Hiring Managers! Discover our secrets to get the most out of video interviewing

For employers like you, this has posed a challenge. You have had to quickly adapt your interviewing techniques to help compensate for the little reveals and vital clues in face-to-face interviews which helped you deduce which candidate best fits the role and your team.

Luckily for you, we have been there and done that! Now we’d like to share with you some of the techniques and insights which help us identify outstanding talent for our clients.

1. Use a scorecard

A scorecard is invaluable for post-interview decision-making or comparing notes. It is usually harder to remember a face from a screen than one that you have met in person. A scorecard will help you avoid confusion that might blur or skew your choice.

Scorecards also help you focus on the actual content of the answers. This is so important in overcoming bias between candidates who were disadvantaged in the process by less than ideal locations, interruptions or unfamiliarity with video interviewing.

2. Keep your questions consistent

It is vital that you ask all candidates a consistent set of questions.

continue to use the questions you’ve outlined for in-person interviews.

This makes to evaluate and compare candidates based on the merit of their responses.

The right questions will help you compensate for not being able to meet your candidates in person.

They will allow your interviewee to speak freely on topics that are highly relevant to the position on offer.

They will also allow you to determine if that candidate will be a good fit.

How can I see how motivated and diligent my candidate is?

We find direct and specific questions particularly revelatory and useful in answering.

Here are a few examples:

Tell me about yourself?

What are your career goals?

Tell me about your job at company X?

What work environment are you most productive in?

Why should we hire you?

How can I gain insight into my interviewee’s character?

These two questions will give the candidate the chance to be natural:

Tell me about a recent project you worked on

Tell me about yourself

Listen carefully to their responses as they will give you a stronger understanding about them and their skillset, or reveal what certain tasks or projects meant to them. A lot of their character will be revealed in their answer.

We are always interested in candidates whose answers are positive in outlook and exude energy. Conversely, we take stock of candidates whose responses include complaints or negativity.

Will the candidate be a good fit?

Gauging if a candidate would fit well with your team or company is hard. We have an excellent question to help you evaluate this:

Tell me about three people you would choose to help you with… (a specific scenario, task or project)

You will learn a lot about the interviewee from the teammates they choose. You can judge the culture that would suit them and determine how close (or not) it is to your team or organisational culture.

Other good questions we use to help us screen our candidates for team/organisational fit are:

Describe your ideal work environment

What work environment are you most productive in?

How do you approach working in a team environment?

How does the candidate deal with stress?

If you are looking for insight as to how a candidate performs in stressful situations, highly useful questions are:

How did you deal with a big mistake, and what did you learn?

What are your biggest weaknesses?

Mistakes are part of life, so your interviewee’s answer will allow you to evaluate how they react to making a mistake, their response and – most importantly – how they learned from it.

This will reveal how the candidate deals with setbacks or high-stress situations.

Alternatively, if you want to see how the interviewee would resolve a specific issue they might encounter in the position that they are interviewing for, you might ask:

How would you solve the following problem … (followed by the problem scenario)

Their answer will allow you to gauge their temperament and passion for the role.

How can I see what motivates a candidate?

You need questions which will help you understand what a candidate is looking for in their career – do they want challenging work? More responsibility? Or just a bigger paycheque?

What is your greatest career accomplishment?

How do you evaluate success?

Why do you want this job?

If your candidate’s way of measuring success varies massively with those of the job, team or organisation, you may anticipate issues with fit and/or performance.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

If the response to this is the candidate seeing themselves in a whole new industry or company, then clearly their motivations do not align with yours!

What’s your greatest career accomplishment?

Real-life examples will help your interviewee demonstrate value and help you appreciate their skills, Their answer should allow you to see the candidate at their best. It bodes very ill indeed if their response leaves you unimpressed!

4. Body language

Many people find video interviewing unnerving, so compensate for nerves and don’t be as quick to interpret fast talking or a lack of eye contact as if you were meeting the person face to face.

Also, bear in mind you will be comparing candidates who have never been interviewed online with others who had experience and/or training. So be sure to ask upfront if they are used to the format and weight their performance accordingly.

5. Ask an expert!

We pride ourselves on our vigorous video interview screening process, selecting exceptional and motivated candidates for our insurance and financial services clients.

Discover how we can help you with video interviews and let us find you the talent to boost your business.

Call us right now on 01483 668700, email us on careers@insurerecruitment.com