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How
did your motto of “If the candidate can’t
explain it, they probably can’t do it!” come about?
Actually, that came from a client and it articulates the reality
very well. We all know resumes can say, or infer, anything that
suits the candidate. But if they can’t discuss elements of the
job knowledgably they probably can’t do it very well. There are
exceptions but they are rare.
How long does it take to
get the candidate interviews?
Typically three to five business days from the time we receive
the resumes to the time you can log on and listen to the
interviews. This is for North American candidates. Prospects and
other targeted individuals (e.g. names you get from a news
story, business cards from a convention or people of interest at
a competitor) can take a few days longer. Add an average of two
days to any call going to anywhere outside of North America.
How long are the
interviews?
Generally HR interviews last about 20 minutes but it can vary
from 17 to 28 minutes. Marketing research interviews vary. Focus
group calls can be any length depending on the number of
explored variables.
What do you require from the
client for HR interviews?
Send an e-mail to
with the following:
-
The
contact information for each candidate (ideally including
their resume)
-
Job
Description (or title as a minimum)
-
Three or four questions you want us to ask each candidate.
These can be very specific to the job, right down to
equipment usage. Or you can use our “Standard Question”
(“Please describe your most significant business
accomplishment.”) which we are experts at asking and
provides a very rounded view of a candidate including a
solid glimpse of their personality.
How
did
ScreeningInterviews.com come about?
We’ve recorded ScreeningInterviews.com for years as part of our
standard retained executive search process
(see
Parcon Research).
Clients found the recordings so useful in building consensus and
saving both time and money that they asked us to provide it as a
separate service for less senior positions.
With
what types of positions is
ScreeningInterviews.com best used?
Any type. At first we thought it would appeal mostly to the
service industry because you can tell how well the person uses
language (e.g. sales). We then found clients having us interview
candidates for positions that require very specific, highly
exact knowledge (e.g. medical, engineering, financial, etc.).
Because we are typically given the questions to ask the hiring
manager, eventually listening to the interview, can very quickly
disclose a candidate’s knowledge of a subject right down to the
device level (e.g. for a senior telecom engineer).
Why
is ScreeningInterviews.com so popular with
venture capital and law
firms?
It allows the various partners and interested parties to quickly
assess a variety of people (e.g. people pitching projects for
funding) and applicants (as in the case of law firms) without
having to commit to personal interviews for projects or
candidates considered marginal. It’s an efficiency matter yet
still provides for a quick review allowing recovery.
What
is the “biggest bang” from using
ScreeningInterviews.com?
It really depends on the client but we do hear certain common
threads. One, it reduces the number of face to face interviews
since the skillfully done recorded interviews provide a much
better picture of the candidate than the resume alone, which can
say virtually anything. Second, clients typically pass around
the link to the interviews so that people in the firm can
comment on individual candidates. This occasionally happens
across time zones (even oceans) on conference calls where one
person is playing the interview over a speaker phone so that
everybody on the call can hear and discuss what they are
hearing. This is a significant time and money saver since our
users report bringing in about 30% fewer people for face-to-face
interviews.
How does
ScreeningInterviews.com help with Office of
Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP)
Compliance?
Our standard deliverable includes the option of customized
questions. These questions can include those pertaining to the
candidate’s gender, race and ethnicity. The recorded answers
become part of the permanent record and could be useful during
an OFCCP review. This is relevant to clients doing business
with, or hoping to do business with, the U.S. government.
Why
can’t I just do the screening
interviews myself, like I’ve been doing for years?
There are some definite advantages to using
ScreeningInterviews.com. For example, we can do the
interviews keeping our client anonymous where the candidate
doesn’t know the client’s name (though the refusal to be
recorded rate increases). This eliminates candidates harassing
you. ScreeningInterviews.com also allows you to very easily
share the interviews with colleagues—this is great for building
consensus. Additionally, ScreeningInterviews.com helps the
hiring committee to quickly review potential candidates without
having to depend on a screener's notes—the committee can make up
their own minds about who to bring in. Plus, since we schedule
the interviews, you and your team don't have to deal with those
details-we take care of them. Finally the candidates tend to be
more honest since they know they are being recorded and a
permanent record of what they say is being created. We've heard
this has shortstopped a number of lawsuits.
Can I
use ScreeningInterviews.com even though the resumes came from
outside recruiters?
