Video Assessment Interviews: 5 Great Practices For Success

Hiring processes are already complex, to say the least.

From the lack of quality candidates, inefficient screening process, manual tasks, increased hiring costs and compliance concerns – it’s enough to make one’s head spin.

Given that technology is advancing at an unimaginable pace, everything is starting to go digital; from education, work, to the way we hire. So, the increasing popularity of video assessment interviews comes as no surprise. It’s why we’re seeing more and more companies incorporating video assessment interviews into the hiring process – which are easier, inexpensive, and more convienient for both recruiters and candidates.

Unlike a live video interview, the recruiter or interviewer is not present in a video assessment interview to engage in a two-way conversation with the candidate. Simply because the candidate is given a set of questions, for which their video responses are recorded via a camera.

So how can recruiters make sure that the process is just as efficient, smooth, and interactive as a live interview?

Here are 5 best practices that will guarantee a successful video assessment interview experience!

Personalize them with an introductory video

Personalizing the video assessment interview experience means that you need to show candidates that there’s a person on the other end of the video interviewing software. In fact, you’d be very surprised to see the positive feedback you’d get from candidates as a result.

The best way to do that is by adding an introductory video that usually plays automatically at the beginning of the candidate’s video assessment interview. Through this video, you can seamlessly greet candidates, introduce yourself (and company), and thank the candidates for applying to your organization. Then, you can share with candidates how this video assessment interview can inevitably help them unleash their full potential, sell themselves for the position, and increase their chances of landing the job. All in all, this introductory video will explain the next steps to the candidate and ultimately personalize the video assessment interview experience!

Essentially, in this introductory video you can:

• Introduce yourself and your role.
• Talk about the role in detail and what you’re looking for in a candidate.
• Tell the candidate how to best prepare for this video assessment interview.
• Thank the candidate for taking part in this very crucial part of the hiring process.
• Set expectations – for the hiring time, next steps, etc.
• Use a friendly tone and plaster on a great smile!

Once you keep these few great pointers in mind, you’ll help the candidate get to know more about your work environment and culture. In addition, it also helps in creating a polished and immersive video assessment interview experience.

Educate and guide the candidate

Whether you’re interviewing candidates with Zoom, Skype or the video interviewing software EVA-SSESS, keep in mind that there’s a fraction of candidates out there who are still not too familiar with video technology. When it comes to video assessment interviews, also bear in mind that many of them are still not 100% well-versed with them.

And for many, it might be their very first time submitting one. In this case, it would be best to share a few tips, tutorials or how-to-videos with these candidates to help them prepare. Where you can let them know the equipment they need along with the supported browsers. As well as best practices such as finding a distraction-free space, keeping a professional background, and sitting under good lighting.

Just like a live interview, you want to make sure that these candidates have all the relevant information they need to succeed at their video assessment interviews.

Additionally, provide candidates with a backup phone number or the contact information of a teammate that they can reach out to in case they encounter any problems with their video assessment interviews.

Ask candidates straight-to-the-point questions

Many candidates tend to feel quite nervous before their video assessment interviews. Perhaps their palms start to sweat, their knees start to shake, and their heart starts to beat fast. Almost like they’re about to start an Olympics race.

So if you’re looking to ease their stress, boost engagement and calm their jitters, opt to ask candidates the right set of video assessment interview questions. There’s no need to overly complicate or overly simplify the questions either. You just have to ask questions that probe further into the candidate’s character, experience, and skillsets.

Therefore, instead of asking mainstream questions, ask cut-to-the-chase questions that will help you decide whether or not to move the candidates forward in the hiring process.

Here are a couple of questions to keep in mind:

• “What excites you most about this job?”
• “How would you describe your working style?”
• “If you were building a team of former co-workers, who would you recruit and why?”
• “How would you spend your time if you didn’t have to work?”
• “What’s the toughest problem you encountered and how were you able to solve it?”
• “How would you resolve a conflict with a team member?”
• “What is one skill you would like to improve?”

Keep the number of questions limited

You might be tempted to squeeze in over 15 questions in a video assessment interview. After all, you want to get all the information you need to make the right decision. But is this the best way to go about it? We think not! 

So let’s get to the heart of the matter. How many questions should you ask candidates in a video assessment interview? The answer is simple: the optimal number would be 5 to 6.

Remember, the more questions you ask, the more you increase the risk of candidates dropping out of the interview process. Add to that the majority of your candidates might not be familiar with video assessment interviews, so it can be an incredibly overwhelming experience when they have to answer over 10 questions per sitting.

The whole point of video assessment interviews is to pre-screen candidates and get the gist of their qualifications and skillsets. So try to be brief and only ask the critical questions.

Bear in mind that you can interview the qualified candidates at a later stage as well, and ask the rest of the questions that you want to ask.

In addition, if you’re interviewing candidates through video interviewing software like EVA-SSESS, then we definitely have a few tips and tricks that you can keep up your sleeves.

Prior to sending out any video assessment interview, try to get a glimpse of what the candidate will experience during the interview. The best way to do that is by trying out yourself, both Open and Hidden questions.

What exactly are Open and Hidden questions?

Open questions allow candidates to see the questions in advance, therefore giving them all the time they need to properly prepare their answers for the assessment. Whereas setting them as Hidden, will only give them 30 seconds to prepare their answers.

Here’s our pro tip: Go for Open questions if you are conducting a behavioral assessment and you want to learn more about your candidate’s personality, cultural fit, and behaviors. These questions can be useful for clinical, educational and corporate settings. Go for Hidden questions if you are conducting a technical assessment, and you want to learn more about your candidate’s skills and competencies.

Evaluate them together with your team

Video assessment interviews are a super wonderful way to boost team collaboration. Think about it this way, since candidates record their responses, your entire team can watch, re-watch, comment, evaluate, and rate video assessment interviews in one place only – and in real-time.

Not only that, but every hiring team can ensure an unbiased and fair hiring experience. Simply because the decision to move a candidate forward is based exclusively on the accurate analysis of how candidates presented themselves, rather than a recruiter’s hastily-written notes from a phone screen conducted months ago.

When your entire team evaluates video assessment interviews together, this will help your team validate their decisions and involve their managers in the process as well. Video assessment interviews also help your team agree on the right talent required for the role. With such improved accuracy of screening and evaluating candidates, you can seamlessly avoid back-and-forth emails with your entire team and the excruciatingly long time required to collect interview feedback.

For example, with our video interviewing software, EVA-SSES, you can view video assessment interviews and get access to all the information you need in one window only! From watching candidates’ videos, leaving comments, sharing feedback, and engaging in team discussions. In fact, you can also comment on specific videos or the assessment as a whole, and evaluate candidates with your team members to foster a more collaborative hiring experience.

Our pro tip? If you’re using EVA-SSESS to conduct video assessment interviews, make sure you check out the candidate’s personality report after each video assessment. This report will help you learn more about the candidate’s learning and communication style, programming aptitude, performance in sales, and how they deal with customers!

Conclusion and parting tips

Video assessment interviews can be intimidating and stressful for candidates, especially when their dream job rides on acing it. But as a recruiter, interviewer, or employer you can follow these best practices to heart, and pave the way for a smooth and easy video assessment interview experience.

And remember, when video assessment interviews are integrated strategically and successfully into your existing hiring matrix, you can seamlessly build better, more motivated teams by making the right hires from the very first time.

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