Still Do Your Research And Come Prepared
Before the video interview process, be sure to read up about the company’s mission statement, services and products offered, consumer base, and even any recent press releases they might have. This helps you to be informed about the latest happenings in the company and allows you to discuss them knowledgeably. Similarly, you should also be prepared to answer any questions about your past experiences. Be sure to review your resume right before recording the video and prepare some talking points. Lastly, dress professionally when you’re recording your video interview, even if you’re just recording in your bedroom.
First Phone Interview Tip: Plan For It
As you would for any business conversation, you want to practice good etiquette when scheduling and conducting a phone screen interview. Respect the interviewees time by keeping to the schedule. Respect their availability for the phone call, too. If a candidate has a job, even if theyre working from home, they may not be able to talk until after business hours.
Approach every conversation with a blank slate, and treat each candidate fairly and equally. Remain fully engaged during every call. All that can be easier said than done: When you conduct one phone screen interview after another, its easy to race through the questions you ask each person. If that sounds like you, refrain from stacking up the calls back-to-back. And set aside a time and if youre not at your office a location where you can conduct the screening interview free of noise or other distractions.
Remember, youre engaging with an external audience. A professional, thoughtful screening interview will burnish your business reputation a hurried process and a gruff manner wont reflect well on you or your firm. Keep in mind that your top candidates are evaluating you as closely as you are them. Some might decline an invitation to a formal interview if theyre at all uncomfortable during this initial contact.
Tools Used For Screening Interviews
- Phone
Your smartphone or regular telephone is an important tool when conducting a phone screening interview. In face-to-face interviews, you can use your phone to take notes, track the time, or conduct research.
- Laptop/Computers
It is more convenient for you to conduct a video screening interview using your laptop or computer. You get to enjoy a better user experience when you make use of video conferencing platforms via your laptop or computer.
- Audio Speakers
This is another useful tool for telephone and video screening interviews as it helps you avoid audio glitches. You can purchase wireless audio speakers too.
- Workspace
Face-to-face screening interviews are usually conducted in workspaces. Your workspace needs to be neat, comfortable, and easily accessible to the candidates and interviewers. You can opt for a phone or video interview if you do not have access to a comfortable workspace.
- Online Form Builder
An online form builder is a simple tool that you can use to create a questionnaire for your screening interview. The Formplus form builder has over 30 form fields plus a drag-and-drop feature that makes it easy for you to collect different information from form respondents.
Visit www.formpl.us to create your Formplus account and access the easy-to-use form builder.
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Why Should You Add This Step
Save time: The list for this step contains candidates with interesting traits that may fit the hiring position when you review their applications from the application process. Having insights about them helps to eliminate any applicant that may not meet the requirements and thus, save time for not inviting them for the official interview.
Supporting materials for interview/ future recruitment: Even if the candidates are not chosen for the official interview, their answers provide more data for a set of specific job titles that can help recruiters to conduct better recruitment program . This is essentially important when you interview fresh undergraduates and graduates as you can have realistic information about the quality for graduates from specific universities and young peoples expectations for their future jobs.
Improve candidate experience: Adding another step in the process means having another chance to communicate with candidates. As candidates have a chance to speak with recruiters in advance, they may feel more relaxed when it comes to the real interview, ensuring a smooth conversation with a confident candidate.Another way to create engaging experience for candidates is to streamline scheduling process to make it effortless, eliminate old-fashioned back and forth communication and enable candidates to self-schedule.
Determine What Really Matters
If youre hiring for a position that needs to be filled as soon as possible, you probably wont pursue a candidate that requires a three-month notice period. Think about your needs. Are you exclusively looking for a full-time, experienced, immediately available business graduate whos willing to relocate? Or are you ready to be flexible in order to secure a stellar candidate?
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Questions To Reveal Organizational Skills
Finding an employee who can stay on task and organized is crucial in picking the right candidate. You want to find someone dedicated to completing their responsibilities on time, without having to be micromanaged.
It can be challenging to determine a persons organizational skills through a simple phone call, but if you are video chatting, you can use the time to take in the persons appearance and the area around them.
A disheveled appearance or a cluttered work area can signify someone who doesnt put much thought into organization.
Try asking these pre-screening questions for your candidates to determine their opinions on organization and time management:
- Do you have experience working on more than one project at a time?
- How do you prioritize tasks?
