THE founders of video interview platform Willo have responded to criticism of Sky’s recent announcement they will be ditching traditional paper CVs for the screen in their latest recruitment drive.
In a bid to make their workforce more inclusive, Sky is trialling video applications they claim will broaden the candidate pool and introduce “a more diverse perspective” to their workforce.
Willo co-founders Euan Cameron and Andrew Wood argue more businesses should get on board with asynchronous video interviewing, a tool that is revolutionising the post-pandemic recruitment process.
Glasgow-based Euan said: “Diversity and inclusion starts with the decision-makers within the organisation – no amount of technology or solution can fix those existing issues in a business.”
“Even businesses who say that the only way to hire is blind or anonymous CVs are kidding themselves. The business needs to be educated and open to diversity and inclusion from the very start of the hiring process right through to retention, progression and promotion of employees.”
Founded in 2018, with the mission to make the interview and hiring process fairer, Willo has secured funding of more than £1 million from high profile investors and is on track to reach a turnover of £44 million by the end of 2025.
Sky might be the biggest UK hitter to adopt the technology but with more than 300 businesses across the globe using the Scottish company’s video technology, there’s no doubt its popularity is soaring as high profile clients including Boohoo, Samsung, Chick-fil-A and Coinbase have joined the platform.
Euan and Andrew believe the video hiring process flattens geographical and language barriers, and meets rising demand for talented remote workers faster.
Euan said: “Many businesses come to us looking for a solution to help them hire real people, remotely, at scale and based on personality.”
“They want to cast a wider net and attract candidates that would traditionally be put off from applying in the first place, or who would be overlooked based on CV alone.”
“The most obvious impact that we hear every day is that they hire amazing candidates in significantly less time. This helps the business meet its growth goals more quickly.”
The founders, who both live with dyslexia and credit the superpowers that emerged from the condition with the success of their business, say the technology also makes jobs more accessible to neurodiverse candidates, who could find writing CVs and cover letters a challenge.
Andrew said: “Dyslexia is a big reason for Willo’s success. We’ve stripped back text to make it as simple as possible and we believe in the power of video. When you rely on the CV only to screen candidates, you miss out on incredible people.”
But it’s not just businesses that benefit, potential candidates are spared the cost, time and stress of face-to-face interviewing and those with little to no experience or credentials have the opportunity to be considered seriously for roles.
Euan added: “It’s 2022, and people are still being judged based on a document that’s been around since the 1950s. Businesses are trying to select people who look like them with qualifications and experience that aren’t relevant to doing most jobs well. It’s insane.”
