12 Feb Reinventing the Job Interview with Soft Skill Assessments, Video, VR Screenings

In a net-driven world where authenticity can count on more than just appearance, and analytics can accurately forecast the performance and suitability of candidates for a job position, the traditional ways of recruiting are going by the wayside.

What are now becoming described as old-school tools — face-to-face interviews, panel interviews, phone interviews, behavioral interviews, and case studies — cannot come up with the kind of workforce that the actual workplace is demanding.

According to a study by LinkedIn Talent Solutions, today’s employers are looking for workers who have more soft skills, can adapt to real, demanding job pressures, and actually thrive in a culture of transparency.

As such, the traditional job interview is being replaced by soft skill assessments, video interviews, job auditions, and virtual reality screenings. Global mobility managers should also take note of this trend if they want to keep their talent pipeline running with the cream of the crop.

Soft skills are among the most-desired traits because they help the assignee adapt to his environment, work well with their colleagues and clients, and perform at their optimal best. The content of learning is constantly changing, but the ability to learn and perform simultaneously will always remain a valued asset.

Soft skills pertain to communication competencies, the ability to motivate people, empathy, and time management.

Yellow Hammer News says that these are the skills that actually spell success in the workplace, and are the foundation for employees to transform into leaders.

Video interviews are one valuable tool when it comes to soft skills assessment, and are actually very helpful to global mobility managers who no longer need to travel huge distances to screen candidates.

A video recording can capture the emotional nuances that the candidate reveals, and which the interviewer might have missed the first time. Video interviews can also test the candidate’s communication skills by giving them questions and a specific limited time frame, e.g. a few minutes, to answer them.

According to Recruiting Trends, some companies see video interviews as a more effective tool in spotting the most suitable candidate who can actually deliver on the job.

Virtual reality assessments go a step further than video interviews by immersing the candidate in a simulated world of the job they are applying for. The candidate puts on the VR headgear and gloves and enters a digitized version of the company, for example.

The global mobility manager or recruiter can then assess their reactions to the job pressures, their colleagues, and other demands in the work environment. Automation World reports that VR assessment has been used to increase work efficiency in industrial plants by 60 percent by throwing the candidate into the make-believe pool — and then coaching them as they go through their paces.

Global mobility managers can use VR assessments to test candidates’ reactions to a workforce culture that might be different from their home country’s, and gauge their capacity to adapt.

Finally, there are the job auditions which are less techy but are no less effective than the high-tech recruitment tools. Global mobility managers invite assignees or candidates to real-life settings to screen their performance instead of listening to them talk about it.

For example, instead of listening to an assignee talk about how he managed intercultural teams in his past job, the global mobility manager can bring him — without warning — to a conference room where a seemingly unruly team made up of mixed races seems to have a hard time working.

The job of this assignee would be to make this team cohesive and functioning within a couple of hours. How the assignee delivers will actually show their suitability for the job — and beats a couple of hours of elaboration on their part on how the will do it.

Today’s high-tech tools can reveal more layers about the candidate and the assignee in less time than the traditional forms of recruitment. The so-called HRTechnology has been gaining traction in the corporate world and solutions for it are continually being developed in the tech hubs in Northern California. Assignees are thereby mandated to level up — and so are the global mobility managers.