New Interviewing Technologies: What do job applicants think?

Abstract

Recently, organizations have begun utilizing asynchronous online video interviewing platforms which combine video streaming technology with artificial intelligence to facilitate the interviewing step in their personnel selection process. As with many emerging technologies, little research exists to investigate how these platforms may be received by job applicants. The goal of this study is to examine how applicants may react to requests from organizations to complete asynchronous video interviews and the differences in perceptions of fairness, organizational attractiveness and job pursuit intentions, based on what information, if any, is provided about the decision-making agent. Participants (n = 287) completed a study where they were assigned a role as a recent job applicant that received an invitation to complete an interview using the organizations’ online video interview platform as the next step in the selection process. Participants were then randomly assigned to one of three conditions: the first provided no information about how the selection decision would be made, the second informed them that an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm would make the decision, and the third that a recruiter [human] would make the decision. Hypotheses stated that participants would rate the human decision maker more favorably than the AI decision maker and would rate both the human and AI decision maker conditions more favorably than the no information condition. Results indicated that perceptions of organizational attractiveness and job intentions were significantly influenced, but only for the human decision maker over the AI decision maker. Gender, comfort level and previous experience with recording asynchronous interviews were found to have moderating effects.