11 Jan 4 Tips to Craft the Perfect Set of Video Interview Questions

Video Interviewing is fast becoming the new normal for post-assessment screening, but are you really taking advantage of its full potential?

At Talegent, we’ve enhanced our video interview interface to become more user friendly and responsive than ever before! If you haven’t used video interviewing before, don’t be nervous about the change to modernize your recruitment process, as everything you know about recruitment practices still holds true. If you have used our existing video interview interface before, you will notice a refreshed candidate experience with comprehensive mobile functionality across all iOS and Android devices.

We’ve taken the hassle away, but to make the most of our technology, designing the perfect set of video interview questions is still up to you! Here are four tips to set you on the right path:

1. Start directive

Some questions are too open ended and may steer the candidate in a different direction. Start with a short and confronting question such as: “Why should we hire you?” to engage the candidate. This question is short, to the point and can catch candidates who have prepared a lengthy response off guard. Being directive is also great in inducing a candidate’s natural first reaction.

2. Set the Scene

To avoid candidates describing their life story, you should set the scene for them! Embrace the hypothetical and get a scenario rolling for the candidate to respond to. Instead of digging up past experiences, these kinds of questions will help you understand how they’ll react in the real world, and more accurately predict their adaptability and learning agility.

3. Provide Variety

Video interviews are a popular way to get to know the candidate before you meet them. Feel free to mix up your questions and maybe get just a little personal. Shifting focus back and forth from your company and the role to the candidate is a great way to provide a varied candidate experience and illicit more authentic responses.

4. End Open

Towards the tail end candidates tend to summarise what they’ve already said in previous questions. Because candidates cannot divert questions, make sure your “catch-all” question both gives them the opportunity to express themselves and is phrased to extract novel conversation topics. Examples include: “Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?” and “What have we missed about you?”

By better designing and structuring your questions, you increase the effectiveness of video interviewing as well as improving the candidate experience. It’s worth spending a little time modernizing your recruitment practices beforehand, as the implementation on candidates in the future will be more agile.

Talegent’s Video Interview works with you to mobilize and modernize your recruitment process.