Case Study: Savannah-Chatham County Public School System

How Savannah-Chatham County Public School System Improved Face-to-Face Interviews With Spark Hire Video Interviews

About Savannah-Chatham County Public School System

The Savannah-Chatham County Public School system is one of the largest systems in the state of Georgia, with over 38,000 students in 55 facilities. The school system is the largest employer in Chatham County. Their mission is to ignite a passion for learning and teaching at high levels. The Human Resources team's goal is to attract, retain and support a high performing workforce committed to fostering educational excellence.

Goals for Video Interviewing

As the largest employer in the county, the school system receives a large influx of applications with every position posted. The team wanted an autonomous screening method so candidates could record video responses on their own time and hiring stakeholders could review the completed interviews at their convenience.

Q&A with Director of Employment, Dr. Heather Bilton:

Q:

What inspired you to look into video interviewing? Were there specific challenges in your day to day were you looking to solve with video interviewing?

A:

We receive many applications for each position we hire for. We were looking for a way to narrow down the applicant pool prior to face-to-face or virtual real-time interviews.

Q:

Did Spark Hire replace a similar tool or is this the first time your team is using video interviewing?

A:

Spark Hire is our first time using video interviewing.

Q:

What criteria did you have in mind for a video interviewing solution?

A:

We looked for a platform that was easy for both the HR team and applicant to use. We wanted great customer support, an integration with our applicant tracking system, TalentEd, and of course, cost was a factor. Spark Hire has been a huge time-saver for our hiring managers.

Q:

What made you choose Spark Hire as your video interviewing solution?

A:

We researched several video interviewing systems and found Spark Hire to have the components we were looking for - ease of use and great customer service. The entire time we've used Spark Hire, our customer service rep has been fabulous!

Q:

What was getting started with Spark Hire like?

A:

We had Spark Hire up and running, receiving video interviews from candidates in less than three days. We attribute the quick start to Spark Hire's support and how easy the platform is to use. While video interviewing was a little uncomfortable for applicants at first, they seemed to pick up on the process quickly.

Q:

How has Spark Hire improved your hiring metrics and process?

A:

Spark Hire has certainly saved us time and given an extra level of information on our candidates before meeting them face-to-face (or through a screen during COVID). Allowing hiring managers and their teams to score the videos independently also helps us save time and get varied, uninfluenced input from team members.

Q:

What was your team’s hiring process prior to using Spark Hire?

A:

We would go through all of the online applications and send qualified applicants to the hiring manager. Our hiring managers would then spend a lot of time determining who to call in for face-to-face interviews. Spark Hire allows us to use video interviews to narrow down the pool of those that we conduct face-to-face interviews.

Q:

How do you get your team members to buy into video interviewing?

A:

I did not need to get buy-in. The team was sold from the beginning. Additionally, when our school system started to hire international teachers we already had Spark Hire in place to more effectively conduct the video interviews.

Q:

What was your aha moment — the moment you knew you loved Spark Hire?

A:

When COVID hit and we could only do virtual interviews, we were thrilled that we already had a platform in place. Another aha moment was when hiring managers routinely requested Spark Hire videos as the first step in the hiring process.

Q:

Why should other hiring teams look into video interviewing?

A:

Spark Hire is a great tool to save time, easy to use and provides a great deal of information on candidates before the face-to-face interview. As we have gone through COVID, applicants are getting more used to video interviews. It's become less intimidating for candidates to complete video interviews than when we started with the platform.

Q:

What are three words that describe your experience working with Spark Hire?

A:

Ease of use, Support, and Integration capability

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