The 5 reasons you need video interviewing

– By Paul O’Mahony, Sonru

When screening candidates, typically recruiters use phone interviews, but video interviewing solutions are being adopted more widely for their time and cost savings. Here we explore some of the benefits that video interviewing offers to your recruiting processes.

1. Streamlining

Trying to coordinate two people’s calendars to set up a phone interview is frustrating. Multiply this for all candidates you’re considering for just one position and it adds up to hours per day: emails back and forth, phone calls, sending out invites, the usual drill. Video interviews get rid of the fuss associated with phone interviews. Simply set up one interview and send to multiple candidates via email with a deadline to complete. Candidates complete the interview at a time that’s convenient for them and you can watch the interview on your schedule.

2. Potential fit

A candidate at the end of the phone isn’t easy to read. You can’t study their body language. With a telephone interview, you get a “feel” for a candidate from their voice, but a video interview lets you actually “see”. Does the candidate come alive and talk passionately about their work? Are they smiling? What does their body language say? You get a better sense of the candidate, their personality and potential fit earlier in the screening process.

3. Consistency

Video interviews allow you to set up a set series of questions that are put to all candidates. This allows a more consistent screening process, and a more balanced evaluation of all candidates. With a phone interview, it can be difficult to try to screen all candidates the same way, every phone screen is essentially a different conversation, writing down notes which can be subjective and can lead to different results. With consistent questions, all candidates are measured via the same bar.

4. Collaboration and sharing

Trying to relate to hiring managers the shortlist of candidates for a role and the notes that you took from phone screens isn’t ideal. With recorded video interviews, you can simply select the best candidates and share with the hiring manager and team. They can review the videos and form their own opinions. Feedback on each candidate can be left in the form of comments and ratings. This allows more collaboration early on in the process, and ensures that there is more “buy-in” on the candidates you do bring in for face to face interviews.

5. Massive Time Savings

When video interviewing is adopted, the massive time savings become apparent very quickly. Clients have reported up to 80% reduction in time spent in early stage screening. Time to hire is also significantly reduced. As important as it is to discover the best candidates and bring them forward in the process, it’s equally important to eliminate candidates that aren’t suitable. Instead of spending time coordinating and performing phone screens, you can quickly weed out multiple non-suitable candidates via video interviewing. You end up with a shortlist of high quality candidates. Remember that the top quality candidates out there are in high demand, so bringing them forward quicker in the process means you can grab them before a competitor does!

Adopting an automated video interviewing solution will save you a staggering amount of time, streamlining your recruiting process and help to assess potential fit early on.

Fully integrated with Hireserve ATS (formerly known as iCams), Hireserve partner Sonru  is the global leader in video interviewing solutions, with customers like eBay, Post Office, DHL, Nestlé and Volvo. For more information on video interviewing visit Sonru.com