Job Interviews Go Virtual In Response To COVID-19
The biggest shift the last few months have brought the recruitment industry? Probably virtual interviews.
For myself and the others here at The Source and Recruit Company, remote interviews are not a brand new concept. In the past, companies often conducted initial phone or video screenings before bringing candidates in to meet in person.
To illustrate how the times have changed, from mid-2016 to mid-2017, all Source and Recruit Company customers (at the time we were d.b.a. Talon RPO) had access to our video interviewing platform, but approximately half of our clients reported that video screenings felt “weird”, so we voted internally to discontinue the virtual interview offering.
Now, in the wake of #covid19 and nationwide stay-at-home orders, virtual interviews have become mainstream.
Interviewing portals are being set up. Paperwork has been taken to the cloud. And hiring managers are scrambling to perfect their video best practices.
You don’t have to look very far for tips on video interviewing. There are lots of resources available on the web. Most of them offer some version of the following basic advice to get you started:
Prep in advance just as you would for an in-person interview.
Set up in a quiet, well-lit, uncluttered environment.
Set expectations with candidates so they know the context of what you’ll cover.
Always double-check your tech in advance.
Practice looking into the camera.
Use one way interviews if you have a large volume of applicants and are crunched on time.
If you need help with virtual interviewing, we can get you set up on our preferred hiring-specific video interviewing platform. You can learn more about our video interviewing service here, in The Source and Recruit Company online store.
