This article originally appeared on the HireVue blog and in this month’s issue of THE VUE, HireVue’s monthly newsletter. To sign up, go to theHireVue home page and scroll down to the newsletter sign up on the right.

Without great employees even companies with the best products can struggle to be successful. But in the mix of all of those resumes and names that come through your door, how do you actually measure candidate quality? Measuring candidate quality can be broken down into three distinct parts of the hiring process:

1) Pre-Screening
2) Interviewing
3) Post Interview

The pre-screening phase is one of the most critical and where untrained recruiting teams (and poorly designed process) often miss high potential candidates.   In this phase, the actual measurement is frequently managed in a much more quantitative way through Applicant Tracking systems or other tools that do pre-employment screening, the dreaded “knock-out” questions or through a series of more open ended interview style questions.  While these pre-screening methods are effective, and relatively proven – they can leave the door open to over look high-potential candidates or those that would have highly transferable skills. That’s why whenever possible I recommend more interactive pre-screening methods including phone screens and especially the virtual type video interviews that allow hiring teams to see candidate’s thinking on their feet as their responses to those pre-defined knock-out questions are recorded and stored for review. Companies like HireVue have made this extremely simple and cost effective.

The second phase, the Interviewing phase, is where the actual candidate quality can be determined.  It is where you can see (or hear) a candidates passion for your organization and the position, see the cultural fit for yourself and determine a match.  It is where you can truly learn about the success and failures they have had – and how they learned from each of them.  It is the most important part of the process and also the most time consuming. The power of a solution like HireVue is that it actually allows you to reach a wider set of candidates with less manpower behind the process and lets the recruiting team focus on evaluating the quality of a person’s answers on a particular topic or question in an effective and efficient way.

The final phase, the post-interview phase, was traditionally thought of as the most reliable when it came to determining candidate quality.  Unfortunately, many companies have stopped the practice of speaking freely about past employees and candidates have learned to share only the very best of their references with a company.   In cases where a reference does speak negatively – other questions have to be addressed – was it a bad company/job fit, was there a personality conflict, are there other extenuating circumstances that would explain why your star candidate wasn’t a star at 1 of his last 3 companies?

Even for companies who follow this process measuring quality can be pretty subjective since it depends so much on your company culture, the needs of the job and the expectations of the hiring manager. At the end of the day, making a successful hire means depending on your people. To do this, you need to make sure to give them every opportunity to bring their knowledge and experience to bear in every stage of the hiring process without crushing them under the weight of the work. I see video playing an enormous part in that over the coming years. It allows your hiring teams to see more, evaluate quicker and at a higher level of accuracy and, if coupled with the right tools, collect feedback and gain consensus far more efficiently. Video tools can be enormously helpful, but they will never replace the highly skilled recruiter. They are the actual moving parts of the company that get things done, win the wins and manage your culture.

That’s right – I had the pleasure to talk with the cool crew over at Recruiter Earth and share my take on the HR Technology Conference and the future of technology.  Well, as much as can be done in a 4 minute segment.  So make sure you head on over and check it out!  (Just click on the picture!)

And yes, I know I sound like I am 12. And no, I don’t think this picture will ever go away.  I’m stuck with it forever.

I was in a generous mood apparently as I gave shout outs to Hirevue, SmartSearch, GreenJobsInterview, Rypple, Jobing via Joel Cheesmanvia mjobs Mobile Technology (which you all know I am a fan of and if you don’t read my post What Happens in Vegas Doesn’t Always Stay in Vegas or I got some Joel Cheesman Love) and  HRMDirect and more.  I also said the phrase HR Geeks and that our industry keeps repackaging the same crap and adding new marketing.  I’m not sure if Recruiter Earth will have me back after my 12 year old sounding interview – but it was fun!

Human Resource Executive ® Magazine Names HireVue’s Newest Offering 2009 HR Product of the Year – I actually have a whole blog posting that i’ll do after HR Tech next week on the value of Video’s in the Interview process – but until then – Congrats to Mark Newman, Chris Higbee and the rest of the Hirevue team – well deserved!