Walmart

“When you meet a student at a career fair it can be very two-dimensional. You receive a resume and have conversations that you then have to convey to a hiring manager back at headquarters or in the field. HireVue’s video interviewing solution brings three-dimensional life to the candidate and gives managers instant access to top talent.”

- Cody Horton, Director Campus and Diversity Recruiting at Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

The Challenge

Better Assess Top Candidates and Improve Hiring Speed

Employing over two million people worldwide and receiving recognition as number one in the retailer category in Fortune Magazine’s 2010 Most Admired Companies, Walmart has a lot of experience attracting great employees. As such, the company is always seeking new and innovative ways to improve what they do – and recruiting is no exception.

When looking at their college and diversity recruiting, the company realized that each additional moment in the interview process matters – and each day the process extends means that Walmart could lose out on great hires from this highly sought after candidate base.

“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 that in mind, the company sought a solution to streamline events-based recruiting and improve the candidate experience while consistently promoting the Walmart brand. And, any solution the company chose had to produce financial results while enabling off-site, dispersed team members to be involved in the interview process.

The Solution

Captured Video Interviewing, Candidate Evaluation and Assessment

Walmart created a virtual interviewing room to complement career fair activities. Once a recruiter identified top candidates in the Walmart booth, they immediately invited them to complete a HireVue video. This flexibility was especially important as many companies compete for talent at events – and, as such, students were driven by their schedules with other hiring companies throughout the day. As soon as video interviews were complete, trained evaluators at corporate headquarters reviewed each candidate based on Walmart’s competency models without the need of coordinating schedules or arranging candidate travel.

The Results

Quality, Speed, Better Candidate Experience

For Walmart, the HireVue solution immediately streamlined their recruiting activities and enabled them to lead the competition in attracting top talent. Instead of coordinating phone and additional in-person interviews with candidates, Walmart was able to have internal managers review recorded interviews asynchronously and give their input quickly. In many cases, feedback was so fast that the events-based Walmart team was able to connect with the top candidates before they even left the career fair to advance them to the next step! HireVue also enabled Walmart to project a progressive image to this savvy group of potential talent – college students that have grown up in a technology-oriented world. Using HireVue’s innovative solution helped the company speed up the hiring process and elevated Walmart as an employer brand. And, rather than just looking for “cost per hire” savings Walmart believed the real savings come by attracting, finding and hiring top talent earlier in the process.

“By reducing both the number of candidates per position and the length of time required for each interview, HireVue can reduce the amount of time spent on interviews by an average of 50%.” 

Nucleus Research, 2011:  “L1-Research Note-Assessing the Value of HireVue” 

More importantly, Walmart improved the quality of hires because they were able to get “the best of the best” through their hiring process faster than other companies. They were also able to reduce risk due to a more technical interview assessment and standardized selection criteria. All key decision-makers – from recruiters at the events to managers at headquarters and in stores – were able to give feedback on candidates quickly and easily using HireVue, accomplishing what typical phone and in-person interview processes could not.

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