10 Practical Tips to Conduct Productive Remote Interviews
Remote interviews are becoming more and more prevalent, especially during and post the COVID-19 pandemic. And they differ from regular face to face, on-site interviews – the likes of which you’ll have encountered in your career to date.
As the name suggests, remote interviews are conducted without the candidate and interviewer meeting one another physically – they are geographically separated from each other, the interview happens either via voice call only or most often also includes video and other tools.
With the need to maintain social distancing, remote interviews are fast becoming ubiquitous, meaning you need to take practical steps to make sure yours run smoothly.
So how do you conduct effective remote interviews? If you’re new to remote interviewing or want to improve your process, read on.
What’s in?
Review your current interview process
Get the right tools
Educate yourself about remote interviewing ‘etiquette’
Develop a process for remote team/peer interviews
Communicate the interview details
Keep your focus and listen actively
Take time to introduce your company culture
Make it a two-way conversation
Keep the team aligned
Have a plan B ready
1. Review your current interview process
If you’re switching to remote interviewing, now is a good time to review and streamline the process you already have. Is it effective? Is it structured? What can you do better?
For a lot of companies, hiring isn’t a dedicated process, it’s a bunch of meetings with potential employees. But you’re not just meeting another person, you’re gathering evidence to decide if that person has the necessary skills, values and cultural fit to carry out a role at your company.
Therefore by turning your adhoc recruiting efforts into a structured recruitment and interview process, and ensuring that everyone involved is trained on it, not only maintains consistency throughout the entire hiring process, but it results in a more accurate and reliable hiring decision.
Also, pay attention to how you’re shortlisting candidates for your interviews.
Now more than ever, online assessments are important to help you narrow down your candidate pool. Without being able to meet and speak to people in person, it is essential to make sure you can assess applicants for the skills and competencies they need in a remote setting.
If you want to ensure recruitment continuity even when it’s not possible to meet face to face, it’s time to improve your remote interviewing process.
2. Get the right tools
When remote interviewing, having the right tools is key to success.
Are you going to stick to phone calls? Or are you going to conduct one-way video interviews, live virtual interviews, or both? Meeting the candidate face to face, albeit over a screen, is infinitely better than just having a phone call, as it allows you to gauge various non-verbal cues (more on that in point 6).
While you could use video platforms such as Skype, Zoom or Go-to-meeting to host the interview, there are dedicated remote interviewing tools that offer you additional functionalities for efficient recruiting, like embedded evaluation forms and simple interview recording. If you plan on conducting interviews that include whiteboarding, you can find a tool with that capability.
In short, carefully analyze your needs before you select an interviewing tool.
Also, make sure that your virtual interview software integrates with your ATS and is compatible with mobile devices.
3. Educate yourself about remote interviewing ‘etiquette’
You want to show all potential candidates that just because the interview is remote, it is no less professional than if you were to meet in an office. Be just as engaged in the conversation, so get rid of all potential distractions by finding a quiet space.
If you have a lock on your door, use it – you don’t want this to happen to you.
Turn your notifications off on both your phone and your computer, or at least silence them.
Even if you’re WFH, dress the part – look professional and take the interview seriously.
Remove any obvious clutter from your desk such as children’s toys and other personal items.
Keep your background neutral and businesslike, you don’t want to distract the candidate either.
Think about lighting – you don’t want light behind you, turning you into a silhouette. Instead, position yourself so you have natural light in front of you.
Because you’re not physically with the person, you might miss the cues that they’ve finished talking, so to minimize talking over each other, leave a couple of seconds before speaking.
And to prevent any last-minute faff or worry that you’re not set up correctly, have a test run to make sure everything works for you. Ask a colleague to call you on the medium you’re using to conduct the interview to make sure that everything works OK – your camera, your microphone, or even your phone line.
4. Develop a process for remote team/peer interviews
You will most likely need to involve multiple people in the remote interview process – hiring managers at the very least. Also, your candidates want to meet their potential colleagues. So have a standard process of how this could work and make sure that everyone knows when in the interview process this will take place. If the peers aren’t usually in on interviews, educate them about how to do remote interviews and let them know what the agenda is and the order of events.
Involving execs into the interviewing process, especially for more senior roles, has a positive effect on candidate experience and engagement.
5. Communicate the interview details
When remote interviewing, it is better to over-communicate – this may be your hundredth remote interview, but for the candidate it might be their first and the tools that you’re using might be new to them.
