Virtual vs In-person Interviews

A lot has changed since COVID in the world of interviews. Not only has remote work started to become a hot topic but now it seems that for the vast majority of roles people go through entire interview loops without meeting anyone in-person.

Now with AI interview bots on the rise, this raises a question on whether we are missing something from not meeting someone in person.

I want to call out at the outset that for me this isn’t a big thing but when interviewing it is something to be thinking about. I am hoping that through dialogue and discussions interviews can become a lot fairer and transparent for everyone involved.

How we communicate

Many psychologists and language experts talk about how language and how this plays a key part in how we communicate.

They say its made up of:

• 7% words

• 38% tone of voice

• 55% body language

55% of how we communicate with other people is through our body language. Body language isn’t just about body as in arms and positioning but also goes into facial expressions as well.

Knowing how we communicate is important for looking at all areas of life from our relationships, work environments, sales and obviously interviews.

Body language is an interesting area with a lot of research out there. I am not a fully qualified body language expert but I have done research and spoken with some experts to understand a good level.

Body language is universal, whilst language is aligned to your geography, body language isn't . These are universal for every human on the planet. (Which for me makes it even more fascinating topic to explore). For example a smile means happiness, open arms mean openness. We all know this as do those who don’t speak our language. Understanding it isn’t just about ability to interview people or able to sell, but stands for how we build relationships and understand people we interact with from the shopkeeper to taxi driver.

One of the things to know about body language is, that it isn’t just about the first impression we make on others (think about the handshake) but shows others how we feel or think. These are commonly known as micro expressions, fleeting expressions, that we unconsciously do, based on certain situations. These could meeting someone (dilated pupils) through to interactions with work colleagues (pointing feet to demonstrate we want to leave the conversation).

Within interviews body language will play a huge part in assessing candidates.

How does this apply to Interviews

Body language doesn’t factor in interviews as much as it should do. Everything currently is based on tone and words (45%) of the communication. Experienced and well trained interviewers are very good at picking up on body language signals within interviews, more often than not those that are good at this typically been trained in this (those with high understanding of this normally, but not always come from Sales environments, they are trained in body language techniques for selling).

How does body language apply to Interviews?

You may well find that when asking candidates questions one of the following may well happen:

• Lean in or engage more

• Lean back or away and close of their body (cross their arms)

• Look away or down at the floor

These are some signals the candidate is giving you about their response. Lets look at an example.

You as the interviewer ask the candidate the following question:

Tell me about a time where you had to go above and beyond to deliver great customer service to your clients?

They respond with a good answer but you follow up with What was your role in that? You mentioned a lot of team focussed results but where did you add customer value?

At this point the candidate leans back and crosses their arms, with a response that demonstrate their unique value in the customer delivery. It’s the answer you have been looking and they score highly in this question. But…

Do they just know the answer to this question and was there a hint in their response that should raise a flag for you? This is in their body language, they closed of their body. This was in essence saying that they disliked the follow up question and with their arms over the body are saying I am shutting you out of the full picture with the answer.

With the rise of virtual interviews and interviews done by AI as well, are we missing something in the way candidates respond to the interview questions? In virtual interviews we don’t see the whole aspect of the individual and so have limited ability to see whether they are engaged, disengaged or otherwise?

Tips for virtual interviews

If you are running virtual interviews then here are some tips to get more data points on the candidate and how they respond:

1. Encourage Camera-on: This is obvious but ensure the candidate (and you) have the camera switched on. This will help you to see the candidate, facial expressions and hand gestures.

2. Position of camera: Ensure camera is in a place where you can maintain eye line with the candidate

3. Look at non-verbal cues: Look at the candidates facial expression, their position to the camera etc. Does this match their response.

4. Follow up on inconsistencies: If something doesn’t add up follow up and get the right response.

5. Active Listening: Use active listening skills to ensure that you get all the right information from the candidate. Ensure you pay attention to the tone and how things are said.

6. Use open ended questions: Again may seem obvious, but important point in virtual interviews as you will get to see how the candidate responds and thinks spontaneously to questions raised.

What do you think about body language in virtual interviews? Is this something that AI can pick up and understand? We know it can be trained on data so should be able to pick these up in the interviews. What are your thoughts?

Are we missing out on something moving to virtual interview over face to face interview?

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