The use of video and audio technology in structured interviews: Effects on psychometric properties, group differences, and candidate perceptions

Research has clearly established that structured interviews are highly reliable, highly valid, and result in low group differences; however, structured interviews can also be time-consuming and expensive to administer. This study outlines the administrative benefits of incorporating video and audio technology into the structured interview process. This study also sought to determine the equivalence of video-based structured interviews and traditional structured interviews with regard to reliability, race-based group differences, and candidate perceptions. Seven hypotheses were presented regarding the impact of video and audio technology on the psychometric properties and candidate perceptions of structured interviews. Using technology in the interview process was theorized to increase nine of 15 components of structure outlined by Campion, Palmer, and Campion (1997). Based on this increased structure, it was hypothesized that technology-based interviews would result in less favorable perceptions of fairness (H-1) and face validity (H-2), but result in greater interrater reliability (H-3) and lower Black-White differences (H-4) than traditional structured interviews. Additionally, it was hypothesized that job complexity (H-5), interview mental saturation (H-6), and minority representation in the candidate pool (H-7) would moderate Black-White effect sizes. Candidate perception data were gathered from 195 firefighter job candidates who completed a video-based interview. Candidate perception hypotheses (i.e., H-1 and H-2) were not supported. Instead, video-based interviews were seen as significantly more fair than traditional interviews. Hypotheses 3 through 7 were analyzed using a meta-analysis consisting of 52 interviews (7189 candidates). Hypotheses regarding reliability (H-3) and group differences (H-4) associated with technology-based interviews were not supported; however, technology-based interviews were found to be essentially equivalent to traditional interviews with regard to these variables. Results of the moderator analyses were mixed. Mental saturation moderated Black-White effect sizes, such that as mental saturation increased, Black-White mean differences increased. The remaining hypothesized variables (i.e., job complexity and minority representation) failed to moderate interview effect sizes. These results indicate that video-based structured interviews are equivalent to traditional structured interviews with regard to interrater reliability and Black-White group differences.