The traditional hiring process can be a long road to travel. Video interviews are building a better bridge to circumvent all the traditional hiring roadblocks. For example there’s the endless resumes to review, the phone screens taking an average of 15 minutes per call, and at this point recruiters haven't even found their best candidates. Once you do you’re in for more interviews, you have to schedule those interviews with the candidate in person. Great! Now you have major scheduling difficulties to work around. No wonder the average position takes 30 days to fill. It’s a miracle it doesn’t take longer!

For job seekers, the interviewing process can be no less painful. You’ll often have endless phone and in person interviews. This means scheduling, traveling, and maybe even taking time off work.

Online interviewing is a great way to shorten this process. Instead of swimming through the endless stream of resumes and interviews: build a bridge!

Virtual interviews can help shorten the process between sorting through resumes and finding the perfect hire. For instance One-Way Interviews are a great way to cut out those time consuming preliminary phone screens.

Job seekers can record answers to text-based interview questions posed by employers, showing off their communication skills, charisma, and qualifications. They can record these interviews on their own time, even from their mobile devices. Employers can then view these recorded video interviews whenever their schedule allows. No more 30 minutes wasted on a candidate an employer knows isn’t right in the first 90 seconds.

Video interviewing allows both job seekers and recruiters to save time so they only have to focus on the best opportunities. Instead of having dozens of qualified candidates in for interviews, only bring in the top prospects for an in-person meet.

Video interviews can also work as a way to effectively shorten the hiring process for both job seekers and employers. Employers will spend less time sourcing candidates and more time focusing on the individuals right for the job. Job seekers can use video to interview for jobs both near and far without all the travel and scheduling difficulties. Online video is building a better bridge between the job application and finding the perfect fit.

What is the benefit in using online video interviewing? There are many reasons why a virtual interview can streamline the hiring process. We all know the traditional hiring process can sometimes be a headache. Video interviewing helps to clear away some of the mess in the process, making your overall recruitment efforts more effective.

The Way Things Are Done Now

Before we talk about how to improve hiring efficiency through the use of video interviews, let’s first take a peek behind the hiring curtain. The way things are currently done in the recruitment process leads companies and recruiters to spend valuable time and money. 

The two largest money-taking in the hiring process are time and travel. Depending on the job and the candidate, some companies are willing to fly top talent out for an interview. This can lead to big time costs, with no guarantee the candidate will turn into an employee. 

Travel isn’t the only part of the traditional process depleting your accounts. Recruiters and hiring managers spend plenty of precious time trying to find the best people for the job. The average recruiter spends about 15 hours per week sourcing for candidates. 

Get More Effective With Video Interviews

Online interviews can help you cut down on the traditional hiring process and save your company time and money. How does online interviewing help? For one thing, it streamlines the hiring process.

For instance, recruiters can watch candidates answer their questions wherever and whenever they want. Realize a candidate isn't right for the position early on? Now you're not trapped on the phone. This is one of the main reasons many recruiters are adopting video interviews. 

Live video interviewing is great for far-flung and passive candidates. Now you can save 100% of your travel costs by just booting up your webcam. Plus, scheduling interviews with passive candidates can often be difficult. While you want the best candidates in front of you, they're often times busy too if they’re currently employed. Now both hiring managers and candidates can schedule a face-to-face interview without endless back and forth on scheduling.

Let's be honest, we're living in a digital age. Consumers turn to the Web for everything from advice and entertainment to books and products. There is really nothing you can't find online. So, why not take advantage of new online recruitment suggestions?

Using online video interviewing shows potential hires your company understands the online marketplace. If you embrace emerging technology and new ways of approaching the hiring process, you'll attract talent with similar values.

In a nutshell, video interviews create a convenient, innovative, and interesting way for employers to connect with job seekers. But, most importantly, video interviews cater to unique tradition job interview situations that phone calls or face-to-face meetings just won’t work for.

When you have a high volume of candidates to screen.

For time-strapped hiring professionals, screening candidates is the necessary part of the hiring process, especially when you have a high volume of candidates to screen.

When you have a large amount of candidates, spending a good 30 minutes on the phone with each is not an efficient use of time. Not when you can view 10 recorded video interviews in the same time it takes to perform a single phone conversation.

Recorded video interviews, in which candidates record their responses to a series of pre-determined questions, give screening an entirely new meaning. They not only give you an opportunity to connect with candidates visually, they’re also convenient. Instead of spending time for scheduling a phone calls around everyone’s busy schedules, recorded video interviews can be recorded and viewed on your own time.

When you need to interview long-distance candidates.

When it comes to searching for top talent, sometimes it’s necessary to move beyond the confines of your own backyard. But attracting and connecting with faraway talent can be difficult, due to geographic and time zone barriers. That’s where video interviews come in to help.

By offering video interview options, you can expand your job candidates search to worldwide and attract candidates who might not otherwise apply.

