Our New Favorite Hiring Tool: One-Way Interviews

You post a job and are inundated with candidates. It’s the dream, right?

Two words: It’s complicated.

Relaxed remote work policies, high unemployment rates, and a variety of other factors account for the unmatched hiring interest many businesses are experiencing right now. But there’s a critical detail to remember:

High volume doesn’t necessarily translate to high quality.

In fact, in our experience, the opposite is often true: The greater the response to a job posting, the greater chance the majority of candidates are underqualified, or simply not a fit. This puts added pressure on the screening and qualifying process that follows. Already a critical step in the high-stakes game of hiring, screening takes on added importance in a crowded candidate pool.

Which brings us to a timesaving tool we discovered last year. We initially used it out of necessity when COVID made in-person interviews impossible. Sold on its merits, we’ll continue using it in myHR Partner’s hiring process even after COVID restrictions lift – and are recommending it to clients on an ongoing basis, too:

One-way interviews.

Sometimes called asynchronous interviewing, one-way interviews let candidates use a computer camera or smartphone to record and submit video answers to questions of your choice. What’s in it for you, the prospective employer? You get to experience a candidates’ body language, voice, and sensibility before committing to a two-way interview (virtual or otherwise) that requires your active involvement and mutual availability.

More reasons we like one-way interviews:

• You can watch candidates’ recorded responses at your leisure.
• Video submissions are short – usually capped around 15 minutes, depending on the program you’re using. It’s enough time to gain some sense of a person, but short compared to other screening alternatives. The cost savings and time savings are real.
• One-way interviews allow interviewees to record at a time that works for them – a considerate move right now, when many households are juggling remote schooling and other quarantine-induced realities that might impact availability, background, wi-fi bandwidth, and noise.
• Now that video calls have been mainstreamed, candidates are more likely to feel comfortable on camera than they were just a year ago.
• There’s no limit to the number of candidates you can screen except for the time you’re willing to spend watching submissions. Clients tell us they’re able to explore more candidates than usual with one-way interviewing because of the efficiency.

We haven’t experienced resistance to one-way interviews yet, but it will happen eventually – bringing us to an important point: Always be prepared to offer traditional or alternative options to applicants whose religion forbids them from appearing on-camera, who don’t have access to a smartphone or computer camera, or who are just camera shy. You never want to lose a candidate or cause undue stress at this point in the process, and certainly don’t want to inadvertently discriminate.

We all know the high cost of bad hires (especially bad full-time hires). Whether you handle hiring in-house or outsource the recruitment process, let us know if we can share more one-way interviewing tips and best practices. Reach out to myHR Partner via our Request a Consultation form– we’ll help you hire smarter whatever your circumstances.