voicescreener goes public
March 31, 2009
VoiceScreener, which was launched in free private beta trial in November 2008, became available to the public earlier this month.
VoiceScreener, a human resources solution that claims to eliminate or reduce the time spent on live phone interviews for small to medium-size businesses, was created by Web telephone company HarQen. The company decided to make the new product public after the beta trial included 150 companies, 60 to 80 percent of which made faster hires with VoiceScreener.
VoiceScreener eliminates the need for first-round interviews by allowing HR personnel and job applicants to interact virtually. HR personnel can record a greeting and interview questions to be posted online and invite candidates to answer the questions through a link or “Interview Now” button that can be inserted in any online job posting.
Employers can then listen to a candidate’s responses. They also can ask team members to review and rank candidate responses. VoiceScreener automatically creates a report listing the candidates who have completed the interview in order of team preference.
The minimal VoiceScreener plan costs $99 per month and allows companies to interview up to 180 candidates over the course of one year. Additional interviews may be purchased in blocks of 25, 50 or 100. There also is a $199 per month plan that provides up to 420 interviews per year.
“This economic downturn has brought about an astonishing number of layoffs of highly qualified people and this often means up to 10 times as many people are applying for any given job posting,” Kelly Fitzsimmons, co-founder and CEO of HarQen, said. “It’s hard enough to identify the right candidate in a normal hiring environment, but now the game has changed significantly.
“Many staffing agencies are turning to VoiceScreener because it is an effective way to identify the top prospects very efficiently,” Fitzsimmons added. “That is just what small businesses need to be doing, so VoiceScreener’s e-commerce solution is arriving at just the right time.”