When you want to attract more passive candidates.

Passive candidates are in high demand. They appeal to companies because they’ve demonstrated their skills and expertise by thriving in similar positions.

Did you know a whopping 75% of professionals categorize themselves as “passive” candidates? In other words, three-fourths of professionals aren’t actively looking for a new position, but that doesn’t mean they’re not open to other opportunities that might come their way. Getting in touch with the passive candidate about a job opportunity can be tricky due to their busy schedule.

Fortunately, video interviews make it easy to appeal to and attract passive candidates. For starters, passive candidates may not want to commit to commuting for a full-on job interview, but might be willing to take a few minutes to participate in a video interview. Given their busy schedules, passive candidates will appreciate the convenience and time-saving factors of video interviews.

When you need to collaborate on hiring decisions.

The nature of video interviews makes hiring collaboration easier than ever, as no one has to be physically present at the time of the interview. Colleagues and clients alike can be sent video interview recordings to view and assess well after the interview has taken place. These video recordings make it easy for everyone to collaborate, which ensures that you’re making more informed hiring decisions. Better collaboration means better hires.

Do you ever feel like your hiring process is a little…out dated? Inefficient? Impersonal? If so, perhaps it is time to look into an innovative and effective solution like Live Interview.

It's not easy to rate by simply assessing the candidate by what they put on paper. But what about personality, enthusiasm, or professionalism?

By actually seeing candidates via video interviews, hiring managers are better able to make a connection with the resume.

Video interviewing for HR allows hiring managers to put a face to the name on the paper. After all, how are hiring managers supposed to “see” greatness and potential through paper anyway? By enhancing the resume, video interviewing is used to help assess hiring needs, select the right candidates, and help retain top of them.

Video interviewing for HR as a form of early screening is by far more effective and allows employers to gain more insight on candidates. Plus, with the ability to share video interviews with team members, internal collaboration has never been easier than Live Interview’s comment and rating system. With these tools, HR can better validate their hires. Video interviews bring life to the screening process so hiring professionals can make better hiring decisions in order to retain employees for the long run.

In a way, video interviews allow hiring managers to “hear” what is not said when viewing text responses. Video interviewing for HR combines the benefits of the phone screen and the in-person interview to further evaluate candidate’s skills, attitudes and personalities.

In order to make the most of your video interviewing utilization, you need to first establish your game plan by identifying your hiring goals. What are the types of jobs you need to fill within the next few months or year? After you determine this, you can then implement the following tips into your video interviewing strategy to bring in amazing talent to join your team.

Be transparent about your hiring process with candidates

Although the popularity of video interviewing has grown significantly in the past few years, there are still companies not yet utilizing this technology. Therefore, there are job seekers out there who may not be familiar with this method of interviewing. You should take the time to inform your candidates about the role video interviews play in your hiring process.

Start off the interview process by asking the candidate if they have ever been interviewed over video. If it is their first time being interviewed in this manner, take some time to explain everything about the process and what they are to expect.

The recorded interview offers candidates plenty of flexibility since they are the ones who decide when to get it done within a given timeframe. However, you don’t want to offset this advantage by giving too short of a deadline for the interview. You’ll want to give your candidates 5-7 days to record their responses. This is a sufficient amount of time for them to become familiar with the video interviewing platform and test out their equipment.

Take advantage of branding opportunities

The importance of candidate experience cannot be stressed enough. As you strive to hire top-notch talent, it is important to develop a positive appearance for your company as an employer. Be sure not to ignore branding opportunities while video interviewing. Seeing your company logo and color scheme will allow candidates to experience a consistent and branded video interview. They won’t be left wondering what organization they are interviewing with.

Additionally, video interviews can be one component of an overall company brand that conveys a considerate, innovative impression to potential employees and can significantly help with attracting great talent. A video interviewing initiative instantly shows candidates that your company is willing to embrace new technology.

Best practices for conducting a live interview:

Check your Internet connection and equipment

Just as you would expect a candidate to prepare for a live interview, so should you. It’s important that you check your Internet connection, webcam, and mic beforehand so as to avoid any mishaps in the middle of the interview. 

While you can carry out a successful live interview over wireless internet, we recommend connecting to the internet using an ethernet cable for better performance. You will also want to close any programs and web browsers that you won’t be needing to conduct your live video interview as these can take resources away and slow down your device.

Your webcam is obviously a crucial part of having a successful video interview. Make sure that it is connected to your computer and close out any programs that might be utilizing it (e.g. Skype or FaceTime). Most webcams come with a built-in microphone, however, if you decide to use a stand-alone mic or headset, double-check to make sure the mic is connected to your computer. Again, close out any programs that might be utilizing the mic prior to the interview.

Mind the surrounding noise, background, and lighting

Where you choose to conduct your video interview is very important. A video interview can be done pretty much anywhere, however, you need to keep in mind the surround.