We all had experience getting interviewed for a job, or interviewing applicants in the company that we work for as we perform functions related to recruiting and hiring process.
The most common interview type has now become the video interview. Indeed ran a study and found that 82% of respondents employ video interviewing in their process.
If you want to get straight to the action and check out our top 10 video interviewing software platforms, you can check them out.
We also have our statistics page where you can find out everything you need to justify moving towards implementing video interviewing into your hiring process.
What are the main types of interviews? Video Interviewing is King
There are several different types of job interviews; these include traditional one-on-one interviews, panel interviews, phone interviews, and video interviews.
One-to-one Interview
In a traditional one-on-one interview, the candidate meets with a single interviewer in person to discuss their qualifications and experience. This is the most common type of job interview, and it allows the interviewer to get to know the candidate and evaluate if they are the right fit for the job.
Panel Interview
In a panel interview, the candidate meets with multiple interviewers simultaneously. This type of interview is often used when the job requires a wide range of skills or expertise, and it allows the interviewers to assess the candidate from different perspectives.
Phone Interview
Phone interviews are usually used as the first step of the process of hiring, for hiring teams to screen the candidates before they are invited for an interview in person. In a phone interview, the candidate and interviewer interview over the phone, rather than meeting in person.
Video Interview
Video interviews are similar to phone interviews but are conducted over video conference software such as Teams or Zoom. This type of interview allows the interviewer to see the candidates and get a sense of their body language and communication skills.
This type of interview is becoming more and more popular, particularly for remote work. It has gained more popularity over the recent years, and more so when the COVID-19 pandemic happens to do job interviews, replacing other methods in job interviews, replacing other modes of doing interviews.
Now that a lot of organizations have adopted remote work, the process of hiring, including conducting interviews and recorded interviews, is also done remotely.
Remote recruitment, hiring, and onboarding are part of the new methods that are being employed in this day and age, especially now that remote or hybrid modes of work arrangement are prevalent.
We believe video interviews are the future of the interview aspect of recruitment and hiring for both employers and applicants. Your hiring team could benefit from this advancement in technology.
What is a video interview?
A video interview is one manner of conducting a job interview in which the interviewer and the job candidate communicate with each other using video technology, or more specifically, video interview software.
This provides real-time audio and visual communication even if the interview is being done remotely, and even from separate locations. Video interviewing is becoming increasingly popular and is starting to be prevalent; it provides a medium for companies to conduct interviews with candidates remotely.
It is hard to deny the popularity of the use of video interviews and even recorded interviews.
With the use of video interviews, time and money can be saved. In cases where both video and in-person interviews are used, video interviewing is often done in the early stages of the hiring process. In-person interviews are done during the final stages of recruiting before the hiring manager or managers make a job offer.
When conducting or participating in a video interview, a video interview platform may be used. The interviewer may ask the candidate questions through the video platform or may have the candidate complete a recorded video or written exercise as part of the interview process. The interview may be conducted one-on-one or with a panel of interviewers.
The candidate must prepare for the video interview or recorded interviews as they would prepare for the interview in person. This includes researching the company’s website, practicing answering common questions of the interview, dressing appropriately, and making sure that the lighting is professional and the background is professional.
Video interviews provide an organization’s recruitment and hiring managers with as much insight into job candidates as in-person interviews, and more than resumes or phone interviews ever could.
They also help organizations trounce geographical and location limitations thereby providing companies with a more extensive roster or candidate pool. With this, recruiters can locate and hire top talent anywhere.
How does a video interview differ from an in-person interview?
Job interviews are very crucial in the recruiting and hiring process. Interviews can be utilized to evaluate an applicant’s skills and determine how the applicant can play a part in helping the organization achieve its goals. Video interviews present a more time-efficient method by allowing a virtual replacement to the traditional way of doing interviews.
Video interviewing is just like traditional interviews or face-to-face interviews, especially in this day and age. They could both be used to hold formal meetings with interviewers.
While in-person interviews could be time-consuming and may require travel time, virtual or video interviews are more time-efficient. This difference also makes traditional interviews cost-oriented in terms of travel time, the cost of traveling or commuting to the interview venue, and other costs that physically going into the venue might entail.
