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Product Update – Feb. 22: Enhanced Dashboard and Campaign Design, Interview Types and Candidate Phone Number

— Kris Gosser February 25th, 2010 Be the first to comment

Over the weekend, VoiceScreener released a few key updates.

First out of the gate is an enhancement to the Dashboard and Campaign pages. We’ve now included a way to get a very crisp snapshot of the candidate totals. In addition, we’ve separated out more clearly blocks for candidates nobody on your team has yet reviewed, and candidate you personally have not yet reviewed.

Clicking on any of the blocks of numbers will bring you to a view listing all candidates who file into that category.

Dashboard Updates

We’ve also separated out a difference between “Incomplete” and “No Response” candidates. Traditionally, we’ve filed both of these candidate types under “No Response” but have recognized the need to know which candidates simply aren’t responding to an e-mail invitation, and which candidates have shown interest in taking the interview but never completed.

We have included an often-requested addition to the Candidate Vitals. For each candidate, you can now see the phone number he or she used to conduct the audio interview. It is placed under his or her e-mail address.

Lastly, the team has been working overtime to finish up our API. What does that mean, you ask? Our API is a way for external applications to talk and integrate with VoiceScreener. Watch our blog for future updates regarding integrations. We are working towards being fully integrated into various software environments our customers use every day, and are very excited about the opportunities and benefits for our all VoiceScreener users.

This article was filed under Product Updates.

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Emerging Recruiting Techniques

— Adam Weise February 2nd, 2010 Be the first to comment

1. Cast a Wider Net
Old – Buying lists and picking names off of your contact book.
New – Reaching out via multiple platforms and connecting in ways never thought possible for recruiters in the past. Hint: Go where your candidates are.

2. Make Yourself Known
Old – The first time a candidate has heard of you or your company is when you contact them for a position.
New – Both you and your company have created an active online presence in your industry. Reaching out by actively answering questions on LinkedIn and engaging with industry thought leaders have differentiated you from your competition. The company can easily be found by potential candidates and when it is discovered, the content engages them as well as converts them to a lead.

3. Get a Game Changer on Your Team
Old – A standard resume with each candidate.
New – The traditional resume with a VoiceScreener interview that can be shared, reviewed and commented on. This allows the client to learn more about a potential hire and has shown to greatly increase a recruiter’s submittal to placement ratio.

Recruiting is changing, some companies are racing ahead and taking advantage of the tools available to them while others act as if what worked in 2005 will continue to work in 2010. It won’t, if this is not yet evident it will be and soon. Over the coming years those that embrace change and technology will be rewarded while the others will find themselves losing placements, contracts, talent and revenue. This is because technology can be used to differentiate a recruiter in every metric imaginable. Time to hire, quality of candidates, cost per hire, etc. All are affected by the three points above.

Eventually the resistors to technological change will either die off or attempt to race to catch up to the early adopters, who will by then be making the transition to the next set of technological advances. Which one are you? And if you don’t know, you’re in trouble.

The new school characteristics were left deliberately vague, please contact us (adam@harqen.com or @voicescreener) and we would be happy to go into more detail.

This article was filed under Technology and given the following tags: , , , , , , .

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Three Technology Conference Picks for 2010

— Adam Weise January 18th, 2010 1 comment

With so many technology conferences to choose from, it can be overwhelming. Here we bring you three conferences, each offering something unique. This is by no means an exhaustive list, in fact it is exactly the opposite – some choices that caught our eye because they were both relevant to us and differentiated from their competition.

Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference
January 26th, 2010
Commonwealth Club
595 Market Street, 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA 9410

No boys allowed, seriously, you will be asked to leave. Our female CEO, Kelly Fitzsimmons, serves as a role model to ambitious women everywhere.

“‘Catalyst Conference’ catalyzes the career development of women working in high-tech. By offering high-level keynotes and discussions from successful women at the top of their game alongside workshops led by experts in innovation and collaboration, the Catalyst Conference enables & propels women to take the next step, whether they’re launching a venture, making waves in the corporate world, looking to join an innovative startup, or building their online and digital-media media brand.” – from http://girlsintech.net/conference2010/

IT Expo in Miami
 January 20-22, 2010
Miami Beach Convention
Center in Miami, FL

Our own incredibly knowledgeable Pehr Anderson is on the panel “Bridging the Gap Between Legacy and Next Gen.”

