Online Interviews

For the past few years I have been harping on to clients and friends about how video has finally arrived for HR, especially in hiring and training.

Soon, I say, we will all be using video as a routine part of our lives. Meanwhile, they return to contemplating the menu in the restaurant or observing the length of their fingernails.

My logic is that broadband internet access enables companies to include video in their service offerings and sooner or later some will. Nothing new or clever here.

In my own RPO process we have done so already because it was easy to introduce to an ATS, but it has been a slow sell to clients who seem hesitant to adopt something that seems so far ahead of others. Outside of my own work, with the exception of Hirevue and MSN (dead in China at the moment) I have seen little that backs up my belief in video.

And then in December last year Chinese graduates were invited to attend face-to-face interviews with employers using video. There was no intermediary in the interview itself but the whole process was managed and mediated by two job sites: Myjob and Job100.

The process is based on simple webcam technology, a wise choice in the context of cash-poor students, who were able to interview without even incurring the expense of travelling to their chosen companyís office in the nearest city. It seems to have been a success at some level but of course companies are reluctant to praise something too much in case it encourages their competitors to try it out.

But the future is also on my side. Virtual Reality is on its way, and this is just video on steroids.

The Internet Association of Virtual Reality Technogies (IAVRT) just announced they will soon complete the íworldís first public network capable of meeting the data transmission requirements of emerging cinematic and immersive virtual-reality technologiesí. In common language this means that they will create a system that will essentially be the internet for virtual reality.

The threat for HR is that virtual reality will move into the mainstream and no longer be restricted to the, admittedly, hundreds of thousands of young males in China who spend half their time on site like World of Warcraft. This is no great threat because most of these individuals move away from these sites when they join the workforce. The ones who continue to play heavily donít offer much to employers, and for those employers who hire them for their WOW skills, their addiction is not a problem. Itís part of their job.

But if your secretary is immersiing herself in a virtual reality that is indistinguishable from írealí reality, then you might have problems with the booking for your flight to Tokyo, or the completion of the draft contract for the purchase of your new company car. When this happens HR is going to get the call and will be expected to provide a solution.

On the upside, a very immersive, cinematic quality virtual reality will make virtual teams much more effective. It should also allow training to get to the next level and allow trainees an opportunity to try out their new skills during the training. Webinars, which are currently effective at some level, will cease to be powerpoint presentations with scratchy sound. Presenters will present in living colour, or maybe even 3D walkaround, and will more closely resemble their offline counterparts, face to face seminars.

The new system is called Neuronet, and luckily for those who do not welcome rapid change, it is not likely to offer anything to consumers until 2009. With Chinaís limited access to the international internet system it is likely that it will not hit here for another five years or more. Unless the recent problems lead to the creation of more cables and connections. Hereís hoping.

Meanwhile, I can stop harping on about video. Thatís old hat, you know. The new, new thing is virtual reality Ö have I told you my thoughts on this exciting new technology...

Email frank.mulligan@recruit-china.com