This happens very frequently. In fact many of our clients are
retained executive recruiters that rebrand the service and
provide the recordings to their clients. It provides the
recruiter a better, more comprehensive deliverable and makes
their fees more palatable to the client.
How
often do employment candidates
refuse to be recorded?
Less than three percent of the time and this drops to near zero
with middle or senior level positions. This number goes up if
the client’s name is kept anonymous.
How
complicated is the user interface?
We’ve supplied recorded screening interviews for 10 years and
it’s now very unusual for a client to find the controls
challenging. Basically, we supply a link and all you have to do
is make sure your speakers are on, then click on a candidate’s
name. The interview audio starts with click controls that allow
you to start, stop, pause and move forward and backward. The
resume (or transcript) opens on the screen at the same time so
you can read while you listen. Since the recordings are often
part of conference calls we suggest one person control the
interview with the computer's desk top speakers near the phone
console. This provides the clearest audio to all the parties on
the call without multiple signals that can lead to confusion.
All the participants can simultaneously review the resume on
their own screens.
Why
do large international firms
like ScreeningInterviews.com?
We handle all the scheduling, time zone and phone connection
issues related to the screening interviews. So there's the
convenience factor. Primarily though it's the usual cost savings
issue. After we get the candidate on the phone and do the
interview, which happens at a good time for the candidate (which
means it could be 3 in the morning at the hiring manager's empty
desk) the client's team can listen to the audio and make the
decision about whether or not to spend the international travel
dollars to bring the candidate in. Let's face it, we've all had
the experience where we've spent a lot of money to bring in a
candidate only to have part of the hiring team, for whatever
reason, blanch in genuine horror. ScreeningInterviews.com goes a
LONG way toward making this an infrequent occurrence.
Do
you edit the interviews?
As a
policy ScreeningInterviews.com will not edit interviews other
than a few seconds of empty leader time. However, there are two
exceptions to this. One, in some cases we will try to digitally
improve the quality of the call itself if it doesn't unduly
effect the sound and character of the candidate's voice. This is
especially true of international calls or calls where the
candidate is using a low bandwidth VoIP connection or a portable
satellite phone . The latter happens mostly with large global
engineering firms with far flung operations (e.g., try getting a
clean wired line with a field drilling office in Mongolia...).
The second exception is when we are working for a retained
search firm, where the interview will be presented to the search
firm's client. In this case the search firm itself may ask us to
modify the audio stream to enhance their candidate's verbal
qualities. This typically involves improving the sound of the
candidate's voice and removing various verbal tics. The net
result is a more professional sounding candidate. We never do
this for a ScreeningInterviews.com branded recording since it
can lead to unpleasant surprises and we are all about preventing
those and being transparent.
Why is
ScreeningInterviews.com popular with
hospitals?
Many
hospitals require an extended number of interviews between a
candidate and various staff members. Finding time in the
schedules of busy medical personnel can be a significant
challenge resulting in extended hiring cycles during which a
valuable candidate may he hired elsewhere. A number of these
reviews can be accomplished at various staff member’s
convenience, by listening to the candidate’s recorded interview.
By listening to the interviews knowledgeable staffers can often
tell in a few minutes whether the candidate will be a good fit
to the organization. ScreeningInterviews.com also helps with
OFCCP compliance for medical service providers doing business
with the U.S. government. Finally medical professionals often
avoid tough questions since they may end up working with the
candidate. We don’t have that practical shyness.
How does
ScreeningInterviews.com
help with Succession Planning?
In planning for a specific staffing change, or planning for the
future in general, companies will have us screen interview
potential new staff members they have identified (these can
include internal personnel reassignments). Like all our
interviews, these are done with considerable discretion and
security (including name blinding if requested). The interviews
are then made available to relevant parties within the client
company either for immediate or future use. Our long experience
in executive recruiting is very useful for these projects. As
always with us everything is tightly protected.
Do
you archive the interviews?
Yes. Unless requested otherwise we keep the individual interview
hubs (which hold the resumes and audio links on a single easy to
use web page) active for one year after which they are
automatically deleted from the secure, cloud-based server. At
the request of the client we can copy the audio files to a DVD
and ship this to them via physical post. Note: The files are
computer compatible and cannot be played directly in most
consumer CD players (e.g. players conforming to the Red Book
standard only). We encourage clients to keep a copy of the
interviews as they can help with EEOC issues.
For
more information and a brief demo call 312.952.1777 or
click here to be contacted
immediately.
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