Want To Use Video Interviews In Hiring? Consider These Four Factors First

By Maren Madalyn, contributing writer

I remember my first time submitting a pre-recorded video interview for a role at an education nonprofit — in the chaos of 2020, when nearly every organization was scrambling to pivot to new ways to recruit.

I remember the awkward experience of speaking to my computer’s camera, trying to pretend that it was a human interviewer. I remember redoing my responses multiple times as I fussed with windows, lighting, audio, and positioning to get the clearest recording possible. I remember asking myself, “Am I doing this right?!”

To the nonprofit’s credit, they too were fumbling their way through this process and graciously collaborated with me to ensure that I could put my best foot forward under those unique and rapidly changing circumstances.

Video interviews have come a long way since — not just among companies but also within districts and schools. It’s one of many ways educators are getting creative to expand recruitment pipelines and reach more candidates amidst teacher shortages and transience challenges.

When it comes to video interviewing, you as an HR leader benefit when you ensure that both candidates and recruiters have a positive experience. More crucially, you must ensure that this strategy meshes with your overall hiring ecosystem. 

Let’s unpack the trends with using this interviewing strategy in K12 education today and what practices you can adopt to set everyone up for successful video interviewing.

The Rise of Video Interviewing in Education

Generally, recruiting teams use two types of video interviews, often in combination with one another:

• Synchronous video interviews involve a live video call between an interviewer and a candidate, similar to how video conferences (aka video meetings) are often conducted. 
• Asynchronous video interviews, on the other hand, allow candidates to record themselves responding to select interview questions. They then send recruiters these videos within a specified timeline. 

Both approaches of course became popular during the chaotic years of 2020 and 2021, with the use of asynchronous and synchronous techniques steadily rising across corporate organizations ever since. Though these technologies existed long before the pandemic, those immediate changes forced upon the world marked a radical shift in hiring practices. 

Districts and schools also began to embrace video interviewing alongside a broader shift towards more creative approaches in recruitment. Among these strategies were increased use of hybrid and virtual career fairs as well as investments in more robust digital outreach strategies.

Pros and Cons Of This Modern Recruiting Strategy

Both asynchronous and synchronous video interviews offer unique advantages for recruiting teams. 

Synchronous

Pros: Live video interviews are the closest you can get to an in-person interview with a candidate who is not located nearby or cannot travel onsite. You can pivot in the moment to dig deeper into a candidate’s skills or experiences, see how a candidate behaves in real time, and more effectively build rapport with each candidate. 

Cons: Just as with in-person interviews, scheduling is still a hurdle to overcome, even if HR teams can connect with candidates from other states or time zones. 

Asynchronous 

Pros: Though asynchronous interviews can feel less personal and do not allow for spontaneity, they can greatly support hiring. The main gains for recruiters are efficiency and speed, as this strategy reduces the lift on HR team’s shoulders to manage all the logistics of the traditional interview process. For candidates, pre-recorded interviews can sometimes feel less stressful (with multiple chances for “redos” before sending a final response) and more objective as an evaluation approach (since candidates typically respond to the same set of questions). 

Cons: There are still trade-offs to utilizing asynchronous interviews. The lack of a personalized candidate experience can be a downside to some applicants, and as a representative of your organization, you may have fewer opportunities to promote your district or school to candidates. It can sometimes be challenging to answer a candidate’s questions, too. 

And of course, no interview strategy that depends on technology is entirely immune to those little (or big) snafus that affect the hiring experience on both sides of the equation.

This is why it’s important not only to design video interviewing itself with great intent but also to set up a strong system around these strategies. That way, you maximize its benefits, ensure it drives bigger picture HR priorities, and, when hiccups inevitably arise, still create a positive and smooth candidate experience.

Four Considerations For Video Interviewing Success

1. Determine which video interview approach is right for YOUR district

As valuable as video interviewing can be, it’s most crucial that your recruitment strategies reflect your district’s values. Interviews are an opportunity for candidates to learn about your district, just as your HR team can learn about each applicant! 

At the same time, you may be facing practical constraints, especially if your district is struggling to build a robust pipeline of candidates. Finding a balance between staffing needs and organizational values requires reflection upfront before investing in new or expanded interviewing strategies. 

Here are a few guiding questions to help you get started with identifying which approach to video interviewing is right for your district:

• What is the current makeup of our teaching staff (both full-time and substitute)? Do these educators come from the local region? How many are family members of enrolled students, or otherwise active members of the immediate community around your schools?

• How healthy is our current candidate pipeline? Do we need to expand our reach beyond geographic limitations, or do we prefer to focus on more tailored experiences to attract quality candidates?

• How might video interviews reflect our district’s brand or values? What experience do we want candidates to walk away with after going through the video interview process? What would it take to create that experience?
• Do we have the resources to expand or extend recruitment without video interviews? How else might we expand our capacity?

Be sure to reflect beyond recruitment alone. Some digital platforms allow recruiters and hiring managers to use the same video interview features to record clips for new employees, streamlining the onboarding process. They may also enable HR teams to distribute updates to employee protocols or new processes among current staff. 

