates can complete the interview from the comfort of their own home, and those with disabilities don’t have to worry about travel arrangements on top of the stress of doing a job interview. Your candidates can focus on the interview instead, making sure they accurately represent their skills.

4. Easily Collaborate with Other Recruiters

There are two types of video interviews, pre-recorded and live, and both have recording and sharing capabilities. Pre-recorded (also known as one-way) interviews are only performed by the candidate and are automatically recorded, where live interviews have the option to be recorded.

The recordings are easy to share with others on your team through the platform. If you’re concerned that bias is playing a role in the decision making, all you have to do is send the video interview, which will have the structured guide built-in, to co-workers so they can give their evaluation. More opinions means there will be less chance of discriminatory actions in your recruitment process.

5. Reduce Travel Costs for Both the Applicant and the Recruiter

Traveling for interviews can be expensive for both recruiters and candidates, especially if the candidate doesn’t live in the immediate area. From flights to hotels to meals, the costs can stack up and anything a candidate may have to pay for out-of-pocket may discourage them from going to the in-person interview. Those in the working may not even apply for your open position if it means they'll have to travel for an interview because they can't afford it. They could be the best person for the job, but you won’t get a chance to speak with them if they’re in this situation.

With video interviewing software, you don’t have to worry about travel expenses causing candidates to drop out. You’ll be connecting with candidates through the internet, so there’s no need to travel at all. The best part is that video interviewing strives to replicate the same experience as an in-person interview, so you won’t be missing out on candidates thanks to a lack of a human element.

What to Remember When Increasing Diversity with Video Interviews

Diversity in the workplace is an increasingly important topic in our modern world. If your organization doesn’t value diversity, then you won’t be getting the best people applying for open positions and could encounter a brand problem. There is even some research indicating that not having a diverse organization negatively affects the financial performance of that organization.

Video interviewing software coupled with a structured interview methodology can be a great tool to help you address bias in your recruiting process and to help diversity grow within your organization. Another solid approach is to make sure people who you hire want to stay. You should also look at your company culture to see if any changes need to be made internally to become a more diverse organization.

Diversity isn’t always easy to achieve, especially for large organizations where it hasn’t been a priority. But by leveraging the right tools, your organization can make the necessary changes to head in the right direction. When you use structured video interviews, you’ll find yourself hiring more diverse people not because they have a different background than you do, but because they’re the best people for the job.