There are many clients who use asynchronous video interviews primarily to learn more about candidates from the applicant pool. Questions that are often asked are: what if we’re turning down candidates that are actually suitable? Do we really invite the right ones? Have we looked at enough candidates? The desire to learn more about the person behind the application and see the potential of the candidate and not just the CV, is, in my opinion, something which recruiters are concerned about. It is only mainly unachievable due to time restraints.
The main challenges at a glance:
“Sometimes we’re not sure if we reject potentially suitable candidates…”
“We don’t have the time to review the majority of candidates closely…”
“We would like to know more about our candidates than just what’s on paper…”
“We have many candidates with very similar profiles- that makes decisions difficult…”
Video interviewing for getting to know candidates better
Through pre-recorded video interviews, you can get an idea of your applicants and their skills before the face-to-face interview. Candidates are rated on the competencies required for a particular job. How this looks like and what it means, I will show you in an example. In the screenshot, we see an example of the rating view a recruiter sees when evaluating a candidate. In this case, the sample candidate is Stefan Mayring.
Just a brief background- Stefan has applied for a trainee program for young graduates. The most important competence the client wants to check before a personal interview is the willingness of the candidate to learn.
In the video, Stefan answers the questions that we see displayed on the left:
- Which area do you personally see as your area of expertise?
- What have you done and what are you doing to keep up with latest trends in this field?
- Which channels do you use?
- How do you approach topics in which you are not an expert?
Right below the question, we see the criterion on which the recruiter and multiple decision makers evaluate this question: the willingness to learn.
Video as a mini assessment
While I watch the response of the applicant, I can, almost like in an assessment centre, adjust, compare and base my review on pre-established criteria. In this example, we have seen that the candidate is relatively vague and seems to ramble- for example, he speaks about Google and the Internet, but without going into details. Here, I would therefore see a below average rating.
Result: realise the talent behind the CV!
I think it’s clear that requirements-based assessment is one of the valuable key aspects of video interviewing. The first impression of the candidate, as you see them in the video interview, is evaluated in a quasi mini assessment, allowing you to see the talent behind the CV in such a way that many other pre-selection methods are incapable of.
Videos evaluate differently from online tests or CV
The core point here: video interviews evaluate differently and can show different aspects of suitability. This means that a disparate aspect of the candidate is captured through video interviews, allowing you to gain a completely different insight than if you had only evaluated through CV or cognitive tests.
