Why video interviews are the worst for the top of your funnel

Yep, we said it.?

With high dropout rates and potential for automated bias, most video interview solutions simply automate already cumbersome processes, creating more problems than they solve.

The alternative - AI Chat Interviews - is much more appealing for candidates. They're low-pressure and easy to complete anywhere, anytime.

Presenting candidates with a video interview straight out of the starting blocks could be doing more damage to your hiring process & your brand than you think.

Research completed by the innovation team at Sapia.ai and presented at the 2024 SIOP Annual Conference found that candidates vastly prefer AI chat to video as an online interview method. The study was conducted by analysing various data points from over a million candidate interviews. (Get the full summary here)

Key takeaways:

78% of candidates who mentioned a preference for one type of interview over the other expressed a preference for chat over video;

Completion rates & satisfaction are much higher for chat interviews, indicating that candidates are more comfortable and willing to engage in a chat interview than video;

Women are more likely to complete chat interviews than video interviews, indicating that video can exclude women from the process due to fears of bias.

Video Interviews should never be a candidate's first interaction with your brand.?

Video absolutely has a place for the second or third stage, for shortlisted candidates only. These candidates are already engaged in the process & will be more likely to invest in a video interview as they know they've progressed from the first stage.

They can be a useful way to 'meet' your shortlist asynchronously, reducing the number of face-to-face interviews your hiring managers need to have to make a final hiring decision and reducing the burden of time on the candidates.

If you do use video, use it as the second stage and ?? make ?? it ?? inclusive ?? as ?? possible

How can you do that?

• No AI - make sure candidates know that a machine is not processing their very personal data like their face & voice; and that their interview will only be reviewed by humans.
• Use auto-progression from the first stage (ideally a Chat Interview) that only progresses the top candidates to Video - so you're not wasting the time of candidates who aren't going to be reviewed.
• Make it a chat-based experience. Guide candidates through the video interview in a chat style, making them comfortable.
• Don't time the overall interview - this adds to the pressure of the interview and is unnecessary.
• Allow multiple retries - let them give it their best shot.

Ready to explore the alternative to Video Interviews? Let's chat