As employers continue their efforts to optimize recruiting processes, an asynchronous video interview format has gained traction.
This unique interviewing format paves the way for recruiters to trim hiring costs, reduce the time to hire, mitigate unconscious biases, and gain deeper insights into candidates’ concepts and experience.
In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of asynchronous video interviews, how they’re conducted, and the best practices to facilitate a successful screening.
What is an asynchronous video interview?
An asynchronous video interview (AVI) is a screening format where the interviewer and candidate are not on camera simultaneously. Instead, applicants record their answers separately, typically via webcam or smartphone.
The interview gives insight into an applicant’s personality traits, problem-solving skills, and decision-making proficiency.
AVIs can be:
- Structured. These interviews follow a premeditated sequence where interviewers prepare a set of standard questions before the interview.
- Unstructured. This format offers candidates more flexibility as the questions are open-ended rather than standardized.
- Semi-structured. A blend of both formats consists of a set of predetermined questions with room for interviewers to improvise the structure.
5 benefits of asynchronous video interviews
1 – Better candidate experience
Delivering better candidate experiences is vital to improve your employer branding and incentivize top performers to apply. With asynchronous video interviews, you can schedule the session in a slot that best suits the candidate, even after traditional working hours.
In addition to the increased flexibility, AVIs improve candidates’ experience by:
- Eliminating travel times and costs.
- Allowing candidates to prepare effectively. They can rehearse using a webcam, headset, and digital whiteboard before taking the interview.
- Reducing stress by allowing candidates to take the interview in a comfortable environment.
Improving the candidate’s experiences helps recruiters evaluate applicants at their best.
2 – Create an inclusive interview process
AVIs help employers accommodate applicants suffering from physical or geographical restrictions. With an inclusive interview process, you can expand your candidate pool with AVI by reaching people across borders and socioeconomic status barriers. By increasing the pool of qualified candidates, employers increase their chances of finding the best talent.
3 – Reduce bias and improve the quality of evaluations
While recruiters can train themselves to eliminate conscious bias, unconscious biases may unknowingly slip in and hinder the authenticity of the hiring process. This problem is prevalent in traditional face-to-face interviews, but AVIs help mitigate unconscious bias.
With asynchronous video interviews, employers can create a testing environment solely based on merit, as candidates are evaluated on information-driven factors. Additionally, hiring managers can shortlist candidates who objectively perform well in standardized tests to isolate the best talent.
4 – Reduce your hiring times and costs
Reducing hiring times and costs is essential to build a sustainable recruitment funnel and avoid losing top talent to your competition. With AVIs, recruiters can trim recruiting costs by eliminating overhead and travel expenses. Additionally, since AVIs are one-way sessions, recruiters can schedule multiple interviews in the same timeframe and optimize bulk assessments, reducing hiring times.
Thus, an asynchronous online video interview is beneficial not only for your organization but also for applicants.
5 – Employ more rigorous screening practices
Leveraging asynchronous video interviews in the screening process helps recruiters evaluate candidates more comprehensively. Unlike live interviews, recorded formats allow recruiters to watch sessions at their own pace and note key factors like communication skills and body language.
Additionally, since AVIs are recorded, recruiters can share the sessions with other teammates to obtain different viewpoints. This practice also helps reduce bias from the interview process. Moreover, for tech roles, in particular, teammates have a clear idea of what skills new candidates should have, so their opinion is valuable for the screening process.
How can employers conduct an asynchronous video interview?
Here’s a rundown of everything you need to do to conduct an asynchronous video interview.
Step 1: Design questions beforehand
To accurately evaluate candidates, recruiters should prepare a list of role-specific questions beforehand. These customized questions should assess a candidate’s suitability for the role; you can customize them based on information candidates share in their resumes or CVs.
Step 2: Prepare your video recording platform and set up a schedule
Picking the right video interviewing platform is important to ensure the screening process is seamless. In general, employers need platforms that facilitate bulk assessment functionalities and automatic scheduling features (like WeCP).
Step 3: Record the interview questions
A good practice is to first introduce yourself to the candidate, explain your role in the company, and briefly discuss the role’s requirements. You can then move on to asking role-specific questions.