So give all of your candidates the same information and let them start off on the same foot.
Let the candidates know about the interview before you start:
When the interview is.
Who it’s with (include every member of your team who will be in on the interview).
What platform you’re going to be using (and how to use it).
What the candidate needs to prepare beforehand (if they need to prepare something).
Will you just use audio or will you require video?
Do you need to screen share with them or vice versa?
You can even include some remote interview tips (like find a quiet space, minimize distractions, etc.)
The more information you give candidates about what they can expect from the interview, the easier it will be to assess them solely on their relevant skills and experience, not their ability to use remote interviewing technology, nor how they react to surprises.
Stop guessing, Start data-driven hiring.
6. Keep your focus and listen actively
When you’re holding your remote interview over Zoom, for example, it’s not your imagination, it is harder to focus without face-to-face communication, video chats require more concentration.
Every time we communicate with someone, a friend, a colleague, only a tiny percentage of what we communicate is verbal. The vast majority (70-93%) of what we convey is through non-verbal communication, where the meaning is innate and instinctive for us.
Things such as body movements, facial expressions, eye contact, hand movements, body posture, even tone of voice, carry depth and create meaning for the words we are saying.
When remote interviewing, most of these non-verbal cues are not easily observable, making it harder to communicate – so you really need to listen actively to what the interviewee is saying.
Try and treat the interview as if you were conducting it in person and think about your body language – sit up, lean forward, smile when appropriate, demonstrate that you’re engaged in the conversation.
Listening and observing actively will help you gauge organizational fit of your interviewees in a remote interview.
7. Take time to introduce your company culture
Your candidates might not have the opportunity to see your office and meet your team. Or maybe you don’t even have an office. So make sure candidates don’t miss out on finding out all about you.
Give them background introductions, tell them about your company culture, what values you hold. Share stories, examples, references to what you mean by your culture – don’t just state the values that you hold, explain the behaviors that you expect employees to demonstrate for each value and give candidates best practice examples to help them understand what you mean.
Trying to understand a company’s culture when you can’t experience it firsthand is tough for anyone, so build a picture for the candidate.
8. Make it a two-way conversation
Like any job interview, a remote interview is a two-way conversation. It isn’t you on send for an hour. Give candidates enough space to ask questions – actively encourage them to ask.
You might think it’s difficult to assess if a candidate is a match remotely (if you’re new to remote hiring) but bear in mind that it is just as difficult for the candidate to picture themselves as an employee in your company, if they haven’t had the chance to look around and meet you and your team in person.
Interviewing remotely is just as much a risk for the candidate as it is for you, so provide plenty of opportunities for candidates to ask questions and be ready to give answers.
You could even preempt potential questions that they might ask and if they don’t ask them, you could pass on the information anyway. The more you can find out about one another, the easier the remote interview will be.
To help keep the conversation flowing, treat the remote interview like a regular interview and make sure you have your notes to hand – you’ll want both a list of pre-determined questions as well as the candidate’s resume in front of you.
When designing your remote interview process, consider the length of the interviews. As video chats require more concentration, they might become tiring faster than face to face conversations.
9. Keep the team aligned
When you’re hiring, it isn’t something that you do in isolation from the rest of the team. Make sure your whole team is involved and kept up to speed with where you’re at throughout the whole process.
This is so the interviewing process is continually moving forward – the last thing you or the candidate wants is for anything to cause the hiring process to stall. Job hunting is stressful enough without introducing unnecessary delays into the equation.
Make sure every team member is aware of how many rounds of interviews there are and who is involved in each one, who is responsible for them, as well as what is required from all interviewers for each one.
Also, make sure everyone knows who is ultimately responsible for the hiring decisions.
What are your deadlines? Create a timeline or hiring schedule to ensure the hiring process runs smoothly and timely. Strong remote collaboration between all parties will mean you can be confident your remote interviewing goes to plan.
10. Have a plan B ready
Remote interviews rely on technology. And technology can also fail. So have a plan B in case something goes wrong.
For example, if the connection fails – make sure you have the candidate’s phone number so you can easily switch to a phone call from a virtual interview, should the need arise; or have a system set up so you can reschedule for the first possible opportunity.
