What Is Interview Intelligence?

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What is interview intelligence?

Consider this…would you marry someone after meeting them a few times? Probably not. But, this is exactly how the interview process works. Upon making a hiring decision, your organization enters into a long term relationship with an employee after just a few interviews. In fact, studies suggest that most marriages that fail will do so within the first two years. This is where interview intelligence comes in.

So, now comes the fun part…what exactly is interview intelligence? An interview intelligence platform records and transcribes interviews and uses AI to generate highlight reels and recommend top candidates so teams can easily and equitably compare candidates’ answers and experiences. Interview intelligence also provides coaching and in-interview guidance for teams to ensure quality interviews and deliver great candidate experiences. The end result? Companies bring the best people into their organizations and save time and money on costly hires.

Why does this matter? The interviewing process is the most important part of hiring, but it has become broken for various reasons. We’re still interviewing the same way we have for decades, interview experiences are inconsistent across candidates, interviewers are not trained on how to interview effectively, interviewer feedback is filled with bias, and the list goes on. This is all amplified by the fact that organizations truly have no idea what is happening within interviews.

Finally, why is NOW the time for interview intelligence? Here’s the top 3 reasons:

1.) Organizations have no idea what’s happening in their interviews
Can you imagine thousands of interviews being conducted within your organization, but you have no idea what’s going on within them? You’re sending untrained interviewers who are often unprepared into candidate interviews, and this is ruining your brand. This is why recording interviews and learning from them is so imperative to delivering a seamless candidate experience.

2.) The war on talent
There’s a surplus of positions opening up and not enough candidates to fill them, which points to a rising level of power and choice on the side of the candidate. To win the war over exceptional talent, organizations need to attract job seekers with more than just a fat paycheck, and that starts with providing a great interview process.

3.) Recruiters play a bigger role in DEI
70% of job seekers want to work for a company that demonstrates a commitment to diversity and inclusion. More and more recruiters are advocating for a diverse pipeline of candidates and hold hiring managers accountable for moving those candidates through the hiring process. Interview intelligence provides transparency into each and every interview so that diverse candidates are authentically represented and are not being disqualified throughout the interview process. 
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What pain points does interview intelligence solve?

1.) The need to hire faster
A long time-to-hire not only raises the cost of hiring, but it can also cause you to lose top candidates. Many job seekers lose interest in a job if the hiring process is too lengthy. In fact, the top 10% of talent tends to be off the market in 10 days! Through AI-generated highlight reels, teams can more easily collaborate, reducing the number of interviews required and uncovering the right candidate in less than 3 weeks.

2.) Losing candidates to competitors
Candidates have a much better experience when they aren’t being asked the same questions over and over again. They also feel much more connected to the hiring team because each interviewer is prepared after watching highlights from previous interviews. This leads to a huge increase in candidate acceptance rates (typically double!).

3.) Trying to get valuable feedback from interviewers is like pulling teeth
After an interview, do you always have to chase down interviewers for feedback days later? And even when interviewers do provide feedback, is it just 3 unhelpful bullet points of information? We’re guessing you’re nodding your head saying “yes” to both questions right now. With interview intelligence, hiring managers receive immediate feedback from interviewers through live, in-interview feedback reactions. This mitigates the need to chase down interviewers and ensures the feedback provided is actually beneficial to making a hiring decision.

4.) Hiring with certainty
Bad hires are a multi-billion dollar problem for companies. Before making a hiring decision, hiring managers are able to compare candidates back-to-back by specific skills. This cuts the failure rate of hiring in half so you aren’t crossing your fingers that you hired the right person for the job.

5.) Diverse candidates are being disqualified
Interviews are filled with bias, and when you can’t see into each interview, there’s no way to catch bias in the hiring process. Having the ability to re-watch interviews provides fewer best-guesses on why diversity targets are being missed and leads to more data-driven hiring decisions.

6.) Poor candidate experience 
Oftentimes, interviewers show up to interviews unprepared and don’t know what questions to ask or they don’t stick to the interview question plan. By using an interview intelligence platform that integrates with your video conferencing tool, every interviewer receives a guided list of skills-based questions, making it much easier for them to stay consistent with every interview. The question guide reduces the risk of bad interviews and leads to a better experience for the candidate. 

What internal departments benefit most from interview intelligence?

Leaders from all departments should rely on interview intelligence to build stronger teams and deliver a seamless candidate experience, but there are a few departments that stick out.

