How Red Clover Improves Hiring Internally and Externally With Spark Hire Video Interviews

As a strategic HR consulting firm, it's important for us to remain competitive and ahead of trends in the Human Resources industry. As our clients found themselves aggressively hiring with a need to fill positions quickly, we needed to revise our recruitment support and processes in ways that were both time-efficient and cost-effective. Phone screens potentially take up a consultant's entire day, and thus become financially burdensome to the client. We began to research video interview providers because we recognized it was an upcoming trend and would allow us to better leverage our time in client engagements. Video interviews would increase our value to clients in using our time as strategic partners in moving the business forward, rather than sitting in the call room running phone screen after phone screen.

It was the first time we implemented video. Spark Hire became invaluable through the COVID-19 pandemic, when we (and the rest of the world) began relying on video throughout our business processes.

As a consulting firm, we work with a variety of clients, so our video interviewing solution needed to be customizable to our different clients' needs. We needed a tool that offered the flexibility to show clients their interviews, without requiring them to purchase a license. It was also important to us to have a devoted account manager who could help us leverage the video interviewing platform to the best of our ability. 24/7 technical support was also ideal for us to troubleshoot at any time of day. Of course, affordability is always a key factor and any interview tool needs to be EEO compliant.

It checked all the boxes. We maintained control over the interview dashboard, but could use it to help our clients find and interview great talent. Spark Hire offers a variety of plans (based on the number of job slots and user seats), offering us the flexibility we need in working with our clients while using the tool internally. The platform is easy to navigate. The Spark Hire team is attentive to our needs as clients and holds regular checkpoints with us to make sure we are aware of new product features and guarantee we are leveraging the tools the best we can. We felt the interview interface was easy to navigate for candidates and would contribute to the positive candidate experience we strive for.

When getting started with Spark Hire, the hand-off between our salesperson and account manager was seamless. Then, our account manager worked with us every step of the way to set up our first interview process. They also provided a wide array of supporting documents to help us 1) drive the Spark Hire process and 2) market it to our clients as an added value and service to them.

The amount of time our consultants spend in the initial screening process has reduced dramatically. We do a brief introductory phone call with candidates, but not a full-length phone screen. The video interview tools freed up more than half the time we used to spend on phone screens. Additionally, Spark Hire and its tools help us work more efficiently towards our internal and client-facing goal of having every job search wrapped up in a month.

We would complete a traditional phone screen before deciding who would move forward to speak with other internal team members or, if we were running the process for a client, members of that organization. We would also have to hold phone calls with the client to review all our notes about all the candidates to help them understand our rationale for moving people forward. Using Spark Hire, we are able to quickly use the internal rating system and share that information with the client, and they can also evaluate the interviews with the easy link sharing option. That way, you're both viewing the same content - and it's not a matter of trying to remember everything the candidate said during a phone screen, despite your best note-taking efforts.

Now that we've had at least two internal interview cycles where our hires engaged in a Spark Hire interview, they recognize it as a part of our process and can speak about the experience to prospective clients about its effectiveness. We also use all the marketing tools Spark Hire has provided to get our clients to "buy in" to the video interview process. We make sure to market its time efficiency - and if clients are paying us for an hourly rate - they like to know we're spending our time on something else that requires our immediate attention.

Our "aha" moment was when we ran an interview process using the tools available in Spark Hire and were able to show a demonstrated difference on our time cards compared to a previous interview process where we still held traditional phone screens. The time savings was well worth it for us and the client.

It was also beneficial for us to be able to send the interviews to the client, rather than trying to convince them a candidate is viable based on our notes. Because even with our best efforts in note taking, it's hard to write down everything a candidate says. This lends itself to a more interactive process with engagement between the recruiting team and the business leader.

With the pandemic and the future of work looking more remote, if not hybrid, technology is essential for integration into all of your people processes. Spark Hire is the perfect video interviewing tool, with both one way and live interview options, where your team can meet candidates while being completely safe. Also, with the increased focus on remote work, the talent pool has been blown open. Individuals are no longer landlocked, and if you're a east coast-based business, but your top candidate lives in the midwest, a video interviewing tool like Spark Hire is an effective and inexpensive way to evaluate the person (rather than paying for a flight or miles).

And some feedback that I hear is that video interviewing takes away the "personal" side to interviews. We don't just send a link to a candidate without any guidance. We still chat with those we are interested in learning more about and walk them through the Spark Hire process. We provide them the opportunity to ask questions about the role. This way, we are still able to put the human in Human Resources - but we also use technology to recognize the value of our own time.

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