- What tools do you use to manage projects, so theyre completed by the due date?
Uses Of A Screening Interview
- Job
A screening interview is an important part of the hiring process as it helps organizations to identify candidates who have the required potential for existing opportunities. It is a simple way for you to find the right professionals for your organization without investing too much time or resources.
In addition, a screening interview makes the hiring process seamless and more efficient. This is because candidates who make it through this stage are a step closer to sealing the deal with your organization while candidates who do not get passed this stage are automatically weeded off.
This way, you do not have to invite everyone who applied to your organization for a face-to-face conversation with your team you only get to invite candidates who have the most potential and meet the stipulated requirements for the role. It is common knowledge that job adverts usually attract a large pool of candidates and a number of them may not fit into the role.
- Fellowships and Scholarships
Screening interviews are also useful in fellowships and scholarships. Fellowships and scholarships are usually highly-competitive and so, the best way to sift through large volumes of applications is to conduct pre-screening, screening, and post-screening interviews before giving any awards.
- Medical
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How Do I Prepare For A Pre
- Choose the appropriate questions that will help eliminate candidates.
- Select an interview format that suits your hiring requirements.
- Create an extensive schedule that leaves ample room for interviews and note-taking.
- Create an interview scorecard or checklist.
- Communicate with candidates beforehand to ensure the process runs smoothly.
Record In The Right Environment
When you think about how to succeed in pre-recorded video interviews, it’s important to start from the background of your recording. Record in front of a wall with neutral colors, avoiding wallpapers and distracting, patterned walls. All the focus should be on you not the background. Additionally, ensure that your workplace is tidy and clean before starting the video. You don’t want those reviewing your videos to notice a mess.
When it comes to recording, position your webcam so that it’s at eye-level when you sit down, and be sure that you have sufficient lighting in the room so you can be clearly seen without shadows or too much backlight. Turn on all the lights in the room if possible, and close the curtains to prevent glare if you’re recording in the daytime. Your recording space should also be quiet, so try to eliminate any possible distractions. Turn off your mobile phone and any other devices in the room that may create ambient noise. Also make sure that you have a great internet connection to prevent disruptions.
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What You Should Know About Interview Pre
A pre-screening interview is a quick glance at the basic qualifications that a candidate may have. A brief synopsis of the resume and some quick-fire questions about basic requirements will determine whether the employer wants to move forward with a formal interview process.
The reason that many employers are utilizing this method instead of going right to in-person interviews is a rather large applicant pool. This allows hiring managers to more rapidly find candidates that will best suit the particular position based on a quick assessment of key knowledge areas. Pre-screening applicants also helps hiring managers to give more of the interview process time to top candidates.
There are two main ways most pre-screening interviews are done: as phone interviews or by video chat. These generally do not exceed 30 minutes and at the end, qualified candidates will be informed if there will be a formal interview and how to set that up.
Why Do You Want To Work For This Company
Asking about a candidates desire to work for your company serves two important purposes.
First, it lets you gauge candidates knowledge of your company and their true interest in the open role. If a job seeker is simply applying to any open position, he or she likely will not conduct any additional research on your company and will provide a weak or generic answer to this question.
Second, this type of question can help you determine if your job descriptions are doing the company and/or position justice. If applicants fully understand the purpose of the company as well as the duties and requirements of the role, their answers will reflect that understanding.
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Application And Resume Screening
The first step in identifying qualified candidates is screening online applications and resumes. Using applicant tracking software , you can filter for resumes with keywords relevant to the positions criteria.
After pre-screening applications with an ATS, you may manually review resumes for basic requirements, such as:
- Relevant working experience
- Sexual Orientation
- Religion
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reviews how information is used and the intent of the interviewer when assessing potential employment discrimination. To avoid legal issues, always have a job-related necessity for asking any question.
Same Questions Every Time
Whether they interview you face to face, over the phone, on Skype, on Zoom, or even using a virtual machine , you will deal with similar questions in every screening interview.
Most of the questions are relatively simple, because our goal is to hear you talking. Every word you say, every gesture you make, tells something about you. The exact questions are not so important at this stage of recruiting processand thats why many companies will go with common interview questions. Your answers to these questions tell them enough about your personality and motivation. They will keep the really tough questions for second, and final interview with you
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Why Should I Use Pre
Hiring candidates that do not meet the role’s requirements or fit into the work environment can be costly and time-consuming. Pre-screening questions can help employers better identify candidates who suit the role, team, and work environment, which ultimately helps speed up the hiring process and improves quality of hire.
Why Do You Want To Work For Our Company
Employers want to hire people who are excited about their customers, product or service as they typically are loyal employees. Research your potential employer to understand their corporate mission, values statement, community involvement, customer base and product offering. This answer allows you to show your research and passion for the company.
Example:”I recently read an article about the Habitat for Humanity project your business led in the surrounding communities. I have volunteered with them in my town and really appreciate their hard work and dedication to helping those in need. While reading the article, I was excited that your corporate values align with my own. That actually is what led me to check your website for current job openings. I would love to join your team and be part of the effort to make a difference in the community through my work here.”
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Tell Me About Yourself
This is the most common opening question for a pre-screen interview. This is your chance to give your elevator pitch to the recruiter and tell them your professional interests and background. They want to learn about your interests, personality and conversation abilities. Your answer to this question should be short, but detailed enough that the interviewer can gain an understanding of what kind of person you are. Focus your answer on your relevant professional background and experiences.
Example:”I am a direct sales marketing professional with five years of experience managing a marketing team. I am passionate about strategizing new women’s apparel marketing techniques with my team and engaging with our brand’s customers. In my current role, I focus on retail marketing strategies targeted at women aged 35-50 using social media, direct sales and product networking. I went into the marketing industry because I have always had a knack for pitching sales ideas.”
How Would You Describe Your Accomplishments
- If you have qualities that people at your workplace are attracted to, wouldnt you be inspired if they talked about it? So recall the time when your customer or line manager patted your back for meeting deadlines.
- However small the appreciation, they can tell a lot about your values to a potential employer and make an impact in your pre screening interview.
- Sample answer:
- A genuine response is one that sounds like your actions were inspired by life events like this employee.
- I am a firm believer of consistency. A habit I inherited from my father. He always stressed the importance of work ethics and avoided shortcuts. Each day, I live up to standards that inspire good actions in people around me.
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How To Create An Online Questionnaire With Formplus
- Visit www.formpl.us to create your Formplus account.
- Log in to access your dashboard and choose the “create new form” option.
- Drag and drop preferred fields from the builder’s inputs section into your form. You can modify form fields by clicking on the pencil icon.
- Save your form to access the builder’s customization section. Here, you can tweak the overall appearance of your form by adding your organization’s logo and preferred background images.
- Copy your form link and share it with respondents.
Be Prepared To Discuss
The call isnt only about candidates answering your phone screening questions. Its also a great opportunity for you to clarify details about the position and the hiring process. Make sure that, by the end of the call, candidates understand fully what the role is about as well as what the next steps are. If youre a recruiter, this means youll have to spend some time talking to the hiring managers so that youll be ready to give a clear explanation of the role.
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What Are You Looking For In A Manager
As a recruiter or hiring manager, you know who the employee is that will oversee the open role and exactly what management style he or she has. Asking your applicant for specifics about what they like in a boss can help you close in on the type of hire who will thrive in this job.
As you evaluate responses and choose the best candidates to bring in, remember to follow-up with rejected candidates in a timely fashion. Then, get ready for the interview process – keeping in mind that candidates are always evaluating you, too.Need help matching qualified candidates to your company’s open roles? Contact Glassdoor to see how we can help.
From the Resource Library
What About Candidate Experience
One may feel inclined to make the assumption that most candidates will feel uncomfortable answering questions facing their phone or laptop camera, instead of talking to a recruiter.
But there are a few reasons that contradict this line of thinking. First, we live in a digital era where communication is as technological as it can get. Everyone is used to recording voice and video messages and sending them over to someone or publishing it on their social media profiles. Its easy, fast and fun!
Also, receiving a call from a recruiter can put an amount of pressure on a candidate as big as a face-to-face interview does. So, allowing the candidate to prepare himself before answering the recruiters questions and doing it when and where the candidate feels more at ease actually helps improving interview performance of candidates that could, otherwise, seem like they were less qualified and get ditched from the process.
Ultimately, pre-recorded video interviews allow recruiters to offer applicants a modern and flexible process, providing a better experience to the candidate.
Skeeled offers you the perfect opportunity to bring innovation anddigitalisation to your hiring. Check our website orour and pages for further information.
Thanks for reading and see you next time!
Your team here at skeeled
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