How we transformed our recruitment processes with Shortlister video interviewing and met a 48% increase in demand for new talent.
This success story explores how real estate advisory business, Avison Young, was able to achieve:
- 80% conversion rate
- 7 Day reduced hiring time
- 50% less screening costs
Who are Avison Young?
Avison Young are the UK’s leading and most diverse real estate advisory business. It has 12 offices throughout the country, including a headquarters in London. Avison Young employs 1,500 skilled and experienced staff around the UK.
Dan Williams, Avison Youngs’s Future Talent Lead, talks about how Shortlister transformed the company’s recruitment process.
Their Graduate Recruitment Challenge
Shortlister’s brief was to help us identify top talent and fill vacancies quickly while reducing the time it takes to hire and lower recruitment costs. Our talent needs almost doubled in 2018. At the same time, applications rose by 36%. Attraction is mostly done through digital campaigns with TargetJobs, RateMyPlacement and JobCrowd. We do very little on campus. We wanted to eliminate time-consuming telephone interviews with a more convenient screening process that gave us a better insight into candidates’ suitability.
Shortlister’s functionality and streamlined approach helps us interview more candidates, more quickly. Its email and SMS alerts keeps everyone informed throughout the process. Shortlister video interviews are helping us to identify and recruit the people we need in less time and at less expense. The software is easy to use, and the support is great. We have also appreciated the benefits of being able to incorporate branding into interviews – something we couldn’t do with telephone interviews.
Since Adopting Shortlister
Avison Young has achieved the following:
- Conversion rate increased to 80%
Shortlister doubled Avison Young’s conversion rate at the final stage. It is now 80%. Video interviews have given a much better overview of a candidate than they previously got with telephone interviews: words 5%, intonation 15%, and body language 80%. Without video interviews Avison Young was missing out on 80% of what counts and, as a customer-facing business, body language is very important to the company. The video interview puts candidates in an awkward situation, giving Avison Young a good insight into how they would act in front of a client.
- Reduction of 7 days in recruitment time
Shortlister halved the resources required to facilitate screening interviews. In previous years, telephone interviews had taken three personnel out of the business for a period of two weeks. With vacancies up 48%, this would have extended to three weeks at least.
- Flexibility to build interviews around other responsibilities
Shortlister interviews kept the recruitment process fluid. Avison Young no longer needs to pack interviews into a two-week window. It can progress applicants through the process much quicker, while fitting interviews around other day-to-day responsibilities.
- Strategic buy-in
Recruitment was previously seen as being quite transactional. Introducing video interviews has enabled hiring managers at Avison Young to actually see the candidates and understand the screening process. Shortlister has helped position Avison Young’s recruitment team as the strategic advisors. It has effectively taken the mystery out of the interview process.
Final Remarks from Dan Williams, of Avison Young:
To anyone thinking about introducing video interviews…they give you a much better feel for candidates, which is particularly important for professional services. Unlike a telephone interview, video interviews are always there so you can dip back into them whenever you want.
Having previously used other video interview solutions, I have confidence in saying ÂŁ for ÂŁ, what Shortlister gives you in comparison to any other provider is much, much better.
What’s Next for Avison Young?
Dan says: In time, I would like to replace our verbal and numerical tests with situational judgement tests (SJT) as I’ve found SJT’s to be a great predictor of job performance.
Want to become one of our Shortlister Success Stories? Contact one of the team today for a free, no-strings-attached demonstration of the platform and learn how.