Wednesday 27 August 2014

Is your business making the mistake of wasting time and money on face-to-face interviews?

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Following the integration of video interviewing into the Vacancy Filler Recruitment Software Platform, I have taken a keen interest into the benefits and opinions of Video use during the interview process.

Initially I was looking at Video Interviewing from the angle of ‘saving time’ and ‘saving money’, to which it definitely is supported to do so; however, I came across an article on the Grapevine Website that questioned if “Businesses [were] wasting time and money on face-to-face interviews”.

Now this is an angle I hadn’t considered looking at; is your business actually “wasting” money by not utilising this technology?

The article suggests that “55% of businesses have never used video interviewing Technology despite a third of them describing themselves as tech savvy, and 30% using similar technology such as FaceTime and Video Conferencing”.

Research by Foosle showed that 45% of companies asked don’t use Video Interviewing Technology simply because they haven’t really thought about it before, and 8% felt that the technology was either too expensive or too difficult to use. To overcome these issues, Vacancy Filler have integrated the Video Interviewing technology into their core product that, for a small fee, can be activated should a customer need it.

After 1st interview stage, businesses will often reject between 50-75% of applicants, which amounts to a large amount of wasted time (considering most interviews are 45 minutes or more) and really does add to the financial cost of the recruitment process.

Using Video Interviewing Technology saves significant time for both the hiring manager and the candidate. It not only helps you to widen the number of potential candidates you wish to review, but provides a realistic alternative to travelling, particularly where long distances are involved. It removes the restrictions of time and location, provides a platform for consistent comparison, allows you to process more candidates and delivers best use of resources and time.


Vacancy Filler Recruitment Software

In summary, Vacancy Filler provides the following features;

Customisable interview questions using either a template or produced from scratch and tailored for the role. Every candidate will have answered the same questions

Two interview modes are available – single-shot for on-the-spot interaction or multi-shot to allow for maximum polish and presentation

Facility for the recruiter and hiring manager to share, collaborate and rate each candidate online for quick and easy shortlisting

Clearly convey your employer brand throughout the selection process by customising the invitations

Candidates can take the interview using their smart phone. You can also review the videos on your smart phone or tablet.

The most efficient way of recruiting both nationally and internationally and independent of time zones and distance

Supports multi language interviews

Collaborate externally, or with people who don’t want to log in – simply send them a secure link

The candidate details and videos are stored securely in an ISO 27001 certified data centre

All data from European users is kept within the EEA


If you are interested in learning more about how our recruitment software could work in your organisation or would like further information on how Vacancy Filler can help you with a business case, then please visit www.vacancy-filler.co.uk or e-mail sales@vacancy-filler.co.uk

Written by Jason Staniforth - Digital Marketing Specialist

Friday 15 August 2014

RECRUITING NOW - Astronaut



So, you want to be an astronaut?


A colleague of mine passed me a link to an interesting article about how NASA interviews candidates who would like to be an Astronaut.

They talk about “looking for the 'right stuff,' but also trying to get rid of people with the 'wrong stuff,' to summarise the process.

Apparently anyone with a college degree and some scientific experience can apply to be an astronaut. More than 6,000 people applied in 2013, but only eight individuals were selected.

Clearly NASA will invest considerably in each candidate that is accepted citing that it could take up to 10 years before they fly.

For those of us whose feet are firmly on the ground, it appears that their process is not too dissimilar to any other process in that the first round involves an initial set of interviews and in the second round, assessments are conducted by a psychiatrist to determine any grounds for disqualification.

It is not too difficult these days to streamline the recruitment process and integrate testing including psychometric testing to help determine whether candidates are made of “the right stuff”.

After all, investing in developing any employee might not be as expensive as NASAs but it does have a considerable financial impact if you invest in the “wrong stuff”.