ITEXPO, going into its 11th year, is the world’s largest and best-attended IP Communications trade show, drawing an average attendance of 7,000 buyers and sellers of IP Communications products and services. – from http://www.tmcnet.com/voip/conference/

HR Tech Conference
Conference: September 29 – October 1, 2010
Expo: September 29 – 30, 2010
McCormick Place, Chicago

Our team made the trip last year and found it very worthwhile. We are all looking forward to September. HR Tech brings out an enthusiastic group of attendees willing to connect.

For 11 years, our conference has delivered what dozens of other events only promise: Unbiased, educational content not paid for by vendors. Senior HR executives who have solved the problems you face, top industry experts to explain the very latest developments, consultants to help you identify your options and make decisions and vendor CEOs to give you product insights you can act on. – from http://www.hrtechconference.com/conf.html

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How to Interview Remotely in 2010

— Adam Weise December 28th, 2009 1 comment

Whether it be Skype, an over the phone interview or an emerging new product like VoiceScreener, interviewees need to better prepare themselves for these new interview formats.

1. We only have ears for you – Sound proof your current environment, this means putting the dogs outside, staying away from windy areas and not driving while talking, although your (parked) car may be an effective refuge from other noises.

2. Bring your cheat sheet – Your resume and talking points should be in front of you. To some degree, you know the kind of questions they’re going to ask you so prepare yourself with possible answers. Plus if you cannot remember how to spell the last name of your third reference, you better have that written down as well

3. Do whatever it takes to make you feel confident – For most this means looking good even if the interviewer cannot see you. Feel self-assured when you wear that pinstripe suit? No one but your cat needs to know you’re sitting in formal attire for a VoiceScreener call and he won’t gossip…or will he?

4. Do not wait for the “real” interview – Once upon a time phone interviews always led to in person interviews or at least to second phone interviews. This is no longer the case. A VoiceScreener client recently sent out posted a job listing on a job board in the morning, interviewed candidates via VoiceScreener, evaluated them intermittently and filled the job by day’s end. This is your chance, it may be your only one so treat it with the seriousness it deserves.

Have any additional tips to offer or stories to share? Share them in our comments section.

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Product Update – Dec. 14: Dashboard, Campaign Pages Get A Facelift

— Kris Gosser December 14th, 2009 Be the first to comment

On Monday, December 14th, we updated VoiceScreener with two new enhancements. The interface on the Dashboard and Campaign pages got visual boosts to help with day-to-day usage.

Dashboard: Scan Campaigns Quicker

Previously, the Dashboard was a listing of campaigns with most recent activity. Per campaign, we listed the most recent five candidates who had responded. That started to get unruly when dozens of campaigns running at once, however.

The update condenses the campaign down into its name with a few additional candidate numbers. This helps improve scannability. You can toggle a campaign to view the most recent five candidates by clicking the “Toggle” link. Keep in mind that these campaigns are still ordered by most recent activity so the freshest responses are listed first. To view campaigns alphabetically, check the right-hand side of the page.

Additionally, users were finding it hard to locate their archived campaigns. We created a new tab on the Dashboard to quickly access your archived campaigns. Here is an example of the Dashboard update:

new-dashboard-toggles

Campaign: Summary Of Important Data

The campaign page used to be a listing of candidates who were accepted, reject, had no status, or still needed to be reviewed by you personally. Now, the campaign page is a summary of important data points so that you can get the full picture of the campaign in a quick glimpse. Additionally, after a campaign has been finalized, all the major functionalities can be quickly accessed.

quick-summary-campaign

You may still view the campaign layout in the previous view by clicking on the “List View” link in the upper right. The “Quick View” link next to it switches it back to the new, default view.

We are very excited to share these updates with you. Let us know how they help!