Virtual interviews, on the other hand, are more cost-efficient; these would only require the right device and an internet connection. Traditional interviews require reserving and using a meeting room; for the virtual counterpart, any quiet room with a neutral background will suffice.
For traditional interviews, conducting and following the interview process might take time. For virtual, a specified date and time that will be agreed upon by both interviewers and interviewees.
In doing technical interviews, recruiters get more factors to assess the qualifications of the applicant such as the way the applicant conducts himself or herself, and how the applicant does a handshake, among others.
Through these, employers may also assess and gain insight into an applicant’s communication and presentation skills. It would be harder to assess other facets of an applicant’s personality through virtual interviews. The interviewee would also have to maximize the limitations of the video medium to handle the interview.
What are the purpose and benefits of a video interview?
A video interview is one manner of conducting a job interview; this may take place remotely and can be done using video interview software or any video communication medium.
Video interviews are becoming popular tools for hiring and recruitment; as compared to traditional, face-to-face, or in-person interviews, video or virtual interviews can help an organization save on time, money, and other costs when compared to its traditional counterpart.
Indeed, software and technology have played huge roles and created a big impact in helping streamline of the recruitment and interview process.
The purpose of video interviews is to evaluate the suitability of the candidate for a job position that is being offered. It provides an alternative medium for the applicant to demonstrate his or her skills, knowledge, and experience, as well as his or her communication and presentation skills.
Video interviewing is often conducted as a way to screen candidates and narrow down the pool of applicants before inviting them for an in-person interview or making a job offer.
They can be an effective and efficient way to evaluate candidates, especially for companies with a large number of job openings or for positions that are located in different parts of the country or world.
For companies that operate on a full remote work arrangement, interviews are being done for the entire hiring process.
Video interviews can also be an excellent option for candidates, as they allow them to demonstrate their skills and qualifications to potential employers without incurring the costs of travel.
Aside from its use for video interviews, it can also be used for other purposes, such as conducting performance reviews, training sessions, or remote team meetings.
You can check out our list of features and benefits of video interviewing software.
According to SparkHire.com, the following are the advantages of using video interviews as the medium of screening job applicants:
1. Eliminate scheduling woes
Scheduling job interviews, especially when dealing with multiple candidates across various departments could be cumbersome. Arranging schedules and determining a convenient time for everyone will be challenging.
This process, without the use of scheduling tools and interview platforms, will be time-consuming and stressful for HR practitioners, candidates, and the representatives who will participate in the interview.
Using one-way video interviews could be an option since these allow possible new hires to respond to questions at a time that is convenient for them. The entire process is done asynchronously.
Once the applicants respond, team members are given the chance to respond and each step can be done when it’s conducive to each of their schedules.
Collaboration is easy because everyone on the hiring team can take notes about the interview, and rate the candidates. After the initial communication, the hiring managers can then schedule a live video interview.
This allows an efficient way of scheduling interviews and allows a greater number of candidates to be screened where the logistics can automatically be handled.
2. Facilitate performance tracking
Utilizing a platform allows employers to determine commonalities that may help them choose top talent. The previous applicants’ performance and data on video interviews could be utilized to determine patterns such as the replies given to similar questions, applicants’ body language, and how and the place where the interview was conducted, among others.
These could provide flags and indicators to companies that may help improve the hiring and recruitment process. Having these bases could offer valuable insight and could serve as a guide for hiring personnel.
3. Promote consistency in interviews
Keeping consistency when conducting interviews could be challenging since it is easy for interviewers to miss covering particular points or go off-script. Due to these inconsistencies, each applicant may be presented with a varying set of questions and may get different interview experiences.
Without controlling how the interviews will be conducted, it might become difficult to properly assess the candidates,
Video interviewing technology can potentially mitigate this issue by providing the tools and guidance for interviewers to conduct consistent and on-script interviews. Predetermined queries can be asked from each candidate.
The responses can also be recorded video responses so that the decision-makers in the hiring process can easily review and gauge using the same criteria.
This evens out the playing field for all candidates and allows the manager to make a more informed decision on the final stage of the recruitment procedure.
