Recruiting and interviewing candidates is tough. A single posting can receive hundreds of applications, and most hiring platforms collect the same plain, unpersonalized information. Moreover, application tracking tracking systems (ATS) all look for the same resume keywords, meaning that good applications slip through the cracks while others game the system.
This is how you can use video surveys to quickly vet candidates holistically, collecting rich video answers to the questions that actually matter.
1. Understand the risk of bias
Video is an expressive format. This makes it possible to get far richer and more personalized responses from candidates. However, it also introduces a risk of bias. This is why it is essential, prior to starting a video hiring process, to understand and address the potential for bias. Here are a few of the first things that every organization can do to get started:
- Have a diverse hiring committee.
- Audit your hiring pipeline for bias - are genders, ages, and ethnicities appropriately represented at every step?
- If appropriate, try only collecting audio responses. This gives an awesome sense for communication without many of the bias risks in present in video.
- Stay informed. There are awesome resources with tips make hiring more fair and accessible.
2. Develop a list of unique but important questions
Take advantage the expressiveness in video by asking interesting questions that are important to your business. For example:
- Tell us about your worst failure and greatest accomplishment. Which affected you most?
- Explain something that you do better than anyone you know.
- Pitch to us as if we were a potential customer.
- Why should we hire you?
These questions are great because they encourage candidates to speak freely on their own experiences and flex their communication skills. You can find hundreds of awesome interview questions online!
3. Add the questions and match your brand
For each question, create a video (or audio) based question type inside of Phonic. Optionally collect name, email address, or even resume through a file upload question type. Finally, change the colour scheme and upload company graphics to match your brand.
4. Share the survey with candidates
There are two approaches here. The survey link could be shared publicly on a job posting, generating significant interest and collect large numbers of applications. This is the best approach when communication skills are paramount, and it's easy to measure candidate performance from these responses.
Alternatively, the survey link could be shared over email or text with candidates after an initial filtering. This is the best approach when other skills are being measured alongside communication, and an initial filter can save time reviewing responses.
5. Filter and bookmark the best applications
Accurate transcriptions make it a breeze to skim responses or dig deep on particularly great candidates. Whenever you find a standout candidate, click the bookmark icon to save them for later. Bookmarking and filtering can be done collaboratively with team-mates, and particularly great responses can be shared with a single link.
If you're interested in using Phonic for hiring, get started for free or get in touch with our team!
