How video interviews can streamline your recruitment process

When it comes to hiring new employees these days, many companies face a number of new challenges. One central task is to ensure that the hiring process as time- and cost-efficient as possible. For recruitment, this means using the quickest route to sourcing the very best talent within a budget. At present, many firms seem to be neglecting the immense potential of making video interviews a more common-place part of the procedure.

The face to face interview: 

During a typical recruitment process, a personal meeting between all parties is almost always common place. Often, that is where hold-ups can arise. In order for a personal interview to take place, all participants have to be in one place at the same time. This means agreeing on a time and date and making travel arrangements. Naturally, this requires quite an effort.

Then, of course, there is the interview itself. On the one side, there is a hiring manager, who is multitasking between getting to know the person in front of them, selling the company, asking questions, and taking notes. On the other side, a potentially travel-weary and stressed out candidate is trying to present themselves in the best way possible. Not to mention, that a second/third/fourth face to face interview involving different stakeholders is not uncommon either.

Navigating through this administrative jungle can cost a firm both time and money. Not to mention that there is usually more than one candidate and more than one vacancy. This is where video interviews can play a big part in streamlining your recruitment process.

The video interview – advantages & top tips: 

1. To start with, video interviews can be recorded, so long as you pre-secure the candidate’s permission, which means you can review and analyse the interview as often as desired. You can also directly compare the candidates’ answers and behaviours, in order to select the best applicant.
2. Relive conversations, which are naturally more condensed, because you are not multitasking between talking, thinking, and documenting anymore.
3. Find nonverbal cues, which you missed in the original conversation, or get input from colleagues not originally present. You can access recordings from wherever you are, whenever you want. Suddenly, one person’s time investment actually saves time in the overall process.
4. Video interviews also do not require travelling and can be held independently of either party’s location. No travelling means no cost, more time, less stress and a decreasing importance of geographical distance.
5. Video interviews naturally provide you with information which can often remain hidden in a personal interview. For example, a candidate’s command over technology. You could test an interdisciplinary skillset by simply asking someone to answer a competence-oriented question while sharing their desktop.
6. Finally, people naturally perform better when we are calm, cool, and collected. We risk missing high potentials, because the rigours of the journey (heavy traffic, difficulty leaving work on time, packed/cancelled trains) can feasibly leave a candidate frazzled and unable to present their best.

All in all, the aforementioned points to these major advantages of video interviewing: it makes your hiring process shorter, less expensive, easier, and more sustainable. We can provide you with a sheet of top tips for best practice video interviewing, please do get in touch if you would like a copy.

Do you already have experience in using this technology or are incorporating it into your standard recruitment process right now? We are keen to know what your impression is. We look forward to hearing from you.