In the current workplace climate, lots of managers have made the switch from traditional interviews to virtual ones. Running a virtual interview is a little different than the standard question and answer session during the recruiting process. Managers need to plan ahead so they can lead a remote interview successfully and find quality candidates to join their teams. Here are some strategies to have better virtual interviews for your company.
Create a Sense of Culture
Hiring managers can start to get ready for recruiting new employees by building a sense of culture in the workplace. Leadership needs to develop a strong sense of belonging within their employees so new workers feel welcome when they join the team. This type of culture can also be conveyed through company documentation, the website and hiring advertisements. When interacting with potential candidates, emails, messages and any other communication should reflect the corporate culture.
Prepare Your Space
When it’s time to start conducting interviews for a new team member, everyone involved in the interviewing process should work together to prepare. First, the lead interviewer should determine a location for the virtual interview, such as an office. If the lead interviewer works from home, they should set up a professional space with virtual office backgrounds that align with the company’s vision.
Share Details With the Candidate
You and your recruiting team will also need to share the details about the virtual meeting with anyone you want to interview. Once your human resources team has gone through the resumes and picked candidates to interview, someone should reach out to each person and individually invite them to the virtual interview. Make sure the candidate understands the technical requirements for the virtual meeting and help offer solutions for any potential tech problems that may arise.
Optimize Your Computer
Before starting any new virtual meetings with interview candidates, do a few practice sessions to ensure your computer is up to the task. Clean up your desktop by putting away files so the space isn’t cluttered. Edit any presentations that you will be sharing with the candidate and make sure you have the right sharing permissions set ahead of time. Learn how to add virtual backgrounds in Teams before you start any remote interview meetings.
Dress Professionally
Even if you are conducting a meeting over a virtual platform, you still have to act as though you are in person in a professional setting. Interviewers should plan to dress professionally in a suit or something else that is similar to set the tone along with Zoom immersive view backgrounds.
Generate a List of Questions
Finally, everyone involved in the interview should contribute to the list of questions to ask the candidates. Questions should cover specifics of the person’s experience and background along with gauges of their personality and soft skills. Some virtual interviews start off with icebreaker-type questions to make the candidates feel more comfortable.
You can make your virtual job interview more effective and professional with some of these strategic tips. These strategies can help you find the right person for your next company opening.