Josh TolanEveryone on your hiring team needs to squeeze in some time off, whether they save up time to use around important holidays or plan lengthy destination vacations throughout the year. You have to expect your diverse team is likely to prioritize different cultural or religious holidays, or they may have long-distance family members they visit.
Whatever the factors that influence how your hiring team uses their PTO, you can count on an ebb and flow of periods when key decision-makers will be inaccessible. The trouble is top talent doesn’t want to hang on the line waiting for responses just because it’s difficult for your hiring team to weigh in with feedback or coordinate interviews.
Unfortunately, traditional interview processes that rely on multi-tier in-person interviews and hand-to-hand interview notes make it necessary to have all hands on deck to keep candidates flowing through the hiring process. If only you could get the same level of personalization, connection, and assessment without having to coordinate schedules to have everyone in the office.
By now, you’ve likely tried out some version of video interview software. But as you plan for the year ahead amidst a peak vacation period, possibly feeling your hiring process barely moving along into the new year, consider how a dedicated strategy for video interviewing could keep your team on track while they still get the most out of their vacation time.
Here are a few ways making video interviews a staple part of your hiring process can keep your team on track during vacation seasons:
Easily negate scheduling conflicts
As you know, your hiring process cannot stand still when your hiring team uses their hard-earned PTO. Yet, you’re probably hard-pressed to find a single week during peak holiday and vacation periods when at least one member of your team is not scheduled to be out. Without all key decision-makers available to weigh in on new hires, costly delays and mistakes occur, impacting your growth goals and hiring budget for the year.
Fortunately, when you rely on video interviews to screen talent early in the hiring process, you can easily work around potential scheduling conflicts. In fact, dedicated video interview software with integrated scheduling tools puts everyones’ availability front and center in your planning process. Each team member can update their calendars and share access to seamlessly coordinate interviews and important meetings at convenient times around their PTO.
Your team cuts down on time to make hiring decisions by avoiding the back-and-forth, and you reduce the risk of losing important information or candidate interest. The best benefit is streamlining scheduling around your hiring team’s needs prevents burnout and shows you value their time. It also eases stress for them in knowing who is available to review their feedback and handle final decisions in their absence. They can clock out and disconnect confidently.
Recommended Reading: Ready, Set, Grow: Tips for Virtual Hiring in 2022
Flexible and convenient one-way video review process
One of the best ways your hiring team can stay on the fast track to making winning hiring decisions is by inviting candidates to submit one-way video interviews. Undoubtedly, the best perk of one-way video interviews is they can be recorded and reviewed at any time from anywhere on nearly any device. This means candidates and hiring team members all reap the benefits of working interviews into their schedules no matter what’s on the agenda.
This early screening step ensures only the best-fit candidates proceed through to your interviewers from the recruiting process. Rather than relying on stacks of application responses and resumes to get a feel for candidates’ company culture fit and personality, your team tunes into the real person. Cutting right to the chase with the most promising talent cuts time out of the hiring process and ensures a better experience for everyone.
Candidates also feel like they get a fair opportunity to present themselves as a strong fit for your open roles early in the initial interview stages. This solid first impression strengthens their trust in your hiring process. And candidates who feel confident about your company right from the start are more likely to be engaged and dedicated new hires.
Simple and structured interviews
With a structured video interview process, there is no second-guessing. Your team can rely on a set of vetted questions and predetermined evaluation criteria to provide valuable feedback and make informed decisions. This means even if someone cannot be involved in the hiring process due to the timing of their vacation, the interview process can move forward.
Keeping structured interview questions accessible and up-to-date for various open roles empowers all members of the interview team to conduct unbiased and effective interviews. You don’t have to worry that feedback can be misconstrued due to the wording of questions or an interview going off-topic. Everyone on the team can assess responses fairly based on the same structured questions asked of all qualified candidates in the hiring process.
Better yet, because video interviews can be reviewed again, there is no doubt in hiring decision-makers’ minds how a specific question was answered. This is particularly helpful if a team member comes into the process late or provides feedback before going on vacation and cannot be reached for clarification.
Recommended Reading: 4 Signs You Should Be Using a Structured Interview Process
Live video interviews can be conducted from anywhere
Similar to the convenience of recording one-way video interviews, live video interviews can take place anywhere there is an internet connection. Because your team can conduct live interviews from remote locations, should the need arise for key players to work remotely, they can still be present for important final steps in the interview process.
Live video interviews that are automatically recorded through intuitive video interview software can be reviewed by other members of the team at their convenience. This keeps the process moving forward no matter who is available in the office. Live video interviews also help candidates get in front of the team leaders they need to connect with earlier in the hiring process.
Making time to get face-to-face with candidates even when scheduling is hectic helps with relationship building and improves candidates’ impression of your employer brand. In fact, video interviews help boost your employer brand reputation by simplifying and speeding up your hiring process and improving the candidate experience overall. By making interviewing convenient, your team can take downtime while top candidates move up through the interview process.
Real-time feedback accessible to everyone
Feedback is a critical component of the interview process for both hiring team members and candidates. It’s all well and good if you’re able to review video interviews before heading out for vacation, but if your feedback isn’t available for other team members to refer to while you’re gone, the process will stall. Fortunately, feedback can be added directly to video interviews through your dedicated video interview software.
Not only does this easy access keep your team on the same page but also candidates can learn how they performed on their interview faster. Every minute highly-qualified candidates linger in your interview process is another moment they could be snatched up by competitors. The sooner your hiring team responds to top contenders the more likely they are to continue through your final interview rounds and potentially accept an offer.
There’s no guesswork while hiring team members are away from the office when you can refer to video interview evaluations and notes. And hiring decision-makers can rest assured that their feedback is taken into consideration while they are away.
Bonus Tip: 4 Reasons You Should Get Candidate Feedback for Virtual Recruitment
Access to video interview library
Hands down, one of the best benefits of using video interview software is access to a video interview library. While this is a fantastic advantage year-round, it’s especially useful when you’re potentially shorthanded during peak vacation seasons.
Keep in mind, the times of the year your hiring team is taking off to enjoy time with friends and family is generally when applicants can also run thin. If this happens to be when you need to fill empty seats, you can confidently rely on your video library to provide a teaming pool of pre-vetted talent.
Your team can pull up silver-medal candidates and review previous video interviews and notes even if they were not part of that hiring rounds’ interview team. Everything your available team members need to make informed decisions to source and screen potential new hires is at hand no matter what the circumstances.
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