More than half of employers will continue to incorporate video-interviews into their recruitment process once the current Covid travel and lockdown restrictions are lifted, and joint study from StandOut CV and JD-Library has revealed.

With many companies being forced to conduct video interviews during the pandemic, the amount of video interviews being conducted has increased by 67% from 2020 – 2021. And many firms are planning to keep them in place due to benefits they deliver for streamlining their recruitment process, saving costs and reducing carbon footprint.

45% of recruiters say that video interviews helped them to speed up their process and only 22% of employers say they will ditch video interviews altogether once we are fully out of lockdown.

The study also found;

• Only 2% of candidates who apply for a job are selected to attend a job interview.
• In 2021 only 37% of employers would expect men to wear a tie to a job interview, and 19% have no dress-code requirements at all.
• In the UK & Ireland, employers will interview an average of 6 candidates for every job vacancy they advertise – which is slightly lower than the US & Canada where they interview an average of 7 candidates per vacancy.
• On average a job applicant will meet 3 members of the employer’s staff, if they make it through the entire interview process.
• Only 36% of interviewing candidates will meet the hiring manager of the vacancy, which equates to less than 1% of the total job applicants.
• The average interview process in the UK takes 27.5 days to complete.
• Pre-pandemic, the average job interview was conducted face-to-face, post-pandemic it is now carried out by video-call.
• Pre-pandemic 79% of employers conducted first-stage interviews via telephone or face-to-face meeting. As of January 2021, video-interviews are the most popular method of conducting first-stage interviews with 86% of employers favouring it.
• An average job interview will last between 30 – 45 minutes. Recruiters say that if an interview finishes in less than 20 minutes, it is a sign the interview has not gone well.
• Roles in the IT sector have the longest interview duration with an average of 1 hour. Hospitality roles have the shortest interview lengths with an average of 15 – 30 minutes.

StandOut CV director Andrew Fennell commented; “It’s no surprise that video interview usage has surged over the past 12 months, but it’s interesting to see how many companies are planning to continue using them once we return to some level of normality. There are some clear benefits to using video interviews in your process, but I think that a lot of employers will still want to meet candidates in the flesh before making a job offer – especially for senior or customer-facing roles.”

See the full study at Job Description Library.