Howard Popeck reviews web-based campus recruitment and a software asset
management solution
Web-based campus recruitment
If you are engaged in corporate recruitment from colleges and universities,
web-based solutions that enable you to conduct interviews without actually
going to the campus, allow multiple interviews to take place at once and
eliminate the potential for interview bias, are invaluable.
Until now, the best possible solution was video conferencing – which is not
without disadvantages. It is not synchronous, there can be time delays in video
and audio transmission and costs can exceed $1,000 a day. However, VIDINT, a
new video interviewing system, offers a radical and cost-efficient alternative.
VIDINT was the creation of National Corporate College Consultants (NC3)
which works with companies to build and manage college recruiting programmes.
VIDINT’s raison d’etre is that it is a recorded (not live), synchronous video
and is web-based.
A graduate in a campus office records answers to a company’s specific
questions. The interview is then deployed via the internet for password access
by HR or line managers, who can view the interview at their PC – anywhere,
anytime.
Therefore, a company in Toronto can review a student interview from Tokyo at
its convenience without visiting that campus. It can review as much or as
little of the interview as required and can have multiple people involved in the
review process by simply circulating the password-protected web address. A
high-speed internet connection and Windows software are required.
Companies give NC3 the job spec and questions which VIDINT records on their
behalf and deploys to selected campuses. Students submit CVs as they would for
a regular interview, and are screened and selected for a VIDINT interview by
NC3 or the client company.
Feedback from a pilot study evaluation at Pepsi Bottling Group is
encouraging. Some interviewees were more relaxed than in regular interviews
because there was no body language judgmental feedback or interruptions from a
face-to-face interviewer. Another benefit, for both parties, is that many
managers, not just the interviewing representative, can review the interviewee
– collaborative decision making.
No work and all play?
What lies beneath the satisfying scene of staff slaving away at their desks
and behind the reassuring hum of photocopiers and fax machines churning out the
fruits of your employees’ labour? All is well, or is it? Perhaps you should
take a closer look.
‘Work hard, play hard’ to some nowadays seems to be a cliché, if not an
irrelevance. Faced with long hours, increased stress and insufficient spare
time, some employees might have adopted a ‘slacker ethic’ in which work is the
enemy that must be avoided by any means possible. Excessive web-surfing and
sending countless e-mails from nine to five are symptomatic of that malaise.
One unnamed US Government department discovered an elaborate ring of computer
blackjack gamblers operating in its offices.
Such game playing can cost a fortune in downtime hours and finding expensive
solutions to curb it. Abuses of the company’s e-mail and internet are
increasing. Most employees need access to the web for work purposes, but many
overuse it, blocking the company network and costing businesses thousands every
year. How can employers put an end to this?
One claimed solution is Monactive’s dxPRO. It monitors computer activity and
builds a complete picture of all software usage within a company. A smart
programme sits on each individual desktop and reports back to a central
console. This information then builds a picture of the software in use and
allows an employer to click on an individual software application and find
exactly who is using it and how frequently. It identifies any software
downloaded from the net, allowing employers to stop to the use of applications
that could cause financial or legal damage to the company.
Martin Brokers, the oldest established money broking firm in London,
recently installed dxPRO to control software installation from a licensing
point of view. The firm said: "dxPRO allowed us to identify a number of
games and undesirable bits of software on company PCs, which we would never
have been able to do as easily previously. We can delete all undesirable
software and persuade staff to be more disciplined."
Undeniably clever, but some might wonder if the fine line between ‘big
brother’ and corporate accountability is now more blurred than ever before.
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