Firstly, I want to shoot down the claim that video resumes, applications or anything similar can cause more discrimination by an employer/recruiter. If ever I have heard of a more outlandish comment, this is it. The harsh reality is, is that if someone is going to discriminate, they are going to do it regardless of what medium is used or how the candidate presents themselves. If this is in their genetic make-up, then they will, you can’t blame the video, it just highlights a bigger problem.

So for those of you who are still left (which I sincerely hope is 99.99% of you) how do you position video to not only avoid the unlikely chance of a candidate claiming discrimination, yes you can avoid any misunderstanding, but to ensure that you are getting the most out of the tool as well.

Firstly, you’ll be happy to know its quite simple and something that for every other act you do in your job works for video as well. It’s all about “expectation”. Video in recruitment circles is still a very new concept for everyone, from all levels. The fact is, the level of education and understanding from all involved is still quite low.

Candidates have no idea what they should say, and Employers have no idea what to expect. A candidate is going to claim you have discriminated against them due to their video, as it’s an easy target. With no guidelines or expectations, what do we expect?

And this is where we can change the game. Employers/recruiters it’s up to YOU.

Video Resumes/Profiles or whatever we call them, need a guideline. Many candidates struggle to know what to include in a word.doc let alone a 2 minute video, so we need to guide and educate them. Employers should provide a “What we want to see and hear” advice piece as to what is it they require from a video resume/profile. By doing this you are ensuring that all (ok most) video’s have the content that they require but also that people don’t sit there dumbfounded as to what to do.

Video Resumes/Profiles provide a great opportunity to look at person’s communication skills, and evaluate if they are not only the right person to take to the next stage of the interview process, but also allow you to see how each candidate would represent “your company”. Whether you are wanting a cultural match video, skill based overview, or something left of centre and creative, the screening and decision making process can be made a lot easy and with constant review.

Now not every candidate will feel comfortable creating a video resume/profile and we shouldn’t force them to, but for those who do, why not help them. Your candidate video expectations should form part of your social media strategy. If someone is going to discriminate, it doesn’t matter what tool or part of the process they do it, it’s all the same. Just don’t blame the video.

If all parties know what is expected of them, then discrimination is something that can never be argued. Video is a wonderful tool, you just have to plan on how you are going to use it.