The Covid pandemic has presented us with no shortage of stressors, whether it’s concern about the virus itself or the shortage of consumer goods.  Research from the University of Toronto adds virtual job interviews to the mix, with people engaging in them suffering from anxiety that significantly reduced their performance.

“Even before the pandemic, interview anxiety was a concern for many applicants,” the researchers say. “With COVID, it’s a multiple whammy because the competition for jobs has increased and exacerbated the issues around anxiety in interviews.”

Interview anxiety

The topic of interview anxiety had already been one that the researchers had studied before the Covid pandemic hit in 2020.  In total, they surveyed over 8,000 job candidates during the pandemic from around 400 companies in 73 countries who were using a virtual interview platform.

The results revealed that those candidates who were most preoccupied with the pandemic also reported higher levels of stress and anxiety around the interview, with these candidates failing to perform as well as other candidates.  This was especially so for people who were suffering from pandemic-related emotional fatigue, with this especially common in areas where there were higher death tolls from the virus, but it was also common among people who interviewed later on in the pandemic.

What’s more, those people suffering from high anxiety were also less likely to believe that the interview process was a fair one, which in turn made them less likely to recommend the interviewing firm to others.

Attracting talent

At a time in which talent is increasingly willing and able to work from anywhere in the world, the authors believe that their findings highlight the importance of delivering virtual interviews with great care.  They argue that around 80% of organizations are currently utilizing the format, with some even asking interviewees to talk with an artificial agent rather than a human being.

“To be strategic and maximize benefits for the organization, organizations really want to be thinking about how the platform looks from the applicant’s perspective,” the researchers explain. “If it’s elevating their anxiety unnecessarily, then it may be artificially reducing their performance when that candidate could be an amazing individual on the job.”

As with in-person interviews, it may be valuable for candidates to practice doing virtual interviews a bit before the actual interview to try and reduce their anxieties as much as possible.

“Get yourself used to the video camera,” the authors conclude. “Conduct a mock interview with someone in your network whom you trust. It’s also important to build your pre-interview confidence levels by thinking about what skills you have to offer and what it is that excites you about working for that company.”