How intro and closing videos personalized an automated experience

A commitment to sustainability

Schneider Electric is a global industrial technology leader in energy management and automation with 150,000 employees. With a goal to drive digital transformation to create a more resilient, more sustainable world, their software and services make homes, buildings, data centers, industries, and infrastructure more electric and more digital. 

Their North America Talent Acquisition organization consists of a dedicated team of professional and early career recruiters responsible for filling a high volume of roles, including internal and external. There is a specialized group of recruiters focused on early career roles. Early Career roles account for approximately 25-30% of the total volume in North America.

As part of the Schneider Sustainability Impact (SSI), the company has a goal to double the number of opportunities for early career talent by 2025. This includes interns, co-ops, apprentices, and full-time early career roles. This public declaration means the company is growing the number of early career roles by 20% each year. 

Problem

Schneider Electric has been a long-time HireVue customer, incorporating OnDemand interviews as the first step in the hiring process for early career roles. In 2023, Schneider Electric began using a separate survey and analytics platform to gather feedback on the candidate experience at all stages of their journey with the ultimate goal to significantly improve the candidate experience. 

Upon receiving feedback, although there were numerous positive responses, some candidates perceived the experience as impersonal—leaving applicants doubtful a human was actually reviewing them.

• “I felt that the HireVue was very impersonal and difficult to express yourself in. We are not talking to anyone and it’s still almost a live interview because we don’t know the questions beforehand. We are expected to have a conversation-like answer but are talking to a computer screen which is quite unnatural.”
• “I did not interview with a recruiter, rather I interviewed using HireVue. It was overall a positive experience aside from some software challenges. I personally find a great aspect of interviews is building a connection with the recruiter, and that aspect of the experience was missed. Overall, I had a positive first interview and would recommend Schneider.”
• “Providing more information on the hiring manager/talent acquisition team for candidates to reach out to would have been great.”

Solution

Schneider Electric wanted to cultivate a more personalized hiring experience for candidates through custom HireVue videos that introduced their recruiters to candidates before starting the OnDemand. The addition of the videos helped build trust and create the best possible candidate experience. By improving how candidates feel about the hiring processes, they were hoping to attract, hire, and retain top talent—as well as improve the quality, time, and cost-of-hire.

Now, instead of using generic Schneider Electric videos for the interview introduction and closing, each recruiter creates their own, personalized videos through HireVue. This allows the candidate to meet the recruiter, see who will be personally reviewing their HireVue, and show that the recruiters are human—and not always perfect on video either!

“Our strategy focuses on implementing a candidate-centric approach, reflecting Schneider Electric’s commitment to nurturing relationships and human connection. We value our applicant’s time and strive to deliver an outstanding candidate experience. In today’s competitive market we must be proactive in shaping a best-in-class process that embodies our company culture from the first interaction,” said Jennifer Curtis, Employer Brand & Early Career Recruiting Director at Schneider Electric. 

Results

“Our objective was to cultivate a more personalized hiring experience for candidates by creating custom HireVue videos introducing our recruiters. We are proud to see positive results already,” said Curtis.

Schneider Electric measures performance based on a candidate net promoter score (NPS) which looks at if the candidate would recommend the process to a friend. During the pilot, one recruiter created her personalized introduction and closing videos. Her cNPS was 68.4 before the personalized videos and 75.4 post-video launch—gaining a 7 point increase. 

“Certainly, the entire improvement can’t be solely credited to the video, but it’s a pivotal change we made by harnessing HireVue technology to enhance the candidate experience. We take pride in this adjustment, recognizing its impact on improving our hiring and business metrics. What’s remarkable is that it was a cost-free, time-efficient, technology-driven enhancement that any HireVue customer can adopt,” Curtis remarked.