Grandstand. Since the start of the pandemic, online job interviews have multiplied to avoid direct, potentially contaminating meetings. But the sanitary conditions have only accelerated a movement already well underway at the global level.
Several companies now offer online interview platforms, using artificial intelligence algorithms to analyze candidate behavior. Their oral answers, recorded, are automatically transcribed in the form of texts and studied. Variations in their voice and facial expressions are measured and interpreted.
To further minimize costs, the humans who usually conduct these interviews sometimes even give way to virtual recruiters, able to express themselves orally, like Siri or Alexa, but, this time, to ask questions. candidates about their backgrounds and aspirations.
The advantages of face-to-face
The double-digit annual growth of companies offering this type of service testifies to their success. It is estimated that the turnover of automatic candidate behavior analysis companies should reach 4 billion dollars within five years. Companies as large as Walmart, Microsoft, Adecco, Unilever, Nissan and Sodexo now use their services.
But these practices also pose serious problems. A company like HireVision (more than 700 corporate clients) has been sued several times in the United States by candidates for invasion of privacy. The opacity of the algorithms also poses a major problem. Our recent research should encourage even more caution when faced with these tools and… when faced with the very idea of online recruitment interviews.
In this study, we show, in fact, that the perception of a candidate by a recruiter is on average much more favorable when the meeting takes place in the flesh than when the interactions take place through a screen. When they are “in person”, the candidates, confronted with the same interlocutors, appear more open-minded, with more ease of contact, more friendliness and professional conscience and more emotional stability than when the contact is ” at a distance”.
The importance of the first interview
The screen actually prevents the emotional connections that make the recruiter remember the individual. He only sees his trunk, has no direct eye contact, which gives him the impression that the candidate is hiding something from him. The poor quality of the screens can also give the faces aberrant colors, interpreted as physical signs of nervousness.
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