Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Green-Collar Worker Recruitment: Video Interviews To The Rescue!

Looking to hire a great green-collar worker? This is a challenge facing many businesses today, as more and more companies adopt eco-friendly policies. Green industry jobs are on the rise, but recruiting for the burgeoning green industry is far from simple.

You might have a green thumb, but you'll need a whole different set of skills when it comes to green-collar worker recruitment. "Green" not only describes eco-friendly businesses with mother nature in mind, but also the overall state of the environmental sector. The green industry has only been around for a handful of years, meaning employers and recruiters are still trying to grasp what constitutes best practices when it comes to finding and hiring the right people.

The video interview isn't just eco-friendly, it can also help you find the best green-collar worker and get ahead of the competition. But before we delve into how the video interview can help your company help planet Earth, let's first take a look at some of the common challenges facing the green industry:

Green Industry Challenges

Every company wants to find the best and brightest green-collar worker for their environmental jobs. But the fledgling industry is facing its share of problems, including its own rapid growth. Let's take a look at some industry statistics:

  • In 2011, there were approximately 3.4 million green industry jobs. This accounted for 2.6 percent of total U.S. employment according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  • About three-quarters of all businesses, not just green industry jobs, reported the use of at least one eco-friendly technology or practice. Hiring a great green-collar worker won't only be in demand for environmental industries. .
  • It should come as no surprise given this information that the green industry is on the rise. In fact, green industry jobs are expected to grow between 6.3 and 20 percent by 2016.
  • This rapid growth has downsides: because many of the new technologies used by the green industry are new, employers are discovering the difficulty of jumping the skills gap and finding candidates with the right qualifications.

How can employers and recruiters looking to fill their green industry jobs avoid the pitfalls and challenges to ensure they find the best people?

An Eco-Friendly Solution to Jump The Skills Gap

The skills gap is a serious problem, especially when you're looking to hire the best green-collar worker. Because many of the environmental jobs didn't exist a decade ago, it's hard to find candidates with the specific skill sets needed. The old recruitment methods just don't work in this environment, which is why it's time to embrace the video interview.

On video, you can form a more personal connection with candidates than you can in the traditional phone screen. In a one-way video interview candidates answer employer's written questions on video, and these answers can be viewed at any time. This means, if a person falls through the skills gap, you can easily jump to the next talented candidate.

Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

One way to jump the skills gap in a single bound is to open up the borders on your recruitment efforts. Instead of focusing on your own backyard, you should look at different geographical regions for talent.

The video interview is a big asset in this area when it comes to finding a green-collar worker with the right skills while still maintaining a small carbon footprint. Normally, to interview someone from a far-flung destination, you would have to fly them into the office to meet face-to-face.

However, one round-trip flight from New York to Europe or to San Francisco creates a serious carbon footprint equivalent to two or three tons of carbon dioxide per person. With the average American's carbon footprint already substantial (about 19 tons of carbon dioxide a year), you can reduce this -- while connecting personally, and without anyone needing to buckle up for takeoff -- with video interviews.

By connecting employers and candidates faster and more personally than in the traditional recruitment process, video interviews are helping employers fill their multiplying green industry jobs with the best people. Plus video interviews are actually eco-friendly, removing the need for paper resumes and cutting down on your candidates' carbon footprint


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