After conducting hundreds of video interviews, here are some of the best practices we documented:

Shorter Duration: Video interviews should be shorter than in-person interviews. The best interviews lasted between 20 and 30 minutes.

Set Expectations: A video interview may be a new experience for some of your prospects. Start the interview with a brief summary on how the interaction will be structured.

Ask Permission to Take Some Notes: Losing eye contact during a video meeting makes the interaction feel a little cold. Letting prospects know you’ll be looking away to jot down some notes (and it’s OK for them to do the same) makes it feel less awkward.

Follow a Predefined Structure: Your 30 minutes will go by fast, so it is important to break the interview into segments. Our segments were setting expectations (2 minutes),  open-ended questions (8 minutes), standard questions (8 minutes), answering the prospects questions (5 minutes), closing the interview (5 minutes).

Offer Options for Moving Forward: If you believe a prospect has good potential, offer several options for moving forward in the recruiting process. People like choices, and it’s important to get a commitment to take the next step before disengaging.

I’ll delve into more detail on these items and answer the incoming questions in future Insights.

Until then, try scheduling and conducting a few video interviews. Experience may be your best teacher.