Hi! My name is Peggy McKee! I represent the sales and marketing function of Interview on Demand, LLC. I have been recruiting in laboratory sales industry for almost 9 years. At PHC Consulting, we are known for the high caliber candidates that we provide for our clients (small startups to $1B + Fortune 50 companies). I have always embraced technology whenever I felt that it could give me an edge over my competition. Late 2006, I was perusing the web at about midnight (this is a common pastime when I can’t sleep), I found some web discussions in a recruiting blog about video interviews and how they could be used in recruiting and hiring. I was so excited about the possibilities of using this type of tool to differentiate me and PHC Consulting that I could not sleep the entire night! For me (as a recruiter) a tool that would move my candidates through the hiring process faster was very exciting. Imagine, if I could get my candidates in front of the hiring manager (visually - and no a picture is not the same) faster than other recruiters (even faster than the hiring company’s direct recruits)! That is what a video interview would do!!!

In the words of Steve Finkel - time kills all deals! Today is always better than tomorrow! If a manager could see my Seattle candidate from the comfort of his laptop, he might get excited enough to fly the candidate into to HQ or at least to fly up to Seattle and see the candidate in person. Managers have so much going on that sometimes they need a taste of what is available in order to get interested enough to take the next step. And then sometimes a candidate’s resume doesn’t adequately communicate the candidate’s ability to communicate and persuade - the video interview does that! I have to admit that my motivation to move forward with using video interviewing in my firm was money driven. Give managers the ability to "see and hear" my qualified candidates faster  - make more placements - make more money.

Carl Chapman designed my website for PHC Consulting and gave me a lot of great advice on recruiting, managing recruiting and general business operations! And then one day he asked me what I thought of video interviewing. Of course, I went on and on about what I thought it could do for my business and for managers. He asked me if I had tried it…..and I explained that the companies that I had tried to use weren’t quite there ….meaning the video was poor quality, no way to pay online for the video, choppy user interface….just not quite there. A month or so later, he told me that he had been investing heavily in development for a video interviewing application. Would I be interested in working with him to bring this technology to market and to drive the business from a sales and marketing perspective? You don’t get too many opportunities in life to work with people you admire and respect on a product that you think is as revolutionary to hiring as the telephone interview has been….So, the answer was YES!!! Thank you, Carl!

So that is my story. Here is my advice:

Managers: embrace video interviewing for the time and energy you can save in the hiring process while speeding the time to hire! Your managers will think you are innovative and forward thinking! Your accountants will love you! A manager told me the other day that he flew a candidate from San Fran to NYC ($650 ticket) and knew within 10 minutes that the fit was not there. He wished he had ordered a video interview.

Candidates: embrace the opportunity to get yourself in front of the manager - it is not about beauty - it is about the ability to communicate, connect, speak extemporaneously, clarify, and demonstrate skill sets. Just like a real interview - but not. I offer all of my candidates the ability to take the video interview. If you would like to take one, email me.  I am the VP of Sales and Marketing for Interview on Demand, LLC. I will send you an invitation to take a video interview. You will get to see your completed interview. It is a fabulous tool for improving your interviewing skills!

Human Resources: this tool will help you achieve your short term goals of hiring and long term goals of talent management. Remember what it was like before you had an applicant tracking system? In the future, you will look back and wonder how you did it before video interviews.

Recruiters: this is a goldmine. It differentiates you from your competition. It speeds the hiring cycle. It allows you to "see and hear" your candidates so that you can really represent them to your client companies!

In 1994, I was the first sales rep at Bio-Rad Laboratories to have a cell phone. I think the company was worried about the risk of a young female representative walking around Washington DC’s hospitals (some pretty rough environments). That phone weighed at least 10 pounds and the heat from the receiver burned your ear lobes! But it was fantastic.

Now I have a blackberry that beeps when I have an email message. It has improved my ability to respond to my clients and candidates and saved several placements! Technology is fantastic.

With video and high speed internet, hiring will change! I think the video interview will replace the phone screen. What do you think?

INTERVIEW on DEMAND - removing the barriers between TOP CANDIDATES and the COMPANIES that seek them.
Hiring managers - make faster, better hires while reducing costs.
Recruiters - make more placements with more companies, faster.

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