Let’s face it, we live in an increasingly connected and globalized world. We chat online. We buy online. You can sometimes find your soulmate online. Why should recruitment methods lag behind? The emergence of video conferencing as an omnipresent communication tool may raise questions about the possibility of recruiting interim managers without having the opportunity to meet in person. But the Covid 19 crisis has come and gone and has fundamentally reshuffled the cards concerning processes in companies. Telecommuting has become systematic. Meetings on Teams or Zoom have become commonplace. So, can you have a reliable feeling with a transitional eater with whom you have exchanged behind a screen?
The interim manager, a “sensitive” recruitment
An interim manager must solve specific problems, accompany companies through periods of sometimes delicate changes, often vital for their future, during which they are asked to provide cutting-edge expertise in areas that they are supposed to master perfectly. Traditionally, the recruitment process for such sensitive assignments has required every effort to assess the candidate’s ability to meet the challenges at hand. Why shouldn’t a videoconference offer the same guarantees of reliability as a face-to-face meeting? Better yet, it can even bring its share of advantages.
Saving time and convenience
With videoconferencing, no expensive travel (it is sometimes necessary to cross a good part of France to honor an appointment) and often time-consuming. In this way, companies can more easily claim to attract interim managers with the required skills without limiting recruitment to geographical constraints. This accelerates connections (Visio allows you to set up an appointment within 12 hours), which perfectly corresponds to the constraints of companies waiting for responsiveness.
Keeping up with the times!
Interim managers, who are often familiar with digital environments, are mostly perfectly comfortable with video conferencing tools. This is further proof of their ability to adapt to new situations and interact spontaneously.
Optimize the time of the exchange
To give a Visio a quality of exchange comparable to a physical interview, it is important to prepare the interview conscientiously. Downtime and moments of hesitation are more impactful behind a camera than during a physical meeting. Preparing a clear and well-constructed framework for maintenance helps avoid this type of downtime. You will then be able, while keeping this framework, to allow yourself digressions to better come back to your questions
Breaking the Ice
However, prior confidence is highly recommended. By starting the interview with a spontaneous informal exchange, outside of a strictly professional context, the protagonists break the somewhat rigid framework of an exchange that is too framed by interposed screens. It is, in a way, the digital counterpart of the famous coffee that is offered to a visitor to relax their minds before getting to the heart of the matter.
Get the click in just a few clicks
Recruiting interim managers via video conferencing is one way to take advantage of the benefits of connectivity. These new approaches are now unavoidable, even if it is quite natural to take into account a moment of adaptation. In any case, the success of virtual recruitment depends on the ability of companies to adapt their process to ensure a thorough assessment and successful integration of interim managers into their teams. And no one prevents you, once the rare pearl has been identified, from confirming the rapprochement with a final face-to-face meeting!
Gérard Arnaud , Patrice Hournon , Bruno Blaser
Co-founders of Manag-in
