"Green" job interviews: The next step in telecommuting?
We’ve all heard of telecommuters—once a novelty, people who work remotely for companies in other cities (or even other countries) via their laptops and an Internet connection are commonplace these days. But when was the last time you heard of telecommuting to a job interview? If you’ve never encountered that before, chances are you will in the very near future.
With Corporate America tightening its belt, and air travel more expensive and unpleasant than ever, many companies are looking for creative ways to streamline their budgets. Often, making these budget cuts can be the difference between a company hiring new workers or not. With the advent of practical videoconferencing technologies in recent years, many companies large and small are turning to virtual hiring processes.
While free videoconferencing shareware like Skype™ and even costly videoconferencing suites are available to rent at a rate of hundreds or even thousands of dollars an hour from companies like FedEx Kinko’s®, they often don’t meet the specific needs of companies looking to make hiring decisions. Skype is free, but lacks the security and privacy measures needed to maintain confidentiality in hiring, while videoconferencing suites can often cost far more than a round-trip plane ticket. That’s where companies like GreenJobInterview.com come in.
“We saw an unmet need in the market,” says Greg Rokos, CEO and founder of GreenJobInterview.com. A former executive recruiter, Rokos understood that many companies were frustrated with the high cost of bringing job candidates in from remote locations for interviews. “Both parties usually can determine in a one-hour interview whether someone is a good fit or not, as opposed to the all-day interviews that occur when you fly someone in,” says Rokos. “Then why spend so much money putting people on planes and in hotel rooms?”
Unlike Skype or expensive videoconferencing programs, GreenJobInterview.com is 100% browser-based, and can be used on any computer with a webcam and a high-bandwidth Internet connection, like DSL. If job candidates don’t have a webcam already, GreenJobInterview.com will ship them one at no cost to them. In addition, the company’s representatives set up a secure Web-based “room” for the interview, and assist both parties in setup and troubleshooting a few days before the interview actually takes place. That can include anything from helping less tech-savvy people learn how a webcam works to making suggestions on proper interview attire. The company can also design custom-branded “skins” for the virtual interview room to present a professional, uniform appearance to job candidates (See Figure 1). “It’s important to emphasize what we’re providing is a service as much as a technology,” says Rokos.
Figure 1: Custom-branded "skin"
Founded in 2007, the company had landed many high-profile corporate clients, including Wal-Mart, Pepsico, and the Mayo Clinic, as well as numerous small private companies. With virtual job interviews costing as little as $99, and discounts available to large clients, their customers are reaping significant cost-savings benefits in their hiring practices. “Wal-Mart saved nearly $2 million by doing hiring interviews through us in 2010,” says Rokos. “This is significant.” The company has facilitated remote interviews from locations throughout the United States and Canada, as well as Southeast Asia, India, China, and even Afghanistan.
In just a few short years, companies like GreenJobInterview.com have managed to revolutionize hiring practices at companies large and small, and the technology continues to gain wider acceptance. Chances are, your next job interview might be a virtual one.
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