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Virtual interviews – including pre-recorded video interviews and virtual reality tryouts – are quickly becoming a routine part of the hiring process for many jobs. But given the choice, most Americans would prefer an in-person interview.
That’s according to a new survey by staffing company Yoh, which found that 62 percent of 2,000 American adults surveyed would prefer a traditional interview over a virtual one.
Why?
The biggest reason cited by nearly 60% of respondents is that in-person interviews are the only way to “really evaluate a new job opportunity.” The #2 reason chosen by 37% of respondents was that virtual interviews would limit the relationship with the interviewer. Seventeen percent of respondents chose “too many opportunities for technical difficulties” as the reason why in-person interviews were preferable to virtual ones.
“In this technological age, companies are constantly finding faster and better ways to streamline the recruiting process and open the door to a wider range of hiring opportunities,” says Yoh President Emmett McGrath. “But Americans’ skepticism about virtual interviews underscores the need for human interaction during the recruiting and hiring process.”
Companies that rely on virtual interviews actually tend to include face-to-face interviews in their hiring process—they just tend to do it later in the process, says Loren Larsen, chief technology officer at online interviewing and provider of HireVue assessment.
“The virtual interview is a way for companies to decide, ‘Which five people should I interview in person?'” he says.
Virtual interviews—whether done by phone or laptop—allow talent acquisition teams and hiring managers to screen out candidates who aren’t right for the job without the hassle or expense of an on-site interview, Larsen says. In many cases, they have made the hiring process more humane, he adds.
“An in-person interview is more personal, but most companies don’t have time for that,” says Larsen. The virtual interview is a good alternative to resume screening, he says. “It gives people an opportunity who might otherwise face the dreaded ‘black hole.’ “
Some organizations really need to do a better job of making their virtual interviews more personal, Larsen says.
“There are bad in-person interviews and there are bad virtual interviews,” he says. “Instead of just sending someone a link and saying, ‘Here, get this,’ explain to them why you’re asking them to do this — how it will help you get to know them better, for example.”
Tools like chatbots and avatars can also help the virtual interview feel less impersonal, Larsen says.
As for technical difficulties, those concerns tend to be extremely rare among today’s job applicants, he says.
“When I started here in 2011, 40% of virtual interviews required some kind of face-to-face [interviewees and support staff]says Larsen. “Today, it’s less than 1%, and most of the time applicants want to know when they’ll hear back from the company.”
There’s little difference in age or gender between candidates when it comes to virtual interviews, he says.
“We’ve surveyed millions of candidates about their experience, and people over the age of 50 have the same positive experience as 22-year-olds,” says Larsen.
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