Saves Time (Pro)
Perhaps the number one reason people use one-way interviews is that they think it saves so much time. With pre-recorded interviews you send out a link to the candidate in less than a minute and then wait for their videos to come in.
Reaches a Larger Candidate Pool (Pro)
Pre-recorded interviews can widen your pool of candidates. You are able to interview people from multiple areas. This is helpful if you’re hiring for a remote position.
Team View (Pro)
With pre-recorded interviews, the hiring team can watch the interview. It’s easier to discuss the candidates’ recorded responses and decide who should move forward.
Camera Shy Candidates (Con)
Some people aren’t good on camera, and they actually perform worse. While it can help those with social anxiety, it may be bad for those who regularly talk to people but rarely record themselves.
Limited Information (Con)
With pre-recorded interviews, the biggest limitation is that you can’t respond to them while they’re answering the questions. This makes the information you receive a bit limited. With in-person interviews, you can ask follow-up questions that will help you find out even more about a candidate. The ability to ask follow-up questions in an interview is better than being stuck with the information that was pre-recorded.
Company Promotion (Con)
You really can’t promote your company in a pre-recorded interview. Also, pre-recorded interviews leaves out the candidate is interviewing the organization as well. The candidate may not know enough about the organization to decide if the company is the right fit for them. While you can provide company information via the website, it’s definitely not the same as an in-person interview where the candidate gets to ask you questions about the company, culture, values, and vision and watch body cues on how the interviewer responds.
Decisions Based on Pre-Recorded Interviews (Con)
Hiring managers have found there simply isn’t enough information in a pre-recorded interview to base their decision on whether or not they want to move forward. While pre-recorded interviews make for an easy first-round interview for the organization, it’s simply not enough watching a candidate respond to a few questions. This inevitably leads you back to scheduling in-person interviews to get the answers you want before progressing forward.
Stress Inducer (Con)
Some pre-recorded interviews only give you the questions at the time of the interview with a pre-set timer for a candidate’s response. The software may give the candidate three (3) takes before submitting their answer to the questions, yet it can create more stress given the candidate only has 60-seconds to think through their answer or example and then record it.
De-humanizing (Con)
If your organization is all about branding, employee engagement, and culture, a pre-recorded interview sends the opposite message to the candidate. For instance, is this truly a caring culture or a numbers culture? Or, are they screening me to meet diversity, equity, and inclusion goals? Better yet, if the organization cares, then shouldn’t I be speaking with a person and not a camera?
Is It Legal (Pro & Con)
An organization must be able to trust the people scrutinizing the pre-recorded interview to leave biases out of it. Which means you must be in compliance with EEOC and ADA laws when making decisions from the pre-recorded interview. If your organizations records show only a certain type of candidate moved forward in the interview process from the pre-recorded interview, this could possibly cause legal issues for the organization in the long run. Keeping in mind, the pre-recorded interview is a document and documents have a shelf life, in this case two-years. Lastly, if a candidate refuses the pre-recorded interview and asks for an in-person or phone interview organizations – should have a protocol on hand to address this in a legal and professional manner.