ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Organ. Psychol.
Sec. Work Motivation and Participation
This article is part of the Research TopicResignation and Strategic Retention: Shaping the Future WorkforceView all 17 articles
Evaluating the benefits and drawbacks of virtual interviewing from the candidate's experience
Provisionally accepted
- University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
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The ongoing advancement of technology over the last several decades has substantially impacted organizations' overall recruitment function. Meanwhile, this already increasing adoption of technological advancement within organizations was further exacerbated by the recent Covid-19 pandemic, causing a noteworthy rise in e-recruitment. Given the increasingly digitalized workplace era, this study aimed to explore the advantages and disadvantages of virtual interviews to determine the factors to be considered when adopting virtual interviewing amid the global rise in the use of this approach. The research followed a qualitative case study approach, and 14 participants selected through purposive sampling were individually interviewed. The data were then analyzed through thematic analysis. The findings demonstrate that the level of human interaction, the comfort associated with the interview format, and non-verbal cues were pivotal to candidates' experience of virtual interviewing (both asynchronous and synchronous). The findings further revealed that virtual interviews are relevant tools in the contemporary world of work due to advantages such as fairness and global communication. Nonetheless, one-way communication and technology were found to potentially deter the effective use of virtual interviewing. Overall, the findings suggest the importance of leveraging the strengths of virtual interviewing while considering the contextual appropriateness and practicality of its use to help curb the associated drawbacks. Thus, this research aids human resource practitioners' understanding of the factors that must be considered when employing virtual interviews, based on the candidates' experience. The research further contributes to the ongoing debate on whether the utilization of recruitment technologies such as asynchronous video (pre-recorded) and synchronous online (live or real-time) interviews is sustainable in the workplace.
Keywords: e-recruitment5, human resources4, Virtual interview1, virtual interviewing advantages2, virtual interviewingdisadvantages3
Received: 31 Mar 2025; Accepted: 09 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Naidu, Saurombe and Mogoai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Musawenkosi Donia Saurombe
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