How to Stand Out to Candidates with Video Assessment Interviews in 2022

What are you doing to stand out and attract top talent to your company?

When you take a step back and look at your hiring process, are you being fully transparent with candidates? Are you showcasing your company’s unmatched perks, values, and benefits? Do you show them how you’re different from competitors?

Whether you answered yes or no – there will always be one incredible way to stand out even more to candidates.

And by that, we mean video assessment interviews!

Almost overnight, video assessment interviews became an essential part of the way we hire top talent. Why? Because it offers a plethora of benefits for both recruiters and candidates alike. While video interviewing candidates is nothing new, video assessment interviews are now an indispensable tool for hiring.

Essentially, video assessment interviews are one-way video interviews that require candidates to record video answers to a selection of interview questions.

The same way a good craftsman never blames his tools, video assessment interviews – like any other tool – should be used in the best way possible to appeal to and stand out to top talent.

With that being said, let’s explore the fundamental ways you can use video assessment interviews to stand out to top candidates!

Use introductory videos to engage and be upfront with candidates

Since the rise of the pandemic, recruiters have been fighting an uphill battle to engage top talent and entice them to join their company. Whether it’s through sign-on bonuses or ultra-competitive salaries – it’s been quite challenging for the sea of hungry recruiters to attract great talent.

If you’re starting to notice a similar pattern of little to no response from candidates, it might be a sign that your initial touchpoint with them isn’t engaging enough. Now, it’s going to take recruiters a lot more than a standard copy/paste LinkedIn InMail message to do the job. So consider changing the first touchpoint to something more exciting and engaging. Such as an introductory video that you can add at the beginning of the video assessment interview.

Take the time to create a friendly and personalized introductory video for candidates. Let them see the face of the recruiter they’ve been in contact with to add a more personal touch.

This approach will show candidates that you’re far more engaged and involved in the process than they anticipated you would be. In these videos, employers or recruiters can welcome candidates to the assessments, and share valuable tips and advice that will help them ace the assessments. This way, candidates will become more eager to join your company, once they take part in an interactive and engaging assessment experience.

Also, through these videos, you can seamlessly demonstrate to candidates the stages of the hiring process, a snippet into your company culture, and a few awesome tips to help them rock their video assessment interview.

Make video assessment interviews fun and straightforward

For candidates that aren’t familiar with video assessment interviews, it can definitely be a challenging experience. While some may overly stress about their appearance, others might be completely deterred from the idea altogether.

But the truth is, video assessment interviews are much simpler than recruiters and candidates deem them to be. Hiring managers simply have to set questions, decide on the time limit, and specify the number of retakes allowed. Then, they invite the candidates to record their answers from the comfort of their own homes. It’s really that simple! But many candidates are still on the fence about conducting them.

So what you can do is highlight the benefits of video assessment interviews and tell candidates why they’re currently being integrated into your hiring process. As soon as candidates get to know what to expect, they’ll start to see the process as less intimidating and more fun.

And when crafting the questions for your video assessment interviews, bear one important thing in mind: you must keep the questions to a minimum. Craft no more than 5 questions per video assessment interview, and keep them short and straightforward. There’s no need to ask every question in the book. Ask the most important questions that you would ask in the screening process.

And here’s our pro tip: create a good mix of ice-breaker, behavioral and technical questions, This way, you’ll keep the process smooth, short, and far more convenient for candidates.

This way, you can seamlessly pre-screen candidates through video assessment interviews, all while keeping the process brief and engaging for all candidates.

Give candidates the flexibility and time they need

Have you ever found the perfect candidate but he or she lives oceans away? Did you ever find yourself crunching the high cost of flying an overseas candidate just for an interview? If you ever had to deal with such unpractical dilemmas, you’re not alone.

Geographical barriers are one of the most fundamental reasons employers are rushing to leverage video assessment interviews. In fact, it’s your easy ticket to seamlessly interview far-flung candidates at any time or place.

Let’s put this into perspective. Traditionally, candidates would have to endure long commutes just to make it on time for an interview. Whether they have to take the train, bus, or car – it’s easy to say that their plans for the day will be postponed or canceled.

Plus, recruiters will also have to dedicate even more time to welcome the candidate, show them around the office, get them something to drink, or engage in small talk. And if the candidate proves to be unqualified, recruiters won’t be able to get their valuable time back. With little to no flexibility in the process, candidates and recruiters find themselves obliged to sit through the interview at a time that might not suit them best.

On the very bright side, video assessment interviews put an end to this dilemma for good.

For starters, they eliminate the initial need for candidates to commute or travel. Not only saving the candidate an astronomical amount of time – but also eliminating the stress of making it on time to the interview. Recruiters will also no longer flinch to the thought of interviewing overseas talent, in fact, they’ll get to interview them even faster! Simply because recruiters can dispatch the video assessment interview at any time and the candidate can take it when it suits them best. Saving both recruiters and candidates valuable time and money!

Make scheduling headaches a thing of the past

Scheduling interviews with candidates has always been a hefty challenge, long before Covid19. Recruiters would namely spend endless hours or weeks trying to find a suitable time for candidates to conduct their in-person interviews. Which can last for days on end. If not weeks!

With video assessment interviews, candidates get to take their interviews on their own schedule. The only thing they need to abide by is the deadline for the assessment. Otherwise, they are free to take their video assessment interviews at any time that suits their convenience. A luxury, that is not often available with in-person interviews. Simply because candidates need to adhere to the time and place set by the recruiter for the interview.

Imagine it this way: let’s say you want to screen and interview these 20 candidates for a single vacancy. If you’re phone screening them, you need to schedule 20 phone calls. And if you’re interviewing them in person, you need to book 20 interviews.

But if you’re using video assessment interviews, you just need to customize the interview once – and send it to your 20 candidates in one click. No need to worry about scheduling fiascos or a calendar that is going to pop with appointments.

Instead, sit back, assess video assessment interviews at your own pace, and give top candidates a smooth-sailing experience.

Put candidates at ease and shine a light on them

Ask any candidate what they truly want, and they’ll tell you that they want to shine and leave a great first impression. And all too often, it can be quite challenging for them to do so with in-person interviews. Either they’ll exhibit clear signs of nervousness, or they’ll be too stressed to unleash their full potential. As a result, they’ll most likely end up rushing through their answers just to get it over with.

The great news is that video assessment interviews put candidates at ease and alleviate their stress altogether. For the simple reason that with video assessment interviews, recruiters can allow candidates to view the questions in advance, retake their questions, and craft better answers. Unlike in-person assessments, candidates can’t view the questions in advance. This means that they need to come up with clever answers on spot, which might leave them feeling nervous and anxious beforehand.

What’s more, with video assessment interviews candidates will feel at ease knowing what to expect. They’ll know the number of questions, the time limit, and the number of retakes allowed. They’ll even get to test their mic and speakers to make sure everything is working before they begin their interviews!

Keeping it short

All in all, video assessment interviews help you humanize the hiring process and stand out to top talent seamlessly. Through a smooth sailing process, innovative technology, and shorter interviews – you’ll market your company and THE place to work. And remember, the way your company carries out the hiring process will give prospective candidates a glimpse into what they’ll expect once they join. If your hiring process is innovative, they’ll expect to work in a workplace that has a knack for growth and creativity. And if your hiring process is painstakingly slow and outdated – they’ll expect the same for every other process in your company.

EVA-SSESS is a next-generation video interviewing software that enables you to pinpoint and hire top talent fast by testing and evaluating the key skills and abilities through secure and unbiased video assessment interviews. Book a walk-through demo here and get to see EVA-SSESS in action! 

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