Personal Interaction Still Trumps Technology In India

Today, organizations use technology extensively for the screening process, but, as a TimesJobs.com survey revealed, in the overall hiring process it is still just an enabler. 55% organisations claim to use online job portals to source candidates and a similar number use personality profiling tests to assess the candidates. However, when it comes to making the final decision, 82% organizations still rely on face-to-face interviews. 

Organisations believe that though technology has made an impact on the global hiring landscape, some traditional methods like personal interaction with the candidates still hold a lot of significance in hiring the best. 

Hiring on ‘face-value’ 

Hiring managers are certainly open to new age techniques in hiring and interviewing but only at a nascent stage. Most organizations indicated that a telephonic or video interview is always followed up by an in-depth face-to-face interview.

According to the TimesJobs.com survey, nearly 15% organisations indicated that while they use telephonic or video interview techniques they are followed by face-to-face interactions. Only 3% reported using just video interviews for selecting a candidate reveals the TimesJobs.com study.

A sector-wise glimpse

98% of organisations in both the Automobile sector and BPO industry rely solely on in-depth face-to-face interviews, followed by the IT/Telecom sector (90%).

Healthcare was one of the key sectors to report using video/telephone interviews followed by face-to-face interactions. About 50% organisations in the Healthcare sector use video/telephone interviews followed by face-to-face interactions states the TimesJobs.com study.

Demographical variations

The trend for video interviews is a little better in metros and key job hubs including Pune, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.

Nearly 11% of representative organisations in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore conduct video interviews but they are followed by face-to-face interactions. Same is the case with 22% organisations based in Pune, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.

About 84% organisations in metros and 78% organisations in Pune, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad prefer using only face-to-face interviews. Nearly 80% organisations belonging to tier I cities/state capitals use the in-depth face-to-face interview process, while 20% do video interviews followed by a face-to-face interaction, the TimesJobs.com study reveals.

Video interviews will take time to evolve

The advent of websites such as YouTube, Metacafe, etc. has made conducting video interviews easier. “Globally there’s a growing trend of putting a corporate video along with the job posting which not only gives a preview of an applicant’s career graph, but leaves a lasting impression as well. Recruiters these days prefer a video interview on Skype or Hangout for conducting preliminary rounds of interviews,” said Ravi S Singh, founder, Insiders Research Solutions LLP in an exclusive interaction with TimesJobs.com.

Industry experts believe that while the trend of video interviews is popular globally, it will take another five years for technology-enabled solutions to overtake face-to-face interviews. In India, however, it will take longer because of awareness and accessibility issues.