Tag: Candidate Interview

Pre-Screening Candidates for Recruitment Success

Posted on by anirban sengupta

How Prescreening Can Help You Find Quality Candidates

The hiring process can be a time-consuming and expensive task for any company. In today’s job market, there is a surplus of candidates, but the challenge is to find the right fit for the job. Prescreening is an essential tool that can help you identify the most qualified candidates quickly and efficiently.

Why Prescreening Applicants is Essential

Prescreening applicants is essential because it helps to identify the most qualified candidates quickly and efficiently. It can also help decrease the risk of hiring the wrong candidate, which can be costly for any company. A bad hire can lead to wasted time and resources, reduced productivity, and a negative impact on company morale.

Best Ways To Screen Applicants

There are several effective ways to screen applicants:

Check Your ATS

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are software applications that help you manage and organize your hiring process. ATS can help you prescreen candidates by filtering out those who do not meet the minimum requirements for the job. This can save you time and resources by only allowing you to focus on the most qualified candidates.

Cover Letters

Cover letters are an effective way to prescreen candidates. Cover letters can give you insight into a candidate’s communication skills, writing ability, and motivation for the job. A well-written cover letter can indicate that a candidate is serious about the job and has taken the time to research the company.

Resume Screening

Resume screening is an essential part of the prescreening process. A candidate’s resume can give you insight into their education, experience, and qualifications for the job. You can quickly eliminate candidates who do not meet the minimum requirements for the job.

Phone Interviews

Phone interviews are an effective way to prescreen candidates. Phone interviews can give insight into a candidate’s communication skills, professionalism, and experience. You can quickly eliminate candidates who need to meet the minimum requirements for the job.

Video Interviews

Video interviews are an increasingly popular way to prescreen candidates. Video interviews can give insight into a candidate’s personality, communication skills, and professionalism. Video interviews can save you time and money by eliminating the need for in-person interviews for candidates who do not meet the minimum requirements for the job.

One-Way Video Interviews

One-way video interviews are a variation of video interviews. The candidate records their responses to pre-determined questions in a one-way video interview. One-way video interviews can save you time and money by allowing you to review the candidate’s responses at your convenience.

Reference Checking

Reference checking is an essential part of the prescreening process. Reference checking can give you insight into a candidate’s work experience, skills, and work ethic. You can quickly eliminate candidates who do not meet the minimum requirements for the job.

Skill Tests

Skill tests are an effective way to prescreen candidates. Skill tests can give you insight into a candidate’s skills and abilities required for the job. Skill tests can save you time and resources by eliminating candidates who do not meet the minimum requirements for the job.

Temp-Hire

Temp hire is an effective way to prescreen candidates. Temp hire can give you insight into a candidate’s work ethic, skills, and abilities required for the job. Temp hire can save you time and resources by allowing you to evaluate the candidate’s performance on the job before making a permanent hire.

Best Practices in Prescreening

practices you should follow:

  • Inform candidates of all prescreening: Let them know what prescreening techniques you will use so they can prepare accordingly.
  • Use the same prescreening process on all candidates: Using the same process can ensure that you are fair and objective in your hiring process.
  • Give candidates a copy of their background check: Candidates have the right to know what information is used to make hiring decisions.
  • Destroy background checks after use: It’s important to protect candidate privacy by destroying any personal information collected during the prescreening process after it’s no longer needed.

How to Conduct the Prescreening Process

To begin, it’s important to introduce yourself and give the candidate an opportunity to do the same. This can provide valuable insight into their communication style and personality. It’s also important to introduce the company and the position, although they may already have this information. 

Be sure to highlight the company’s selling points and position throughout the conversation rather than overwhelming the candidate with too much information upfront. It’s best to keep the conversation flowing naturally and avoid long monologues. Let the candidate do most of the talking, as this can provide valuable information about their qualifications and fit for the position.

Next, ask your questions and take notes, keeping the conversation brief and aiming for a 15-minute timeframe. When wrapping up the call, be sure to set clear expectations for the next steps in the hiring process. This could include scheduling a follow-up message via email, phone, or video chat. 

If the call is going well and you feel like the candidate is a strong fit, take a little extra time to sell the company and position. However, if your employer brand is strong, you may only need to promote the position.

Whenever possible, it’s recommended to use a video chat service like Google Hangouts or Skype instead of audio-only. This can provide a more organic conversation and allow for a better evaluation of the candidate’s communication skills and overall fit for the position.

Prescreening with Automation

Using automation can make the prescreening process more efficient and effective. Automated prescreening tools can help you quickly and accurately evaluate candidates based on pre-determined criteria. Automated tools can also help you track candidate data and maintain compliance with hiring regulations.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is prescreening?

Pre-screening is a process that helps businesses identify the best job candidates for a role by collecting, verifying, and analyzing background information.

What are some popular prescreening techniques?

Some of the most popular pre-screening techniques include background checks, CV evaluations, personality assessments, predictive indexes, and providing job interview tips.