Step 4: Invite candidates for the interview
You can invite candidates for the interview using your preferred recruitment platform. Ideally, employers should invite candidates at least 1-2 days in advance, so applicants have time to adjust their schedule.
Examples of asynchronous video test questions
There are two main categories of asynchronous video interview questions – standard and personalized.
Standard questions are open-ended behavioral or situational questions that the interviewers commonly ask in an interview. The most common asynchronous interview example questions include:
“Tell me about yourself”
The question helps establish the nature and priorities of the candidate. It’s typically the first question an interviewer asks, mainly because it serves as an excellent ice-breaker. In addition, it gives employers insight into the candidate’s personality and cultural fit.
“Where do you see yourself in five years?”
The question aims to understand the candidate’s plans for the future, goals, and ambitions. A five-year model shows the determination of the candidate and their strategic thinking in obtaining their long-term goals.
“How would you describe your ideal work environment?”
A straightforward question that helps determine whether the candidate will be a good fit for the company. Asking this question helps evaluate the candidate’s cultural fit
Personalized questions allow employers to learn about applicants’ personalities and skills by offering them optional prompts during the questioning process.
“What makes you the right person for this position?”
Interviewers typically ask this question nearing the end of the interview to establish the candidate’s qualities that can benefit the organization. It also provides background to any professional experience held by the candidate in the same position.
“What are your strengths and weaknesses?”
While the question may appear pretty straightforward, there’s more to it than plain strengths and weaknesses. Employers usually ask this question to determine the candidate’s self-confidence. A strong candidate can list both strengths and weaknesses but also shows an interest in improvement.
“How do you handle conflict?”
Conflict in the workplace is inevitable, which is why the ideal candidate must effectively resolve disputes. The questions help you understand the candidate’s tactics and if they’re only effective in theory.
4 tips for conducting a successful asynchronous video interview
Tip 1: Use a high-quality camera setting:
Camera quality is an essential factor that can significantly impact the interviewing experience. For example, if you’re interviewing a candidate from overseas, subpar camera quality may ruin the video chat’s quality and make it difficult to read the applicant’s body language. Additionally, poor-quality streaming strains your eyes and makes bulk evaluations tiring.
Tip 2: Don’t leave it all to the last minute:
When conducting an asynchronous video interview, it is essential to take the necessary steps to avoid stress and deliver a positive candidate experience. Set up interviewing platform in advance and test your connection. It is also a good idea to prepare questions in a logical order to make answering them more convenient for the candidates.
Tip 3: Ask personalized, open-ended questions:
Personalized questions like: “Can you tell me about a time when…” or “Describe a situation where….” allows candidates to showcase unique personality traits, enabling recruiters to learn more about the applicants’ cultural fit, ambitions, and values.
Additionally, you can opt for open-ended questions to give candidates more room to showcase their experience. For example, questions like: “What did you find challenging about this task?” instead of “Did you find this task challenging?” allow interviewees to expand their answers without being limited to yes/no responses.
By asking the right questions, employers can better assess candidates based on deeper insights.
Tip 4: Pick the perfect spot:
Picking the right spot to record the interview questions is important to improve candidates’ experiences. You should record the questioning in a quiet place without distractions, with good lighting, so candidates receive your video and audio clearly.
Make sure there aren’t any shadows or glare on your camera lens – this will cause poor lighting and bad image quality. Additionally, try recording in a professional setting to avoid distractions that may throw the candidate off-guard.
Take your tech hiring to new heights by leveraging skill assessment tests
While asynchronous video interviews have revolutionized the hiring process, there are certain limitations to it. For a technical job, it’s difficult to determine the candidate’s skillset using a video interview alone. Therefore, employers incorporate skill assessment tests in the hiring process.
Skill tests offer meaningful insight into candidates’ practical abilities. They also improve your hiring process by acting as a filter, ensuring only the top-performers are shortlisted.
Similar to AVIs, skill assessment tests are one-way and can be conveniently conducted online, in bulk. Advanced tech recruiting platforms like WeCP (We Create Problems) let employers assess thousands of candidates simultaneously across 12+ performance metrics.
Additionally, WeCP’s platform comes with integrated virtual meeting software to incorporate an asynchronous video interview in the screening process.
Start acquiring the best tech talent with WeCP, an all-in-one tech recruitment solution.
