The purpose of this article is to provide you with our best practices for achieving the highest engagement rates on your Spark Hire interviews. 

1. Pre-qualify candidates when they apply and before you invite them to Spark Hire

On the job application form you're using, utilize knockout questions to pre-qualify candidates so they don't self-select out of your process later on.

For example, add pay transparency to your job application so candidates can inform you if that meets their expectations or not. This will ensure that the candidates you engage with are aligned with the expectations you've set.

2. Document the hiring process for candidates in multiple places

Outlining your hiring process for candidates will set them up for success as they can prepare for each step and know where they stand.

Without context, it's easy for candidates to get confused with where they're at in your process and a lack of clarity about the steps to come causes candidates to drop out thinking you might have a much longer process than you really do.

There are a few places in which you can outline the process for candidates:

• Careers page
• Job advertisement
• Communication with candidates
  • Auto-responder after they apply
  • Invitation to complete a one-way interview on Spark Hire

Re-communicating how your hiring process works in different touch points with candidates is always a good idea.

3. Communicate the “why” to your candidates

Since many candidates have still not completed a one-way video interview in their job search, it's important to distinguish the purpose of this interview in your hiring process and how it benefits the candidate (what's in it for them?)

For instance, some candidates might confuse a one-way video interview as a replacement for a face-to-face interview when that's not your intention. This is where documenting your hiring process helps!

Here's an example that you can copy, paste, and modify on how you can communicate to candidates where it sits in your process and why it's beneficial to them:

"In order to ensure that we provide all qualified candidates with an opportunity to share more details about their experience and answer some questions about the role, the next step in our hiring process is a one-way video interview via Spark Hire.

This interview consists of x questions and enables us to get to know you better. You'll record video responses to each question on your own time and you can re-record your responses as many times as you'd like. This helps you put your best foot forward, add context to your experience, and provides us with the time capacity to hear from as many candidates as possible."

4. Focus on what's necessary
While you have the ability to restrict the number of times a candidate can re-record their responses and how many times they can attempt a question, consider if this is actually needed on a question-by-question basis.

From an interview length standpoint, limit the number of questions to what you really need to know from candidates at this stage in your hiring process.

See this section of the How to involve your hiring team article on structuring your interview questions.

5. Be realistic with deadlines

A big benefit to candidates is the flexibility that one-way video interviews provide. Lean into that to deliver a positive candidate experience!

We understand that it's tempting to set very short deadlines to encourage quick turnarounds from your candidates, but the reality is, life happens.

Candidates have their current jobs and personal commitments.

We typically suggest a deadline window of 5-7 days (which includes weekends.)

6. Take advantage of all branding/candidate engagement functionality

Spark Hire has a wide range of features dedicated to employer branding.

• Complete your Spark Hire branding with a logo, your main color, a photo gallery, social media links, and more to ensure candidates get a branded experience and more context. Here's a real customer example:

• Create intro and outro videos to personalize the one-way video interview experience and introduce some team members.
• Utilize video questions to make a one-way interview feel less "one way"
• Leverage SMS invites for increased visibility on your interview invitations

There are several factors that can impact your candidate engagement including, but not limited to:

• Where you include Spark Hire in your hiring process: Broadly speaking, the closer to the front end of the process, the less candidates know about your organization. It's not a bad thing, it's just something to keep in mind.
• Your employer brand: When a candidate hears your organization’s name, does it ring a bell?
• Transparency: How easy is it for candidates to find information about your organization? Are you transparent about the role, requirements, location, and pay?
• Desirability of the job: There is a correlation between the effort a candidate will put into the hiring process and how favorably they perceive the job.

Being mindful of these factors can help manage your internal expectations and also provide food for thought on how you can consistently level up your engagement on Spark Hire and throughout your hiring process as a whole.