According to a survey commissioned by staffing giant Robert Half International, most employers

say it is common for a job applicant who “looks good on paper” to be a disappointment in
person. The firm issued a press release with the survey results on July 23, 2009, saying, “More
than seven out of 10 (72 percent) senior executives interviewed said it is common for candidates
with promising resumes not to live up to expectations during the interview.”

“Why Recruiting Has to Go Video”

Could this discrepancy be all but wiped out by viewing qualified candidates on video prior to a
time-consuming and potentially expensive in-person interview?

A recent article on Time.com uses the example of online footwear retailer Zappos.com to make a
point about the potential cost savings of live webcam video interviews. In 2008 Zappos had spent
about $1,000 each time it flew in a job candidate and put them up in a hotel overnight.

Their opinion [on using Skype]: a video link does a pretty good job of replacing an in-person meeting —
and in a way that a phone call can't. ‘If you see facial expressions and body language, you have a
different sense of what a person is saying,’ says recruiting manager Christa Foley. Now, instead of flying
out 20 finalists for a job, the company first screens with Skype and then brings in only the best two or
three candidates.

The facial expressions and body language cited by Ms. Foley in the article as providing valuable
information are also discernable in recorded videos of candidates. But the benefits and
limitations of using Skype, the free video-chat software using webcams and broadband internet
connections, are beyond the scope of our present focus.

In his August 2009 article, “Why Recruiting Has to Go Video,” Human Resources expert Kevin
Wheeler sees “video, combined with the Internet”--and what recruiters can learn from seeing
candidates on video--as a “game changer for recruiting. Used together they create a better
candidate experience and raise the likelihood of a better hire,” he writes. “They also enrich
recruiters by giving them a much deeper perspective on a candidate, in less time, than has ever
been possible.”

The ways in which they are doing it, he says, are:

• To showcase their company
• To post or distribute jobs
• To hold career fairs
• To do targeted marketing
• To interview candidates
• For assessment and screening

Of these six uses for video in recruiting talent, perhaps none has sparked more disagreement than
its role in assessment and screening.
Video Resumes and the Job Hunt

Indeed, ever since Yale student Aleksey Vayner’s video resume “Impossible is Nothing” became
a viral hit and the butt of jokes in 2006, the virtues and perils of video resumes have been the
subject of active discussion and significant media attention.

In a January 2009 article, “7 Secrets to Getting Your Next Job Using Social Media,” author Dan
Schwabel recommends the use of video resumes. “A search for ‘video resume’ on YouTube will
give you over 1,700 results,” he says. “The key with a video resume is that very few people have
actually created one, so they serve as a differentiator in the recruiting process.” The same search
now yields about 14,600 results—an increase of 759 percent in 10 months.

