Why Go For Video Interviews?
While COVID-19 gave a big push to virtual interviews as accepted by 82% of employers, 93% of them agree to continue using this method in the future. As you prepare to use one of the many available virtual interview tools and fine-tune it according to your requirements, it will bring a stream of benefits. These tools make the process easier and more convenient, leading to the following benefits.
- Saves Time
Recruiters have a hard time finding the right person for the job, and the process can be time-intensive. It can take around 42 days to fill up a position in the organization, and video interviews can help speed up the process.
With video interviews a part of the hiring process, candidates won't have to come to the office and you can also take interviews from the comfort of your home office.
The repeatedly lengthy hiring process often leads to cognitive overload and increases hiring pressure, followed by interview fatigue. Ultimately, it leads to bad hires, which is always bad for the company. So, if you are still taking the traditional approach, it’s better to make the switch.
- Improves Candidate Screening Solutions
Video interviews speed up the hiring process by letting you complete every aspect of the process quickly. Experienced HR managers and recruiters can if they want to move forward with a candidate. 33% of hiring managers agree that within 90 seconds, they can know if they want to hire the person or not.
Imagine spending all the time conducting an interview, and within 90 seconds, you are rejecting the person’s candidature. Video interviews can save you from all the hassle of calling in candidates only to find they aren’t good for the role.
Even better, you can use asynchronous video interviews by creating a screening questionnaire and sharing them with the candidates through Qwary.
- Better Team Collaboration
One of the amazing benefits of video interviews is you can bring in everyone required for the process and make a collective decision. Even if the candidate clears the first round, you can share the interview recording with people up in the ladder and let them prepare for the next rounds.
Using recorded videos, everyone can get a better understanding of the candidate’s capabilities and make a decision. Working together like this instead of working individually and sharing interview notes is much better and can lead to quality hiring.
- Higher Work Flexibility
Organizations on the remote workforce recruitment path benefit from an expanded candidate pool. Being a location-agnostic workplace means you can hire people from anywhere and let them work from anywhere, which supports the new workforce dynamics we are experiencing today.
Taking out the commute for candidates and booking meeting rooms, all you need is to send an email and get confirmation from the candidate to start the hiring process. With more candidates applying from different locations, hiring managers have a higher possibility of hiring great candidates from a big talent pool.
- Higher Interview Capacity
Hiring candidates with this mode means the only time you must spend is on video interview preparation. Convenience, flexibility, and higher efficiency all add to higher capacity of a hiring manager.
The video interview platforms you use will also assist you in organizing the interviews and help screen candidates faster. You can speed up the process even higher by using one-way screening sessions.
Here Qwary can help you curate customized screening questionnaires that you can send out to the potential candidates and assess them based on the answers. This way, you can move forward only with the best candidates w
- Cost-Efficiency
Following video interview best practices, you will not only save time but also costs associated with it. SHRM finds the cost of hiring a candidate increased from $4129 in 2019 to $4700 in 2023. Video interviews can streamline the remote workforce recruitment process, significantly cutting down on travel costs.
For companies offering compensation for the interview rounds, it is going to save them money as well. Especially when companies are encouraged to reduce expenses, switching to video interviews is going to be great.
Can Video Interviews Bring Onboard Better Employees?
Video interviews will bring in better people to do the job by helping you attract top talent and assess candidates more accurately. What’s even better with video interviews is how you can make the entire experience better for the candidates as well. Naturally, when potential employees will have a better experience while hiring, they are more likely to take more interest in the role and the organization.
The above graph shows the percentage of people using different modes of interviewing candidates online.
- Expanded Talent Pool
With remote video interviews, organizations can cast a wide net and access candidates from different locations. As a result the chances of hiring skilled and highly qualified people for the job are more, who might not be available when you prefer in-person interviews.
More importantly, you can look towards talent hubs to bring onboard people from areas with particular skill sets. For instance, when you need tech people, you can prefer hiring them from Silicon Valley, Berlin, Bangalore, etc.
Most importantly, remote video interview enhanced inclusivity allows you to bring onboard people from different cultures, ethnicities, and backgrounds to the team.
- Use Data-Driven Video Analytics
Data-driven video analytics processes and extracts meaningful insights from recorded interview data. Using advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), hiring managers can go deeper into the insights and gain a better understanding of the candidate.
Advanced technology-driven analysis helps with objective assessment, sharing quantitative data on speech patterns, eye contact, body language, and facial expressions. Moreover, automated analysis can help streamline the review process by helping focus on high-potential candidates.
The key areas where you can use advanced virtual interview tools include facial recognition to analyze emotions, speech analysis to analyze filler words, tone, pace, and clarity. Plus, you can use body language analysis to evaluate non-verbal cues, including gestures, posture, and eye contact.
- Better Assessment of Candidates
Following the virtual interview system, organizations can standardize the assessment criteria ensuring everyone gets the same predetermined format. This makes evaluation of every candidate easier. Second, following video interviewing best practices, you can analyze candidates with objectivity by evaluating them on certain parameters.
Following this and using AI and ML for advanced analysis, you can dive deep into the candidate’s emotional quotient to determine their cultural fitness.
How to Conduct Video Interviews?
