Tech Firms Switching To Video Interview To Hire Fresh Talent During COVID-19 Outbreak

Technology companies are increasingly adopting video conferencing mode to hire prospective candidates during the lockdown. Companies such as Cognizant, Wipro and NTT are using virtual meetings and video conferencing to interview and select potential candidates to carry out their business as usual.

However, due to apparent reasons, onboarding of those selected candidates has been postponed until the coming month. The companies are using the video-based recruitment process as a norm for the coming weeks.

Brian Humphries, the CEO of Cognizant, stated in a note to his employees that — “All our candidate interviews are now going to be conducted virtually and when we onboard new hires, they also undergo the same process we use for visitors to our facilities.”

In a similar note, he also stated: “Face-to-face meetings with potential candidates must not be scheduled until further notice.” Tech companies are also using this as an opportunity to use advanced applications within video-based platforms. N Murali, director - human resources & alliances at NTT India, said the company had ramped up video-based hiring in the past six months. “I have already been looking at video-based (interviews), now more than ever,” he said.

He further stated that such an initiative would open up a wider pool of people, resources to consider when you can use video effectively. This can be used firstly, to screen better with better software tools that are available today. “You can have pre-filled questions in the platform, and the software has the intelligence to analyse the responses and see if a match is found.” This initiative can also detect when a person is not sincere. “When you are looking at a large pool of candidates, and you have not narrowed down, you can use these tools to do that more effectively,” he added.

According to Sunil C, the head of specialised staffing at TeamLease Digital, “Earlier, this sort of hiring used to be only 10-15% but since the last two weeks, we see that face to face hiring has almost gone down to nil with our clients.”

Additionally, staffing firms have also urged IT companies to build e-onboarding facilities given the vulnerable situation of COVID-19 that brings the uncertainty of the joining dates of the candidates. “We have asked customers to come up with e-onboarding facilities. They have promised that they would come back to us after March 31st, at this point, we see onboarding moving to the first week of April,” said Sunil.