New Advances in Video Interviewing Spurred by Sales Tools

Given that everyone agrees that picking the best talent is a top priority, it’s surprising how casually many companies treat interviewing. All too often, despite the intended use of structured interviews and notetaking, it comes down to the hiring team relying on memory and gut feel to select the best candidate.

Video interviewing offers opportunities to improve the process. The providers of dedicated video interviewing platforms, such as videoBIO Recruiter, HireVue and JobVite offer automated, asynchronous interviews, as well as synchronous, live interviews. There is also a new category, pioneered by BrightHire.ai that focuses on bringing more intelligence to how we use Zoom interviews. This latest approach is inspired by two sales intelligence tools: Gong and Chorus.

Gong and Chorus record, annotate, and analyze sales calls. The best video segments can be used to provide training for new hires. Marketing can pull out sections where prospects talk about competitors, while sales managers can see how their reps are handling prospects and offer tips. These many use cases have made sales intelligence software an important tool for sales teams.

With interview intelligence tools we can do the same thing. As interviews are taking place, interviewers can tag key parts and add annotations directly to the recording. These systems are smart enough that they can automatically tag portions of the interview based on keywords or topics like “goals.”

Before we get into how this information is used, one can imagine a sales professional saying “Surely, HR must have been using tools like this for years.” The answer from HR and recruiters in most cases is, “No, we haven’t.” And the reason for that — even if not explicitly revealed — is again the unfounded confidence interviewers have in their memory and gut feel.

Nonetheless, cnce you have annotated the recording of an interview there are many things you can do with it. A recruiter can easily take a clip and run it by the hiring manager asking, “Is this the kind of person you are looking for?” A second interviewer can be clued into what has been covered in the first interview and what gaps need to be covered.

Most importantly, when the hiring committee gets together to pick a candidate, they can back up their memory and impressions with the most important video clips so that everyone is basing their decision on the direct evidence.

Catharine Fennell, CEO of videoBIO Recruiter, notes how before the pandemic there was some reluctance to replace or supplement in-person interview processes with video interviews. Now it’s hard to remember why we were so reluctant. With the new acceptance of video interviewing, whether it be the asynchronous platforms or a specialized interviewing intelligence tool, we have the opportunity to add much more rigor to the crucial process of selecting talent.