One-Way Interviews: Navigating the Future of Hiring

One-way interviews are a type of video interview where the candidates record answers to interview questions and raters independently evaluate the answers at a later time. When used instead of screening interviews, they can streamline the hiring process while offering flexibility for both candidates and recruiters.

Learn how using one-way interviews can improve your recruitment process.

What Is a One-Way Interview?

A one-way interview is a structured interview that invites candidates to record short video responses to predetermined interview questions on any device. Unlike a live interview, there is no interviewer present. A hiring manager or recruiter reviews and rates the applicants’ video submissions asynchronously using an interview scorecard.

One-way interviews are also called pre-recorded interviews, on-demand interviews, self-paced interviews, or asynchronous interviews. They are primarily used as a screening step because they boast benefits that phone interviews don’t offer.

How Do One-Way Interviews Work?

Interview Setup: Before the process, the recruiting team sets up the interview on a digital platform, choosing the number and order of questions to be asked, preparation time limits, response time limits, and whether candidates can review and/or re-record their responses before submitting them. It is a best practice to ensure all interview settings and parameters are consistent for all applicants.

Candidate Participation: The candidates receive an invitation to access the interview and are given a deadline for submission. They can choose to record and submit their responses at any time before the deadline.

Response Recording: Candidates are shown the questions one at a time. If the process allows, candidates may have the ability to re-record answers multiple times before submitting them. This format helps some candidates by reducing the stress of on-the-spot answering.

Submission and Review: Once candidates submit their videos, the hiring team can review the responses at their convenience. This asynchronous approach allows for more flexibility in the scheduling process and can allow some hiring teams to screen a larger applicant pool.

Evaluation and Scoring: Raters use an interview scorecard to assess the candidates' responses. Some processes may even include multiple raters to get a more thorough evaluation of a candidate at the screening stage. This structured approach can help in reducing biases and ensuring a fair evaluation process.

Decision Making: Based on the video responses and evaluations, the hiring team decides which candidates to move forward in the recruitment process.

What Are the Benefits of On-Demand Video Interviews?

Benefits for Hiring Teams

During a screening call, sticking to the script, keeping the conversation on-topic, and staying neutral can be tough. On-demand interviewing simplifies screening so you can focus on assessing the candidate’s answers.

Benefits for Candidates

On-demand interviews can help you offer a positive candidate experience to keep job seekers engaged throughout the hiring process.

The Best One-Way Video Interview Questions

To ensure the most effective use of one-way interviews, it's crucial to focus on two types of questions: knockout questions and those that help qualify the candidate’s experience, skills, and fit for the role.

Knockout questions are designed to immediately identify candidates who do not meet the essential criteria for the position. These questions help streamline the recruitment process by filtering out applicants who lack key qualifications or requirements early on.

In addition to knockout questions, it's equally important to quickly explore whether the candidate's experience and qualifications are aligned to the role. These questions should help draw out specific examples of past work and accomplishments that are directly relevant to the role.

Lastly, questions that assess a candidate's alignment with the organization's direction and values are vital. These questions help determine if the candidate is not only capable of performing the job but also a good fit for the company's strategic objectives and ethos.

If you use this strategy, you’ll be able to curate an optimized question set to help improve your quality of hire.

Tips for One-Way Video Interviewing

Showcase Your Employer Brand With Video-Based Questions

Using video-based questions in place of or in addition to text-based questions sets clear expectations about your corporate culture and expresses your brand’s personality. Adding a message from upper management or a genuine testimonial from an employee allows your organization to showcase the job and work environment.

Video-based questions are also a great way to make the interview process feel more personalized and interesting for applicants.

Test Your Interview Settings

Interview software allows you to customize everything: the prep time, the questions, the length of responses, and whether or not applicants can re-record their answers. Test your interview to make sure the instructions make sense and confirm if you are setting realistic time expectations based on the types of questions you are asking.

Use Data-Driven Insights to Improve Your One-Way Interviews

Study reports from your interviewing system to see what you can learn from them. They often include detailed descriptions of the status of each candidate, individual activity logs, the candidate’s rating compared to others, and more. Use this data to gauge progress.

Debunking Myths About One-Way Video Interview Discrimination

One-way interviews are still hotly debated despite widespread adoption. There are many myths surrounding video interviews. It’s always important to speak to the facts since there are many ways to implement one-way interviews. 

As you’ll see, there’s no reason to hesitate if you are considering using this interview format for hiring.

Myth: Self-Paced Interviews Introduce Bias

Fact: Some argue that a self-paced interview can introduce hiring bias, especially the types of bias related to seeing the candidate. In actuality, self-paced interviews mitigate some of the biases that adversely affect diversity-identified groups. If your process is properly structured and your raters are trained correctly, a candidate’s video setup should not affect the ratings. 

By standardizing the questions and interview scorecards, keeping them competency-focused, and removing the interviewer, everyone is treated equitably, thanks to a proven process.

Myth: Asynchronous Interviews Are Discriminatory

Fact: Fact: Asynchronous interviews promote inclusion and accessibility. They can help widen the candidate pool by eliminating resource, geographic, and scheduling barriers for some. Additionally, these interviews can be tailored for greater accessibility through features like re-recording options and adjustable preparation times. The technology behind pre-recorded interviews integrates seamlessly with existing accessibility tools, further facilitating an inclusive recruitment process.

Myth: On-Demand Interviews Harm Candidate Experience

Fact: While it’s true that on-demand interviews remove the opportunity to interact with someone from the organization in the initial screening step, there’s no need to rely on recruiters to make a great first impression with candidates. 

Here are some ways to create a positive candidate experience using on-demand screening: 

• Explain that structured one-way interviews are fairer as they enable more candidates to participate in the screening process.
  
• Use engaging introduction, conclusion, and question videos featuring key personnel from your organization to personalize the process.
  
• Keep candidates informed throughout the process with automated SMS and email updates.
  
• Personalize automated notifications with images, GIFs, and tailored messages to highlight your employer brand.

Findings

• People who feel stress due to being challenged by an unfamiliar format or who might be concerned about the safety of their data will have less favorable attitudes toward a video assessment.
• Asynchronous interviews landed in the same favorability rating range as other non-interactive procedures like personality inventories or cognitive tests.
• Perceived usefulness and ease of use were significant predictors of applicant attitudes toward this type of screening interview.

Recommendations

• It can be beneficial for candidate confidence to provide more preparation time, as well as the ability to review and resubmit answers. Additionally, you can inform candidates that the videos that are captured in an asynchronous interview are just as safe as data that’s stored in an ATS.
• Make it clear that even though candidates don’t have an interaction live, they are guaranteed that someone is interacting with their interview. This is the biggest difference between human-rated asynchronous video interviews and personality inventories or cognitive tests.
• Choose an interview software provider that offers applicant tech support and a simple interface for candidates and raters. Explain somewhere in the process that asynchronous interviews guarantee all candidates an interview, so no one is filtered out before getting a chance to be on camera.