As a recruiter at a fast-growth tech company, there’s no denying the impact of the “Great Reshuffle” — the more positive moniker for what some are calling the Great Resignation.
According to LinkedIn, the percentage of people changing roles in October 2021 was up 25% compared to two years prior, and roles posted on the site have nearly doubled since the start of 2021. Demand for remote jobs is also skyrocketing. Remote roles attract over twice the job views and nearly 2.5x the share of applications.
Recruiters are tasked with managing this new scale of hiring pressure, and many are having to do so in a largely (or completely) remote setting due to ongoing COVID safety and the growing demand for remote roles. One tool that’s quickly emerging as an important solution is asynchronous video.
Using async video in the recruiting, hiring and onboarding process isn’t about removing face-to-face interaction; live video conferencing and calls will always be part of successful hiring. Rather, it’s about using async video strategically to create stronger interpersonal connection, provide an authentic view into your company’s culture, and give candidates more flexibility and autonomy.
So far, it’s working for our team — to the tune of a 93 percent candidate satisfaction rate.
Here are three ways we use async video on our own hiring team to improve the candidate experience and build engaged teams:
Showcase company culture, from anywhere.
Company culture remains a top priority for candidates. In fact, more than half report they prioritize it over salary. But showing off your employee culture during a remote hiring process is difficult. Even pre-pandemic, it wasn’t always easy to convey what it actually feels like culturally to work for a company until you’re fully in it. Culture-focused blog posts, Instagram feeds, and company videos can help, but the candidate knows those are produced for the purpose of recruiting.
Async video has helped us show off our team’s culture in a far more authentic way. To start, we always have the hiring manager describe the role in a loom when we put a listing up. This gives the candidate an immediate look at who they would be working with. But we also share fun, informal looms created by all different members of our team to give candidates a peek into our world via content created organically (aka not for recruiting purposes). These “just for fun” videos provide a far more genuine view of our people, personalities, and passions. This allows candidates to gauge whether they could see themselves at Loom (or not) right away.
Throughout the interview process, we encourage candidates to send us a loom if they have questions. Hiring managers often respond in a video or send a short loom as a thank you post-interview. So, instead of a series of formal interviews punctuated by recruiter emails, the incorporation of video allows the candidate to quickly assess if our company culture is the right fit for them. They don’t need to wait until they are fully onboarded to start getting a sense of how we work and who we are.
Give candidates more flexibility, control, and autonomy.
The interview take-home assignment is often a stressful process. Even with the most laid back teams, candidates naturally want to put their very best foot forward when presenting ideas to a prospective employer.
We use async video as the required channel for presenting take-homes. Not only does this mean candidates have to interact with Loom’s product, but more importantly, it means they can complete and present the information on their own terms.
In our experience, incorporating async video into the take-home gives us a more accurate understanding of a candidate’s skills. We’ve also heard feedback that candidates feel more confident with this format than via a live presentation or submitting an artifact without the ability to provide verbal context.
Using async in the take-home is a win-win for both sides. It reduces overall synchronous meeting time in the interview process, saving time for both recruiter and candidate. It also gives applicants the time, space, and creative license to put their best foot forward.
Foster connection and celebration
One of my favorite ways to use async video in hiring is to create connection throughout the interview experience. From “We hope you join us” looms sent after an offer is made, to “Welcome” loom threads from your entire team on your first day, you can make someone feel seen and embraced before their first day of work.
We also make the “intro loom” a requirement on everyone’s first day. In a short video, they introduce themselves to the company, which always generates lots of emoji reactions, comments, and responses.
Async videos have proven a simple but effective way to help get candidates over the finish line or help new employees catch the infectious excitement of being part of a new team.
Hiring practices and expectations around the candidate experience will only continue to evolve as remote work increases and the circumstances of the pandemic change. However, async video is likely here to stay. On our team, it’s helped us build a hiring process with an 75% acceptance rate — which is above the industry average in an extremely tough market.
Ultimately, there will always be a role for synchronous communication in recruiting and hiring. But by using async video throughout, we’ve been able to make the process more efficient for both sides and make the experience for candidates far more enjoyable. (Pro-tip: liberal use of confetti cannons never hurts!)