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Fundraising in the Rain

— Kelly Fitzsimmons December 8th, 2009 Be the first to comment

For those young companies that have spent the last eighteen months fundraising, we should start a support group. Successfully raising money in the wake of the financial apocalypse is a test of will, mettle, but above all our sense of humor. We were one of the few that have been fortunate enough to raise successfully while other, equally worthy, start-ups were shutting their doors. The question that I often wrestle with is: What makes us so special?

In the spirit of helping others, I thought I would post on what has worked for us and things we need to do better.

Keep it real. When there is bad news to tell, just state the facts. For a driven over-achiever like me, admitting my failings requires a good bit of courage. However, I have found that excuses make me look and feel weak. Trying to explain away poor performance by blaming the market is just, as my mother would say, putting lipstick on the pig. What happened? What do we intend to do about it? Those are the questions we need to answer when any of our best laid plans get derailed. The question “why?” is best left to a group post-mortem – a place to reflect and learn. Leading with the “why” or leveraging the “why” as an excuse for poor performance is a quick way to lose team and investor trust.

Stay positive, but be realistic. My best strength and greatest liability is my enduring positivity. It allows me to will things into existence. The liability side of this is overestimating my abilities. Looking back on 2009, several of my key assumptions required that we have near flawless execution. We’re good, but we’re not superhuman. George Dalton, my long time friend and mentor, has reminded me often that I need a “dark cloud”– someone willing to tell me my most cherished assumptions are flawed. I always have to take a hard look at our key assumptions. What if one or more of these assumptions proves false? How will we adjust?

Laugh at yourself, often. When the going gets tough, the tough find the humor in the situation. I cannot tell you how many times I have been saved from despair by a good belly laugh. Although we may expect perfection from yourself (another support group I’d like to start), we are all (as far as I know) human. If we aren’t failing, we aren’t progressing. The key is to learn from our missteps rather than heed the siren call of self-flagellation. The only way I have found to lash myself to the mast of learning rather than dive in and start swimming towards self-loathing is to laugh. Thankfully, my team has a brilliant collective sense of humor and has helped me stay on course here.

Keep the endgame in mind. There are days as an entrepreneur when I think… I knew how hard this would be and I did it again. What was I thinking?! My enduring love of the endgame is what keeps me going. I love Sudoku and often think business is a bit like the magic box. So often things are obscured, don’t line up, and just seem like total chaos. And then, I find an answer which leads to another and another… Before I know it, the puzzle is solved. The great satisfaction I feel bringing Ordo ab Chao is what keeps me going.* Now if I can only do this nifty trick with my three and two year old, I’d really be onto something!

* Order out of Chaos – and yes, I just finished Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol at 1am last night.

This article was filed under CEO Wisdom.

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Product Update – Dec. 2: Shortlists Get More Flexible

— Kris Gosser December 2nd, 2009 Be the first to comment

On Wednesday, December 2, VoiceScreener made some updates to the Shortlist feature.

The base use of the tool works much the same way you’re accustomed to. Candidates are added to a campaign’s shortlist on their individual audio answers area. Managing the shortlist is still accessed from the same link within a campaign. The ability to send an e-mail invitation to an external reviewer to gather feedback is still available. You will feel comfortable using the tool if you have used it in the past.

There are three major additions that add the increased flexibility.

Show or Hide Individual Answers

Individual candidate questions and answers can be hidden on a shortlist, which is achieved by clicking the “Displayed / Hidden” button associated with each respective question.

Display Button

Hidden Button

Any candidate’s answers that are hidden will not be displayed on any feedback or presentation shortlists the candidate is a part of.

Individual Presentation Links

Many users have told us that shortlists are most useful when a link to review a single candidate can be copied and pasted in an e-mail or submission form. Additionally, often feedback through VoiceScreener isn’t as important as simply being able to listen to the answers.

To achieve this, we created an area on each candidate’s page to house his or her presentation link.

Individual Presentation Link

Copy that link and send it to an external reviewer. No login is required, and the interface is as simple as it can get.

