Video-enabled Hiring: An Innovation Whose Time Has Come

The technology and Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) industries in India have been at the vanguard of growth since the late 1990s. The pace of growth has continued to be rapid: growth estimates of the IT and ITES sectors YoY in the decade up to 2030 range from 10 percent to 30 percent.

It’s not surprising that Tech and ITES have been topping the lists of industries that are on a hiring spree. For example, just the top three IT services players, Wipro, Infosys and TCS, are expected to hire 1.05 lakh people in FY22. New product innovators are not far behind. According to international banker Credit Suisse, “…against 336 listed companies with a ~$1 billion market capitalisation, there are now 100 unicorns in India with a combined market capitalisation of $240 billion.” These unicorns, of course, need talented employees. As per Naukri JobSpeak’s June 2021 Index, hiring demand from the IT sector was 163 percent higher than June 2020. Even if we were to take a conservative view of such developments, over the next few years, the two sectors will need to source millions of candidates.

Some of the ‘hot’ roles that the IT and ITES sectors have been hiring for, circa 2021, include:

• Cybersecurity and Risk Analysts
• Smart Machine/IT Product Installers
• Cloud Security and Development
• Enterprise Resource Planner
• Android/iOS Developers
• Software Developers
• System Engineers
• Networking Engineers
• Domestic IT Helpdesk Attendants
• CRM Domestic Voice.

The IT industry requires a smart, technically trained workforce, while the ITES industry requires tech-savvy talent with superior communication and people skills.
Where is this talent to come from? The answer: everywhere. The gap between demand and supply cannot be bridged by sticking to the metros.

Thanks to the quiet drives by successive governments over the last few decades, science and engineering colleges have proliferated in the hinterlands, producing tens of thousands of qualified candidates.

In the last year and a half, pandemic-hit tech professionals have given up expensive rentals in the metros and migrated back to their hometowns. As we slowly edge into the post-pandemic world, these professionals have been bargaining with employers to remain in their hometowns and take advantage of technology to continue in their roles.

To reach both new and experienced hires, recruiters must broaden their footprint beyond tier-1 cities and reach talent in far-flung parts of the country. Online, video-driven hiring is the perfect solution for recruiting in this brave new, geographically dispersed world.

Video interviews can offer recruiters the advantages of a face-to-face interaction and assessment, minus the barriers of distance. AI-powered video interview platforms such as the one from HirePro allow recruiters to conduct impersonation-proof interviews.

Perhaps one disadvantage of going the video interview route is the very real problem of low bandwidths that still plague our country, the exception being the big cities. HirePro’s solution is custom designed to overcome this issue, and it is well-tested at multiple network speeds. Recruiters are able to reap the benefits of high quality interviews with HirePro even at bandwidths as low as 128 kbps.

Once the format is decided, what about the workflow? Mirroring the older formats, video interviews typically have multiple stages:

• Shortlisting candidates
• Screening interview
• Interview rounds with hiring managers/teams (could range from one to three or four)
• Job offer
• Background checks.

As one might expect, all these stages can be conducted at their optimal best on video hiring platforms. Once the candidates are shortlisted, the interview stage begins.

Right from the screening interview, IT candidates may have to be assessed on their analytical and problem-solving skills via live brainstorming or coding sessions. Additional capabilities platforms such as HirePro offer live coding, whiteboarding, screen-sharing and digitised feedback, which can be invaluable for technical interviews. HirePro offers a library of coding questions and supports 28 programming languages to augment these sessions.

Asynchronous interviews are possible as well, offering interviewers and recruiters magnitudes of flexibility that are not possible in campus or live settings. As any recruitment specialist will aver, scheduling synchronous interviews, especially with hundreds of candidates, can be a logistical nightmare.

Video interviews can be conducted in group formats too during any of the interview rounds, should a group discussion be deemed necessary.

This narrative highlights how the happy confluence of societal, technological and economic factors can lead to path-breaking innovations with immediate benefits for a user base. The capability to perform video interviews is one such innovation, positively impacting the recruitment community, hiring sectors and candidates.