Standard Chartered Bank

“The winner is Katherine Liew from Australia, who dazzled us with her creativity, intelligence and clear passion for all things social media. HireVue’s video interviewing solution was critical in the selection process. Her fit for the role really shone through in her responses to questions from the virtual interview.”

- Aman Narain, Global Head of Internet & Mobile Banking at Standard Chartered Bank

The Challenge:

Identify “The World’s Coolest Intern” with Social Media Savvy and Hard to Assess Skills, from Applicants in 65 Cities Around the World

As one of the world’s leading banks in business for over 150 years, Standard Charted Bank launched a highly-publicized effort to identify “The World’s Coolest Intern” to join its Internet and Mobile Banking team. They wanted to hire a superstar of the Internet world – someone with creativity, energy, intelligence and social media savvy – someone who would fit the SCB company culture.

“When HireVue is used to record interviews remotely, travel costs can be significantly reduced. A user at a major publisher of financial data in New York city used HireVue to eliminate $50,000 in travel costs”
Nucleus Research, 2011: “L1-Research Note-Assessing the Value of HireVue” 

With an international workforce of 125 nationalities represented among over 80,000 employees, the Standard Chartered Bank team was no neophyte in the world of global recruiting. Yet, this time was different. They wanted a way to connect faster with the brightest talent in the world of social media – and, in a technologically advanced, innovative, and cost effective way, hone in on the best candidate to add to the “world’s hottest mobile banking team.”

The company needed to quickly get to know their top candidates especially well – a particular challenge with geographically-dispersed interviewers and candidates. In addition, they had a high volume of applicants and the need to screen for skills that are hard to assess without interacting with the candidate firsthand. And, they had a US$30,000 6-month internship up for grabs – promoted in a highly-visible effort that also raised awareness among potential consumers through massive exposure via Facebook, Twitter, news teams and more – so, the stakes were high.

The Solution:

Online Video Interviews

For a team that is interested in the new and better ways of doing things, video interviewing was the perfect solution. After inviting applicants to pursue the internship, the highly-publicized recruiting effort yielded over 1,190 applicants from over 65 cities around the world, including Singapore, India, China, U.S., Australia, Philippines and that’s just a portion of the finalists. After narrowing the candidates the bank turned to HireVue for help.

The team crafted the right interview questions and within a week, the final applicants participated in virtual interviews which were then reviewed by a panel of judges comprised of Standard Chartered Bank high-level senior executives such as the Global Head of Internet & Mobile Banking, to mid-level managers such as a Strategy Manager, via the HireVue Video Interview Management Platform. Reviewers were able to view each interview at their convenience – rating, comparing and adding comments to aid in the final decision.

The Results:

Innovative Brand Image, Collaboration, High Quality, Cost Savings

For the Standard Chartered Bank team that really knows how to leverage technology, implementing a video interviewing solution was all about connecting with global candidates for their highly-promoted internship in a “cool”, innovative way. Their priority was projecting the right brand image while facilitating the process of getting to know the top finalists – with hiring criteria like creativity and the ability to fit in with team culture, which are difficult to assess effectively without well-conducted interviews. Using the HireVue solution, the Internet and Mobile Banking Team was able to achieve both. They were able to project a cutting-edge image to potential talent and their vast online audiences assembled by the promotion and candidates themselves. And, they selected an all-star as their “World’s Coolest Intern”, Katherine Liew from Australia, who truly was the “best of the best” as her recorded interview responses revealed.

“HireVue permanently stores every recorded interview, resulting in a proprietary database of candidate information that can reduce the need to attract new candidates. One user indicated that HireVue was a significant factor in reducing job-board expenditures by 30%.”
Nucleus Research, 2011: “L1-Research Note-Assessing the Value of HireVue” 

A panel of interviewers from various locations was able to participate by using HireVue, with everyone hearing the same exciting responses from the final candidates. They were able to review recorded video interview responses as often as they liked, comparing candidates more effectively and providing their feedback when individual schedules permitted. As importantly, the process enabled the team to make the best hire quickly without dulling the excitement or drawing out the promotion.

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