Employers use different methods to get a comprehensive picture of applicants. Ultimately, they want to make the best possible selection in order to attract the most suitable candidate for the vacant position. In the meantime, more and more companies are using the advantages that the time-shifted video interview offers.

The time-shifted video interview

With a time-shifted video interview the applicant answers questions via the video function on his smartphone that his potential new employer has stored for him in advance. After viewing the application documents or the targeted preselection through active sourcing, the candidates receive an invitation to this time-delayed video interview . This invitation contains a job code that the applicant enters into the app and which he has previously downloaded from the app store or play store.

As soon as the candidate has answered the questions by video in a few minutes the responsible recruiter receives a notification. The created video interview is ready for viewing. The candidate can sit hundreds of kilometers away in his own four walls, while the recruiter can now view the video interviews in a browser-based manner at any time from any location. Authorized colleagues or other relevant decision-makers can have access to the video interviews. Assessments and comments can be stored in the system. This simplifies the comparison of the video interviews.

Quickly check success-relevant skills

Candidates, recruiters and team leaders have to meet each other do not sit face to face 1: 1 at this early stage video interviews. This saves time and money on both sides. The development shows that more and more companies are turning to this practical recruiting tool. At this point in time, information from the résumé, e.g. business fluent English and the suitability of the candidate for the organization, can be checked. Here, the searching company can inquire about the following relevant topics:

• Which values ​​ are important to the candidate?
• Which special competencies does he bring with him?
• Where would he like to set the priorities in his future activity ?
• What is special to him important for his new professional challenge ?

The answers from the video interviews of the particularly interesting candidates from the pre-selection give a deeper insight into the special interests, skills, competencies and, above all, the personality of the respective candidate. In this way, valuable information can be obtained at an early stage. They help to decide whether the candidate really belongs to the narrower group of promising applicants. At this point, you can determine which 3-5 candidates will then be invited to a personal interview with a “clear conscience”.

The Video interview – The procedure

1. After the first inspection of the application documents the most interesting candidates are invited to a delayed video interview
2. With a own video message the company introduces itself to the candidates and invites them to a video interview
3. The candidates each answer a question relevant to the position from the areas of personality, motivation and qualification

The advantages of the procedure

1. Standardized process: Every candidate for a certain position gets the same questions. For companies this means: applicants can be compared with one another. For the candidate this means: Everyone has a fair chance of success.
2. Faster decisions: a consequence of standardization. The questions are only stored once in the system for each position and criterion – that’s it! Within a few days, the applicants’ video responses are there and the recruiter decides which applicant is suitable for the personal interview. No comparison to the effort involved in coordinating telephone calls or Skype interviews.
3. Accurate selection of applicants: The questions examine different fields of competence (personality, motivation and qualifications). In this way, they provide a reliable picture of the suitability for applicants and their suitability for the organization.

Conclusion

With the help of the videos, companies can gain a personal impression in less than 3 minutes from the most interesting candidates. The video interviews of all interesting applicants can be compared and used again as part of the fit. In addition, this saves costs on the company and applicant side thanks to browser-based HR software. Furthermore, there is no preparation and follow-up time for a large number of candidates. This applies to candidates for whom it would become apparent after a short time in the interview that they do not fit the position and / or the company.

In addition, no talents and competencies remain hidden behind the pure facts, dates and key points in the résumé. Because quite a few applicants who would actually be excellently suited for a position receive a rejection solely on the basis of formal criteria or breaks in their CV. A delayed video interview gives such candidates a real chance to make the leap into a personal interview.