The effects of attire and resume placement on asynchronous video interview ratings

Abstract

Asynchronous video interviews (AVIs) are becoming increasingly popular in the field of personnel selection due to its many benefits. However, there is a dearth of research examining the impact of interview modality on interview ratings, and it is unclear if there are any undesirable side effects of using AVIs. Prior research has found two concerns related to the use of AVIs – applicants may dress more unprofessionally and there is no clear consensus on when in the selection process AVIs should be used. Thus, this paper seeks to examine the effects of attire and resume placement on candidate ratings. Participants in the present research were asked to evaluate a job applicant dressed in either formal, smart casual, or casual attire during the AVI, and were also asked to rate the applicant’s resume before or after the evaluation of the AVI recording. Our findings suggest that though casual attire was perceived as significantly more inappropriate than formal and smart casual attire for AVIs, this did not affect candidate ratings. However, we found a significant effect of evaluation order, with significantly higher overall ratings on some of the dependent variables when the AVI was evaluated prior to the resume. We discuss practical implications for these findings, possible reasons for the discrepancy between appropriate perceptions and candidate ratings across the different attire conditions, as well as possible directions for future research.