Review of RecRight

Recorded video interviews are a bit of a new concept in the recruitment space. For decades, companies relied upon the face-to-face interview to find the right employee.

It’s the go-to method in terms of pulling the trigger on a hire as an employer will want to have a deep and meaningful conversation before they offer a candidate a job.

In a world where convenience and technology reign supreme, pre-recorded video interviews may help make the initial process of an interview effortless and efficient.

Most recruiters will gladly take watching video interviews over reading piles of CVs on any given day.

Video interviews serve as truly valuable tools, especially if a company has to filter through a massive applicant pool.

Instead of having to suffer through the rigmarole of having dozens of phone conversations to sift through which candidates would make it through to the second round, all you have to do is sit back, watch some videos and make your selections online.

Sounds too good to be true? The concept is very simple and you might be wondering – why didn’t I come up with this idea?

 

How does it work?

RecRight, based in Helsinki, Finland, provides a very user-friendly system to make this entire process extremely easy for both employers and candidates.

RecRight provides a handy Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and video interviewing module, both taking only simple 4 steps:

1. Write your job description (ATS) or record the video questions that you’d like to know from candidates (for video interviewing module);

2. Share your job ad/video interview with social media or send qualified candidates personal invitations to the video interview.

3. Receive applications and answers, review candidates with your team by setting competencies and rating them on a scale of 1 to 5.

4. Manage your candidates’ stages and communicate your decisions through the tool.

Now, you might think, “Why do I need to pay for this? I can just ask individual candidates to send me a video via a chat app or email.” This is, of course, entirely true and is a valid point if you’re only expecting a handful of candidates.

But what if the number of candidates runs into the tens or even hundreds? Then sorting through a messy chain of emails containing dozens of videos would be an absolute nightmare.

Recright provides employers with a very simple, efficient and effective way to cherry-pick the most suitable candidates for the positions available. It is, as they claim, a “full-blown video recruitment tool.”

Through the RecRight system, your team will also be able to view applications and videos so that they can be actively engaged in finding the best match for future workmates. Reviewers of videos and applications can leave comments on the candidate’s profile, rating with stars and even use hashtags to search relevant groups later on.

All this technology may sound awesome but behind every technological advancement, there is a shadow — a creeping feeling that you’re trading in privacy and security for the privilege of using the latest and greatest in terms of technology.

For those of you that may be concerned about security (a totally valid fear) regarding video footages, RecRight says “the video recruitment platform is built to be secure and operates under the highest level of SSL-security standards.”

The Finnish company lists companies such as Uber, Kone and Finnair as clients and it boasts an impressive 7 million videos processed through its doors. With 14,000 monthly users in 180 countries, it isn’t just another tech start-up sitting halfway across the world.

 

But how user-friendly is it for us in Singapore/Asia?

For Singapore users, it is pretty easy to use. Once you create a login, you can pretty much hit the ground running. There is no language barrier despite the company being based in Helsinki – the whole website is written in impeccable English.

But what about for those of us in Asia whose mother tongue isn’t English? Well, RecRight says it provides its service in 15 languages including Italian, Finnish and German… but no Asian languages yet.

Given that China and India have the largest populations in the world, it may be time for RecRight to throw in a couple of main Asian languages into the mix if they want to diversify their client portfolio and attract users from this region.

Pricing starts at EUR145/month, though some may argue that it pales in comparison to the amount of money a firm would have to cough up if one goes through a traditional headhunter.

But industries that use headhunters frequently, such as finance, tend to lean toward the traditional method of face-to-face interviews as the stakes, and salaries, run high for each hire.

Also, let’s not forget there are plenty of “free” tools such as LinkedIn that companies use on a regular basis to recruit staff. If a company wanted to hire just one person, it’d be just as easy to do a simple search on LinkedIn, pop a message over to a few candidates with an interview question and ask them to send a video answer through via Whatsapp.

The Power of Video (Interview)

The video is a powerful means of communications as it transmits information across to us both visually and audibly. Companies are using videos of their offices and their people to better represent their brands and connect more intricately with job seekers.

With RecRight, the video goes beyond just the introduction of the company. It is also used to record the questions (by the interviewers) which the jobseekers can respond to back with their own video recordings of their replies.

Setting up the questions is pretty easy and straightforward as there are info guides across the screen to provide info tips on what to do.

Personally, I have been on the jobseekers’ side of the table on video interviews and it can be intimidating!

Having said that, I believe it works well for both parties.

Since it requires more “work”, companies tend to receive higher quality candidates. And given so, the candidates also have lesser people to compete against.

 

Bottom line: Trust is essential

Hiring employees, for the most part, is a very delicate, complex process. An employer has to gauge whether a candidate would be a good fit with the existing team and is capable of being an engaged, productive and happy employee.

Recruitment is based on trust — trust that candidates are honest in their CVs, trust that they are “being themselves” in interviews and trust that they will do a good job.

Video interviews, just like CVs, can be as truthful or fictional as one desires. Candidates could get help to produce a video that would yield the best results. This may say prompt some to say a CV with a photo would suffice in the initial stage of recruitment.

It really is about how much you trust in the process. After all, it is harder to hide (and, on the flip side, easier to show) your true colours in a video than a photo.