4. Provide an excellent interview experience for passive candidates
There are a lot of factors that come into play when considering job applicants. A potentially great new hire might be discouraged from applying due to the demands and requirements of in-person interviews.
How the interviews are conducted could also hamper the discovery of top talent. With the use of live video interviews and a process that involves quality control, the interviews can be done remotely, giving a chance to a wider range of applicants, as well as giving the employers a chance to conduct a conducive interview that can be improved continually.
5. Gain insight through initial communication via video interviews
For companies that still prefer to conduct in-person interviews, especially for the final stages of hiring, video interviews can be utilized to narrow down the count of applicants, before proceeding to the other stages of recruiting.
6. Assess a candidate’s technical proficiency
Now that technology plays a big part in almost all of the positions and roles for any company regardless of the industry, having some degree of understanding about technology and technical proficiency is a necessity.
Video interviewing software and how interviewees conduct themselves using these technologies allow employers to gauge their level of proficiency.
This also provides hiring personnel with insight into the candidates’ attention to detail and preparedness. When a candidate faces difficulty in using such a video interview platform or has reservations about virtual tools and processes and the position demands the use of such facilities, it is an indicator that the candidate is not right for the position.
7. Minimize small talk
For some, engaging in small talk could be awkward and detrimental; often, it is not needed.
Using video interviews may help minimize the time that is spent on chit-chat that happens, and may allow hiring managers to go straight into the video interview; small talk can then be allotted and done for in-person interviews that will be done with the most qualified candidates who have passed the initial stages of the interview process, thus improving the process.
8. Put the focus on body language
Video interviewing is a perfect replacement for phone interviews for companies that rely on the latter for preliminary screening. They allow hiring managers to observe an applicant’s body language, facial expressions, and overall appearance.
9. Use video screening as a preliminary step
Interviewing software can be utilized as a preliminary step in hiring, allowing organizations to easily screen candidates before scheduling them for succeeding interviews.
10. Demonstrate how an organization sees and utilizes technology
When companies utilize technology to automate, streamline, and improve processes, and this includes video interviewing, it gives applicants the impression that these companies are invested in implementing the necessary tools to make things efficient and productive.
Having a digital mindset is an advantage during these times, and more often than not, with the right combination of the right resources and right tools, productivity can be enhanced and employee engagement can be assured.
11. Show consideration to the applicants
Doing video interviews can be a form of breaking the ice, allowing the participants, both the interviewer and interviewee to be comfortable with each other, and get to know each other; they could help in minimizing the pressure and awkwardness that usually happens at the start of interviews.
Video interviews could also be beneficial for an applicant as these may provide them with ample time to consider and provide their response, allowing them to provide the best answer to the questions that are asked of them.
It also eliminates unnecessary stressors that could negatively affect the applicants such as problems that may be encountered on the way to the interview venue. It accords them the convenience of not having to drive or commute, and this demonstrates the respect for the time and resources of the candidate, the hiring managers, and all the participants in the interview.
Video interviews could even allow calls and interviews that will be done after office hours. For job seekers who are still employed but are struggling to find the time to look for new jobs and career opportunities, this is advantageous.
Video interviews provide several ways for applicants to find a new job and get interviewed; it also presents employers with options on how they can locate and hire top talent.
What is it like to be interviewed on video?
For employers, the process of conducting a video interview starts with identifying job listings and determining interested parties. Then, the video interview can be scheduled.
Communicating the exact agenda and purpose of the video call with the applicant is crucial, as well as the time and manner of the interview. The hiring team should properly communicate the date and time and the purpose of the interview.
An organization should properly set and define the process by which interviews will be conducted. This may involve the medium or video interviewing platform, calendar blocking, and means of communication.
The platform that will be used should also be identified. There are a host of software that is available in the market. Some of the notable ones are Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, Cisco Webex, and Google Hangout. It would also help to do a test run on the video interviewing tools and devices that will be used to avoid delays and hiccups during the interview.
Hiring teams may also share details about the meeting, expectations, schedule, and timelines, as well as all the participants so that the applicants can properly prepare.
