Video Assessment Interviews: 6 Best Practices for High Volume Hiring

Did you know that over 6 billion hours of video are watched on YouTube per month?

Video is quickly becoming one of the most consumed forms of content out there — especially when it comes to hiring.

Two years ago (before the pandemic), if someone told you that video assessment interviews could give your company a competitive edge, would you have believed them?

Today, video assessment interviews are a standard element in the hiring process. They help you level with your candidates by capturing their talent in every way possible. Simply because they help top talent showcase their personality and skillsets at their own comfort and convenience.

So, whether you’re mass hiring or simply trying to assess top talent fast, you don’t need a big budget, fancy equipment, and a full crew to build great video assessment interviews.

All you need is the right technology and these best practices!

Choose the right video interviewing software

The goal of video interviewing software is to make the entire interview and assessment experience as simple and streamlined as possible. It helps HR professionals identify the best candidates for the job – in one place – through secure and unbiased video assessment interviews.

Candidates can also take their video assessment interviews at the time and place that suits them best. Where all they have to do is answer pre-defined interview questions through videos and submit them to the recruiter in no time. In essence, these video assessment interviews run no longer than 2-3 minutes per question.

Thanks to advanced video interviewing software, recruiters no longer need to spend a massive amount of time phone screening candidates. Instead, they can dispatch hundreds of video assessment interviews in a single click, and spot top performers in a few minutes only.

In fact, video interviewing software like EVA-SSESS can help you quickly see whether a candidate answered the questions the way you expected them to, based on a model answer feature and relevancy percentage. For example, for each question, you can add the best model answer. So after a candidate answers that question, EVA-SSESS will compare both answers and generate a relevancy percentage. This percentage dictates how closely the candidate nailed the answer for that designated question. Based on this percentage, recruiters can make better assessment decisions that are based on data, rather than intuition and guesswork.

This means that recruiters don’t even need to watch the entire video assessment interview to the end. Unlike phone screening candidates, which demands a large amount of time from the recruiter to manually assess candidates one by one.

Be very transparent with candidates

Now despite the growing popularity of video assessment interviews, there’s still a vast majority of companies that have not yet leveraged this technology. This means, there are many candidates out there who are not yet familiar with this method of interviewing. Makes sense, right?

So, what happens when one of these candidates applies to your open vacancy and you send them a video assessment interview? Well, simply, they might freak out. Especially since a large number of these candidates are still not %100 well-versed in video assessment interviews.

This is why you should take the time to be transparent and informative with candidates. You want to tell them that there’s nothing to worry about and that this video assessment interview will play a vital role in their hiring process. Explain everything about the process and what they should expect. Such as the equipment they’ll need, supported browsers, a rundown of the process, or practice questions if available. This way, you won’t keep candidates in the dark with no idea of what to expect, which may inevitably lead them to drop out of the process as a result.

Look for integration with your ATS

Through video assessment interviews, you can screen candidates fast without the need to worry about scheduling real-time interviews that take days – if not weeks – to plan. What’s great about video assessment interviews is that all you have to do is send candidates a link to the assessment and they can answer the questions in a couple of minutes. What’s even greater, is that you can integrate them with your own ATS!

What makes this integration super useful?

Simply, by incorporating video assessment interviews directly from your applicant tracking system, you will be able to seamlessly send, receive and review them from the candidate’s profile, inside your ATS.

Not only that, but you’ll also save a massive amount of time since you won’t have to log in and out of several platforms or worry about migrating your candidates’ data from one place to the other. Also, this integration makes it much easier for managers and teams to collaborate early on in the process and watch videos of the shortlisted candidates in one place.

As a result, you can send video assessment interviews with the push of the button and they will go straight into the candidate’s profile.

And if you’re looking for this great integration, we got you covered. Our applicant tracking system, EVA-REC, and video interviewing software, EVA-SSESS, are integrated together to help recruiters conduct video assessment interviews, as well as source, screen, assess, and hire candidates innovatively – and all in one place.

Sync with your entire team in one place

When using video interviewing software, video assessment interviews can be accessible to the entire team. Meaning, your entire team can collaborate in one place (and in real-time) to view recordings, share feedback, evaluate candidates, and make decisions to move candidates forward or not.

By keeping your team in sync you’ll rely on more than one judgment, which ultimately reduces unconscious bias. You can also incredibly avoid unnecessary delays to your hiring process since your entire team will have all the necessary information to evaluate and conduct successful video assessment interviews.

As a result, this can spare your entire team from enduring several hassles. Such as having multiple interview rounds, candidates suffering from being asked the same questions by different interviewers, and candidates being evaluated on the same skills at different stages. 

Prepare the right interview questions in advance

Another powerful weapon in ensuring successful video assessment interviews is asking the right set of questions.

Asking ineffective interview questions will not help you ensure the overall success of the interview. Nor will they help you evaluate or assess your candidates correctly. On the other hand, asking the right interview questions can easily help you spot your next best hire! So don’t try to wing it by showing up to the video interview without preparing the right questions.

Your interview questions should be based on the competencies that you’re looking for in a candidate. So if you value honesty and credibility at work, you should include questions that help you gauge how your candidates feel about honesty.

So try to allocate some time before the interview to ask your candidates some cut-to-the-chase questions. These questions will help you dig deeper and learn more about your candidates. Also, don’t forget to ask behavioral interview questions as well, as these questions can help you unravel your candidate’s soft, intangible and behavioral skills.

And remember, keep the process standardized. Ask the same set of questions for every candidate applying for the same job. This way, when you want to compare candidates, your data will be clean and easily comparable.

Take full advantage of branding opportunities

When you think about Nike, it’s not really just about the shoes. Your mind might wander to Michael Jordan shooting hoops and “Just Do It”. When you think about Gatorade, it’s not just about the energy drink either. It’s about sportspeople improving their athletic performance and living a healthy life.

In short, it’s more about the powerful messaging and positioning of your brand.

So, if Nike made their Jordan ads as simple as “Here are a great pair of shoes”, and if Gatorade made a plain ad with the tagline “Here’s a great delicious energy drink”, would people be enticed to buy them?

Most likely not.

The same thing applies to video assessment interviews. Candidates won’t really respond well when you send them a link to the assessment and tell them “Here’s a video assessment interview. Please complete it and send it back to me.”

Why?

A) Candidates crave personalization
B) Candidates want to know the value
C) Candidates want to see your brand

Luckily, video interviewing software can help you do that. You can personalize the video assessment interviews with an introductory video that is fully branded. You can also tailor this video to include best practices and tips that help candidates unleash their full potential.

This video tells candidates that it’s not just about candidates submitting videos of themselves. It shows them that your brand stands for something much bigger than that. It shows them that your company wants candidates to succeed, and above all, shine. Which is the very best part of recruitment marketing.

Keeping it short

Without a grain of doubt, video assessment interviews are an exceptional way to boost every recruiter, employer, and interviewer’s efficiency. Think about it this way, when you pair awesome tactics and great hiring strategies with video assessment interviews, your hiring process will be invincible. And volume hiring will be a breeze. Also, you’ll start seeing more and more great hires flowing into your company, year after year!

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