Did we create a recruitment solution that nobody wants?

Hi Friends and fellow HR Practitioners,

I suppose I'm really curious to why HR practitioners aren't jumping on-board with our solutions and not exploring a whole different world or recruitment via the solutions that we have created at our company.

I'm from Singapore and I'm beginning to wonder if this is just a limitation from the country I'm residing in and people elsewhere might just really appreciate our work a little more.

Its been 4 years since the launch of www.next-5.com website. When we first launched in 2009, we saw that the world was rapidly taking on technologies such as Skype, YouTube, Facebook and etc.

Built-in webcams and microphones were also starting to become common features whenever you bought a laptop or desktop.

So we said to ourselves, great! - what if we created a world where candidates submitted video interviews over just the plain old CV. Wouldn't HR professionals be delighted to receive a CV that came pegged with a Video Interview of a candidate? Doesn't it make sense for them? Wouldn't such a system reduce the amount of bad interviews? As well as reduce the overall cost of recruitment?

We also understood that if a solution was cost saving - then it shouldn't burn a hole in our client's pockets...so we made it affordable. Affordable to any SME or MNC - anyone could use it! But even at marginal cost, HR seemed to be disinterested in using something new. Something out of the box and innovative. Scared of change perhaps?

Anyway, we started pumping away at our codes and by end 2009, we have launched our first solution. It worked well, had a couple of clients and then it came to standstill! A couple of clients were good, but we weren't getting people or convincing HR folks out here that this is the solution for the future. They were reluctant and we began to see other competitors in the western market blossoming with this concept of On-demand Interviews.

I was really happy to see other solution providers come-out and educate the market on the same dreams that we have envisioned. Competition is good as it brings a solution mainstream. We don't have huge marketing budgets like our competitors but that really doesn't mean we have something that is mediocre.

In fact, we are probably still the only guys in the market that has been crazy enough to build an entire ecosystem that includes:

1. Social recruitment broadcasting tools

2. On-demand Interviewing solutions

3. Integrated assessment platforms

4. Job boards that clients can choose as a replacement to their career pages

5. For recruiters - we have also create a personalized branding page that they could use to market themselves, and to gather video interviews and resume on one single platform.

6. Collaborative tools that enabled you to share profiles with anyone that needed to make hiring decisions and etc..

After all this, there were still the naysayers that preferred just "LinkedIn" Or "I like meeting candidates face-to-face, even if they were a waste of time. Its part of my job." Seriously??

So i've been really curious to what is not good about what we have done? Is it a technology that does not sit well with the industry? Does it not solve any problems? Or is it just that we have not been knocking on the right doors? Your reviews at this point would mean a lot to me and i'm really looking forward to have some comments from the professionals here.

I would appreciate any feedback and recommendations after browsing our site. I'm turning to this blog as i believe that perhaps - some of you here, might take an interest to try us out and tell me where we might have gone wrong. Or perhaps tell me that, we are doing a great job but perhaps a little tweaking here and there would make it better for users. I suppose i'm really looking for more early adopters to tell me more and speak with me.

Accounts are free to sign-up and i'm providing the links here for your exploration/review.

For Recruiters: http://hirenow.next-5.com/SignUp?type=Recruiter

For In-house HR: http://hirenow.next-5.com/SignUp?create=employer

Here are some screenshots that you may be interested to view.

You can also email me at kenneth.yap@next-5.com

A Candidate Launching a Video Interview Recording Sessions30 Seconds Countdown before an Interview recording

Professional Branding Pages for Recruiters

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Vivek Karthik on August 26, 2013 at 7:35am

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Albright on August 26, 2013 at 12:10pm

yes

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Permalink Reply by Tiffany Branch on September 3, 2013 at 10:10am

I still prefer face to face interviews. I can phone interview, video-conference, etc. At the end of the day, the finalist will eventually have a face to face, on-site interview. In addition, I find social media more effective for promoting your organization, but I haven't seen it yield any more qualified candidates than more traditional methods. I don't care if I have over 1K followers, if they aren't qualified for my positions, it's not doing anything for me.