The facilitators of the interviews may also share a virtual background that can be used for the video calls. The proper room or space where the interview will be done should also be considered and prepared.
Interview facilitators should also design and formulate standardized interview scripts, questions, and scoring systems. After the interview, facilitators should clearly state details of the next steps and inform the applicants on how they will be informed about the result of the process and provide necessary feedback.
For the applicants, they should be aware of the schedule and ask for clarifications if necessary. Needless to say, they should be prepared and be online in time for the interview.
Applicants should ensure that the device that they will be using is working fine; they should also check that they have access to the meeting link or video call platform.
After the interview, they should also give feedback to the facilitators not just about the company but how the interview was done.
What is video interviewing software?
Video interviewing software is one type of platform that allows individuals or organizations to conduct or participate in job interviews virtually using video conferencing technology.
There are two ways of conducting video interviews: one-way or two-way. For two-way interviews, both the interviewer and the interviewee can see and hear each other in real-time.
Some of the best video interview platforms also offer additional features such as scheduling tools, the ability to record interviews, and integration with other recruitment tools and platforms.
These tools can help employers screen candidates from a distance, and job seekers can participate in interviews from any location with a connection to the Internet.
Video interview software can help companies streamline the recruitment process by reducing costs and time spent on the interview, and by allowing more candidates to be able to choose from a wide range of candidates, without the need to travel physically and be physically present in the office premises.
It can be useful also for those who can’t attend an interview in person because of distances or other limitations.
Visit our post on The Top Video Interviewing Software to learn more about the popular video interview and communication tools.
Best practices and challenges with the hiring process and video interviews
Due to the convenience that video interviewing software provides for businesses and the high number of organizations that have adopted this technology, video interviews, and video interview platforms that foster these will most likely become a standard part of the screening process in the future.
As with any video interviewing platform, preparation is the key to ensuring that issues and problems in using these tools can be avoided.
The following are tips for employers to have an efficient and productive video interview experience:
Be familiar with the video interviewing tool or software.
It’s always best to be familiar with the video interviewing tool that will be used and this goes for any software or utility. It is a good idea to explore all the functions and be familiar with the interface to make sure that a facilitator will be able to interview as few glitches as possible.
Choose a setting that is conducive and appropriate.
Even if a video interview can be done anywhere, it is still advisable to conduct interviews in a location that is conducive for conversations, even if it is virtual. The area or room should be quiet, well-lighted, and devoid of possible causes of distraction.
Prepare the devices and equipment.
Before the interview, allot time to test the equipment to check for possible audio and video issues. Make sure that the position of the camera is at the right angle and position.
Wear the appropriate attire.
Both the interviewer and interviewee should still dress appropriately, even if the interview will be conducted virtually. Video interviews are just as formal and important as in-person ones.
Prepare the candidate.
Provide all the necessary information and links to the applicant. Make sure that the applicant is fully aware of the type of interview, and this may entail providing how many will participate in the interview, what type of questions can be expected, etc.
FAQs:
1. Are video interviews legal?
There is nothing wrong with using video interviews, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in the U.S. There is nothing about video interviewing in itself that is discriminatory.
As long as these interviews don’t violate discrimination laws, infringe upon employee rights, or undermine diverse hiring practices, these are legal means in doing recruitment. Policies that provide rules against discrimination and labor remain unchanged.
2. Are video interviews effective?
Video or virtual interviews are effective and efficient. These types of interviews can help organizations save time and effort. It also helps the applicants save time and effort because the need to go to the office premises, or even be at the same location as the facilitator, is eliminated. It takes less time to schedule and manage video interviews.
3. How does video interviewing help with remote work, during the pandemic?
Video interviews helped organizations continue with recruitment and hiring, even during the height of the pandemic. It also enabled organizations that are on hybrid or fully remote work arrangements to scale up and grow their workforce.
4. Why are video interviews so popular?
Video interviews are popular because of the convenience that it gives as well as the time and effort that can be saved when these are used, as compared to traditional interviews.
5. What is a video interview set-up like?
An ideal interview setup should be done in a quiet, well-lit room. This is true for both the facilitator and the applicant. Both should be using a device using a virtual call platform.