1.) Talent Acquisition
Today’s talent acquisition leaders use real-time analytics and insights to routinely hire the best talent. It’s becoming more and more imperative that hiring decisions are based on data and not subjective opinion. In fact, talent departments that don’t embrace data will continue to have difficulty in hiring top candidates in an efficient, predictable manner. On top of that, most talent departments run totally blind as to what is actually happening within interviews, and without insight, the root of the problem can’t be fixed. Interview intelligence helps to solve this by speeding up the hiring process and mitigating the huge opportunity cost of bad hires.

2.) Sales
The average turnover in sales is 25 to 30%. Direct replacement costs for a sales employee can range from $40,000 to $70,000, while other sales positions can cost a company as much as $300,000. Moreover, these figures don’t reflect the lost sales while a replacement is found and trained, which can add up to 12+ months of quota. This is why it’s so important to ensure you uncover the right sales candidates efficiently and effectively…and that starts with interviewing. Because after all, even the worst salespeople can sell themselves in an interview, but bringing GREAT salespeople into your organization is key to hitting revenue goals.

Check out our guide on how to bring the best salespeople into your organization.

3.) Engineering
Software engineering is a BOOMING field, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for organizations to hire software engineers. Many engineers mentioned that they drop out of an organization’s hiring process because of 2 things: time-consuming interviews and not being tested on skills that are relevant to the role. Because of this, running an efficient, structured interview process, providing a great candidate experience, and asking skills-based questions that are appropriate for software engineers will ensure they say “yes” to you over other roles.

Check out our guide on how to bring the best software engineers into your organization.

4.) DEI Teams
Interview intelligence helps DEI teams meet their diversity goals quicker as it provides advocacy and transparency into diverse hiring decisions. Most importantly, DEI teams have increased confidence to go to bat for diverse candidates, moving from “I really like them” to “they are the best candidate, and here’s why”. Even if your organization has a diverse candidate pool to interview, many of these candidates are still not being selected for the role. This points to a problem within the interview process itself, and interview intelligence promotes fair, unbiased interviewing. 
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How do I choose the right interview intelligence platform? 
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Choosing the right interview intelligence platform can seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be! Here’s a checklist of a few things to consider to ensure you select the best platform for your organization.

ATS Integration
Selecting an interview intelligence platform that works seamlessly with your current Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is key. Opt for the platform that doesn’t disrupt your current hiring workflows, and if they already integrate with your ATS, there’s less manual work involved.

Key Features
It’s important to take note of the key features that any interview intelligence platform should have. Otherwise, you won’t be able to reap the full benefits of this type of solution.

• Transcribed interviews
• AI-generated, shareable highlight reels  
• Interviewer coaching analytics 
• Interview guides, including skills-based question recommendations
• Side-by-side candidate comparison 
• Live, in-interview feedback reactions 
• Video conferencing and phone screen recordings 
• Candidate score breakdowns by interviewer
  

Implementation Timeline
Be sure to ask how long it will take to get up and running. The quicker implementation is, the quicker you can start bringing the best people into your organization!

Privacy
Candidates need to know that they’re being recorded. Ensure that whatever solution you select is dedicated to the privacy of every candidate.

Data Security
Every platform that has access to company data should maintain a high level of information security. SOC 2 compliance is one industry standard that ensures sensitive information is being handled responsibly.

Automation
Ask for a list of what processes are automated within the platform. Certain pieces of functionality may look great in the demo, but it’s important to consider what’s automated vs. what’s not so you understand how to be as efficient as possible when using the tool.

Product Roadmap
Software platforms are ever changing. Be sure to find out what’s coming next from a product roadmap perspective. You want to ensure you select an organization that is constantly ideating on how to create value vs. remaining stagnant.

User Experience
Opt for the solution that offers the best user experience. The easier the platform is to use, the quicker it will be to reap the rewards of what benefits the platform has to offer.

Pillar 💜
Our customers are seeing great results through their use of Pillar. They feel more engaged with candidates, they’ve cut their time to fill significantly, and they’ve increased their candidate acceptance rates. Here’s a few examples of why hiring teams are loving Pillar.
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“Pillar is an innovative way to not only document interviews, but to also create a better experience for both the candidates and hiring managers. Pillar allows talent acquisition departments to save time, eliminate errors, while at the same time reducing unconscious bias in the workplace.” - Ashley (Talent Acquisition Partner at High Alpha)

“Pillar is a huge opportunity for us to be completely confident about the fairness and effectiveness of our assessments. It’s an invaluable tool for coaching, developing, and supporting our newer interviews on the team.” - Taylor (Director of Talent at Wistia) 
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“Having the ability to record and share interview clips with our hiring teams has been a game-changer in getting good candidates into the process and speeding up our time to hire.” - Rita (Programs Manager, Talent Acquisition at Terminal) 
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Ready to see Pillar in action? Schedule a demo today at pillar.hr/get-a-demo.