With Red Rover’s Hiring solution, on-demand video features allow HR teams to capture more from candidates without face-to-face meetings. Recruiters can share pre-recorded questions during the initial application and use the information gathered to tailor the later stages of the interview process. On-demand videos help districts narrow down candidates based on their responses, saving time on in-person interviews. 

It’s also worth double-checking how easily video interview solutions integrate with your existing HR platforms. Interoperability among your digital tools is essential for simplifying everything from hiring to absence management to payroll. That’s why Red Rover commits to maintaining high integrity with our solutions’ interoperability — because giving your team valuable time and energy back is our greatest joy. 

2. Great communication practices come first

Having a new video interviewing solution does not guarantee that everything about the interviewing or hiring process will suddenly improve overnight. Technology is meant to augment existing systems — meaning, it is imperative to first establish great communication practices that go beyond any one digital platform. 

Communication here refers to both the exchanges between your recruiters and candidates as well as within your hiring team. Consider embedding these practices within your team’s culture and norms before diving deep into video interview strategies:

Within HR teams:

• Establish clear expectations for who sends what to candidates and when. Especially on smaller hiring teams, everyone wears multiple hats and supports multiple responsibilities. And sometimes, wires can accidentally get crossed or missed entirely when communicating with candidates. Take time to map out which team members are responsible for reaching out and responding to candidates at each stage of the hiring and onboarding process. 
• Use a template to capture notes about each candidate. Templates are handy to clarify exactly what information each recruiter needs to document for each candidate. This structure creates better data for the HR team to review later in the hiring process. Note that templates are not the same thing as rubrics used for evaluative purposes; they should be complementary rather than redundant!

With Candidates:

• Focus on consistently timely responses. Setting teamwide service-level agreements (or committed timeframes in which everyone is expected to respond to inbound messages) helps keep communication consistent. Even a simple acknowledgment of a candidate’s outreach counts, and may be necessary if you need time to address a specific request. 
• Keep a centralized, thorough record of communication with candidates. Email is still a common communication tool for most recruiting teams, but it can be painful to centralize all team outreach to candidates alongside all the other information available about them. With Red Rover, however, HR teams need no extra steps or effort to ensure every email sent or received is correctly linked to a candidate’s profile. We make it simple for hiring staff across a district to coordinate with one another behind the scenes, too. Schedule a demo to learn more about our automation features.

3. Clear expectations help everyone involved

Some districts may elect to use multiple interviewing strategies, where capacity allows. Be sure to clarify when recruiters should lean on synchronous, asynchronous, or in-person approaches. For example, a district may elect to use pre-recorded interview questions to initially screen applicants in the first evaluation stage, then switch to a more personable method as the pool shrinks to the most qualified candidates. 

You’ll also want to set clear guidelines for how to run each type of interview, such as which platforms to use, where to take notes, how to set up the interviews or folders for saving a candidate’s recorded responses, etc. 

Don’t forget to prep your candidates, too! Clear is kind when it comes to video and in-person interviews, regardless of which method your team uses. The simpler it is for your applicants to understand how to use your interview tools, the better their experience is. 

Here are a few ways you can set your candidates up for successful video interviewing:

• Share a document with guidelines for video interviewing at home. For example, you can offer suggestions for how to position the camera or lighting, explain how the interview itself works, and offer tips for checking that audio and video settings are operational. This article lists a slew of video interview tips you can reference for inspiration. 
• For asynchronous interviews, give candidates extra time to test video recordings using your tools. You can factor this buffer into the deadline for submitting video responses, or treat it like the first step of the video interview process. 
• For synchronous interviews, always build in a buffer to test for technical issues (about 5-10 minutes maximum). At the very least, this gives you the recruiter breathing room to address any snafus that arise. At best, everything works smoothly, and you’re ahead of schedule!

4. Prepare for technology snafus

No matter how thoroughly we test, or how carefully we plan, there are inevitable occasions when technology goes awry. It pays off to have a backup plan for video interviews, especially when meeting candidates live. 

Develop a protocol for how to adapt a synchronous video interview if the initial plan fails. For example, you can outline clear instructions with a candidate for whom to contact and how quickly to reach out if they run into issues with the video interview platform. You can also set up an alternative tool for the interview if your district has access to multiple tools, or elect to switch to asynchronous methods. 

With asynchronous video interviews, managing tech issues can be trickier. If a candidate’s recorded responses are lost or otherwise inaccessible on a platform, it can create a less-than-pleasant interview experience for that candidate. 

That’s why it’s essential to ensure that you have a collaborative, responsive vendor partner ready to assist quickly in such events. At Red Rover, partnership is our top priority, and we maintain a high standard of service whether you’re brand-new to our community or a long-time veteran. Learn why educators like you love working with our team. 

Join Red Rover To Improve Interviewing With Any Strategy

Ready to streamline your interviewing processes? Red Rover Hiring has you covered. From on-demand video tools to customizable workflows to frictionless application processes, Hiring is a match made in heaven for job seekers and hiring teams alike. 

Reach out today to discover how our modern K12 workforce management solutions can save your organization time, money, and invaluable energy.