A Guide to Video Interviews with Local Candidates

A Guide to Video Interviews with Local Candidates The video interview: it’s not just for international candidates. There’s a misconception that video interviews are only for connecting with candidates far, far away. While video interviewing can be a good tool for bridging large distances, it’s also an effective method to connect with candidates closer to home. The video interview can help your company streamline the recruiting process, whether you’re a staffing company with a high volume of candidates or your company is just looking to fill one job vacancy. Here are some ways video interviews might be the key to shortening your process, even if your top candidates are local talent: 1) Whittle down the candidate pool: It doesn’t matter if you’re a big staffing company or a small scale startup, today’s economy has widened the candidate pool for every open position. On average, top employers are receiving anywhere from 85 to 211 graduates vying for new positions. With this kind of volume, it’s become essential to find ways to streamline the traditional recruiting process so you’re not wasting hours evaluating the wrong people. A one-way video interview can be the answer for quickly yet efficiently weeding through a large volume of candidates. In a one-way video interview, candidates answer an employer’s written questions on video. These videos can then be watched at any time by employers, meaning you no longer have to spend 30 minutes or more on the phone with the wrong person. You get a personal feel for the candidate, yet you’re able to quickly move on if someone is all wrong for the position or company. RELATED:  How To Maximize  Video Interviews  [Useful Tips] 2) The busy passive candidate: Passive candidates are a myth: currently, 77 percent of employed workers are either actively looking for new opportunities or open to new career prospects. While the traditional passive candidate may be an urban legend, there is some truth to the difficulties of connecting with currently employed talent. Passive candidates might not be truly passive, but they certainly are very busy. It can be impossible to schedule an interview around the packed calendar of a really great passive candidate. They might be interested in hearing what you have to say about an open position or the company in general, but it’s likely they don’t have the time. With video interviews, you can work an interview around even the busiest schedules. For instance, passive candidates can answer your questions in a one-way video interview that they record right from their favorite mobile device. They can also connect with you in person in a live video interview whenever there’s a break in their schedule. This removes the hassles of the traditional hiring process, like a candidate getting lost on the way to a new office or finding themselves stuck in traffic. With a live video interview, you can connect personally in real-time, no road rage required. RELATED:  How To Recruit  Passive Candidates  Online 3) Increased collaboration: Your candidate doesn’t need to be located around the world for video interviews to assist with hiring collaboration. For staffing companies, video interviews help you share great candidates with clients, since both one-way and live video interviews are always recorded. For companies hiring for internal positions, it’s great to be able to share talented candidates with the team or department looking for a new superstar hire. Using video interviewing for local talent means easing collaboration with the whole team, making it easier for you to hire the most qualified and best fitting candidate. Video interviewing is certainly effective for connecting with candidates who can’t make it into the office due to distance. But that’s not where the application of video interviewing ends. As a recruiting tool, video interviewing can help you streamline the process, connect with passive candidates, and better collaborate with everyone on your team. This way you can be sure to find the best people faster and easier. What are some ways you use video interviews to connect with local talent? Share in the comments! Author: Josh Tolan is the CEO of Spark Hire, a video powered hiring solution that allows staffing professionals to collaborate with their clients around video interviews.