Running Remote Interviews Successfully

How to build your team whilst working remotely

So, we’re all working from home and can’t host interviews? Wrong. We need to adapt to ensure business keeps going in these times. Yes, most people have had telephone and video interviews before so the whole concept isn’t completely new. However, finishing an interview process to the point of an offer has been done face to face 99.9% of the time.

This doesn’t need to be the case though. Over the past 5 years there’s been an increasing number of remote-first companies that go through their entire hiring process without meeting their candidates in person. It’s the way the world was going, the big C just sped up the process for the rest of us. As a team of recruiters, we’ve conducted hundreds of remote interviews over the past few years, so here are our thoughts on how we can all quickly adapt and keep hiring the right people.

Re-evaluate Current Process

A good recruitment process is designed with the end goal in mind of hiring the right candidate. This means bringing out a mixture of traits, qualities and expertise in your candidates through their interview journey to make sure they have all the ones you’re looking for.

Does your current process get all the information you need? Are you making decisions based on evidence as well as personality fit? Are you providing candidates with clear expectations and instructions throughout the process?

Be Prepared

Structure

Clearly define the goals for each interview stage to ensure you’re getting the information you need in order to be happy progressing the candidate through the process. Once you have set these make sure to tailor questions to achieve those goals. Spend time with the CV of the candidate before the interview to highlight any areas that you need further clarification on.

Remote interviews can be easier to stick to a consistent process. While you may not stick to a list of pre-determined questions in a face-to-face interview, having one in view whilst conducting a remote one is simple and discreet.

Communicate Clearly with Co-Interviewers

It’s important to have a virtual meeting with any co-interviews before conducting an interview together. Agree who will take the lead on questions and the key areas you’ll both be focusing on in order to come to a quick decision after the interview. Talk through the candidate’s CV with each other to ensure you’re both on the same page your lines of questioning.

Finally, make sure to book in 15 minutes before and 15 minutes after the interview has taken place for further preparation and to make the decision on next steps quickly after the interview.

Communicate Clearly with the Candidate

Make sure you’re communicating as much as possible with the candidate before the interview, especially if you’re using a communication platform they haven’t used before. Keep them up to date with:

• Time, date and how to connect
• Who they will be interviewing with from your organisation
• What they should do to prepare
• What platform(s) you want them to use and how they’ll be used
• Any exercise materials you want them to have read ahead of time
• Hand signals you’ll be using to help communicate throughout the interview

Test the Technology

Always do a practice run of the interview before it takes place to make sure the technology is working properly. Find a quiet space where you won’t have an echo, make sure the communication platform is working and everyone is able to hear each other and always have a back-up system in place ready to take over. Make sure you share these details with the candidate so they can do the same tests and know what to expect.

Run it Well

Building Trust Through the lens

This isn’t as hard to do as you may think. Especially during current circumstances when we’re all in it together! Make sure you introduce yourself clearly, what your position is and outline the aims for the interview – do what you say you’re going to do throughout the interview and that’s the first box ticked.

Make sure you’re giving signs of listening and engaging with your candidate while they are speaking. This can be harder remotely as you may need to exaggerate smiles or nods so they come across on camera. Don’t be afraid to use a thumbs up or jazz hands to show agreement or recognise a good answer.

Stick to the Structure

It’s important to keep the interview moving and going in the right direction. On a video interview it is much easier for people to become disengaged, especially if they haven’t spoken for a while. Sometimes the best thing to do is use a pre-agreed hand signal to let the candidate know you need to move onto the next question, or you need to interrupt to get further clarification on a point.

One way to make sure you do this whilst also being able to make a speedy decision after the interview is to fill out an interview scorecard as you go. You’ll be able to make sure you cover all key topics you and your co-interviews should be able to quickly compare notes after the interview and make a decision.

Dealing with Poor Connection

Try not to let a poor connection bring the whole interview down. Here are a few pointers if you do experience a bad connection:

• Switch to your back-up communication system.
• Do introductions on video then switch to audio only
• Ask for screenshots or files to be sent rather than screensharing
• Switch to their phone and use 4G – it may not be ideal but at least you can have a conversation.

Ensure Evidence-Based Decision Making

To make the right hires you need to be able build an interview process that brings out the right skills for the job not just the quality of a candidate’s conversation. We all want to work with people we like but make sure there are still elements of the interview process that gather this information.

Ask for Examples

A great way of gauging future work potential is by seeing what a candidate as accomplished in the past. Make sure to ask a candidate to provide some work samples of what they’re most proud of. Not only will you be able to appraise their work, but you’ll also get a feel for what they think good looks like as they’ll be sending what they think is their best work.

You can also use this work as a conversation piece in the interview to get a better idea of their thought process. Getting them to share their screen with you and talk you through how and why they did what they did can be very insightful to see how they work and how good they are at self-evaluation.

Set Skill Tests

Setting work challenges or test in between interviews is another way of making sure you’re hiring people with the skills you need. Setting up a test or challenge for them will give you insight into how they get things done, problem solve and manage their time.

Get More From References & Recruiters

If you can’t meet someone in person before you’ve hired them, speak to someone who has! Try to get more from the references they give on the personality side of things. Use open questions on reference calls or emails that focus on gathering the evidence you need to be able to confidently make the hire.

If you are working with a market specialist recruiter, odds are that they’ll have met the candidate already before the lockdown. Use the same open-ended questions when speaking to them to get the information you need about what the candidate is like in person and how they come across.

Make The Hire

You’ve gone through a robust interview process; you have enough evidence to make a decision and you have work that needs to be done.

Tools to use

Zoom

A great, easily accessible and great quality video conferencing tool.

Loom

Easy to use screen recording tool, candidates can make videos of themselves talking through work they’ve done to aid you in your decision-making process.