Are digital interviews good enough ?
- 1. #TCPerspectives Are Digital Interviews Good Enough? Digital Interviews have gained momentum in the domain of Talent Assessment. It is an emerging form wherein interviewees digitally record their answers to (typically) digitally presented interview questions, without live interaction with an interviewer (Brenner, Ortner, & Fay, 2016; Chamorro- Premuzic, Winsborough, Sherman, & Hogan, 2016). Digital Interviews are believed to be more time- and cost-efficient than face-to- face interviews and other forms of technology-based interviews such as phone and video-conferences. Through a set of two questions, let us examine whether or not Digital Interviews are good enough!
- 2. #TCPerspectives Arent Digital Interviews Creepy? Creepiness can be elicited by unfamiliar interactions with technologies (Tene & Polonetsky, 2015), and can be defined as a queasy feeling paired with uncertainty about how to behave or how to judge a situation. Digital interviews are a relatively new concept, hence, this might be sufficient to evoke feelings of creepiness. In addition, applicants do not interact with any individual but interact with software. Applicants are continuously reminded that they are communicating through technology, which could lend a strange feeling to the digital interview procedure and the transparency of the process. Few studies have indicated that participants experienced more creepiness during digital interviews than during videoconference interviews. Drawing on theoretical arguments on creepiness in the context of novel technologies (Tene & Polonetsky, 2015) we can reason that this difference might be due to the fact that digital interviews are not yet as common as telephonic or videoconference interviews. If practitioners and researchers predictions that digital interviews will become increasingly popular come true, this might reduce the creepiness felt during digital interviews over time. Spreading awareness and educating the audience minimizes such feel perceptions.
- 3. #TCPerspectives Are Digital Interviews Less Fair? Contrary to the popular belief, there is negligible difference between the interview methods fairness and interviewers ratings. Studies have suggested that digital interviews ratings are weakly to moderately higher than ratings assigned during telephonic or video-conferencing interviews. This implies that applicants are not penalized during digital interviews and the assessment is largely fair. Even though participants usually perceive a lower opportunity to perform because there are no interviewer to signal that they are on the right track with their answer, they usually have the opportunity to prepare and structure their answer for at least 60-90 seconds, possibly resulting in stronger feelings of opportunity to perform.
- 4. #TCPerspectives Conclusion Based on these questions, it may be fair to assume that Digital Interviews are good enough. Many practitioners and institutions are becoming highly interested in this approach and are actively deploying it; with many seeing accurate and reliable results. The two questions addressed here are small aspects of digital interviews Undoubtedly, we need more research on digital interviews. Digital interviews are a novel alternative for conducting interviews and they offer many new directions for research. References: Brenner, F. S., Ortner, T. M., & Fay, D. (2016). Asynchronous video interviewing as a new technology in personnel selection: The applicants point of view. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 863 Chamorro-Premuzic, T., Winsborough, D., Sherman, R. A., & Hogan, R.c (2016). New talent signals: Shiny new objects or a brave new world? Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 9, 621640. Tene, O., & Polonetsky, J. (2015). A theory of creepy: Technology, privacy, and shifting social norms. Yale Journal of Law and Technology, 16, 59102. Langer M, Konig CJ, Krause K. Examining digital interviews for personnel selection: Applicant reactions and interviewer ratings. Int J Select Assess. 2017;25:371 382.