Video interview tips: a guide to getting it right

A video job interview can help you improve your employer brand and optimize your company’s Human Resources (HR) department. 

However, this type of interview must overcome challenges such as physical distance, coldness in the interaction, or security issues that arise when sending and receiving private and confidential data over the Internet.

To get the most out of videoconference interviews, you need to know what a video interview is and how you can design a videoconference interview successfully.

How does a video interview work?

A video job interview is a simultaneous or delayed remote interaction between a recruiter (or hiring team) and a candidate that allows a selection between profiles to recruit the talent that the company needs at any given moment.

Among the many benefits of the video job interview compared to face-to-face or telephone interviews are: 

• Optimization of resources. Since you avoid travel, you improve the coordination of interviews with candidates, increasing the performance of the HR department.  
• Flexibility and accessibility. New technologies allow companies to carry out a more democratic selection process, eliminating geographical and architectural barriers. 
• Possibility of recording. Recording the interview allows you to analyze the answers later and view them as many times as you need. It also allows you to share them with other members of your team.

Summing up, video interviews save you (and your company) time and money while increasing your chances of attracting talent.

How to do an interview video?

A video job interview can be conducted live, i.e., simultaneously or on a delayed basis, recording the questions beforehand based on your HR strategy.

Live video interview

This type of interview moves the format of the face-to-face interview to online. It allows all interview models, such as competency-based interviews, behavioral interviews, etc., to be replicated.

The level of interaction of the interview offers the possibility of establishing a relationship of trust between the interviewer and the candidate and allows the recruiter to react to the candidate’s answers. 

Delayed video interview

In this case, you should record the questions so that the candidate can answer later. Remember that you can set the restrictions as a time limit to answer per question, provided you have the appropriate technology to do so. 

This structured and recorded interview makes it easier for all candidates to do them under the same conditions. In addition, since you only have to record once the questions that will be used for everyone, you manage your time for this task more efficiently.

The disadvantage is that you need to rely on specialized software to automate this part of the process to allow you to extract the data in a convenient way, such as an Applicant Tracking System (ATS).

Advice for video interviews preparation

Before designing a virtual interview, you must prepare the ground by focusing on one basic aspect: studying the candidate in detail.

Always keep in mind that, although it is a remote interview through a virtual medium, we are talking about an exchange between people and therefore, the degree of personalization of the video interview will determine to a large extent its success.

In this sense, carrying out a detailed study of the candidate you are going to interview will offer you a series of advantages:

• It allows you to make a more accurate assessment of the person you are going to interview. With this preliminary study you will be able to detect if this is really someone who can successfully adapt to the company culture, if he/she shares the same values or if he/she will fit in with the dynamics of the work teams.
• It helps you to personalize the questions. The interviewee will be more receptive when they see that the questions have been designed for their interviews, rather than a battery of impersonal questions common to all candidates.
• It allows you to detect the candidate’ s key skills through their experience, online exchanges, public profiles, etc., which you will be able to confirm during the interview.
• It helps you build a positive first impression, as the candidate feels valued and important to the company from the very first moment.

All these aspects improve the efficiency of the selection process, make the virtual interview more fluid and maintain the candidate’s interest, and in this type of interview they become more relevant as there is no physical contact.

Keep in mind that just as you can interview multiple profiles, the people who apply for a job also apply to many selection processes, and the most demanding profiles will discriminate many companies with respect to the quality of the recruitment process.

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The importance of questions in a video interview

The questions articulate every personnel selection interview, and their relevance lies in the fact that their preparation is decisive for the process to be successful and meet the objectives you have set.

For this reason, we mentioned in the previous point how necessary it is to know the candidate before the video interview and how important it is to personalize the questions.

A battery of questions adapted to the candidate and in tune with the company’s objectives, allows you in addition to assessing their skills and showing their suitability for the position:

• Measure the person’s communication skills, how he/she organizes his/her ideas and how he/she adapts to changes in topics, etc.
• To better understand the candidate’s motivations, evaluate his or her commitment and go deeper into his or her long-term professional goals.
• Evaluate if he/she is compatible with the company’s philosophy, if he/she shares its values and if he/she will contribute to a positive work dynamic.
• Establish a connection with the candidate by creating an atmosphere of exchange and trust that overcomes the feeling of distance of this type of interview.

