Linkedin 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 is globally testing a new video intro feature that helps you as a hiring manager 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.

This new feature creates an opportunity for candidates to showcase their skills, 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.

Here’s a closer look at how video introductions can help you as a hiring manager 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. In early testing, LinkedIn found this feature to be helpful in hiring for roles in which soft skills are of great importance, like sales and business development. 

With digital technologies being used more in the hiring and selection of new employees, it’s becoming more common for recruiters and employers to request that candidates submit a video as part of their job application.

A video job applications is a way for employers to get an idea of your personality and whether you’ll be a good cultural fit in the organisation, and is often used when managers are located in another city or are on the road to help streamline the process.

For you, it’s an opportunity to sell yourself and demonstrate your communication skills and creative flair in a way that’s not necessarily available through a traditional resume. The video application should be used to compliment your impressiveCV however, not replace it.

Stay tuned for advice on how to create an impressive video application!!