Blogpost

How AFD hired the best candidate with a video assignment

March 28, 2023

The Academics for Development AFD is a non-profit organisation that creates social awareness within the student community. They help students commit their skills to social projects worldwide. AFD used Video Intake’s video technology to get to know candidates better at an early stage of the recruitment process. With a video assignment, they had the opportunity to select the candidates in a more fun and less time consuming way. Annika (Marketing & Communications PR at AFD) was closely involved in this procedure and would like to share her experience with you!

How did a video assignment help AFD to find the right candidates?

“It is important that the new board members can work well together and fit in our organization’s culture. Also, their values and motivation should match with ours. In addition to the resume and a cover letter, video gave us a good insight of the candidate’s soft skills. There were candidates who had less work experience than others, but convinced us through video,” Annika says.

How did you use Video Intakes?

“Candidates applied by sending their resume and cover letter via email. After an initial resume selection, we invited the candidates to answer several questions in a video within a time limit.”

During this screening process, the president of the board was able distinguish which candidates would fit the organisation best. Her ideas were eventually confirmed as the other candidates dropped out during the application round.

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There were candidates who had less work experience than others, but convinced us through video

In order to ensure that candidates could start the assignment comfortably, the AFD committee introduced itself in a similar video. We allowed them to answer the questions in a creative way, such as drawing out the video assignment or creating a mind map. Video is a perfect tool for the recruiter to assess the candidate’s creativity!

“Using video allowed us to get a better picture of the person behind the resume and cover letter before actually inviting them for an interview. We were able to see how they express their answers and how creative they are. Going into the interview with a preconceived idea of the person and their personality helped us to enhance the job interview experience. For example, we were able to discover our favorite applicants before the interview and articulate questions for them based on their own video. This made the interview process much faster and concise for everyone involved.”

How did candidates experience it?

Watch a video of one of the hired new board members below

“Such a video assignment gave us the opportunity to compare the candidates on a level you don’t get from just a resume.”

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What is your next step in video communication?

“Our experience using Video Intake’s video technology for the recruiting process was very positive. We will use it again for recruiting the next board in September. This procedure allows us to focus on recruiting and selecting students who are committed to social projects!”

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