In addition to all these advantages, well thought out questions tailored to the candidate will help you stand out as a recruiter, something that in highly competitive sectors is necessary to attract highly qualified talent.

Virtual interview tips to make a good impression

We continue to advance in this guide to get it right when doing a job interview on video, addressing something that is often neglected by recruiters: making a good impression on candidates.

However, this aspect is more important than it seems because from this first face-to-face meeting the candidate will begin to build an image of the company that can determine their long-term relationship with it.

So, keep in mind the following recommendations to make a good impression on your candidate:

• Avoid changing the date for the interview and be punctual. You should let the person know that you respect their time and that you value their showing up as a candidate.
• Welcome the person warmly and break the ice with a brief conversation before you begin. This will reduce initial nervousness and create a good atmosphere for dialogue.
• Explain what the interview will consist of, the parts of the interview, the expected duration and anything else that will help the candidate understand how the interview will work.
• Address the culture of the company before you start asking questions. You can give some examples of how values are reflected in the organization, etc. This gives the candidate time to situate themselves and increases their motivation and interest.
• Smile. It seems obvious, but smiling reduces the candidate’s stress, increases their comfort and humanizes the exchange. This makes it easier for them to answer questions with greater transparency. Here again, we must emphasize that the virtual conditions of this type of interview require a greater effort to humanize the channel.
• Actively listen and rephrase questions using information from the interviewee’s answers. Even if you are working with a script or with a structured battery of questions prepared in advance, leave room for improvisation.

Remember that making a good impression as a recruiter will help you attract and retain quality talent, strengthen your company’s reputation, and enhance the candidate experience.

11 video interview tips for designing a successful video conference interview

The video interview requires three conditions to be met: 

1. That both the interviewer and the job seeker have the necessary digital skills.
2. They must have access to an internet connection.
3. They are familiar with the application or platform selected for the selection process development. 

Take note of these technical, strategic, and security video job interview tips to make your procedure successful.

Technical Tips

Start by considering the following technical recommendations and preparations for a video: 

• Choose the virtual communication channel that best suits your needs keeping in mind that you should provide safe and secure environments. 
• Take care of the lighting of your face and the environment. You need ambient illumination and a light source that directly illuminates your face. You should place the camera at your eye level for good eye contact and framing. Finally, choose a neutral, corporate background with no distracting elements.  
• Use a table microphone of higher quality than headphones and the standard ones on your computer. Some even reduce ambient or static noise.
• Check your equipment before you start to avoid unforeseen events. 
• Set up a technical test with the candidate so that they can check that everything is working correctly on their side and that they understand how the process works.

Strategic tips

If we are talking about strategy, you should first establish what type of recruitment interview you will conduct and write a script based on your business objectives. 

Once you have completed this crucial step, take a look at these tips:

• Look into the camera, especially if it involves pre-recorded questions, to make the interviewee feel challenged. 
• Record a video presentation of your company and its benefits, detail the job offer as a reminder, and go into detail about their role within the organization. This action reinforces the employee experience, that is, the experience of your future employee from that first contact. 
• Train interviewers to transmit confidence, security, and professionalism in the virtual environment.

Security tips

Finally, do not neglect one of the most important aspects of a video job interview: 

• Make sure you get the candidate’s informed consent to record the interview and use the data extracted from it, i.e., that they have understood how it will be conducted, that they have been informed of the privacy policy, and that they authorize you to monitor and record it. 
• Automate the process to make it attractive, simple and cost-effective with HR software with which you can publish a job offer, manage and schedule video interviews, include psycho-technical tests, and analyze the data obtained.
• Avoid identity theft with an excellent proctoring system that allows you to supervise all processes remotely and improve your image as a recruiter. 

At Smowltech, we have developed flexible and scalable proctoring plans. Request a free demo so we can explain how we can improve your recruitment processes.

Updated on 11/11/2024

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