by Tino on February 15, 2012
Technology continues to make the world a smaller place but that’s not really a bad thing. In today’s ever changing marketplace employers are beginning to realize that the best candidates might not live in the same city, state, or even country. The connecting power of the Internet and social media, however, gives companies the ability to recruit and interview no matter how far away a candidate may live. Online video and interview services play a big role here and they’re a lot less expensive than plane tickets.
The question is are companies and hiring managers ready for such a change? We have looked at some of the market’s big players for video interviewing and realized that major organizations are already running interviews via web cameras. Microsoft, CDW and Geico are more likely to use such services but there are many traditional, more conservative firms among the users.
What are the benefits:
- Cost saving (transportation, accommodation, etc.)
- Time saving
- Collaboration (invite colleagues to join a live interview or forward a recording)
- Consistency (pre-recorded interviews are the same for each candidate)
- Compliance (get a sign off from HR before sending a pre-recorded interview to a potential candidate)
Who are the players in the market? I’m sure there are more and apologies if I’ve missed anyone.
The use of video technology doesn’t stop with just remote interviewing. For quite some time some companies, as well as recruiting firms, have moved from text driven job postings to video postings. We all love a short video and it’s so easy to access such content these days on our mobile devices. Here are just a few of the companies offering such services:
by Tino on February 15, 2012
Mobile Ready? What kind of question is that? Why should a small- or medium-sized business be mobile ready?
When I ask business owners, especially in the recruiting space, if they are I usually get a blank stare followed by, “What is mobile ready?”
Let’s look at this from another angle. How many of us have a phone that can browse the web and how often do we use that service to look up details quickly? How many people have tablets these days like an iPad?
According to
businessinsider.com tablet sales will reach 500 million units in 2015. The numbers are even higher on the cell phone market. Global sales on smart phones came to an amount of 488 million in 2011 alone. So we can predict that there are at least 1 billion people out there accessing the web with their phones. Another fact is that 25% of all web users in the US never or very infrequently use a desktop PC or Mac. Please
check this site for more info.
Now think of the times that you had a to get some info on a company, client, prospect or candidate quickly and used the web browser on your phone. In the same way many people may look up your information on their mobile device. Is your website or online service compatible? We rarely look at our own sites. Have you checked yours lately from a mobile device? If not, please try and see what prospective clients are running into
Do you have your Google Analytics or any similar service for that matter turned on? Most services have long updated their metrics details to include mobile devices. Here are the top five for our site.
- Apple iPhone
- Apple iPad
- SonyEricsson LT15i Xperia Arc
- Apple iPod Touch
- HTC EVO 4G
Make sure to set an appointment with your web design company and ensure they update your site to be mobile ready. Your website can detect how customers or clients reach you and redirect them to a mobile website. You can test and see for yourself how this works. Go to
www.espn.com on your computer and you will see the web address change only slightly to
http://espn.go.com Now do the same from your mobile device and the website name (domain name) will change to
http://m.espn.go.com/wireless. The first letter in the domain name “M” stands for mobile and indicates your are accessing the site from a handheld device. Are you asking yourself if you’re mobile ready now?
