LinkedIn product tips

Get to Know Job Candidates Better and Faster with LinkedIn’s Video Intro

It can be hard to know if a candidate is the right fit for a role simply by reviewing a resume, and it can be even harder to get a feel for who might be right for a position when you are sorting through hundreds of candidate profiles. And, in today’s virtual environment where the majority of the interview process has moved online, streamlining the hiring process to help fill critical roles quickly is essential. 

We found that 92% of talent professionals report that soft skills are equally or more important to hire for than hard skills. To help you find quality candidates with the soft skills you need and facilitate a more efficient hiring process, LinkedIn's Video Intro feature is now available to all New Recruiter & Jobs customers and will help you evaluate a candidate’s communication and soft skills prior to the first live interview.

With Video Intro, once you receive applications for a job posting, you can invite the most qualified candidates to answer up to two questions from a list of options that include questions, such as “Tell me about yourself,” “What is your greatest strength?,” and “Describe your most challenging project.” Candidates can choose to submit their answers via quick video recording or written response.

Recruiter experience

Screenshot of new video intro feature from recruiter's experience

Job seeker experience

Screenshot of new video intro feature from job seeker's mobile experience

This new feature creates an opportunity for candidates to showcase their soft skills and experience, and provide a more well-rounded human view of who they are. We want to help boost candidates' confidence, rather than create added pressure, so we've made the feature optional and given candidates the ability to re-record their answers as often as they wish before submitting. Candidates have loved the feature, and 80% of candidates opt for video responses.

Here’s a closer look at how video introductions can help you start to identify the right quality candidates faster: 

Develop a more holistic and human view of the candidate quickly

Your first conversation with a candidate is a great opportunity to get to know if the skills on paper align with practical experiences, and how their personality can add to your company culture. Although invaluable, each conversation takes time and limits who you speak to based upon what you see on paper; whereas other qualified candidates might be a stronger match if you had an opportunity to get to know them a little better. Video introductions allow you to learn more about a candidate’s motivations, communication style, and soft skills at an early stage, saving time and enabling you to develop a more complete and human view of a candidate’s application, beyond work experience or education. 

Assess soft skills sooner and more easily

Assessing soft skills has become a business imperative. Although 80% of companies believe that soft skills are increasingly important to company success, they are notoriously hard to assess. For example, this year, emotional intelligence emerged as one of the most in-demand soft skills, but is near impossible to assess based on a job application alone. Video introductions allow you to ask questions that can start to uncover these key soft skills early in the application process, giving you the opportunity to spend more time on the most qualified candidates. 

Video Intro also enables you to identify candidates who may not have the education or experience you are looking  for, but who may have the right skills to succeed on the job.

Video introductions are being used to hire across functions, industries, and seniorities. We have also found that job posters who use Video Intro are nearly 2X more likely to find a hire. And once a hirer uses Video Intro, they want to use it again. We have found that 70% of job posters that use this feature reuse it in subsequent jobs.

How to set up Video Intro?

There are a few ways you can set up this feature in New Recruiter & Jobs:

  • Add Video Intro to your job post. On the last page of the manual posting process, you will have the option to add Video Intro to the job posting. 
  • Set up Video Intro in your settings. You can also set up Video Intro at any time under “Project Settings” in New Recruiting & Jobs. 
  • Invite individual applicants. When looking through your applicant list, you can select “invite to video intro” under the “...” overflow action menu. If you do not yet have a video introduction set up, you will be prompted to set one up to complete the invite. 

Learn more about other recent product updates:

  • Instant mobile push notifications: Within minutes of posting your job, we now send instant mobile push notifications targeted to 500 of the most relevant candidates with skills matching your role. Applicants that received an Instant Job notification are 30% more likely to be hired than all other applicants.​ (Based on LinkedIn data)

  • Share that you’re hiring: We now have more ways for hiring managers and recruiters to share that they’re hiring and leverage their LinkedIn network to find qualified candidates​. Hiring managers and recruiters can now:

      -- Attach job posts to the top of your LinkedIn profile​

      -- Notify their network that they’re hiring through the #Hiring hashtag​

      -- Use the #Hiring photo frame on their LinkedIn photo to amplify that they’re hiring

  • New Recruiter & Jobs’ new remote filter: As your organization shifts to more flexible work arrangements and more members want to work remotely, we are giving you a new solution to find that perfect hire more efficiently.​ You will now be able to easily find qualified candidates who have let us know that they are open to working remotely in the open to work preferences.​

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