It’s worth noting the access restriction on a link. Since it’s a live link that anyone can visit, we placed an access limit of 10 views, meaning the link will not work after it has been visited 10 times. This is to prevent the link getting out into the wild and listened to by unwanted ears.

If the limit is reached but a hiring manager would still like to listen to a candidate, you may generate a new link and start fresh with 10 views.

Presentation Lists

Would you like to create a single list containing several individual candidate presentation links, as described above? No problem. The third major addition is the ability to create what we call a “Presentation List”.

First, from a campaign’s Manage Shortlist page, click on the third tab “Manage Presentation Lists”.

Manage Presentation Lists Tab

Once there, checkmark the candidates you want to be on a presentation list.

Select Candidates for Presentation List

Type in a name for the list. (This name is not public-facing.) Then click the “Generate New Presentation List” button.

Generate New List Link

Your new list will display below. It shows a list of the candidates you added. Each candidate can be viewed individually. The same 10-view limit applies to each candidate per list.

Presentation List Final

Let us know how these new enhancements have helped your work flow!

Thank you for your continued support of VoiceScreener.

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The HarQen Vision

— Adam Weise November 30th, 2009 Be the first to comment

At Harqen we’re building a better world for both job seekers and organizations.

Here’s how…

Job Seekers

The HarQen vision of the future is the modern worker efficiently moving between jobs with minimal spin-up time and a controlled amount of “vacation time” in between. The process of job hunting is slow and full of inefficiencies, HarQen is working to change that. The information exchange between the job seeker and the prospective employer needs to become faster and of higher quality. This will facilitate quicker hiring decisions which cut the costs of vacancies and job changes to the employer and the employee, thus allowing for breaks in employment and quicker reentries into the workplace.

Organization – More People, Faster

Every company needs to focus on the core essentials for growth, people and speed. We now live in a world where every business has the goal of reaching more people, faster. The modern day dance between hiring manager or recruiter and candidate in which a resume is submitted, the status of that resume is checked at least once, a phone interview is arranged then carried out and eventually a decision is made over a process of days, weeks or months is outdated and must be changed. However, it is only through the use of truly transformational technology that organizations will realize the benefits in slashing their time to hire.

The tools we need to live in this world are coming, HarQen’s VoiceScreener is one of them.

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Product Update – Nov. 15: Enhanced Candidate Import System, New Template Feature

— Kris Gosser November 16th, 2009 Be the first to comment

VoiceScreener released two major feature upgrades over the weekend that we are very excited about.

Better Import Tools

The first is an enhancement to the candidate import process. We now clearly mark which candidates are new, which are duplicates of existing candidates, and which have invalid data and can not be imported. The invalid group also provides an “Export as CSV” option so you can get all the bad data in one place, make your changes, and re-upload.

Export as CSV link

Templates

The next new feature has been a top request. You can now create, remove and manage your own templates.

Creating a template is easy. From either the “TEMPLATES” link at the top of the application or the “CREATE NEW CAMPAIGN” tab, you will find a series of links on the right-hand side.

Templates Link

There you have three choices:

  1. Create a new template from scratch
  2. Create a template from an existing campaign (if there are existing campaigns)
  3. Create a template from an existing template (if there are existing templates)

Create Template Series of Links

Managing a template starts from the top “TEMPLATES” link. There you will see an overview of each template with their respective descriptions. You can choose to remove a template from this page.

Template Sublinks

To edit a template, click on the template name and you’ll head to the template customization area, which handles just like a normal campaign. You can edit candidate correspondence, pre-qualifying questions, audio and general settings.

A couple notes about templates:

  • Only administrators can manage templates
  • Anyone who can create a campaign will have access to all templates
  • If you edit a template, it only affects campaigns created after the edit; it does not affect campaigns created from the template before the edits

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Does VoiceScreener De-Humanize The Hiring Process?

— Kris Gosser November 9th, 2009 Be the first to comment

We’ve had the chance over the past few weeks to interact with several recruiters on LinkedIn through a great question posed by Barnabas Kendall in the Q&A section. Barnabas asked:

Why or why wouldn’t you use an automated phone screening application like voicescreener.com to pre-screen applicants?