Employer objections to video resumes

San Francisco State University Professor and HR strategy author John Sullivan’s “Workforce
Management’s” article [available to subscribers only] is quoted in a September 2009 Career Line
post panning their use, citing three obstacles:
• The time it takes to review them, as opposed to scanning a paper resume
• Managers’ general resistance to change
• The difficulty of comparing multiple videos side-by-side
“In short, I have found that managers hate video résumés and simply reject or ignore them,” he
writes.
Other employer concerns about accepting video resumes from candidates are:
• there is no standard format for video resumes
• the information an employer can learn from them—such as disability, ethnicity, age and
gender—will expose the employer to accusations of illegal discrimination.
Another survey conducted last year by Robert Half International of 150 senior executives from
among the largest 1,000 U.S. companies revealed that 24 percent of respondents indicated their
firm accepts video resumes and 18 percent of these executives didn’t know if their firm accepts
them.
A defining moment
Yet, a late-2006 CareerBuilder-sponsored Harris Interactive survey of more than 2,200 hiring
and HR managers and more than 6,000 employees found that
• 60 percent of employer respondents indicated some interest in the watching video
resumes of potential candidates, and
• 49 percent of employee respondents were willing to post online their own video resumes
to attract prospective employers.
There could be many reasons for the discrepancy between the findings of these surveys,
including Robert Half’s much-smaller (and probably more senior) sample size and the fact that
finance and accounting are their specialty—industries well-known for being traditional and
conservative.
CareerBuilder’s CBVideo Resume and learning from its mistakes
Perhaps it was Harris Interactive’s 2006 findings that gave CareerBuilder the confirmation it was
looking for before launching CBVideo Resume in the summer of 2007. Less than two months
later, job-seekers had uploaded more than 1,000 videos, according to an article on ERE.net.
About a year later, CareerBuilder “quietly” discontinued the service, according to another
ERE.net article that speculates this was due to insufficient demand among jobseekers.
A feature on the award-winning recruiting blog Cheezhead.com offers these reasons for what it
pronounces a failure:
First of all, there never was an offering for a “Video Resume from CareerBuilder.com”. CBVideo
Resume was not a place to build a video resume. All they were offering was a place to upload your video
that you had already made using some other tool somewhere else.
Secondly, there were no instructions at CVideo Resume about how to technically build that video resume,
or where one might go on the web to accomplish this feat. And yes, to many, it is a feat. There are still
lots of candidates who don’t own webcams, have never used a webcam, have no patience with webcams,
or would have to have their children help them with webcams.
Thirdly (if thirdly is a word) CareerBuilder provided no instructions on this intro page about what
happens with their video resume once they did upload an elsewhere produced video onto the
CareerBuilder site. What would that get me as a candidate? Candidates had no clue as to:
• What happens to my video resume once CareerBuilder gets hold of it?
• Who gets to see it?
• Who has control over it?
• Does CareerBuilder just post my resume on their site for all subscribers to see? Where?
• If so, where does it appear? I see no examples.
• If not, what do I have to do to SEND my video resume out to employers or recruiters? Is
there a facility on CareerBuilder to do that?
• How long is my video stored on this CBVideo Resume site and how can I get it off?
• And lastly, there was no significant marketing push to candidates to market the fact that
this new tool would be a great thing to use, and how, and why, and when.
They just put out the dog food and didn’t whistle.
“This is an example of a major player in the industry just attempting to ‘dabble’ in a hot new
technology, but not putting much energy or thought into it and then ‘dismissing’ that technology
as a failure simply because they failed to execute properly,” the article concludes.
“This kind of irresponsible behavior ruins it for the serious small vendors who are spending
every ounce of energy to get the concept right and roll out new technologies in a clear concise
and useful way for the end user.”
This intelligence is highly valuable to such serious small vendors and other firms—whether job
boards, recruiters or employers—that recognize the value of video resumes and can learn from
CareerBuilder’s mistakes. But it doesn’t address the common concerns of employers, listed
above, on the use of video resumes as a tool in the hiring process.
EEOC guidance for employers regarding video resumes
Perhaps the most commonly-heard concern is that of exposing the employer to accusations of
illegal discrimination. Indeed, the other concerns listed above seem insignificant compared to
this one.
Carol Miaskoff, Assistant Legal Counsel for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
published a letter in 2004 offering guidance. For its “Cheat Sheet on Employment Discrimination
and New Media” posted September 10, 2009, ERE.net interviews Ms. Miaskoff:
 Although there are no court rulings on video resumes yet, Miaskoff says recruiters must be prompted to
look at the same qualifications, despite a person’s appearance.
“In and of itself, there is nothing wrong with them. So have feedback from various, diverse sources on
