Surprise and delight, interview style

By Maury Hanigan

Throughout this series, we have focused almost exclusively on how video will help you convert strong candidates into applicants. And now that they’ve become an applicant, it’s time to shift gears a bit. The remainder of the journey is still about converting, but honestly, we cannot select everyone we interview. We are going to disappoint people. Which is why we need to use video to convert the best candidates into high performing employees (who stay), but we also need to ensure that we create positive experiences for the people we do NOT select, and video can help us here, too.

Go back and think about the feeling you had when you applied for the job you have right now. It was exciting, and scary, and anxious all in one second. Then, you waited. What did you when you were waiting? If you’re being honest, you want to know how long you will be waiting. You may wonder if someone is going to see your application. You were undoubtedly wondering what the next steps was, if the job was still open, and what the hiring manager was really looking for. Hopefully, in reading this in conjunction with the last post, you’re seeing that a lot of this anxiety could be alleviated with well-placed video in the apply stage (tada!).

When you’ve been selected for an interview, how amazing would you feel when you got the email and it linked to a video of the hiring manager congratulating you? I, personally, would swoon. Even if it was a little generic. Even if it was from the recruiter. This would feel AMAZING.

Once you get the email or call for an interview, your emotional needs take a back seat to your informational needs. You want to know when, where, what to wear, who you’re talking to, how long it takes to get there, did I mention what to wear? You also want to know how to do well. You want to be impressive. The candidate in this stage has robust informational and emotional needs. Needs we can easily meet!

This is where “surprise and delight” becomes a powerful force in your video strategy.

Surprise and delight is getting a video from the hiring manager telling me that they can’t wait to meet me (I don’t know everyone got that same video!).

Surprise and delight makes you memorable no matter the outcome.

Surprise and delight is helping prepare me when I am nervous.

Remember, we’ve set the bar so low in every stage of the journey, we can’t even trip over it. In thinking about how we can create MORE delight for our finalists, we need to focus on this type of video content:

Congratulations, you’re cool!

As mentioned above, how amazing would it feel as a candidate to get a congratulations message from the hiring manager, or recruiter? They don’t have to be made for every single candidate, but you can make them and reuse them. Something as simple as: “I can’t wait to meet you and learn more about your background and qualifications for this position.  This message will last in their memories forever and could be something that they would talk to their friends and networks about, which, by the way, is free advertising for YOU!

What to expect

Interviewing is scary. Having a video that covers the basics of the interview for a candidate is powerful. Tell the candidate what they should expect, both generally and specifically. If they are coming on site, show them the front of the office, show them the lobby. Tell them how long it will take to get through Security if applicable.  Describe the dress code.  Talk about how long to expect the interview to take as well. If you are doing video interviews, like almost everyone right now, show them that it’s ok for pets and kids to wander in the shot, you know it will happen to your hiring managers too. This will endear you to candidates and put them at ease.

If you are doing one-way interviews where the candidate just sees an interview question on the screen and is asked to answer it, we have some additional ideas. First, be sure you let the candidate know that they won’t be talking to another person that they will be recording themselves. Within that message include a link to a video of the hiring manager inviting them to interview. Remember, candidates can feel uncomfortable making videos when they are interacting with people who are “hiding” behind email.  Don’t ask a candidate to do something you are not willing to do.

Interview questions

Help your candidates get a sense for your interview style. Are you more behavioral-based or competency-based? Explain those concepts and help them. Share some common questions. Encourage them to take notes. They know very little about the inner-workings of hiring. It’s memorable to explain it. In addition, some candidates don’t know that they should be asking questions, too. It’s ok to tell them that. Help them prepare good questions that will empower them to make a good decision for themselves. Remind them that they are interviewing your organization as well.

Tips and tricks for video interviews

As mentioned above, video interviewing is both common (now) and new to a LOT of people. Give them tips to help them succeed.  Tell them to be sure to look at the camera, set their computer at face height, choose a background that is not overly cluttered and face good lighting. These tips and tricks would make an excellent 30-second video. It may even be fun to turn the camera around to show what the light looks like behind a computer, or having a computer set up on a child’s toy. These are memorable and make things interesting. They also disarm the candidate and help them forget about their nerves and remember we are all making it thought this era as best as we can.

The deeper we go in the candidate journey, the opportunities to create lasting impressions is where we can differentiate ourselves and further build our employer brand. Maybe the candidate didn’t have enough experience for this job or hadn’t worked on projects that were similar to the open position. That will change. The candidates you interview are not stagnant. You may not select them for this job, but they stood out enough to get your attention. They had something, which is why you need to take care of these candidates. They may not be *this* hire, but they could be the next.

As we continue to build our video strategy, you can see how we begin broadly with our story, then we focus more intently to the details, until it becomes very individual, and yet it can scale. Your video strategy should span the candidate journey and continue to offer opportunities to surprise and delight. Download our Video Strategy Framework and see how you can start getting more focused while scaling your efforts at the same time.

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