The job market today is quite fast-paced. After the pandemic, the evaluation of candidates in job interviews has two approaches- traditional interviews and virtual interviews. While both approaches have their benefits, companies nowadays are mostly seen shifting their process to a virtual one.
When we talk about the traditional approach, it is the process of meeting your candidate face-to-face in person to conduct an interview and hire from the available talent pool. In contrast, the virtual process is to use a video interview service to connect with the candidates.
In this blog, we are going to lay down the differences and the pros and cons of using either approach and understand which approach benefits organizations in the long run.
Traditional Interviews
Traditional interviews meaning one-on-one interviews have been used by most companies for their hiring needs. Before the pandemic, the world hadn’t shifted to virtual means and traditional interviews were the way of going about meeting hiring needs. They have managed to yield good results over the years and have been beneficial for organizations in many ways. But as the world starts running on technology predominantly, we see a steady decline in traditional one-on-one interviews, and here are some reasons why:
Time and Cost: Traditional interviews are draining on the interviewer’s and the interviewee’s part when it comes to time and cost. Scheduling in-person face-to-face interviews consumes a lot of time, especially when there are multiple candidates or multiple rounds. It also costs quite a bit for the candidates to travel all the way to sit for the interviews that they aren’t sure if they would end up getting. The process becomes lengthy and time-consuming on both ends.
Limited Candidate Reach: While conducting traditional interviews, the companies have access to very limited options as they can only access candidates who are in the vicinity or are willing to relocate for the job. This limits their candidate reach to an extent and they cannot access candidates who might be a better fit for the role but aren’t available for the in-person interview.
Subjectivity and Interview Bias: While interviewing somebody face-to-face, interviewers can knowingly or unknowingly make decisions based on their thoughts and opinions and not on the caliber of the candidate. They might be biased toward a particular candidate because of shared interests or the way they dress and present themselves.
Limited options to record and review: In traditional interviews, recording the whole process becomes quite time-consuming and also can end up making the candidate nervous or uncomfortable if they have a camera pointing at them during the interview. This might affect their performances in the interview. Whereas not recording the process would affect the ability of the interviewers to review and make a decision.
Virtual Interviews
As can be understood from the name, the virtual interview is conducted virtually, on online platforms without having to meet face-to-face. Virtual interviews have become the way after 2020 when the world started to make a shift. It makes the interview process quite easier for companies, especially when they manage to use a platform that provides them with on-demand technical interview serviceswhenever necessary.
As stated before, virtual interviews have seen steady growth over recent years and are likely to keep doing so. Even if we debate about virtual interviews vs face-to-face interviews, virtual interviews are the preferred way now, here’s why:
Flexibility: With virtual interviews comes flexibility at the end of the interviewer and interviewee. The interviews can now be scheduled at their convenience without having to take into account long commutes to and from the interview. With one-way video interview services that platforms provide for technical screening services, interviewees can now sit for interviews at their preferred time.
Access to Global Talent Pool: One of the main pros of discussing virtual interviews advantages and disadvantages is that virtual interviews allow companies to reach an entirely new talent pool, possibly globally, as candidates from any part of the world can sit in for the interviews without even moving from their place. Platforms that provide interviews as a service also allow the candidates to choose from a range of time slots which allow them to schedule interviews without having to worry about the different time zones from where they are giving the interviews.
Time and Cost Effective: Scheduling virtual interviews does not have lengthy procedures where multiple people need to be in the loop. It also saves quite a bit of time and money as people can sit for the interviews from their homes, by having access to only a device and an internet connection. They end up saving their time and money which they would have otherwise needed for in-person interviews.
Better Candidate Assessment: Virtual interviews can be referred to later on to make decisions by the company. Also with these interviews, employers have the time to carry out assessments for different factors of the candidate, ranging from technical skills to soft skills, all without wasting human resources on it. By using interviews as a service platform, companies can manage to hire candidates that fit their needs precisely as they would help you assess the candidates thoroughly.
Record Keeping: Virtual Interviews provide us with a better way of record keeping, as a candidate’s entire history of the hiring process for any company can be tracked in these platforms to analyze the candidate further and the interviews are also easily recorded, after getting the candidates’ consent. It helps interviewers to later on review the interviews and make an informed decision. While we live in a world now where virtual interviews are slowly and steadily taking over the hiring process, we have platforms that have entered the job market to make the hiring process easier. With these platforms, you can get technical screening services and interview services for your recruitment process where experts from different domains will help you conduct interviews. As we see traditional interviews fading out, we should start taking advantage of these platforms and optimize the hiring process further.
