Digital interviews are helping hiring managers and recruiters to save time and money during the recruitment process. No more emailing back and forth about suitable times for a video interview – why not just conduct digital interviews instead?

What is A Digital Interview?

Digital interviews are online interviews where you provide a set of questions to the candidate. Then, using the digital interview software you have selected, they record their answers on a webcam for you to review later on.

Candidates are usually given a time limit of one or two minutes to read through each question and consider their response. Then they have a time limit in which to answer it, usually three to five minutes. These are typically set up to run for a week, and the participant can complete it at any time during that period. Many digital interviews provide the respondents with the chance to re-record their answer if they make a mistake.

These types of digital interviews are becoming more and more common during the recruitment process. They are often used in the first round of interviews to filter through candidates before you decide who is worth meeting via video interview.

Why Hold Digital Interviews?

Timesaving

Digital interviews are a lifesaver for overworked and under-resourced recruiters and hiring managers. If you don’t have the time to sit down and conduct a video interview with every candidate you’re interested in, digital interviews are the answer. The great thing about these is that you can sit down to review the respondents’ answers whenever you have a free moment. Rather than clearing time in your schedule, just watch these in your free time.

Find Out More

If you want to find out more about the candidates you have, digital interviews are an effective way of achieving this. You can write the questions yourself that the candidates will respond to, giving you the opportunity to fill in any information gaps you have.

Shortlisting

If you only want to video interview a couple of people, it can be hard to differentiate between all the candidates from resumes and cover letters alone. Digital interviews provide you with the opportunity to compare and differentiate between candidates. Hiring managers generally find that after reviewing the responses from digital interviews, they know exactly who they want to put on their shortlist.

Your Guide to Successful Digital Interviews

Choose the Right Software

The success of digital interviews largely falls upon the quality of the software you select. When holding digital interviews, you will need a platform to do this on. Look for one that lets the candidates have do-overs. Some types will only allow the respondents to record one answer to each question, with no opportunity for repeating a question. By offering applicants more tries, you will likely get better responses from them, as they can re-do it and perfect their answers. This rewards candidates who choose to put in more effort by doing it again.

Ask Probing Questions

Writing the questions is the next most crucial component of digital interviews. Make sure that you design your questions to be open-ended. This gives candidates more chance to expand on their answers and give you more thorough information.

The intent of the questions in this round are generally to get to know more about the candidate and why they are interested in your company. Many hiring managers leave the situational and behavioral interview questions for the next interview round. Instead, you could ask questions about the applicants’ goals, what drew them to the position, and why they want to work for you.

Look for Applicants Who Have Done Their Research

If you are giving candidates the chance to re-do their responses, there is no excuse for candidates who haven’t done their research. Asking something simple such as ‘what do you know about our company?’ is a clear indication of how interested someone is in the position. Those who are not committed to working for you may give vague information, and it will be apparent that they don’t know much about your organization. Look for the ones who provide detailed, in-depth answers, showing their knowledge. These people are more passionate about landing the position.

Create an Explanatory Email

Many people will not have completed digital interviews before, and perhaps not even heard of them. For this reason, it’s crucial that you craft an excellent explanatory email, telling them what to expect. This email should include details of how to log on, information on how the process runs, and the types of questions they will be asked. This allows people to log on with no issues and prepare well for the interview. It may be worth going into the software from the candidate’s point of view and responding to a digital interview you have set up so you can see what issues they may run into.

No Answer is an Answer

Something that you will likely discover when running digital interviews is that some applicants simply won’t respond at all. This may be because they are intimidated by the technology, or they expected a face-to-face interview. However, someone who isn’t willing to put in the effort to record digital interviews isn’t that interested in working for you. So, it’s best to take no answer as your answer. Instead, expand the list of people you offer digital interviews to, knowing that some may not respond.

Candidates’ Attire

The way that people dress for digital interviews can show you a lot about how seriously they are taking the process. Someone who goes online in a hoodie and sweats to record their answers, despite knowing they will be videoed, doesn’t care much about the impression they are leaving on you. Expect candidates to dress almost as professionally as they would for a face-to-face interview.

Use digital interviews to simplify and streamline your hiring process. Save yourself plenty of time and hassle when looking for new recruits by using this technology. Just make sure that you carefully select your software, explain it well to applicants, and know what to look for in candidates’ responses. That way, digital interviews can provide you with an excellent shortlist for your next round of interviews.