What are the benefits of prescreening candidates?

Pre-screening enables you to understand a candidate’s qualifications and experience better. This can help you identify the most qualified person for the job. It also helps to save time and resources by filtering out unsuitable applicants.

Video Screening Interviews- Everything HR Needs to Know

Posted on by anirban sengupta

What is Video Screening Interview 

A video interview or a video screening interview is an interview arrangement conducted remotely using technology to communicate between the two parties. They are cost-effective both for the candidate and the company.

The interviews are designed to video screen candidates, which is far superior to simply looking at a CV since it lets the candidates’ personalities and communication skills shine. These are especially effective in assessing individuals for occupations in which excellent communication skills or the capacity to create rapport are essential.

How to Use Video Screening Interview for Hiring

Video screening interview can bridge geographic constraints, reduce costs, and fasten the interview process. Though video interviews are convenient, certain things must be kept in mind to make the process smooth. Let’s discuss some of them:

Plan the Process

It is crucial to plan the video interview to avoid any glitches on the execution day. Every virtual task is subject to uncertainties, but it could be reduced to an acceptable level when carried out with proper planning and strategy.

Specific profiles require you to submit additional work samples or complete an assignment. Often, several steps have to be completed before successfully conducting a video screening interview. All the details must be communicated to the candidates on time to show the interview process properly.

Testing Interviewing Equipment

A video interview relies on various factors like internet connection, software, and audio. Things can go wrong and derail the interview if any of the elements work differently than they are intended to. It is essential to check the speaker, webcam, and internet connection before the interview to ensure a smooth interview process.

The company must provide all the information before video screening the candidates before the interview to test out the software themselves. One can go the extra mile and conduct a few mock sessions with team members to ensure everyone knows how to set up a meeting, mute themselves and share the screen during an interview.

Craft Relevant Questions

Conducting a video interview also includes preparing relevant questions and a proper setup. These questions need to be designed to test if the candidate is fit for the applied designation, their character, and whether they can fulfill the company’s expectations. They should be linked with the candidate’s resume, asking about their experiences and expectations.

Notify Candidates as Early as Possible

A candidate is already nervous while appearing for a video screening interview. Nobody likes last-minute confusion about rules and regulations to be followed for an interview. It is vital to keep the candidates well updated in advance so they can get enough time to prepare for the video job interview. The candidate should be informed about all the essential rules and regulations to be followed on the video interview much before the interview to make them adequately prepared. It is advised to update the candidates at least three days before their scheduled date to make sure everything is clear.

Choose a Decent, Well-lit interviewing space.

The conversation is best executed when there is eye contact between the two parties. It helps engage more and gives an in-person feeling to a video interview. Interviewing in a room with proper lighting and no disturbance makes a huge difference. It not only leaves a professional impression but also ensures a better conversation.

Use Pre-recorded Video Interview

Pre-recorded interviews are typically used to rapidly and effectively screen a large number of job applications and serve as a pre-screening step before inviting prospects to an in-person interview. Candidates that accept an invitation to participate in a pre-recorded interview might expect the hiring manager to see their video immediately. Pre-recorded interviews have a number of advantages. Pre-recorded interviews are unplanned and can be conducted whenever it is most convenient for the candidate, in contrast to in-person or video job interviews.

As with all interview styles, individuals that take the time to conduct their research will ultimately benefit. The pre-recorded interview questions should be answered the same way as any other interview question. In addition to demonstrating their familiarity with the business and sector, they should tie their talents to the ideal job description. Candidates should plan ahead and take advantage of the chance to highlight their background, interests, and personality.

Set up the Feedback Process

When the entire process of the video job interview is executed correctly, the next step will be to provide feedback to the candidates. Giving feedback is as important as the interview itself.

Providing feedback conveys to the candidate that the company is concerned about them and values them. It increases their association with the organization they are about to join. Similarly, one should also provide input on how to work on their shortcomings and perform better in the future.

Conduct Video Interviews with Oorwin

As an organization, managing volume hiring and recruitment can be a tedious task. That is where Oorwin, an AI-enabled platform with 100+ integrations, comes into the picture. Oorwin has in-built video interview screening applications such as Jobma, Zoom, Otomeyt and others which ensures a smooth and efficient candidate screening journey.

Evaluate for yourself with our free demo, you can book here.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does video screening mean?

A video screening interview helps candidates to demonstrate their qualifications in a virtual setting, which allows interviewers to assess them. It is just a tiny portion of the overall pre-employment screening procedure.

What are the two types of virtual interviews?

The two types of virtual interviews are: live and pre-recorded. The live ones are the most preferred as they are the best alternative to the in-person interviews.

How can video interviews improve hiring?

The in-person interviews get hectic and unorganized sometimes due to the number of applicants. Video interviews eliminate this confusion as each shortlisted candidate is given a pre-decided time slot. It leads to better execution.