Or find out more about improving your candidate selection process at www.vacancy-filler.co.uk

Thursday 7 August 2014

Find out how hundreds of companies are finding better candidates


Just as recruitment itself has shifted online, background screening has largely abandoned the pens, paperwork and postmen of old and moved into the digital age. This has created many opportunities to integrate screening into the wider recruitment process, explains Traci Canning, senior vice president and MD for EMEA at First Advantage.
“For employers and recruitment agencies using an applicant tracking system (ATS), integration between the ATS and our online screening platform can significantly improve speed and efficiency within the recruitment process. By linking technologies in this way, the information provided in the online application can be fed through to screening, thereby reducing duplication of effort and opportunity for error. In the case of full integration, the recruiter needn’t access the screening platform at all – everything relating to the screening can be managed from within the HR software they’re familiar with.

Thursday 31 July 2014

Things are looking up for Graduate Recruitment in 2014



“2014 signals a boom in UK Graduate employment opportunities” claims Jason Staniforth – Digital Marketing Specialist for Vacancy Filler Recruitment Software.

“It has previously been understood that you go to university, graduate, and then enter the working world to become exactly what you studied for – the harsh reality is that  this has not been the case for a number of years, and many graduates are finding  out the  hard way. 

Many of the opportunities available will be offered to those who have previously worked for the company, meaning graduates who took advantage of paid internships, industrial placements or vacation work will have the upper hand in the grad-race for paid work in a related sector. 

Technology advances and the rapid uptake of social media vehicles hasn’t gone unnoticed by employers, with an increase in advertising spend being dedicated to social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and even YouTube to reach prospect graduate employees, this has resulted in less spend on traditional methods such as graduate directories and sector/ local guides. 

Click HERE for the full article.

Tuesday 29 July 2014

Skills Testing & Screening - What's new?


Recruiters now have at their disposal a wide variety of screening and skills testing solutions, ranging from competency based testing, aptitude testing and various types of psychometric testing, comments Tony Brookes, Sales Director at Vacancy Filler Recruitment Software. 


Brookes continues: “In addition to that, there is a variety of background screening solutions to verify that the candidate is who they say they are and that they have the experience and qualifications to match...

View the full article HERE.

Friday 18 July 2014

Microsoft axes jobs in shift to cater for "mobile-first, cloud-first" world



I read with interest the cull of jobs at Microsoft. The giant has stirred and woken up to the fact that, according to their statistics, Microsoft's operating systems are now only used on 14% of devices, if you take into account smartphones and tablets.  Their new CEO goes on to say that they need to be “mobile-first, cloud-first".

Adopting cloud-based business applications are massively more efficient than using in-house maintained software or taking a halfway house approach of outsourcing the business application to the supplier’s own datacentre. 

At Vacancy Filler we took a fundamental approach to using Amazon Web Services, allowing us to take control of the design, build and installation of our infrastructure hosted by Amazon.  The scale of computing power on tap for us, and our customers, is simply staggering.  We simply do not need the overheads and complexity of building and maintaining our own datacentre. Instead we use Amazon’s resources to build and configure an infrastructure significantly more scalable and robust than any datacentre that we could design.  This gives us the elasticity to flex the service depending on user demand.  

Cloud computing makes our software ubiquitous.  Recruiters, Hiring Managers and Candidates can login and use our system wherever they are, and on any device they choose, without the need to buy or install a Microsoft product.  I guess the recent news at Microsoft is not altogether surprising. 

Tony Brookes

Friday 11 April 2014

Perform ID and Criminal Record Checks Direct From Vacancy Filler Software - Coming Soon

Vacancy Filler is pleased to announce its partnership with GB Group (GBG) to provide online Identity and Criminal Record Checks on a Pay-As-You-Go basis.

Together we are able to provide two value adding services for our customers:


 - Real time Identity Check documentation validation to help bolster your Right To Work procedure

 - An integrated one-stop-shop for Enhanced, Standard (DBS/CRB Service) and Basic Disclosures (Disclosure Scotland).

The integration will add a convenient and cost-effective layer of security and peace of mind to the recruitment and onboarding processes- something we understand many of our client organisations are currently looking to do.

Just this week the UK’s fraud prevention service, CIFAS, reported that deceitful attempts to gain access to sensitive data via the recruitment process accounted for more than 50% of all internal fraud cases. Read the full article here.

To learn more about how an integrated and automated ID and Criminal Records Check can benefit your organisation, email us at sales@vacancy-filler.co.uk or you can read more on the benefits of profiling and screening your candidates in our white paper.