We've worked with hundreds of HR suppliers over the years, many of whom are fortunately still in business, or were acquired, or have retooled and are coming back. We've seen some pretty cool stuff and some not so cool stuff. We've talked with and/or interviewed some amazing people in the space.We like to be in the know – you know?
A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by the folks at harQen, a holding company billed as "a web-telephony company" that's recently developed two new products: Comic Wonder – competitive joke-telling online (love it), and VoiceScreener, Web-based recorded phone interviews online.
Strange bedfellows indeed, but of course let's talk about VoiceScreener. I had the opportunity to experiment with the tool and have to admit it's pretty cool (unintentional rhyme). The use of IVR technology has declined recently per my talks with ATS vendors, but we'll see how VoiceScreener holds up.
Imagine the flood of resumes for sought after seasonal/hourly jobs in today's crappy holiday market place (and beyond). Small employers just don't have the staff to phone screen all those candidates, much less schedule any of them. An employer can easily set up a VoiceScreener account and create as many job campaigns as it wants. Then you record your greeting, your screening questions and invite applicants via automated email to respond to your prerecorded phone interviews. The management dashboard is very intuitive and I had no questions on how to set up a campaign.
Candidates enter their phone numbers and wallah – the VoiceScreener magic online assistant calls them to conduct the interviews and the employer can easily screen the results. Of course it's not designed to take the place of final live interviews, but like many other types of pre-screening tools available online today, it does help you get to the short list more easily.
I didn't experience any hiccups when I tested it with my staff. It's still in beta and has room to grow, but I recommend employers, hiring managers and recruiters check it out. They even claim to be able to import applicants from any ATS.
VoiceScreener is offering up to 50 HRmarketer Blog readers complimentary beta trials by going to the VoiceScreener site and signing up with the code HRMARKETER.
Give it a go and tell us what you think.
Post by Kevin Grossman
Labels: candidate screening, phone interviews