The COVID pandemic spurred an increase in the use of technology like never before. Human Resource departments had to quickly pivot to hiring and managing a remote workforce. One popular tool that helped in the hiring process was video interviewing. It’s been around for years but has now become a standard part of high-volume hiring strategies and one that candidates expect to encounter during their employment search.
There are two types of video interviews – one-way and live.
One-way and live video interviews are tools that can improve your hiring process and shorten your time to hire. While both use video technology and work for remote interviewing, they are used at different times in the recruiting process.
One-way video interviews are mostly used for screening large amounts of candidates, replacing phone screenings. Live video interviews are face-to-face interactions and usually replace in-person interviews due to social distancing or remote work.
This article looks at one-way video interviewing and 7 ways it’s beneficial to the talent acquisition process.
One-way video interviews are pre-recorded interviews that take place without an interviewer present. They’re used at the front end of the screening process when the hiring team is still trying to narrow the field of candidates. How well candidates perform in one-way interviews determines whether they’ll move on to an in-person interview.
After a candidate’s application materials are reviewed, and a determination is made to move forward, hiring managers can request a one-way video interview with the candidate. At this time, candidates will receive an email or text message with a link to record their video within a specific timeframe, usually a window of a few days.
Welcome videos to candidates can be included and allow organizations to showcase their brand, enhancing the candidate experience. Clips of hiring managers explaining positions or working conditions in more detail can also be added.
The link includes pre-selected questions for candidates to answer on camera. Questions may be displayed directly onscreen or for a more human touch – by a pre-recorded interviewer. When completed, the candidate submits their recording back to the interviewer to watch later. After the recordings are evaluated, hiring teams decide to move candidates forward by inviting them for a face-to-face interview. In some organizations, candidates may be hired at this point.
Recruiters and hiring managers can screen more applicants by reviewing short videos of candidates rather than scheduling and committing to phone screen interviews. One-way video interviews offer a way to review and rate more applicants and quickly move them to later stages in the hiring process.
By using pre-selected interview questions, you can ensure your hiring process is fair and consistent across all locations. Standardized questions also make it easier to compare job candidates.
Pre-recorded videos give candidates a chance to showcase themselves beyond their applications or resumes. Using a mobile-friendly format, these types of interviews provide candidates with flexibility in when and where they complete their interviews.
One-way video interviews provide more flexibility than telephone screenings, allowing hiring teams to review candidate submissions at their convenience. Sharing videos increases collaboration and feedback, improving hiring decisions. By eliminating the need for scheduling, pre-recorded videos save time and reduce headaches. One-way video interviews can decrease candidate ghosting in later phases of the process.
Hiring teams can screen candidates faster, allowing them to disregard unwanted candidates and focus on quickly moving the best candidates to the next phase of the hiring process.
Hiring teams get more insights into candidates from video interviews than resumes or phone calls. They can view soft skills, personality traits, attention to detail, and preparedness. Hiring managers can also assess how well candidates use technology and whether they’re suited for remote work.
One-way video interviews save money for your organization and your candidates by reducing the amount of travel required. This technology gives hiring teams better insights into their candidates ensuring only the strongest candidates move forward to in-person interviews. Less time scheduling and hosting in-person interviews saves hiring managers so much time. And it reduces travel costs and time away from work for candidates.
One-way video interviewing is a talent acquisition tool that can help organizations quickly screen high volumes of candidates. The results are a faster hiring process, higher quality hires, and lower organizational costs. Hiring teams can review pre-recorded candidate videos at any time, gain better insights into their candidates, and reduce the number of in-person interviews needed. Video interviewing is an efficient way to interview more candidates faster while streamlining your hiring process and reducing your hiring team’s workload.
Learn about our video interviewing products here. Or keep reading about video interviewing in these articles: