Asynchronous Interviews: Adding flexibility to campus hiring

The COVID-19 pandemic that struck last year upended life at work as we knew it. Going to the office in person became impossible for long periods of time in most parts of the world. This accelerated trends that had already existed, with remote work, virtual meetings, virtual recruitment, and video interviews being some of them.
In the current situation, with traditional face-to-face interviews being on hold, many recruiters have been relying on virtual recruitment for high-volume campus hiring. Video interviews, more specifically asynchronous video interviews, offer the much-needed flexibility that recruiters need to evaluate large numbers of graduating students.

What are asynchronous video interviews (AVIs)?

Asynchronous video interview (AVI) is an emerging trend in video interviews where the candidate records video answers to pre-recorded interview questions through the help of a video interview platform. The term “asynchronous” is used since the interviewer is not present at the time the interviewee is recording the answers to questions. These interviews are also called on-demand interviews or one-way interviews.

How do asynchronous (one-way) interviews work?

Recruiters send out URLs for interviews to interviewees. Upon accessing this link, the video interview software intuitively guides the candidate through the interview process. Each question posed to the candidate has a limited response time during which the candidate records answers on the interviewing platform. Once the answers are submitted, they could be reviewed by any number of interviewers or decision makers at the recruiting company.

AVIs making waves!

AVIs are being primarily used by large organizations to take decisions on whether to move candidates to the next interview round. In fact, certain industries such as hospitality, manufacturing, retail, and the BPO sector have shown a higher proclivity to choosing AVIs for their initial screening. Let’s look at some of the benefits offered by AVIs:

• Increases hiring efficiency –

Considering the volumes hiring teams need to deal with during campus recruitments, AVIs are an efficient way to quickly pare down the number of candidates who need to be scheduled for one-on-one live interviews. Not just that, AVIs allow companies to cut travel costs and reach as many meritorious students as possible from a host of campuses.

• Enables a collaborative hiring process –

Finding time slots for interviews that are convenient for both the interviewee as well as the interviewer has been challenging for most recruiters. AVIs lay to rest this issue, giving candidates the flexibility to decide a convenient time for recording their answers, as well as enabling the hiring team to evaluate candidates at its convenience.

• Helps assess communication and soft skills of candidates –

The importance of good communication skills to be successful at work cannot be overemphasised! With AVIs, recruiters get an initial insight into the personality of candidates without the need for scheduling live interviews.

• Standardizes the hiring process and reduces biases –

As a recruiter, you are well aware of the importance of combating biases when making crucial hiring decisions. AVIs allow you to record a standard set of questions for all candidates for a particular job opening. This allows recruitment teams to easily compare candidates and make fast decisions during their recruitment drives.

• Boosts employer brand –

In this era of talent wars for prime candidates, ensuring that potential candidates have an excellent interview experience is a must for talent acquisition teams. Asynchronous video interviews give candidates the flexibility to decide the time for the video interview and avoid interview scheduling barriers, thereby, making their interview experience hassle-free.

The “Ifs and Buts”

Several candidates find interviewing through AVIs less daunting since they do not need to face a live interviewer. On the other hand, for many candidates, the prospect of speaking into a camera and answering questions with no live interviewer at the other end could be an uncomfortable experience. Recruiters often worry that the human disconnect could even put candidates off and prompt them to move on to the next opportunity. Yet, this could be just a case of candidates’ initial hesitation, as AVIs have been only recently adopted by several companies. As a matter of fact, “chatting with a bot” might be the way we will all attend interviews in the not-too-distant future!

Ready for wide adoption

AVIs save time for both employers as well as job seekers. With the advantages of AVI being so apparent, it’s a given that this kind of recruitment method will become more widespread in the days and years to come!

HirePro offers asynchronous video interviews that help you take scheduling issues out of the equation and find candidates that are a best fit for your requirements! Reach out to sales@hirepro.in for a demo.