Lessons Learned: How to Conduct Successful Virtual Interviews
It’s safe to say that we’ve all shifted into holding remote interviews over the course of the pandemic. While the world’s workplaces are beginning to open up again, employers are still hosting interviewees remotely. As the Director of Talent and Culture here at Ammunition, I handle all things recruiting and have learned a few things through 2020 and 2021 as things have gone from in-person, to fully remote, to a little bit of both. I’ve outlined some tips and tricks to use when hiring using remote tools, so you can continue to add new team members successfully.
- Create the casual banter to make the interviewee as comfortable as possible
The default vibe of a virtual interview is formal — there’s no quick back and forth when you need to make sure someone has finished their sentence or there’s not a delay in audio. More than being in-person, it’s important to establish how casual the interviewee can be with you and breaking the ice is the first step. Start by telling the employee something personal or what you love about working for your company. Something I like to do is tell people that my title is Director of Talent and Culture but you may as well call me office mom or the go-to for anything from “Why are we out of Bubly?” to “I have a question about my health benefits.” and “What’s our hiring plan for the next quarter?” Giving an applicant permission to be casual means that you get better access into who they really are. When you’re casual and transparent with an applicant, they will usually give you the same.
2. Know your culture and what it values…and describe it thoughtfully and thoroughly
At Ammunition, finding a culture fit is just as important as finding a skills fit when making a new hire. The hard part — how do you determine whether or not an applicant can mesh with company culture when Zoom is your tool for communication? Culture isn’t defined by the frequency of happy hours or how cool your swag is. It’s defined by the common threads that allow your team to work in stride with one another towards a common goal. In short, it comes down to your values. When looking for a culture fit based on values, you need to know what types of behaviors are associated with each value and how to look out for those when interviewing.
It’s one thing to say that your team values collaboration and another to specify what behaviors an employee should elicit as a collaborator, enabling you to look for those behaviors when interviewing, even virtually. For instance: If Collaboration is a company value (and truly how your team operates), you’ll want to look out for a candidate mentioning the word “we” more than “I” when talking about past work. Ask yourself, are they taking all the credit for what was a team effort in their previous role? Do their responses to my questions about their work history point to the possibility of them not working well with others?
Specifying behaviors for each of your values and then using those when interviewing candidates can help you to determine whether or not someone is a “culture fit”, even in a remote environment.
3. Take note of how the candidate handles a remote environment
As people work from home, we can take a look at how an applicant responds to all the distractions that come with that. It’s one thing to say to a recruiter “My daughter knows not to bother me but she may likely pop in” or “I have dogs and you may hear them in the background” — both of which are entirely acceptable and common — but it’s another thing to say, “sorry I’m out of breath, I just got back from a run” or “Hang on, let me answer the door, I forgot I made an appointment with a repair person” and even “Wait, I didn’t know this Zoom call involved video” — speaking from experience here. A candidate’s ability to be prepared for a professional conversation while in their own home is a good indicator of how they will handle remote work options at your company.
4. Be specific in describing what office life, communication, and culture are really like at your company.
Applicants may not have the luxury of coming into a space to feel it out for themselves before making their decision. It’s our job to be transparent about what work life feels like at the company. Applicants deserve to know what company culture is and is not like. Be sure that you’re able to put into words what your favorite parts are and what the parts could be a challenge. Ex: do they want to silo and work alone? (This could certainly clash with an organization that values collaboration). Be up front about what roadblocks you think a hire could experience in the role and what special projects they could take on. Transparency from your end will ultimately land you a hire that is prepared to take on the challenges and successes an organization is experiencing. Being up-front about these things in an interview will increase the ownership a new hire takes on when they set to work with you.
As we’ve all adapted to a remote workplace and are likely in the middle of a transition back into the office, remote interviews may stick around for a while. It saves the company and applicants time and makes it possible to interview quality candidates who are out of the area. For me, holding remote interviews is likely to continue for the most part and I’ve enjoyed using these tools to find some incredible people to add to our team. Our hope is that the tips outlined above can help you continue to build a quality team, amid and post-pandemic.
