A Beginner’s Guide to Remote Interviewing

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Our country rushed into a remote work revolution with the rise of the COVID 19 pandemic this past spring and summer without much preparation, leaving organizations floundering with little-to-no experience in remote work. How do you go from a formal, in-person process to a remote one, basically overnight?  

In this blog post, we want to provide some advice on just one aspect of business that has largely moved online - interviewing candidates for your open positions. Earlier this year we wrote this article, a high-level overview of the broad concepts to keep in mind when hiring remote workers, but this time we want to get into the details. 

Here is a detailed guide on how to shift your interview process entirely online. 

Choose Your Technology 

In order to do much of anything remotely, you need the proper tools. The tool you choose to work with should not only be convenient for your team, but also any clients you may need to interact with. It should provide high-quality, reliable communication, and be easy to use and adopt. 

A quick Google search will give you an overwhelming number of options, but here are some of the most popular platforms being used now: Zoom, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Skype. All of these have their own pros and cons, but it’s important to keep in mind that Microsoft-owned Skype is being phased out within the next year in favor of their updated Teams platform. These are all solutions for both inter-office communication, as well as client-facing chat and video conferencing. We recommend trying several before you decide to commit.  

If you’ve never used a video conferencing or chat tool before, set up a training session! These tools have tons of useful features, and the companies behind them love teaching people how to be efficient and effective users, so they can get the most out of them. 

Practice... And Have A Backup Plan 

It never fails that the moment you have a scheduled interview or video conference, you experience every sort of glitch and problem under the sun. Murphy’s Law, right? You aren’t the only one. We are all trying to professionally navigate technological problems: frozen video, stuttering audio, or internet connections that drop out mid-meeting.  

These problems are going to pop up when you have a video or audio interview, and the best way to get through them is to plan for them. Practice running meetings on your chosen platform multiple times in advance of the meeting, but also always have a backup plan! At Skywalk Group, we switch to phone calls if we run into problems video conferencing. It’s not a universal fix, but it does allow us to continue communicating until we can remedy the problem.  

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Build Rapport 

Interviewing over video is better than interviewing only via phone call, but it still lacks the personal “get to know you” feel of an in-person interview. Craig Manuel, recruiting supervisor at Skywalk Group, says “It’s okay to build rapport during an interview! Find something in common to connect over”. That could be an alma mater, a hometown, pets, or hobbies. Be friendly, get to know each other, and try to make the interview more of a conversation about each other than a cross examination of the candidate.  

As always, avoid questions that could be used to discriminate against someone, such as questions related to age, religion, parental or marital status, etc. If you have more questions about what you can and can’t ask during an interview, our Human Resources consultants can help!  

Respond Quickly 

Your candidates are interviewing with many organizations, and since they can do so virtually, there’s nearly zero waiting time between interviewing, sending a thank you email, and scheduling a follow-up call. To compete in this talent marketplace, you need to be highly responsive and not waste time. 

If you decide not to continue with a candidate, let them know with a prompt message – via phone or email, so they know they can focus their energy on other opportunities.  

We don’t know how much longer we will be living and working in a physically distant world, but it seems likely to stretch on into the upcoming months, and organizations need to be able to continue their talent acquisition efforts regardless of whether they can interview candidates in person or not.  

Interviewing candidates remotely takes a little agility, but once you streamline the effort, and become accustomed to being on video calls often, it becomes second nature. If you’re having trouble finding candidates to interview in the first place, don’t be afraid to reach out to our team! We’re experts at finding qualified candidates!

By Jessica Palmer