What Makes the Hire Good? What Influences You?
Hiring managers have a hard job. They want to objectively hire the best candidates, but they are inherently subjective humans like the rest of us. Thus, the goal of doing 6 Sigma for recruiting is allusive.
Note this quote frrom a Forbes piece on getting work in a pandemic.
“Candidates who can run video meetings without technical difficulty immediately set themselves apart,” says Kevin Fanning, talent acquisition manager of Notarize. “The candidates we’ve hired in the past few weeks were great on video. They were very prepared, engaged communicators, and spoke to us from quiet, well-lit spaces in their homes. It was very easy to get a sense of what working with them would actually be like.”
I think it is good advice to prepare well for a video interview. They happen all the time since our Western Customers use apps to interview candidates in China wether we have Covid-19 or not.
A Good Hire is Not About Video
However, it is unfortunate that video skill is not on the JD, but the emotional impact of doing the video well cancels all the other factors you need like trustworthy work, skill in the position and what not. We have a feel good interview, and that is the story instead of finding the person who can say open the market for you or do the purchasing you need. Many of our candidates have never use the app that the customer wants to use. Using it well is smart, but having technical difficulties should not be on top. I had a candidate who had bad wechat connection, so I just called him on the phone.
The customer would suffer harm if I kicked this guy out because the video had problems. The talk showed this guy has the spirit, drive and experience they need. Later the background check may show he actually is a good liar. That would get him kicked out, but the video would not. See also, Perfect China Interviewing and its limits.
Our best to all the hiring managers, and may you find the good hire regardless of technical difficulties or other extraneous issues.