Reach out and hire someone: automated response systems can speed large-scale hiring - Focus on Technology

HR Magazine, May, 1999 by Ruth E. Thaler-Carter

Your industrial division has a new product to roll out and needs several hundred new workers. Or, your company is opening up new stores around the country and wants to attract people with current retail experience.

Today's HR departments increasingly are turning to technology to tackle these large-scale hires. And, interactive voice response (IVR) is the technology of choice for prescreening job applicants, especially in manufacturing. IVR systems are most practical for large-scale and/or national searches, users and manufacturers say, particularly when companies seek hourly employees at multiple sites.

Appropriate target applicants include seasonal employees and mass hires, says Deme Clainos, executive vice president of Decision Point Data, of Tualatin, Ohio, manufacturer of DPDQualifier. For example, she says, "Our product was used when Office Depot was opening several stores around the country at about the same time."

For weeding out unqualified candidates, the automated approach can work as well as non-automated screening done by phone, say some HR professionals. And IVR makes it easier for employed candidates because they are not restricted to the typical 9-to-5 workday for submitting applications.

Of more than a dozen products available today, many prescreen as part of an automated application process and use IVR to question applicants. Some also operate over the Internet.

A Practical Tool

Essentially, an IVR system incorporates a toll-free phone number that candidates may call at any time from anywhere in the country. A listing is published in local newspapers with an 800 number as the contact point. A touch-tone phone is the only requirement.

The candidate answers a two-tiered automated series of "yes" and "no" questions. First-tier questions focus on experience and availability. If the answers satisfy the employer's eligibility standards, the candidate can move on to the second tier, which attempts to identify candidates who match the employer's culture and the characteristics required for the job.

If the candidate is successful at this level, the program can set up a time, date and place for either an in-person or electronic interview.

Some programs incorporate basic psychological testing questions in an electronic interview; the personal interview follows after successful responses. Depending on the program, candidates receive confirmation numbers for their interviews and a phone number to call if they have to reschedule interviews.

Once interviews have been arranged, the IVR companies usually fax the schedules to clients. Some programs print the equivalent of the standard two- or three-page application. The first two pages cover traditional information, such as name, address, education and employment history; the third page covers profile information, such as how the applicant would fit into a corporate culture.

The main advantage of IVR may be its ability to automatically eliminate inappropriate candidates, based on elements such as willingness to work certain shifts, salary requirements, education levels and more.

Benefits for Employees and Employers

IVR is "a powerful tool that lets people do things easily and efficiently" and that benefits both HR and potential employees says Ken Kunda, president of HReasy in Charlotte, N.C., which recently was acquired by Interim Services Inc.

"Flexibility is an advantage," says Clainos. "People can see the listings and respond anywhere in the country, at any time. It's easy for applicants to apply, and employers can close on qualified individuals and be committed to a date and time for an interview quickly."

Ruth-Ann Stover, director of marketing for DialApp, a program from HR Services, Inc., in Lima, Ohio, agrees. "The job market has changed drastically, so it's important that people can use these systems 24 hours a day," she says.

She adds that DialApp was developed "to handle high volume and replace a call center for screening and scheduling candidates. The benefits are in efficiency; it saves time and money."

How much can an automated system save? According to Kunda, IVR cuts the process of hiring and filling positions by 60 percent because the time spent in scheduling an interview is reduced from an average of 17 days to between two and five days.

In addition, IVR can aid the hiring process by helping employers tap into a larger pool of qualified employees, says Stover. "We work with blue-collar and technical people, and our clients say they are getting better candidates," she says. "If the only way to respond to an opening is to send a resume, many experienced blue-collar and technical people just don't respond because they don't have a resume. They've never needed one. If they can respond by calling an 800 number - without taking time off from work or revealing to their current employer that they're looking - they will."

Kunda adds that today's programs also can help HR professionals reevaluate the entire selection process, which may improve results. "These programs can identify key attributes of people who have been successful," he says. "We go to companies and actually walk through jobs to develop our job descriptions. We customize all interviews and revalidate inter views almost annually with client input from employee performance" to ensure that original information remains valid.