How to Conduct a One Way Interview

Before you write a question, decide what you need to learn at this stage that the application did not already tell you. For most first-round screens it is some mix of: can this person communicate clearly, do they understand the job, have they done something like it, and do they want this role rather than any role. Write that list down. Every question should map to one item on it; anything a resume already answers should be cut.

Be honest about which roles fit. The format works for support, sales, retail, BPO and graduate hiring, where you have more applicants than you can phone. It is a poor choice for a senior candidate you are courting, who will often decline to record. Use a one-way interview where applicants outnumber your time, and a live interview where the candidate is scarcer than the seat.

Four to six questions is the working range. Completion is highest when the whole interview takes under fifteen minutes, and a candidate who abandons halfway tells you less than one who finishes a shorter set. Each question should ask one thing, make sense with no interviewer to clarify it, and ask for something the candidate has done rather than what they would do in theory.

• Open with an easy question such as what drew them to this role. Nerves show most in the first answer.
• Put one or two role-specific questions in the middle: a real situation from the job, or a request for a specific example of a skill you need.
• Include one question that shows how they explain something, since clarity is what a recording shows best.
• Finish with a short practical question, such as notice period, that is easy to score.

Give each question a visible time limit and let candidates read the question before recording. Two minutes is a sensible limit for most screening questions; a longer limit produces longer answers, not better ones. On springhire the AI can draft a structured question set for the role and you edit it. The editing is the part that matters: read every question cold and ask whether a stranger would understand it as you meant it.

The invitation decides completion more than any other setting. Candidates who do not start are usually uncertain: how long it takes, whether they must install anything, whether a person will ever see it. Answer all three in the first lines.

• Say exactly how many questions there are and roughly how long the whole thing takes.
• Say that it runs in the browser on a phone or laptop, no account and no app. On springhire the candidate clicks one link and the microphone is checked before the first question.
• State the deadline as a date and time, not as 'within 72 hours'.
• Say who reviews the answers and when the candidate will hear back, then keep that promise.

Three to five days suits most screens. Shorter penalises people on shifts or with caring responsibilities, often exactly the people you are hiring for frontline roles. Longer than a week and the interview drifts to the bottom of the candidate's list. If the process is genuinely urgent, say so and explain why.

Reminders should be automatic. springhire sends one 48 hours after the invitation to anyone who has not recorded. Beyond that, a single personal nudge the day before the deadline is enough; three reminders in three days reads as pressure.

Decide your retake policy before you send anything and state it in the interview. A retake on at least the first question removes most of the anxiety without changing what you learn.

The review is where the time saving happens, and where it is most often thrown away. Watching every recording puts you back at the pace of a phone screen. Work from transcripts and a ranked list, and open video only when it changes a decision.

1. 1

   Fix the criteria before you open anything

   Write down what a strong, acceptable and weak answer contains for each question. Done afterwards, the first candidates set the bar for everyone else.

2. 2

   Read the transcripts

   Transcripts are read far faster than video is watched. Read the whole shortlist before watching anyone, marking answers with specifics against those without.

3. 3

   Check the AI scores against the text

   On springhire each answer is transcribed and scored against your rubric, with each score linked to the transcript. Treat it as a first pass that orders the queue, and read the evidence for anyone near your cut line.

4. 4

   Watch video for the people who matter

   Open the recording when weighing two candidates against each other, or when a transcript reads oddly. That is a handful of candidates, not all of them.

5. 5

   Record the decision and the reason

   One line per candidate on why they advance or not. It keeps reviewers honest and is what you will need if anyone asks later.

With more than one reviewer, the danger is not disagreement but unnoticed disagreement. Have everyone score the same three candidates first and compare before splitting the rest. Where the same answer gets very different scores, the problem is usually the rubric wording, and it is cheap to fix at that point.

• Score each question separately, so one strong answer does not carry a weak set.
• Note the evidence in a few words. 'Gave a specific example with an outcome' is a reason; 'good' is not.
• Keep a must-have flag separate from the score, so a candidate who fails a real requirement is not rescued by a high total.

For rubrics, anchored scales and reviewer calibration in full, see the guide to scoring video interviews, which also links a downloadable scorecard.

A candidate who recorded ten minutes of answers deserves a reply either way, by the date you promised. For people who advance, send the next step and a real time slot in the same message. For people who do not, a short, specific note is enough: thanks, the decision, and if you can, one sentence on what the successful candidates showed. It is the part of your process applicants talk about.

One rule matters more than any other detail of how to conduct a one way interview. Scores rank candidates; they should never reject anyone on their own. The only automatic rejection in a well-run process is a knock-out question about a fact, such as the right to work or a licence the job requires, asked before the interview starts. Everything after that is a person's decision.