You have an extraordinarily high volume of job candidates to screen. The good news? Your dream candidate is likely among the many applicants. The bad news? In order to narrow down your candidate pool and identify the best possible job fit, you have to screen each and every qualified applicant.
Screening candidates before inviting them to take part in a formal, in-person interview is a necessary evil — especially when you consider the fact that an average of 250 resumes are received for each corporate job opening. With one-way video interviews, in which candidates record their answers to a series of text or video-based questions in a pre-determined amount of time, screening doesn’t have to be tedious or time-consuming.
When it comes time to begin screening candidates, do you go with one-way video interviews or the traditional phone screen? Let’s find out:
Round One: Connecting with Candidates
Both one-way video interviews and phone interviews give you an opportunity to ask questions and gain more insight on a candidate’s ability to fulfill the duties of a particular position. But that’s where the similarities end. Unlike phone interviews, video interviews give you a more complete picture of a candidate.
Instead of relying on a candidate’s tone of voice to assess their interest, personality, and professionalism, one-way video interviews enable you to pick up on important visual cues, such as facial expressions and body language, that can potentially impact a hiring decision. With one-way video interviews, you’re able to see what you’re going to get before the candidate ever steps foot in the office.
Round Two: Scheduling the Initial Interview
Scheduling interviews to suit multiple busy work schedules can be a nightmare, to say the least. Phone interviews can be especially difficult to schedule because they require both parties to be available — and undisturbed — for a period of time. What’s more, you risk going over the amount of time set aside for the interview when it takes place in real-time over the phone.
The nature of one-way video interviews takes the hassle out of the scheduling process. In fact, it takes very little scheduling to screen candidates via video. Create a list of interview questions you’d like answered, set a time limit, send out a link to the interview platform, and watch interview recordings at your convenience.
Round Three: Length of Time Spent Interviewing
Phone interviews used to be considered the quickest way to screen job candidates before bringing them in for an in-person interview — until now.
Phone interviews have a tendency to go on and on — even when you know right off the bat that the candidate isn’t going to work out. After all, according to a recent study by researchers from Old Dominion, Florida State, and Clemson, 60 percent of hiring decisions where made within the first 15 minutes of an interview.
One-way video interviews solve this dilemma. Instead of spending upwards of an hour on the phone with a candidate you know is the wrong fit, within the first 15 minutes, you can simply pause the interview and move on to the next one. In fact, Aberdeen Group found you can view 10 one-way video interviews in the time it takes to perform a single phone screen.
Round Four: Comparing Apples to Apples
Chances are, you don’t have a strict list of questions and a timer available for every phone interview you perform. Even if you do ask each candidate identical questions during a phone interview, the nature of conversation can make it difficult to get the same amount of information out of each candidate. Not to mention, remembering and keeping track of those answers in an effort to compare apples to apples just isn’t as feasible.
With one-way video interviews, on the other hand, you can ensure that all candidates are being asked exactly the same thing and that they’re given the same amount of time to prepare and deliver their answers, thus leveling the playing field. What’s more, interview recordings can be paused and played back as many times as necessary, which makes it easier to fairly evaluate candidates.
Bonus Round: Collaborating on Hiring Decisions
When it comes to narrowing down your candidate pool, two heads are always better than one. But, like in-person interviews, phone interviews require everyone who’s needed in the decision-making process to be present during the interview. Video interviews, on the other hand, make it possible for colleagues and clients to collaborate over candidates without having to attend the interview.
Rather than relying on cluttered interview notes or verbal play-by-plays to assess candidates, video interview recordings can be shared with others so that they can make their own unbiased decisions. Some platforms even have collaboration tools, such as rating and comment systems, built in to make collaborating quick and easy for everyone involved.
And the winner is…
While phone interviews can get the job done, one-way video interviews get the job done more efficiently. The one-way video interview has given screening an entirely new meaning, by taking the hassle typically associated with calling, remembering, and comparing candidates out of the process.