Josh TolanWith all the changes the world’s experienced in the past few years, your team needs consistency at work. Many companies have adopted work-from-home models since early 2020. Despite how much time has passed, many still feel it is an uncertain and draining work environment.
It’s evident that frustrations with virtual processes are still high among employees. Many value their work-life balance renewed by flexible work options, and have elected to change companies or careers to maintain autonomy. While others prefer the personal connections they nurture in the office and are unsatisfied with anything that resembles a virtual culture.
The good news is, virtual recruitment doesn’t have to be one of the factors playing into a divide. In fact, video interviews remove some of the uncertainty for hiring teams and bridge the gap between convenience and keeping the hiring process personal.
Many people agree that the allure of video interviews is in the candidate experience. And it’s true! The candidate experience improves when speed to hire increases. So opting for the structure and convenience of video interviews benefits the brand in the long run.
It’s important to mention, however, flexibility also plays a huge role in easing some pressure off hiring teams. With HR and recruiter burnout at an all-time high, we’re here to share five ways video interviews can take some of that weight off hiring teams’ shoulders:
1. The framework of structured video interviews
A hiring pro’s job isn’t just to find the best candidates — it’s to promote the brand to the candidates. In every recruitment step, they must prove to applicants how this position and company are a great fit.
Job seekers are looking for evidence your company is trustworthy and ethical. A study from Topia indicates 58% of American adults attribute a great employee experience to trust and job empowerment.
Video interviews are a significant component of earning trust during the candidate experience. Structured video interviews establish a set list of questions and a standard process for every candidate. This framework makes it easier for hiring pros to evoke trust in the company. Applicants will understand your company makes every effort to ensure objective hiring. Additionally, everything is intentional, so job candidates will appreciate that the process doesn’t waste their time.
Another advantage of the structure for hiring pros is the simplicity of comparing candidates. In the first round of interviews, the rigid framework sets everyone on the same level. The focus at this stage doesn’t need to be on which candidates are most relaxed and conversational. Since they’re all answering the same questions under the same structure, the hiring pro can strictly analyze the content of the answers.
Many hiring pros also appreciate how structured video interviews impact how they pose questions. Everything on their end becomes much more concise and clear. Sometimes, in-person conversation without a designated structure can lead to rambling. This habit often confuses candidates more than anything else. But structure ensures the phrasing and delivery of every question are just right.
It also improves the hiring pro’s ability to identify when questions are less effective or no longer relevant. There is little wiggle room in which questions they use and how they present them. Thus, it becomes much more apparent when candidates don’t respond to them as well as the hiring team had anticipated.
2. The convenience of one-way video interviews
Admittedly, one-way video interviews are not the end-all-be-all for hiring decisions. It can be challenging for hiring pros to detect candidates’ authentic selves without direct human interaction, whether in-person or through live video interviews.
However, the convenience is undeniable in the earliest screening stages of hiring. That live interaction will occur in the advanced in-person stages of the interview process with the top candidates.
The absolute best aspects of one-way video interviews are how they save time and improve decision-making to get top talent to advance to face-to-face interviews faster.
Conducting one-way interviews won’t clog up a hiring pro’s calendar as much as traditional phone screening. Especially, in that first round, it is evident when several candidates just aren’t a good fit. Your team can filter through the candidate pool significantly faster.
By not needing to align their schedules with candidates for the one-way interview, your hiring team won’t have to interrupt other projects requiring their attention as often. Instead, they can review the videos of screening interviews when it fits into their timetable.
It is significant to note that with video interviews, everything is on a recording. This means your hiring managers can go back and review interview responses instead of notes, like with traditional screening. If they need a second opinion on a candidate, they can share the recording with someone else on the team.
It’s also helpful if there’s debate on which candidates to keep in the running. Hiring pros can rewatch the videos back-to-back to understand better who stands out most and why.
3. Flexibility during live interviews
Many critics have voiced concern over hiring pros’ personability over live video compared to in-person interactions. After all, everyone freezes a little when they’re not used to being on camera. And it is reasonable to fear that they won’t be able to develop as strong of a connection with candidates when they never meet.
But with substantial training and consistent reinforcement, your team can overcome that barrier in no time. Your hiring pros do know how to demonstrate their friendliness and authenticity; they’ve done it their whole career! They would just need some time to adjust after the initial transition.
Besides, the benefits of flexibility are worth the training investment.
By getting comfortable with live video interviews, your hiring team can expand the talent pool. For instance, candidates who maintain a tight schedule or don’t have reliable transportation on the day of the interview can still arrive on time.
It also enables all members of the team to join the interviews for top candidates. First, there is no challenge in deciding a location all team members can attend when they work from home or in different offices. While teams still need to coordinate a time that would work well for everyone, it’s more painless. They don’t have to account for the lengthier interruptions associated with traveling to an agreed location, like traffic.
Moreover, live video interviews save everyone time because the interview can fit into the day seamlessly. Upon ending the meeting, a hiring pro can immediately work on their notes or move on to the next task with little lull time in between. There’s no distraction of unnecessary small talk as everyone gets up to leave, which saves hours in the long run.
4. Smooth communication via video messaging
Communication is too important to mess up. Whether you’re reaching out to your team or they’re connecting with candidates, the communication must be high quality. Everyone requires clear and timely messages to have a positive perception of your company.
But here’s the problem: The majority of job seekers aren’t receiving that quality. According to the Talentegy study, over 63% are dissatisfied with the communication from most employers. And, according to research from CareerArc, many candidates never hear from the company at all. Furthermore, 65% say they rarely receive notices about their application. When they don’t hear back, 85% doubt a real person ever even reviewed it.
You can’t afford the majority of candidates to develop a low opinion of your business. Using automated invite messages, SMS reminder texts, and personalized emails are all helpful communication solutions. But video messaging is undoubtedly the strongest technique.
First of all, it allows you and your hiring team to demonstrate your authenticity. It provides practice for being oneself on camera. And it also allows candidates to see, hear, and connect with their hiring pro before meeting them.
Also, communication over video can be much more comfortable than written communication. It’s faster to get ideas across, there’s no need to check for grammar mistakes, and talking naturally tends to not be as paralyzing as staring at a blank email screen.
Furthermore, video messaging makes it more likely the recipients will understand what was said. There’s a better chance they’ll pay attention to the entire message, and they can’t skim over any parts that don’t grab their attention. They shouldn’t miss any details.
5. Tech support at your fingertips
Tech issues are the central point of the most popular arguments against video interviews.
In the Topia survey, 44% of respondents said when technology makes the job harder — not easier — it contributes to a horrible employee experience. Understandably, job seekers are distrustful of companies that frequently wrestle with their tech during the recruitment process.
The Talentegy study touches on this topic as well. More than half (56.3%) of the job seeker respondents encountered a technical issue, error, or had been unable to complete an application process because of tech derailments.
Admittedly, those statistics are not encouraging. However, when you use a dedicated video interview platform, you have all the support you need to get through it all.
The tech company should offer you thorough training with live meetings, video instructions, and written guidelines. That way, all the preferred learning preferences on your team are met.
Additionally, the platform tech support doesn’t go away after its initial implementation. With online chat features and personable phone calls, the staff can walk you through troubleshooting any issue that comes up. This benefit is especially useful if your IT department isn’t immediately available due to their other responsibilities. Through the platform, you can reach an expert whose primary role is to help you.
And finally, trustworthy video interview platforms will match your company with product experts. At Spark Hire, we call ours Customer Success Heroes. They can keep you up to date on new developments with the platform, explain popular trends with its many functions, and help assess and optimize your video interview approach.
Spark Hire
