There’s disappointing news on the employee engagement front. As reported in a recent blog, Gallup research shows no increase in employee engagement last year, and only a two-point increase over the past 2.5 years. You’d think with just 32% of U.S. employees fully engaged in their jobs, more companies would sit up and take notice. Blog author Mark Crowley makes a good point: To raise employee engagement, companies can’t simply measure it. We have to go further by making changes in traditional leadership practices. HR should be leading the charge with an innovative hiring process capable of sparking engagement at first candidate contact and efficiently securing the right leaders.
What’s Wrong with this Process?
We can look to the CandE data over the years to understand the specifics on areas of the hiring process candidates find most lacking. When we look at the larger picture what do we see? The traditional process is not all that human. Humans want to communicate, they want feedback, they want to feel respected and not treated like a commodity. None of these have traditionally been the priority in hiring. Fortunately, companies are making strides to humanize the process.
When it comes to employee engagement, I don’t think it’s surprising that the leaders who create engagement are the ones who truly care about their employees as people. The power of the human element can’t be underestimated. In addition to its list of the five talents high-performing managers have, Gallup research supports that human element as essential. So change traditional management practices? Yes. Change hiring? Yes. The unifying theme for engagement across the employee life-cycle is seeing candidates, new hires, and employees as people.
Do Hiring Differently
Changes like these are faster said than done, of course, but technologies like video interviewing can help make change in hiring happen in less time and with less resistance. Here’s why:
- A purpose-built video interviewing platform quickly makes recruiters’ lives easier after just two hours of training. The candidate self-scheduling feature saves so much time in a recruiter’s day, while the convenience of on-demand video and voice interviewing helps recruiters deliver a more qualified slate of candidates to their hiring managers faster. Once recruiters give video interviewing a try, it’s an easy sell.
- Video interviewing helps hiring managers be better at hiring. Managers who care about their people care about hiring the right people, and video interviewing helps them be more engaged with the process. On-demand interviewing makes it possible for hiring managers to work more closely with their recruiters without requiring a lot of extra time. With live video interviewing, hiring managers get a good sense of a candidate’s fit without the time and effort required by an on-site interview.
- Video interviewing can make hiring feel more personalized, not less, for candidates. The technology offers many more ways than traditional hiring to make candidates feel appreciated and valued. Here are just three for example:
- On-demand interviews can start with a warm video welcome by the hiring manager- it’s a great way to start things off on the right foot.
- The opportunity for real dialog with people at the employer company happens much sooner in the hiring process, and with convenience for candidates, via live video interviews.
- Whether candidates and hiring managers have used on-demand or live video interviews, the first in-person meeting feels so much more comfortable since both parties have already met virtually. Companies are also using on-demand interviewing in onboarding to help eliminate “first-day jitters” for their new hires.
Of candidates who have completed a live Modern Hire video interview, 97% say they can better present themselves as the right candidate for the job. When candidates provide comments like, “Modern Hire made me feel like a part of the company already,” and “This kind of interview shows that the company is really interested in knowing the candidates,” it indicates that companies using video interviewing are creating a positive hiring change.
The traditional hiring process is going by the wayside, and with good reason. Let’s take the innovative technology we have at hand and use it to help get employee engagement headed in the right direction.