Google has reportedly told potential job candidates that it will be conducting job interviews via online video conferences only in the near future due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The digital giant told candidates that all interviews would be run through Google Hangouts or BlueJeans, both video conferencing tools, ‘for the foreseeable future,’ according to The Verge.
Earlier this week, Google halted employees from travelling internationally – a decision that came after one of its employees based in Zurich, Switzerland, was tested positive for the virus.
(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
But Google isn’t the only global company to shift away from on-site job interviews – Amazon recently implemented a similar policy change, while Facebook limited in-person interviews and banned employees from bringing family and friends to its offices.
Tech companies have also been cancelling global conferences and cancelling major events en masse, including Google.
Google’s conference event, Google Cloud Next, was cancelled and instead transferred it to being online only. Google Cloud Next brought in 30,000 attendees last year during its San Francisco event.
Facebook also cancelled its F8 developer conference while the world’s biggest mobile event, Mobile World Conference, was cancelled after global companies exited the show earlier this year.
The logo of Facebook is pictured at the Gamescom video games fair. (Photo: Christophe Gateau/dpa)
The coronavirus has killed more than 3,200 people around the world, mostly in China, and infected more than 94,000. It has spread to every region and province in China as well as at least 80 other countries, including Australia.
The outbreak has also had a significant impact on the stock market as companies’ global supply chains and operations face disruption.
Google has been contacted for comment.
Well-equipped Chinese medical workers check passengers’ body temperatures at the exit for prevention of the new coronavirus and pneumonia upon their arrival at Nanjing Railway Station in Nanjing City, east China’s Jiangsu Province on February 18th, 2020. (Photo by Su Yang / Costfoto/Sipa USA)