Recruiters and hiring managers must adopt the video interview process in a remote working environment. To build a smooth and memorable interview experience for everyone involved in the process, recruiters should follow the right process, including video interview etiquette. Let me share what an ideal virtual interview process runs like.
- Choosing The Right Platform
Select one out of many available video interview tools based on your requirements, the features available, and their value for money. While the requirements can vary with the organization, ideal features you must look out for include;
- Collaborate easily with hiring managers, recruiters, and the HR department.
- Ability to annotate the interview recording to leave notes and suggestions.
- Customize the interview format and process using editable templates and questions and the screen setup.
- Built-in candidate assessment tools to evaluate their communication skills using AI and ML.
- Allows multiple people to join the interview from their respective locations.
Assess the possible tools you find and check them for their capabilities, choosing the ones that align with your requirements.
- Set Up The Interview Process
Craft a formal interview plan with the HR department while inviting inputs from all the department heads to know their general requirements. Using this information, envision how the interview process will move forward while setting parameters for the initial interview, technical rounds, and the final round.
Identify the steps candidates must follow before applying for the job, which generally includes a pre-recorded video answering basic questions, taking a test, or submitting work portfolios.
- Set The Evaluation Criteria
Treating a video interview similar to an offline interview, screen and assess the candidates on their academic, professional, and personal traits. The way you ask questions may not need much changes, but you must prepare for the technical rounds in a remote interview system.
Since there won’t be anyone present with the candidate during technical rounds, where they can also cheat to pass the test, it’s essential to set up measures for preventing this. You can use remote proctoring technologies that will analyze a candidate's behavior in real time. Or you can also set up webcam proctoring and browse activity monitoring.
- Build A Comfortable Interview Environment
For a comfortable interview environment, ensure you have a robust technical setup, including a high-speed internet connection, a fast system, clear audio and video system.
Your physical environment should be neutral and encourage the candidates to follow the same guidelines. Position the light so that it falls on your face and is not behind you.
Start the interview by describing the company values and culture to the candidate. Be considerate to their preferences and always be conscious of your body language. After the interview, set aside some time to let them ask questions about the company, work culture, team, etc.
How to Overcome Video Interview Challenges?
Given the benefits of video interviews, organizations adopting this methodology must also account for the challenges they may face during the process. Here are some video interview tips to overcome common interview challenges.
- Technical Glitches:
- Have a secondary device ready if the system you're using isn’t working well. It goes without saying that you must test your equipment before the interview.
- Even if technical glitches arise, be open and honest about them with the candidate. Apologize for the convenience and continue with the interview from another device or after resolving the issue.
- Candidates are Reluctant
- Not everyone is comfortable talking to a camera, and technical glitches can add to the candidate’s nervousness. To overcome this, build rapport with a friendly conversation and establish rapport.
- Share the interview process and clarify your expectations with the candidate. After the interview, share constructive feedback with the candidate regardless of their selection decision.
How can Qwary Help you with Video Interview Preparation?
You can leverage Qwary to conduct video conversations with the candidates and use it for the screening process. With Qwary, you can share pre-recorded videos asking questions to the candidates while asking them to reciprocate in a similar manner and share their responses.
By doing so, you can evaluate a large number of candidates without taking them into a live interview round only to reject them at the end because they don’t even have the basic qualifications for the role.
So, with Qwary you can set questions to assess their capabilities and send it to all the candidates at once through email, SMS, or add the link in the job description. Set a deadline for submitting the responses, check them all, and ask the qualified candidates to sit for a live virtual interview.
Conclusion
Hiring people with video interviews is not a new experience, but it can be a challenging one for those who are unfamiliar with the process. There are several benefits of video interviews, which you can experience yourself once you start following the process.
A remote video interview setup is essential for organizations looking to hire people from the global talent pool. Even if you want to hire locally or from a nationwide pool, a remote interview setup can save you and majorly the candidates a lot of time and costs associated with going for the interview rounds.
Qwary can take your video interview preparation to the next level by helping you screen candidates by asking them to share video recordings. Check out how it works by booking a demo with us today.
FAQs
- What are the advantages of video interviews?
Video interviews are cost-efficient and can save time for the interviewer and interviewee. The asynchronous recorded video interviews provide more flexibility and convenience to the process and it also enhances the overall experience for everyone involved.
- What are the best tools to conduct video interviews?
Some of the best tools available are HireVue boasting AI-powered insights. Then there’s Zoom, which offers HD video output capabilities, and VidCruiter, which has automation features and an in-built rating and feedback system. The choice of an ideal tool will depend on your requirements.
- How to include ATS in the video interview process?
To include ATS, prefer using tools that can integrate an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) into the process either through API access or with built-in modules.
- How do video interviews work?
Video interviews represent a modern approach to the recruitment process. Using video interview tools, hiring managers and recruiters can conduct one-to-one live or one-way video interviews with the candidates. Using an appropriate system connected to high-speed internet, interviewers and interviewees can interact just as they would in an offline interview.
- How are video interviews assessed?
Video interview assessment follows a similar approach as the offline process. One of the benefits of video interviews is that you can use an asynchronous format to screen candidates and ensure only qualified ones move to the next round. Moreover, it allows for better collaboration as videos can be shared with the entire team for collective decision.
