Are you a recruiter looking to find out more about Pre-recorded video interviews? Then Congratulations! As you have taken a step in the right direction in improving your recruiting productivity and quality of hire!

Since 2018, video interviewing was already on the way to become a vital tool in recruiting. The Covid 19 Pandemic only serves to accelerate this sentiment, especially for pre-recorded video interviews.

To add to the list of “Why should you adopt video interviewing in your recruitment process”, today’s article will provide an in-depth look into Pre-recorded video interview and how it can be the key to the success of modern recruiters!

What Is a Pre-Recorded Video Interview?

While live video interviewing is connecting two parties in real-time through video calls, Pre-recorded interviewing allows candidates to send their pre-recorded videos to recruiters to review.

Why Is Pre-Recorded Video Interviewing the Key to Success for a Modern Recruiter?

Increase Hiring Efficiency/Lower Time-to-Hire and Cost-to-Hire

With pre-recorded video interviews, recruiters can eliminate time-consuming tasks such as scheduling for a live or phone interview or sitting through the entire interview time for each screening. Impress your candidates with your effectiveness and professionalism!

You can screen more candidates at a time than phone interviews. Also, unlike phone interviews, you can make your decision to hire, pause the video, and move on instead of finishing the conversation for the sake of courtesy.

If you have experienced having test results submitted through email, a pre-recorded video interview solution can elevate your experience. Most available solutions on the market can manage candidates’ emails for you. You won’t have to worry about mismanaging emails. Some solutions can even generate comprehensive evaluation forms or manage data, helping recruiters to compare and compile results faster.

Last but not least, you can say goodbye to logistic costs. You do not have to fly out a candidate to your office for an interview nor spend money to arrange a venue and logistics on the interview day.

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Prevent Bias

• Through the removal of inconsistency factors such as interviewers’ tone, behaviors, making every session the same for every candidate.

• Limiting the chance of interviewers asking irrelevant questions.

• Removing external interference: everyone will receive a fair assessment without outside elements such as a noisy environment changing the assessment.

Reach Global/Unique Candidate

You are missing out on great talents if you only recruit in your region. Go global with pre-recorded video interviewing!

Also, some outstanding candidates may shy away from a direct meeting for several personal reasons. Using one-way interviewing can portray an inclusive and positive picture of your company.

Eliminate Time and Space Barriers

The main charm of one-way interviewing is that it does not need real-time interaction. Candidates can send their videos at any given time within the designated deadline. Similarly, recruiters can view, comment, and make the decision even when they are on the move.

Improve Your Hiring Decision Through Collaboration

In a phone or live interview, the interviewer will usually be the only person to evaluate an applicant. With Pre-recorded interviews, you can forward the candidate’s video to your colleagues, providing additional perspectives and opinions.

For Candidates, a Pre-Recorded Video Interview Is a More Forgiving Experience

With pre-recorded video interviews, you have more control over how your ‘first impression’ be. A candidate can do multiple takes, this process can be repeated until they are satisfied with the video.

Are There Any Potential Downsides?

Like any interview solution, pre-recorded video interviewing is not perfect. As pre-recorded video heavily limits real-time interaction, a candidate can go through the whole process without talking to a person. Lack of human interaction makes it hard for recruiters to build a relationship and promote candidate experience/impression toward the company.

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How to Mitigate This Potential Problem?

Chad Harrison International’s Managing Director - Luke Robbins, suggested that using Pre-recorded video interviewing requires balance. Automated interviews are indeed very helpful in getting through a large applicant pool. But once you have chosen your talents, a different, more personal approach is required to retain them. A potential solution for this problem is the adaption of both pre-recorded and online video interview

Even at the initial stages of recruitment, there are still ways for you to interact with your candidates:

• Provide a written instruction before the interview: adding a little personality in the message is an excellent way to let the candidates know that someone spends their time writing the instruction. You can also include a short video of your recruiting staff explaining or giving out tips relating to pre-recorded interviews.

• Especially in the rejection process, when some candidates are in a negative mood: providing genuine consolation will always elicit a better reaction than a soulless “noreply@” email. They might even be willing to go for a different position.

• Provide candidates with a contact to reach if something goes wrong: similar to the previous idea. It shows that you care. It could be your business’s IT department or the support team of the interview solution.

Examples of Successful Implementation

Walmart

Arguably, the most proponent users of automated video interview solutions during the Covid 19 Pandemic are retailers and grocery stores. According to Business Insider, earlier this year, Walmart and Amazon were on a “hiring spree” due to the increase in online shopping. Amazon was planning to fill 100.000 positions, while Walmart was aiming to fill 150.000.

In a November article, BBC revealed that the usage of pre-recorded interviewing plays a crucial role in helping Walmart fill hundreds of positions in a matter of days! In the same article, another example was given by HireVue’s CEO - Kevin Parker of a grocery store chain in the Southern US. The chain reportedly made as much as 15,000 automated interviews per day.

Uber

Andrew Kim - former Asia-Pacific (APAC) Recruiting Manager of Uber, briefly describes the Uber APAC situation during his time as having to cover 11 markets. With 11 markets pooling candidates at the same time, Uber APAC has to work with 11 languages and cultures to pick its candidates. The company also highly values language ability and wants to understand the culture of their hires. With all these criteria, logically, the best option would be for Uber to use phone interviews, which is very time-consuming.

However, instead of adapting phone interviewing, the company opts for a pre-recorded video interview solution. With the help of the solution, Uber witnessed a drastic improvement in the hiring process. Candidate screening time also decreased drastically. Uber APAC identified language ability and thought process at an increased speed. Hiring managers also got a better understanding of their hires even before the in-person interviews.

Conclusion

Understandably, like any interview solution, the pre-recorded video interview solution is not perfect. With some ingenuity on your part, you can avoid the drawbacks of using this method to elevate your business’s hiring process to an unrivaled level of effectiveness!

If you are eager to adopt pre-recorded video interviews, you can read this post to learn how to set up your very own pre-recorded video interview session.

This blog post originally appears on Rakuna's blog.