• New! Interview Exchange Integrates TalentWise Employment Screening
• Interview Exchange Adds Performance Evaluation System To Growing HR Software Portfolio
• Interview Exchange integrates with HigherEdJobs
• Interview Exchange integrates JobTarget OneClick "Job Posting Distribution Interface"
• Interview Exchange Launches Employee Referral Portal
• New solutions reduce recordkeeping expense, while finding better applicants

"Most job application processes fail miserably when it comes to providing any form of interaction that could pass a standard customer service satisfaction test with a decent score." This is the considered view of Dr. John Sullivan, a well-know thought leader in HR and advisor to Fortune 500 firms.

"Unfortunately," Sullivan observes, "this revelation isn't a new one, nor one that hasn't been addressed before, yet it continues to be one of the major barriers for firms seeking to upgrade the quality of their applicant base." (Source: ER Daily, Electronic Recruiting Exchange)

Generally, HR departments would welcome the time to extend to all applicants the same professional courtesies they expect from interviewees – thank you letters, for example. Yet how often do we hear complaints from applicants about the "black hole" syndrome characteristic of online job search?

For overworked talent managers, it can be a daunting task to find the few A-List candidates among the torrent of job seekers competing for attention. Consequently, much as staffing pro's may dislike it, meaningful interaction with underqualified applicants often of necessity takes a back seat. But at whose peril?

Recruiters need to consider the front-line role they play in the public visibility of their companies. Applicants, after all, can also be customers, stockholders or both. Good PR, as they say, is every employee's responsibility.

How Can Applicant Screening Help?

With so many recruiting solutions available to recruiters, Sullivan's gloomy observation on the state of applicant "customer service" is all the more troubling. And if, as most experts expect, a recovering economy spurs a surge in hiring and unprecedented employee turnover, staffing departments need all the help they can get for treating job seekers more like valued customers. Yet, as another recruiting industry expert observed recently, job boards and other online resources normally pay scant attention to providing job seekers a positive recruiting experience.

Typically, candidate screening solutions can be effective at screening out undesirable applicants, but do little to help individuals zero in on jobs that do fit their experience and motivation. The Interview Exchange, on the other hand, was designed from the ground up to deliver significant value to recruiters and job seekers alike. For applicants, it plays a particularly constructive role in the online recruiting experience, regardless of their qualifications and experience. Ultimately, of course, a fundamental goal of the Interview Exchange approach is, as Sullivan recommends, to "upgrade the quality of [the] applicant base."

With InterviewExchange.com, employers can select the level of applicant screening required for each job posting – for single, affordable cost. Importantly, at each screening level, applicants can gain increasing amounts of insight into their relative fit for the job, based on job requirements and the credentials of others vying for the position. This information enables them to pursue good-fit jobs and, in their own self-interest, avoid pursuing jobs for which other applicants possess relatively superior skills and experience. This innovative service separates the Interview Exchange from virtually every other online recruiting resource.

Screening Option 1: COREquisites™
To screen out the vast majority of unqualified or otherwise inappropriate applicants, the Interview Exchange employs a fully supported online screening questionnaire. This tool, the Comprehensive Occupational Requirements Evaluator, or CORE, identifies applicants whose skills and experience meet the minimum requirement of the job.

Recruiters themselves compose COREquisite questions with or without guidance from experienced Interview Exchange staff members. The tool accommodates weighted scoring and includes a database of sample questions to help recruiters get started quickly and effectively.

The COREquisites tool not only enables applicants to learn whether they meet the employer's core job requirements. It also serves as a gauge of the applicant's motivation. Though the questionnaire takes less than a minute to complete, even this low "hurdle" tends to discourage frivolous or otherwise unmotivated job seekers from completing the application process. By opting out at this point, these individuals save recruiters valuable time. Equally important, the knowledge they gain at this stage enables opt-out applicants to invest their own time pursuing jobs that better match their qualifications and interests.

Screening Option 2: PublicProfile™
Today many corporate recruiters find that the new hires who become productive most rapidly are individuals who share a common trait: they are both highly qualified and highly motivated to join the enterprise. For these recruiters, the Interview Exchange offers two additional levels of screening to progressively narrow the field of applicants and enhance applicants' insight into their relative strengths as candidates.

The PublicProfile is a groundbreaking screening tool exclusive to the Interview Exchange. Each applicant creates a PublicProfile, an anonymous online summary of his/her skills and experience. All other applicants for the job can view PublicProfiles online. Applicants can quickly view the level of competition and make an informed judgment about their relative skills and experience.

For example, the employer may place a premium on advanced degrees or years of experience. By browsing the PublicProfiles of other candidates, the applicant can gauge how he/she measures up. This knowledge provides applicants a rational basis for choosing to remain in the applicant pool or opting out to pursue jobs that optimally fit their professional qualifications.

Screening Option 3: CareerPoints ™
For job postings that attract the most applicants or for employers who simply require the highest level of candidate selectivity, the Interview Exchange offers a third level of screening. This option, CareerPoints bidding, effectively creates the world's first job interview marketplace. It ensures that employers see a ShortList™ of candidates who embody the optimum mix of professional qualifications and personal interest.

Here's how it works. Candidates who, via the PublicProfile, judge themselves to be competitive candidates can demonstrate their motivation to gain employer visibility by "bidding" – once again, anonymously – Interview Exchange CareerPoints.

Applicants receive an allotment of CareerPoints free of charge when they register on the Interview Exchange. As in an auction, candidates decide which jobs to bid on and how many CareerPoints to bid. The employer is free to select any candidates for job interviews, but the higher the bid, the greater the candidate's visibility on the ShortList.

Candidates chosen for an interview have their bids deducted from their CareerPoints accounts. Candidates who bid but are not interviewed keep their CareerPoints to bid on other job openings. If candidates deplete their allotments of CareerPoints, they may replenish the supply at periodic intervals.

Like the PublicProfile process, CareerPoints bidding provides candidates an unprecedented view of their candidacy relative to other bidders, via tools that provide an opportunity to demonstrate their competitive drive and self-confidence as candidates.

In an online recruiting environment largely devoid of meaningful interaction between employer and job seekers, the Interview Exchange delivers the best of both worlds: innovative tools for identifying the relatively few qualified candidates in every applicant pool, and revolutionary techniques for helping every applicant find jobs that best fit their skills, experience and motivation.

Dr. John Sullivan can be reached at JohnS@sfsu.edu, or through his website www.drjohnsullivan.com.