The responses centered on one common theme: automated phone systems are de-humanizing, inconvenient, and add an unnecessary step to the hiring process. We’ve encountered this type of concern in the past. The biggest skeptics of VoiceScreener point to the automation element of our tool as an insult to candidates. Strong words, but this is more of an effect caused by our society’s poor use of audio technology within customer service and other industries. Poorly implemented Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and terrible customer interaction over the phone has stained the way audio is used for business. We share the same concerns regarding de-humanization in our society, which is why we are so passionate about VoiceScreener.

But the term automation does not instantly equal insensitive, robotic behavior. Automation is an element of efficiency. Part of the problem the hiring industry has faced throughout the years has been the inefficient, emotionless way of sorting through candidates at the top of the hiring funnel. When a recruiter has to make objective judgements on dozens—if not hundreds—of resumes, time can be lost and the wrong decisions can be made. Additionally, when presenting candidates to hiring managers to gauge their reactions on who to pursue in an actual personal interview, submitting a VoiceScreener audio screen along with the resume adds a human touch not normally found. VoiceScreener’s purpose is to make the first stages of hiring more streamlined while adding an emotional component to an otherwise cold, removed and blind process.

We are very aware of candidate engagement concerns. We’re also not adverse to being open about how we approach the problem. It is our design team’s primary focus to ensure candidates feel comfortable with the process and the interviewer on the other end. At every step, VoiceScreener strives to make the candidate feel comfortable. Customizable introductions and guides allow our customers to leave personal instructions for the candidates. Best practice dictates that a candidate should be made to understand that this tool is a way to get to know the candidate better and to help the recruiters make a decision quicker. The audio questions the candidates hear are the voice of the actual recruiter not some automated voice. The candidate never feels like he or she is a part of a screening process, rather VoiceScreener is an extended information gathering process, an attempt to say “We’d like to get to know you better.”

Candidate Frustration Can Be More Than How We Communicate

Last week I had a conversation with a neighbor who, unfortunately, was jobless and hoping to land a position with a local publishing company. She had what she thought was a great phone interview, although it did take a week for the interview to happen due to scheduling conflicts. It took the company three weeks to get back to her to say she did not get the job. When she asked why it took so long, the recruiter apologized and said he was behind on corresponding with candidates because of the sheer load of applications and phone interviews.

In VoiceScreener, that initial screening process would have been streamlined and the frustration mitigated as the wait would have been drastically decreased.

Candidate Surveys Say They Enjoy Our Process

We recently had a discussion with one of our clients. Todd Bridges is a recruiter and the owner of Atlanta based JumpVine. He adopted VoiceScreener into his process several months ago. Here is what he had to say regarding candidate engagement and client satisfaction:

Our experience since moving to VoiceScreener 5-6 months ago has been quite positive. I think a big part of this is the way we present phone screens to our candidates and position it to them. It gives our candidates a way to sell themselves beyond just their resumes. Because we’re developing VERY specific phone screens that get to the essence of what our hiring managers are looking for, our candidates are able to explain more about their experience, skills in these targeted screens. This is both beneficial to the candidates and the hiring managers. Now our hiring managers can actually listen to candidates before deciding who to bring in for face-to-face interviews. This process has been so effective, we’ve now reduced the number of face-to-face interviews our clients go through before making a hire by 60-70%.

Candidates have reported to Todd in follow-up personal phone interviews that they loved the ability to sell themselves more. Todd’s experience is an echo of what most other clients have anecdotally said to us as well. Additionally, past candidate surveys have most often resulted in them describing the process as enjoyable and welcomed.

Your Thoughts

So what do you think? If you are a customer, have you found the experience pleasant for candidates? Was de-humanizing a concern originally? Have you found your results to agree with our thoughts? We would love to hear feedback on this matter as ultimately the way candidates perceive VoiceScreener translates to the success of the tool and you as our customer.

Would you like to retweet this? We recommend using: “Does VoiceScreener De-humanize the Hiring Process? Our stance: http://bit.ly/2L0gFT – We’d like to hear your thoughts.”

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