While some businesses have curtailed hiring, many companies still need to fill empty positions. The current state of affairs just means that most interviews can’t happen in person anymore. That means adopting a video interview process. Video interviewing helps overcome most of the problems with not having a person in the office with you. Unfortunately, it also complicates the process on the technical side of things. This checklist will keep your video interviewing process running smoothly.
Whatever platform you decide to use for your video interviews, test it first. Get a current employee to log in to the platform and join the meeting at a specific time. That lets you make sure you don’t have any problems on your end. It also lets you fix any problems you do find.
Your business may have adopted Zoom early on, but it’s not the only video conference platform out there. You can’t assume every candidate will be familiar with your preferred platform. Create an instructional document that gives candidates an overview of the platform. Include information like a link for downloading software, account creation, and how to join a conference.
You’ll expect candidates to join the interview from a relatively quiet, well-lit space. No one enjoys a video call where you can barely see the other person on the call. That means that you must also set up a well-lit, quiet space to conduct the interview.
Interviewers who wing it almost always fail to get the information they need. This holds as true for video interviews as it does for in-person interviews. Work up a set of essential questions that you must get through. Once you get through those, time allowing, you can head off on tangents.
With in-person interviews, you can follow a very tight schedule. You need more flexibility with video interviews. After all, there could be a technical issue at the beginning of the interview. A good candidate may offer long – but insightful – answers that pad the time necessary to get through your list of questions. Giving yourself some extra time for each interview will make the overall process longer, but it lets you avoid predictable problems.
Video interviewing is a different animal than in-person interviewing. While you can still glean the same kind of information from the interview, you must prepare for the technical challenges. That means giving candidate platform-specific instructions. It also means you do your part and test the technology ahead of time. Set up an appropriate space for you to conduct the interview. Work up a list of position-specific questions you must get through. Give yourself a little wiggle-room time wise. All this preparation will give you a smoother and better video interviewing process.
Need help finding candidates for these video interviews? Let Timpl help you fill those video interview slots with the right people.