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10 Tips for Facilitating Effective Virtual Interviews

10 Tips for Facilitating Effective Virtual Interviews

 The onsite interview is a key component of recruiting for physician retention. A mix of both selling and interviewing, the onsite includes both structured interviews and social blocks, allowing both the organization and the physician (as well as the physician’s loved ones) to evaluate if there is a mutual fit. We’re here to help you navigate an effective virtual interview.  Below we featured a section of our Virtual Onsite Tool Kit — in partnership with Barlow/McCarthy.

These are Marketware’s 10 Tips for Facilitating Effective Virtual Interviews:

 Prep Your Candidate 

1. Share Pertinent Details in Advance 

  • Give them a good summary of the virtual interview process 
  • Create an agenda that includes embedded links
  • Incorporate links &/or fun facts about the audience in advance 
  • Create a cheat sheet of helpful tips the provider can use to prepare
  • As most participants are working on the floors or working from home, let the candidate know what dress is required (i.e. business casual) 

 2. Share Recommended Best Practices for Video Calls 

  • Make sure they know if the video will be turned on to support relationship-building
  • Suggest they choose a clean, quiet & well-lit space
  • It can be easy to make & sustain eye contact when video conferencing — encourage them to keep something visual near their camera to remind them to focus eye contact there
  • Encourage the candidate to focus on how they speak & what they articulate
  • Reassure them it’s okay to repeat themselves if the question or their response needs to be clearer
  • Promote tools that will help them prepare in advance

3. Encourage Testing & Practice in Advance 

  • Make sure they download the software & do a video test run at least 1 day prior to the interview 
  • Part of this test run should confirm that signal strength is adequate & the camera/microphone both work as expected 
  • Share some suggested questions they can review in advance 
  • Offer to be a safe practice partner if they want to practice making eye contact & communicating clearly 
  • As a precaution, give them a backup phone number to reach you in case there’s a glitch or the technology gets wonky 

4. Share Opportunities for Candidate Follow-Up 

  • Share emails related to your participating providers & leadership in case the candidate wants to thank those individuals for taking the time to be involved in their interview 
  • Remind the candidate that due to the circumstances, follow-up may take longer than usual to get back 
  • Create a quick survey for candidates to complete about the interview process & make adjustments as needed 

5. Maximize Candidate Touch-Points 

  • Follow up with your own thank you note to the physician candidate for being adaptable & for giving up their valuable time to speak with your team 
  • Provide prompt follow-up to the candidate including what additional interviews, references, and materials are needed to proceed 
  • Consider what other materials or resources you may need to share based on the notes you took from the interview

Prep Your Team

6. Share Pertinent Details in Advance 

  • Share copies of the candidate’s CV & any keynotes from previous interviews 
  • Explain the virtual setup to the team, provide agenda with embedded links 
  • Identify who will be the lead for each session 
  • Identify the roles others will play including who is asking &/or responding to key questions 

7. Put in Some Prep Time 

  • Coach leadership to start with easy, non-threatening questions to help them establish their comfort level with the technology, the situation & with the candidate 
  • Remind leadership to personalize the interview by talking a little bit about themselves, their background & their work with the company 
  • Recommend to the leader to mention something about the candidates that caught their eye while conducting their own research or reviewing CV 

8. Be the Hostess with the Mostest 

  • Join the beginning of the interview to engage in small talk while waiting for everyone to “arrive” 
  • Use this time to help navigate or troubleshoot any audiovisual issues
  • At the start of each interview, reminded participants to turn their phones on silent so notifications aren’t a distraction 
  • If the dog barks or the phone rings, remember life happens & we all need to be more flexible with partners working from home & with school being canceled 
  • Take notes so you can keep track of key observations, additional questions & potential touch points to reinforce along the interview process 

9. Process Improvement 

  • Secure feedback from your team shortly after you begin your virtual interview process
  • Make a list of those things that went well & should be continued
  • Brainstorm as a team on what adjustments need to be made moving forward

10. Assess Next Steps for Success 

  • Create a quick online version of your standardized interviewer form to compile objective feedback about the candidate
Physician Recruitment

Demo — Physician Recruitment

An Inside Look at Marketware’s Recruitment Platform

Interested in learning more about how Marketware’s Recruit Platform can help? Request a customized tour of our all-in-1 Physician Strategy Suite.

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Physician Recruitment Playbook

Tool Kit — Physician Recruitment

Physician Recruitment Playbook

A physician recruitment playbook is a guide your team can use to effectively deploy best practices. Helping them achieve success when recruiting and retaining physicians…

Download the Tool Kit
Date: May 11 2023
Subject: Physician Recruitment
About the author
Leslie Kinkade

(Former Client Success Executive @ Marketware)

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