The reason the connection was lost could be as simple as a battery dying on a computer or a smartphone, so give the candidate time to switch devices or to plug their existing device into a power source before you try to reconnect. And don’t hold any tech issues against them – they may not have fast internet or the most modern devices at home.
Over to you
Remote interviews can be an effective employee selection method if conducted right. But remember that you’ll need to pay extra attention to building connections with your candidates as you have to do it without actually meeting them face to face.
Developing a structured interview process, making it a two-way, informative conversation, focusing on candidate communication before and after the interview goes a long way in conducting productive remote interviews.
Answers to 10 most common job interview questions Here are the most commonly asked interview questions you can expect to be asked in your interview and advice on how you can craft effective responses.
Too many job seekers stumble through interviews as if the questions asked are coming out of left field. But many interview questions are to be expected. Need some job interview tips? Monster has you covered. Study this list of popular and frequently asked interview questions and answers ahead of time so you'll be ready to answer them with confidence.
1. What are your weaknesses?
"What are your weaknesses" is one of the most popular questions interviewers ask. It is also the most dreaded question of all. Handle it by minimizing your weakness and emphasizing your strengths. Stay away from personal qualities and concentrate on professional traits: "I am always working on improving my communication skills to be a more effective presenter. I recently joined Toastmasters, which I find very helpful."
2. Why should we hire you?
Answer "Why should we hire you?" by summarizing your experiences: "With five years' experience working in the financial industry and my proven record of saving the company money, I could make a big difference in your company. I'm confident I would be a great addition to your team."
3. Why do you want to work here?
Many interview questions and answers seek to evaluate whether or not a job is a good fit for a candidate. By asking you, "Why do you want to work here?" the interviewer is listening for an answer that indicates you've given this some thought and are not sending out resumes just because there is an opening. For example, "I've selected key companies whose mission statements are in line with my values, where I know I could be excited about what the company does, and this company is very high on my list of desirable choices."
4. What are your goals?
When you're asked, "What are your goals?" sometimes it's best to talk about short-term and intermediate goals rather than locking yourself into the distant future. For example, "My immediate goal is to get a job in a growth-oriented company. My long-term goal will depend on where the company goes. I hope to eventually grow into a position of responsibility."
5. Why did you leave (or why are you leaving) your job?
One of the most critical job interview tips: Don't badmouth a former employer. So if an interviewer asks, "Why did you leave (or why are you leaving) your job?" and you're unemployed, state your reason for leaving in a positive context: "I managed to survive two rounds of corporate downsizing, but the third round was a 20% reduction in the workforce, which included me."
If you are employed, focus on what you want in your next job: "After two years, I made the decision to look for a company that is team-focused, where I can add my experience."
6. When were you most satisfied in your job?
The interviewer who asks, "When were you most satisfied in your job?" wants to know what motivates you. If you can relate an example of a job or project when you were excited, the interviewer will get an idea of your preferences. "I was very satisfied in my last job, because I worked directly with the customers and their problems; that is an important part of the job for me."
7. What can you do for us that other candidates can't?
Emphasize what makes you unique when you're asked, "What can you do for us that other candidates can't?" This will take an assessment of your experiences, skills and traits. Summarize concisely: "I have a unique combination of strong technical skills, and the ability to build strong customer relationships. This allows me to use my knowledge and break down information to be more user-friendly."
8. What are three positive things your last boss would say about you?
It's time to pull out your old performance appraisals and boss's quotes to answer the question, "What are three positive things your last boss would say about you?". This is a great way to brag about yourself through someone else's words: "My boss has told me that I am the best designer he has ever had. He knows he can rely on me, and he likes my sense of humor."
9. What salary are you seeking?
When you're asked, "What salary are you seeking?" it is to your advantage if the employer tells you the range first. Prepare by knowing the going rate in your area, and your bottom line or walk-away point. One possible answer would be: "I am sure when the time comes, we can agree on a reasonable amount. In what range do you typically pay someone with my background?"
10. If you were an animal, which one would you want to be?
Don't be alarmed if you're asked weird interview questions. Interviewers use this type of psychological question to see if you can think quickly. If you answer "a bunny," you will make a soft, passive impression. If you answer "a lion," you will be seen as aggressive. What type of personality would it take to get the job done? What impression do you want to make?
Yes, the job search is intimidating, but reviewing interview questions and answers in advance is one way to calm your nerves and boost your confidence. Are you looking for more ways to stand apart from the competition?