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.”