EEOC On Video Resumes

I've been in the search, recruiting and staffing business for 15 years - I grew up in the business as well. For as long as I can remember, we were always told, "you can't have a picture or video on a resume" - we all took it as gospel. Then again we also believed you couldn't swim for 30 minutes after eating....

From a common sense perspective, how is a first interview different than viewing a video? A candidate comes in for an interview and the employer passes (wasting everyone's time) or an employer views a video and passes -what's the difference? I simply couldn't get there, but still the paradigm exists! I took the time to peel this onion and get to the bottom.

Every recruiter / HR professional sources candidates via social media sites (unless they are from the prehistoric era) the Internet has changed everything. However technology moves much quicker than case law - we simply could not find any case law on video resumes and discrimination - just assumptions.... Well here it is in writing from the EEOC - the governing body for discrimination law - even the EEOC recognizes that video technology is not discriminatory!! In the words of the EEOC, "it is not illegal for an employer to learn the race, gender or ethnicity of an individual prior to an interview". The EEOC goes on to say that much of the "discriminatory" information can be ascertained from a paper resume e.g. "President of the Black Law Review". From a paper resume you can guess how old a candidate is simply by looking at when they graduated. My point is this - if you think video resume technoloy is discriminatory, you are mistaken. Forty percent of all websites will be incorporating video on their site. NO way college graduates are going to use "paper resumes" - it will be digital video with graphics, links to social media sites and much more. We all know it's changing and TalentRooster can put you in front of the trend. Happy New Year!