Sky’s move to video interviewing will open the door to more diverse talent, say the video interviewing platform’s founders

The founders of video interviewing platform Willo have responded to criticism of Sky’s recent announcement that it will ditch traditional paper CVs for the screen in its latest recruitment campaign.

To make their workforce more inclusive, Sky is testing video applications, which they claim will expand the pool of candidates and give their workforce “a more diverse perspective”.

Willo’s co-founders, Euan Cameron and Andrew Wood, argue that more companies should get on board with asynchronous video interviewing, a tool revolutionizing the post-pandemic recruitment process.

Euan from Glasgow said: “Diversity and inclusion starts with the decision makers within the organization – no amount of technology or solution can solve these existing problems in an organization.

“Even companies that say the only way to hire is through blind or anonymous resumes are deluding themselves. The company must be educated and open to diversity and inclusion from the beginning of the hiring process through to retaining, developing and promoting employees.”

Founded in 2018 with the aim of making the application and hiring process fairer, Willo has secured over £1m in funding from high-profile investors and is on track to reach £44m in revenue by the end of 2025.

Sky may be the biggest hitter in the UK to adopt the technology, but with more than 300 companies around the world using the Scottish company’s video technology, there’s no doubt its popularity is rising as high-profile customers like Boohoo, Samsung, Chick-fil-A and Coinbase have joined the platform.

Euan and Andrew believe the video hiring process breaks down geographic and language barriers and more quickly meets the increasing demand for talented remote workers.

Euan said: “Many companies come to us looking for a solution that will help them hire real people remotely, at scale and based on their personality.

“They want to cast a wider net and attract candidates who would traditionally be put off from applying or overlooked based on their CV alone.

“The most obvious impact we hear every day is that they hire great candidates in significantly less time. This helps the company to reach its growth targets faster.”

The founders, who both live with dyslexia and credit their company’s success to the superpowers born of the condition, say technology is also making jobs more accessible to neurodiverse candidates who might find writing resumes and cover letters challenging.

Andrew from Manchester said: “Dyslexia is an important reason for Willo’s success. We’ve reduced the text to make it as simple as possible and we believe in the power of video. If you only rely on the CV to screen candidates, you’re missing out on incredible people.”

But it’s not just companies that benefit, potential candidates are spared the expense, time and stress of in-person interviews, and those with little or no experience or credentials have the opportunity to be seriously considered for jobs.

Euan added: “The year is 2022 and people are still being judged on the basis of a document that has been around since the 1950s. Companies try to select people who look like them and have qualifications and experience that aren’t relevant to most jobs. That’s crazy.”