For many years now, the IVR industry has been working towards making IVR systems more like talking with a person, but one of the technology’s advantages might lie in a perceived disadvantage.
A study by San Diego State University and Select International, Inc., points to at least one advantage in the more anonymous feel of IVR prescreening interviews—applicants are more likely to tell the truth when they’re talking to a machine.
Actually, the study (Pre-Screening Job Applicants with Interactive Voice Response and Web-Based Technologies: Are the Methods Equivalent?) says IVR- and web-based pre-screening both yield more honesty on the part of applicants.
Slight variations between the two techniques were evident, but they were very slight—in effect, making the two techniques about equal. Before the study, researchers hypothesized that “the IVR approach would yield a higher proportion of participants claiming negative or socially undesirable behaviors than a web-based approach.”
I had to read that again—at first I thought they were saying the people who chose to apply via IVR were social undesirables, but all they meant was that applicants would divulge stuff they normally wouldn’t.
In the end, it seems it doesn’t matter really between IVR or web as far as honesty goes. Both make the applicant feel more detached from the interviewer and, therefore, maybe more relaxed.
“Thus, overall, the results of the present research are somewhat consistent with the notion that IVR technology, as compared to Web-based technology, is perceived as offering greater anonymity and confidentiality, thereby resulting in greater disclosure of negative and undesirable behaviors. However, differences observed across conditions in the present study were very small overall.”
