Ready? Camera rolling… action! Examining interviewee training and practice opportunities in asynchronous video interviews

Abstract

Asynchronous video interviews (AVIs) are becoming exponentially more common in the hiring landscape. Despite practical benefits to organizations, research demonstrates potential challenges for applicants, including lower performance in technology-mediated interviews, and a host of negative attitudinal reactions to AVIs. Given this, AVI companies often provide tips for applicants, and applicants often access online resources to improve their performance. To date, we know little about interventions that can mitigate negative applicant reactions and increase applicant performance in AVIs, or the mechanisms involved in such a process. In Study 1, 202 participants from Prolific were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions (in a 2 × 2 experimental design) and completed a 5-question mock AVI, to explore how an AVI training video and practice impacted a host of self-report behavioral (i.e., impression management; IM) and attitudinal (i.e., anxiety, attraction, fairness, usability) outcomes, as well as response length, structure of the response, and interview performance. Results indicated that practice had negligible effects. However, training was positively associated with fairness perceptions (particularly consistency) and interview performance. Moreover, mediation analyses indicated that trained interviewees provided more structured and longer responses, which led to higher performance. Study 2 offered a replication with a sample of 156 active job seekers (senior students and Prolific users). Training was associated with more structured responses, and through this, higher performance. Pre- vs. post-training comparisons for a sub-sample also showed performance improvements. Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.