Plant managers often ask whether a video call can tell them anything useful about a millwright, a CNC operator or a press brake setter. The honest answer is yes, about half of what you need. The other half has to happen on a floor, with a tool or a machine in the candidate's hands.
The mistake is treating it as one or the other. Employers who insist on in-person meetings for every applicant burn supervisor hours on people who were never going to fit. Employers who hire off video alone find out in week two that the resume described a different job.
The better approach is two steps, each used for what it does well.
Step one: what a video call can settle
A 20 to 30 minute video screen is a good filter for facts and conversation. Use it to confirm:
- Availability. Shifts, rotating schedules, overtime expectations, start date, notice period.
- Credentials. Ask the candidate to hold up and read the actual documents: trade certificates, forklift or crane tickets, WHMIS, and in the US, OSHA 10 or 30 cards and any state licences. Check expiry dates on screen.
- Work history. Which employers, which equipment, what volumes, what tolerances, what materials.
- Communication. Can they explain a changeover, a fault they diagnosed, or a near miss clearly? Operators who cannot describe their own work rarely do it well.
- Basic tech comfort. Many plants now run touchscreen HMIs, digital work instructions and handheld scanners. How someone handles a video call is a weak but real signal.
Ask specific questions. "Tell me about your experience" gets a speech. "What was the last die you set on that line, and how did you verify the first piece?" gets an answer you can judge.
Step two: what only the floor can show
Some things cannot be seen through a camera. Safety habits, physical fit for the job, reading a drawing against a real part, and how someone handles a machine they have not run before all need a live check.
Keep it short and tied to the job:
- 30 to 60 minutes on site, with a supervisor or lead hand present.
- A task that mirrors real work: measure a part with calipers, read a blueprint, walk through lockout/tagout steps, run a basic setup.
- A few safety questions, and watch what they do as well as what they say. Do they check guarding? Do they ask about PPE?
- A tour of the area, so the candidate sees the pace and conditions before they accept.
The tour matters more than it seems. Candidates who see the floor early and still want the job are less likely to walk in month one.
Where each step fits
| Question | Video | On site |
|---|---|---|
| Is the certificate valid and current? | Yes | Not needed |
| Can they work our shifts? | Yes | Not needed |
| Do they know this equipment? | Partly | Yes |
| Do they work safely? | No | Yes |
| Will they fit the crew and pace? | Partly | Yes |
Making it work in practice
A few habits keep the process fast without lowering the bar.
Score the video screen. Use the same five or six questions for every candidate and rate the answers. Otherwise the call becomes a chat and you lose the filtering value.
Book the site visit quickly. Candidates with trade skills have options. If the gap between the video call and the floor assessment is more than 3 or 4 days, expect to lose some of them.
Cluster the assessments. Set aside one or two blocks a week for floor checks so a supervisor is not pulled off the line for every candidate.
Write the practical test once. Have your lead hand or maintenance supervisor design it, with a simple pass mark, and reuse it.
Decide what is a deal breaker. A lapsed ticket can be renewed. An unsafe habit usually cannot be fixed in a probation period.
Why this matters now
Skilled trades and experienced operators are in short supply on both sides of the border, and the good ones rarely stay on the market long. A process that screens remotely and tests live lets you move on strong candidates within days, across a wider area than your commuting radius, while keeping the safety check that protects your people and your equipment.
We have seen this at scale. A food manufacturer in the GTA made over 20 hires in 18 months across production, skilled trades and office roles, and a consistent, staged screening process was a large part of keeping that pace manageable.
What to do next
Write down the five things you must confirm before an offer, and mark each one as video or on site. Build a standard question set and a 30 minute floor task around that list, and try it on your next two openings. A Traverse recruiter can help you set up the screening and line up candidates who are ready for the floor step.