It appears to be an interesting tool but w/o seeing a demo, etc. I'm not sure I can say what it hasn't taken off.

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Permalink Reply by Bill Schultz on September 3, 2013 at 4:02pm

lol, you cold, man.

Jerry Albright said:

yes

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Permalink Reply by Linda Ferrante on September 18, 2013 at 10:02am

There are just some things that shouldn't be automated, videoed or NOT done in person. Recruiting is one of them. Our jobs (regardless of the industry) are places we spend an extremely large chunk of our days. We want to make sure we like the company as much as they like us. As a candidate, you should WANT to see the office you'll be working in. You should WANT to know the parking situation, the drive time, the atmosphere/culture of the company, etc. NONE of which can be conveyed through a video interview.

As a recruiter, it's my job to make sure I'm helping my client make a sound hiring decision. All these factors can actually make or break the success of the candidate. Why wouldn't you give it every opportunity to succeed?

As for not 'wasting time' meeting someone who just isn't right, you should probably step up your game in the initial screening process if you are regularly meeting with people who just aren't right.

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Permalink Reply by Tiffany Branch on September 24, 2013 at 10:54am

"Like"

Linda Ferrante LoCicero said:

There are just some things that shouldn't be automated, videoed or NOT done in person. Recruiting is one of them. Our jobs (regardless of the industry) are places we spend an extremely large chunk of our days. We want to make sure we like the company as much as they like us. As a candidate, you should WANT to see the office you'll be working in. You should WANT to know the parking situation, the drive time, the atmosphere/culture of the company, etc. NONE of which can be conveyed through a video interview.

As a recruiter, it's my job to make sure I'm helping my client make a sound hiring decision. All these factors can actually make or break the success of the candidate. Why wouldn't you give it every opportunity to succeed?

As for not 'wasting time' meeting someone who just isn't right, you should probably step up your game in the initial screening process if you are regularly meeting with people who just aren't right.

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Permalink Reply by Keith D. Halperin on October 7, 2013 at 5:01pm

"So we said to ourselves, great!"

Who did you ASK? If your product/service is expensive, did you ask the high-level muckety-mucks who usually buy such things without ever having to use it ? If your product/service isn't expensive, did you ask the ordinary end-using recruiter to see what wee need/want?

Also, the better your system is at allowing people to interview from anywhere (for anywhere else), the better it would be at allowing people to recruit or to work from anywhere. The better your system is ,the less the people need to actually come in and see the office, parking, culture, etc. because THEY WON'T BE THERE VERY MUCH. Perhaps you should remarket your product/service as a tool that reduces the need for unnecessary face-time by 80%, or something like that.

Cheers,

Keith

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Permalink Reply by Amy Ala Miller on October 7, 2013 at 6:32pm

with a "plain old CV" I can quickly scan and look for specific, relevant things. If programming languages are important, I can scan and see if you're listing the right ones. If sales is important, I can quickly scan and see if you've listed any increased revenue percentages or similar achievements.

With a video resume I have to wait, watch, and see if you tell me anything relevant. No thanks.

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Permalink Reply by Tiffany Branch on October 8, 2013 at 9:50am

I feel the same way Amy. It's not fast enough for me. Now if you are a finalist, I may review or send to the hiring manager for review, but not so much as part of the screening process.

Certain things just can't be replaced. I contracted with a big box retailer once who tried make store-recruiting run like a call center. It was HORRID. Recruiting is NOT a call center function. The store managers hated it as they never knew who they were dealing with. It was all automated with no face to face contact until the person showed up to the store. The intial phone screen was supposed to last no more than 8 minutes and we had a standardized list of questions. There was no "recruiting or interviewing" goin on at all. I left after 2 mos but I heard that process only lasted about 2 yrs before it was scapped.