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Virtual interviews became essential in 2020 for most companies when in-person job interviews were suddenly halted due to social distancing orders.
Experts believe that a combination of the two interviewing methods will be the way recruiting and hiring is done post-pandemic, as traditional hiring practices return alongside newly adopted virtual processes.
Looking ahead, 41 percent of 1,140 hiring leaders said they plan to use a combination of in-person and virtual interviews, according to a survey commissioned by HireVue, a video interviewing and assessment provider. The survey found that 23 percent of respondents plan to switch to virtual interviewing only.
“Virtual interviews are not going away,” said Peg Buchenroth, senior vice president of human resources at staffing and recruiting firm Addison Group in Chicago. “Virtual interviewing will remain an option for attracting talent, depending on the situation.”
The optimal interviewing method often has to do with the type of recruiting being done, Buchenroth said. Video interviewing is obviously useful for high-volume recruiting, for example, or for roles that will be completely remote. “For senior roles, you might start virtually, but at some point you’d like to have an in-person engagement,” she said. “Hiring for senior positions is a big investment, and you’ll want to interview these candidates in person.”
The benefits of technology
The video interview speeds up the entire hiring process. Setting up on-site interviews with candidates and all relevant stakeholders is a chore for recruiters and sometimes fraught with canceled and rescheduled meetings.
Hiring managers can conduct more interviews in less time virtually than in person, said Colleen Garrett, SHRM-CP, a recruiting specialist at San Francisco-based healthcare recruiting firm Clipboard Health. “Once the conversation is over, the conversation is over,” she said. “When you’re interviewing in person, you have to consider the possibility of someone being late and other interruptions or disruptions that happen in the office.”
Scheduling flexibility and the ability for interviewees to log in to their computer for an interview versus dedicating time — and free time for hired candidates — to an in-person meeting is one of the biggest advantages of virtual interviews, said Alexandra O’Banion, lead specialist in recruiting and talent advisor at Celanese, a chemical technology company based in Dallas.
“Some candidates cannot easily travel due to various circumstances, and virtual interviews allow them some flexibility,” Buchenroth said. For positions with multiple rounds of interviews, a mostly virtual approach also works well, she added.
Tiffany Balve is a Senior Talent Acquisition Manager, leading a team that leads engineer interview events at Microsoft. “Before we went virtual because of COVID-19, we held about 15 of these events a month, attracting about 30 to 65 applicants per event, always in person, on the Seattle campus,” she explained. “We have always had spatial and logistical constraints to interview so many candidates at once. Logistics prevented us from expanding. But going 100 percent virtual removed those logistical complications, so we now run 30 to 35 events a month. I save so much money not having to pay travel expenses.”
O’Banion said virtual interviews also allow more of the employer’s stakeholders to participate in the interview, wherever they are in the world. Garrett further explained that the recorded interviews can be reviewed by multiple team members on their own schedule or used for training purposes for new hiring and recruiting managers.
Expanding the search parameters for recruiters is another benefit of virtual interviewing and remote work. “You can reach out to more distant and out-of-state candidates,” O’Banion said.
Buchenroth added that employers aren’t the only ones with the ability to cast a wider net. “Technology is enabling more candidates to apply for jobs outside their area as well.”
We can’t beat face-to-face for engagement
While many would agree that there is more of a personal connection through video than a phone call, meeting a candidate in person offers the best opportunity for real engagement.
“For roles that require strong social skills, such as customer service or senior management positions, employers may want to meet candidates face-to-face,” Buchenroth said. “In-person interviews offer a higher level of engagement. You can read body language better and get a better sense of someone’s interpersonal skills.”
She added that interviewing for roles that require demonstrations of skills will also benefit from personal interaction. “Of course, there are a lot of tools that help candidates test themselves virtually, but maybe it’s best to get those people involved,” she said.
The technology itself is another barrier to virtual interviewing. “Not all technology is created equal, and some of these interview platforms are buggy,” said Matt Duren, senior manager of talent acquisition at Tenable Network Security, a cybersecurity company in Columbia, Maryland. “They will cut you off, or there are internet connection and bandwidth issues, or video processing issues. Then you have candidates being judged on their ability to hold a video interview, which has nothing to do with the job itself.”
Duren added that popular video conferencing technologies like Zoom and Microsoft Teams are meant to be collaboration tools and not set up for job interviews. “I think the functionality there needs to be improved for HR purposes,” he said.
Clipboard Health’s Garrett said the requirement for virtual interviews can also be a barrier to entry for low-income applicants who don’t have Wi-Fi or laptops with reliable webcams at their disposal or aren’t tech-savvy enough to navigate the software. interviewing.
The shared experience of the pandemic has created empathy among recruiters and hiring managers, but new biases may have also been born, such as judging an applicant’s ability to conduct an effective video interview or judging the applicant’s home environment, called ” background bias’. “
Finally, some people are unfamiliar with the video interview format and just don’t like it, thinking it’s awkward or unnecessary. Adjusting to the new normal of remote hiring can be stressful and frustrating for some.
“It can be awkward for those who have never done it before,” said Celanese’s Obanion. “There can also be distractions that make it easier to lose focus.”
Duren agreed, but said distractions have returned to normal since the pandemic. “A recruiter I know said he interviewed a candidate who had a screaming baby on his lap the entire time. He just accepted it. I was doing an interview and my daughter started playing the bass clarinet nearby. I stopped apologizing for him.”
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