How Pre-Recorded Video Interviews Improve Candidate Screening

Did you know that pre-recorded video interviews enable recruiters to screen candidates more efficiently and make better hire decisions?

The job market hit a very demanding point where recruiters have to compete with each other for top talent, providing the best candidate experience and promoting a fair and defensible hiring process to consolidate their employer brand.

On top of that, they are expected to act fast and to be able to fill the open positions with the right candidates very quickly.

According to a 2017 LinkedIn study 50 percent of companies take between one and two months to fill an empty position. Needless to say, this can have a negative impact on a company’s productivity if other employees have to perform more tasks while waiting for a new team member.

This significantly raises the pressure on recruiters and hiring managers to bring in new employees. So, most of the time, recruiters run against the clock to get the job done.

But as much as recruiters need to hire faster, they also need to secure the best talent for their company. This is where pre-recorded video interviews can really make a difference.

1. What is a pre-recorded video interview?

Pre-recorded video interviews are also known as one-way interviews since the interviewer doesn’t participate in the process.

It’s almost the same as a questionnaire, only in this case the interviewee will answer by video.

2. How can it be used in recruitment?

Pre-recorded video interviews can be used in the initial steps of the recruitment process to screen candidates, instead of the traditional phone call.

It’s a very simple process:

• The recruiter sends a link to the candidate with a set of predetermined interview questions and a deadline to record and submit the answers;
• The candidate records the answers and submits the video;
• The recruiter can later watch, evaluate and share the video with the rest of the hiring team to decide which applicants should move on the process.

The recording itself can be integrated with the company’s website or recruiting software or the candidate may have to record the answers on a phone or pc/tablet and then upload it.

3. Why does it improve recruiters’ decision making?

Pre-recorded video interviews are very helpful in the initial screening of candidates because they provide more information than phone interviews. Through the video interview, for example, recruiters can get an idea of how the candidate communicates, assess if his body language is coherent with what he’s saying and evaluate cultural fit.

Another aspect of it that helps improving recruiting decisions is collaboration. Unlike phone interviews, pre-recorded video interviews make it simple to recruiters to share the candidates’ answers with other members of the hiring team.

Every recruiter can easily watch the candidates’ videos on their own time, share their thoughts on the applicants’ answers and then collective decisions can be made on which candidate should move to the face-to-face round of interviews.

Furthermore, when in doubt, recruiters can watch the videos as often as they like and make direct comparisons between candidates. This is mainly why pre-recorded video interviews are a better way of identifying and focusing on the best candidates in the early stages of the recruitment process.

4. Pre-recorded video interviews key benefits:

In addition to improving the initial screening of candidates by providing more information than phone interviews and strengthening the decision making through the collaboration between the hiring team members, using pre-recorded video interviews provides other benefits to the recruitment process.

• Speed up the recruitment process – recruiters can reduce a great amount of time usually spent with scheduling and conducting phone interviews. Reviewing candidates can also be done faster as recruiters can view the interviews and rate the videos on their own time.
• Increase recruiters’ productivity – since recruiters save time by not having to be on the phone with the candidates, they can actually screen a higher number of applicants with the same manpower.
• Optimise hiring costs – with pre-recorded video interviews recruiters save money by putting in place a more efficient screening process. They can screen more candidates and identify the best talent faster, which overall will help to reduce the time-to-hire.
• Standardise the screening process – in phone interviews it’s difficult to guarantee that recruiters will stick to the script and ask the exact same questions to each and every candidate, which makes it harder to objectively and fairly select the applicants that will move on to the next rounds. With pre-recorded video interviews the same pre-determined set of interview questions is presented to all candidates, allowing the standardisation of the screening process and a fairer assessment of applicants.
• Have a flexible process – think about how the best candidates are many times employed when they’re applying to a new position. Now think about all the good prospective applicants that recruiters have missed out of their recruitment process due to phone interview scheduling issues. In an early stage of recruiting it makes sense that recruiters offer a more flexible option to applicants to qualify for a job. Pre-recorded video interviews don’t require that the candidates have matching availability with recruiters, they can answer the interview questions when and where it’s more convenient for them.

5. What about candidate experience?

One may feel inclined to make the assumption that most candidates will feel uncomfortable answering questions facing their phone or laptop camera, instead of talking to a recruiter.

But there are a few reasons that contradict this line of thinking. First, we live in a digital era where communication is as technological as it can get. Everyone is used to recording voice and video messages and sending them over to someone or publishing it on their social media profiles. It’s easy, fast and fun!

Also, receiving a call from a recruiter can put an amount of pressure on a candidate as big as a face-to-face interview does. So, allowing the candidate to prepare himself before answering the recruiter’s questions and doing it when and where the candidate feels more at ease actually helps improving interview performance of candidates that could, otherwise, seem like they were less qualified and get ditched from the process.

Ultimately, pre-recorded video interviews allow recruiters to offer applicants a modern and flexible process, providing a better experience to the candidate.

Skeeled offers you the perfect opportunity to bring innovation and digitalisation to your hiring. Check our website or our LinkedIn and Facebook pages for further information.

Thanks for reading and see you next time!

Your team here at skeeled