Video Interviews- 5 Reasons Why They’ll Be The End Of Phone Interviews

As video interviews become more commonplace they are beginning to solidify their space in the hiring process. Previously used more towards the later stages of the process, video interviews are increasingly being used to replace the telephone screening stage . Along with providing a greater depth of information, here’s 5 reasons why we’ll see ‘automated video interviewing’ applications like OVIA.me in particular begin to replace telephone interviews:

1. No scheduling- this means no back and forth emails between candidate and employer. If you’re recruiting internationally, you don’t have to stay up until the early hours to see a sleepy picture of someone on the other side of the world.
2. Consistent responses- it’s been scientifically proven in 7 papers over the past 30 years* that  asking every candidate the same questions and not being biased by follow-ups,  provides a much more accurate predictor of aptitude.
3. Candidate comparison- even the most resilient of phone interviewers will admit they begin to get fatigued after 7 or 8 interviews and this can bias the way they evaluate candidates. Having candidates record their responses, means you don’t have to ask the same questions over and over again and you can evaluate the candidates side-by-side.
4. Time saving- not having to perform the interviews manually saves a lot of time, rather than 30 minutes, you can evaluate a candidate in 10. You can skip to the responses to your killer questions and see whether the candidates trip up.
5. Share with colleagues- recorded responses allow you to get the opinions of colleagues without them having to be there, this can give you a much more rounded opinion of a candidate while avoiding the difficulty of getting everyone in the same room.

With most people now having a reliable internet connection and access to a webcam, the convenience and relative low cost of video interviewing make sense on both sides. With the introduction of  front-facing cameras on most smart-phones and the everyone becoming more accustomed to communicating through webcam platforms like Skype, it’s only a matter of time before more organisations beginning using video interviews  for candidate screening.

*here’s one- http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1997.tb00709.x/abstract