Pros and cons of face to face interviewing when recruiting international staff

As domestic recruitment of healthcare professionals becomes more challenging, and international applicants become increasingly attractive, what is the best way to interview your candidates – face to face or by video?

Here we discuss the pros and cons of face to face interviewing of international applicants.

Advantages of face to face interviewing

• Can feel like a more natural exchange
• Candidates can feel more comfortable in person if they haven’t conversed internationally by video previously
• Technical problems can’t derail the interaction
• There is less chance of “external” distractions (e.g. interviewers less likely to be looking at their phone) so you get the 100% attention of the recruiting panel

Disadvantages of face to face interviewing

• Travel costs to international destinations can be very expensive – the time investment of the recruiting panel also need to be considered as they are likely to be away from the care facility for an extended length of time
• The return on investment can be low if candidates don’t “land” in the UK following an offer
• More challenging to “check candidates out” or pre-screen candidates before you invest in an extended interview with them
• If you have a candidate “no show” for an in-person interview then often the panel are left hanging around
• Interview dates tend to be more fixed, and therefore inflexible if candidates are unwell or have conflicting commitments
• Interviews are restricted to candidates in a specific geographical area

Our top tips to maximise in person video interviewing

• Try to do some kind of pre-screen before the interview (e.g. by phone, to ensure it is worthy of the clinician time and investment)
• If possible try to offer interviews in multiple locations to attract as many applicants as possible
• Ask candidates to confirm they are going to attend on the day and have a back-up plan so that “no show” candidates are minimised, and the time is maximised.

Conclusions

Recruiting face to face for your positions is great if you are happy to invest the budget and time required to make it effective. If you are looking for a more cost-effective, flexible solution you may want to consider video interviewing as a good alternative.

My Healthcare Recruit supports UK healthcare employers in the public, private, and care sector to find international nurses who are a great fit for their organisation, by using market-leading video interviewing tools to connect them to our database of qualified candidates. Our innovative approach makes international candidates easier to find and more cost-effective to source than ever before. Find out more at www.myhealthcarerecruit.com