your team who all view the video resume,” she says. “Put checks in there so you don’t have one person
discriminating.”
Video resumes are also employment records and need to be retained for two years. This is where
reluctance comes in to use them, she says. Because people are concerned about keeping a picture of
someone who has been screened out of your company’s hiring process, there is sometimes an added fear
of litigation.
Still, “that’s not a good-enough reason; if you have good documentation in place as to what your process
was, you will be able to show you gave everyone fair and equal consideration.”
HireVue, a firm that offers online video solutions for hiring and recruiting (more about HireVue
below), quotes the most relevant parts of the letter in a blog post, including one important point
not mentioned in the ERE.net post above—that pertaining to recordkeeping requirements and the
definition of “applicant”:
… an individual would not be an “applicant” simply because a potential employer viewed his video,
listened to his audio, or reviewed his resume on the Internet. The individual only would become an
“applicant” after he appropriately expressed an interest in a particular position that the employer had
acted to fill….”
This applies to video resumes prospectively uploaded by jobseekers to CBVideo Resume or
YouTube or any other such site. In other words, employers watching video resumes posted
online but not submitted for a particular position in the employer’s firm do not need to keep track
of these videos and their responses to them. Recordkeeping requirements apply to applicants for
a job opening.
In another blog post, HireVue summarizes the guidance in Ms. Miaskoff’s letter:
“Follow the rules and treat the recording like a resume, assessment or any other record you might use to
make a hiring decision and it won’t be a problem. In fact, by having recordings of every candidate
available to compare against your hiring records, it’s easier to prove that you’re following the rules.”
Considerations for jobseekers
On the jobseeker’s end, though, perils remain in the use of video resumes in a job hunt, but they
are easily overcome with the proper planning and tools. A September 2009 Associated Press
article about the increasing popularity of video resumes warns, “Videos can convey the message
that an applicant is edgy, confident and creative. But they also have a possible downside: If
badly produced, they can sabotage a job hunt.”
Cheezhead’s analysis (quoted at length above) of CareerBuilder’s failed attempt to offer their
job-seeking users more value by hosting user-generated video resumes suggests that what users
needed—more than a place to upload their video—was help in creating them in the first place.
“Production quality is also important,” continues the Associated Press article. “A well-produced
video can send the message that the applicant is both professional and on top of new technology,
while something that looks like a home video can send the opposite message.”
Video Interviewing and the Hiring Process
The other four employer concerns about using video of candidates in the hiring process listed
above are all but rendered moot by the broad support among HR experts and recruiters for video
interviewing.
The subtitle of a December 2008 article at Workforce Management’s website declares,
“Companies increasingly are turning to video-on-demand interviewing, in which candidates
record their responses to questions and e-mail them to company executives for viewing at their
convenience.”
Video interviewing involves candidates recording their responses to questions supplied by the
employer. Hiring managers can then view—and review—the recordings at their convenience.
The article continues:
Additionally, video on demand allows corporate recruiters to standardize behavioral questioning—and to
compare various candidates’ responses, side by side—to an extent not previously possible. Experts say
that while video shouldn’t completely replace face-to-face interviewing, it can be a valuable tool for
winnowing down a list of candidates and identifying the few who are worth meeting in person.
“Human Resources Executive” magazine named the services of video-interviewing firm HireVue
as a Top HR Product for 2009 in its September 16 issue.
Of the product’s three versions, only one—HireVue Recorded—uses recorded video rather than
live streaming video. “In particular, we like the way the product allows users to not only record
videos—so they can be easily reviewed again—but also do a side-by-side comparison of how
candidates responded to the same interview questions,” says its “Special Report: HR
Technology.”
“We also like its collaborative features, including the way it permits hiring stakeholders to
comment on and rate candidates as they review the interview,” it concludes. This functionality
comes with a price, of course. HireVue Recorded runs from $995 to $1,495 per position with a
maximum of seven candidates per position.
Further boosting its credibility is HireVue’s partnership with another of the magazine’s Top HR
Product of 2009, Taleo Business Edition Platform by software company Taleo.
Video interviewing has become an important money- and time-saver for recruiters, and for
rapidly increasing numbers of jobseekers, video resumes offer a powerful tool—when skillfully
wielded—for demonstrating their suitability as employees.
Concludes Mr. Wheeler:
“Video is rapidly becoming core to recruiting success. Organizations that do not start to build
video into every aspect of talent acquisition will find that they are at a competitive disadvantage,
especially with college students and younger experienced hires. This is the age of video and we
all need to learn to use it better.”