Video Interviewing: The Best New Tool In Your Recruitment Arsenal 

/in , /by

Just as snail-mail resumes were phased out by online application forms, so to has two-way video interviewing overtaken the humble phone call.

Recruitment technology now allows employers to easily review recorded video interviews of prospective candidates before they spend time and money inviting them to face-to-face meetings.

According to a survey by UK job board Monster, 82 per cent of hiring managers rate a candidate’s ability to hold eye contact as a telling nonverbal cue. Now with video interview technology, characteristics such as this can be revealed before a face-to-face meeting.

Recruitment marketing specialists Employment Office are leading the pack with this emerging recruitment technology, launching their video interviewing product last year in response to increased demand from customers.

“Employment Office is the first company to offer a two-way video platform where a live interview is conducted by a recruitment expert in a format that is both recordable and shareable.  Our approach is human and personal as opposed to a candidate talking into a webcam, answering stock-standard questions,”says Employment Office Managing Director Tudor Marsden-Huggins.

Although job interviews were once seen as the final frontier – a recruitment function that needed to be kept in-house – more businesses are now seeing the value in hiring a professional to conduct a preliminary interview on their behalf.

“Job interviews can be a tough thing to get right.  Without the necessary skills it can be hard to make a confident hiring decision.  By using a trained expert in an interactive interview, you can make an informed choice based on substantive candidate responses, while also having the visual capacity to assess non-verbal communication skills and professional presentation,”Marsden-Huggins said.

Conducting interviews via interactive video is also more efficient and cost effective.  It’s certainly easier and cheaper to arrange a video interview that can be shared with key decision makers anytime, as opposed to scheduling face-to-face meetings with busy people in several locations.

In an age of globalisation and virtualisation, having easy access to candidates beyond geographical barriers is important. Businesses need to think creatively to reach out to potential employees and in today’s recruitment landscape video interviewing is proving to be a valuable tool to add to your recruitment toolkit.

If you would like to receive more information on how video interviewing technology can help your business, contact Employment Office today on 07 3330 2555.

Interns and Employers: Who should foot the bill?

/in /by

The demand for internships has soared as students hoping to gain employment in competitive industries become more concerned about job opportunities after graduation.

In a global labour market that demands real-world experience, students and even some parents, are going to astonishing lengths to land the perfect post-grad job.

A surge in interns paying for the privilege of doing an internship, has taken place in Australia and overseas. In America, some parents are paying employers up to $10,000 for a guaranteed place on the student internship program.

Closer to home, employers are also seeing the potential to charge a fee for work experience, with one Australian law firm recently asking students to pay AUD$22,000 to intern at their organisation.  The Fair Work Ombudsman is currently investigating the validity of the program.

Paid-for-internships aren’t just emptying the pockets of parents wanting to give their child a leg-up into the workforce, they are also making it impossible for the children of less-affluent families to secure internship opportunities.

Managing Director of Employment Office, Tudor Marsden-Huggins, says mutually beneficial internship agreements shouldn’t see money exchanging hand on either side.

“Employers need to be impartial when selecting candidates for internships. Right now students feel like they need internships to secure that great graduate opportunity.  Some employers are exploiting this situation and creating internships you can pay for as a revenue-raiser.

“Selection of interns should be based on merit as opposed to bank balance and employers shouldn’t take advantage by hiring students who can pay for the privilege over others,” he says.

“Internships are a great way for young people or university graduates to secure experience in the corporate world. They’re offered a taste of their chosen field and  an idea of whether they’d like to pursue what they’ve been studying as a career. The employer also benefits by gaining an insight into the talent of the emerging workforce.

“It costs an organisation a great deal of resources to properly mentor an intern but in return the employer receives an additional resource and potential future employee. A win-win internship agreement like this is hard to attain when one party is paying the other for the opportunity to be there,” Marsden-Huggins says.

To ensure interns are treated fairly, organisations must nurture their interns – mentoring and observing them rather than exploiting them for free labour.

A new law recently passed in France looks to protect students from being exploited as cheap labour. The law states “mentoring” must be provided to an intern and the internship mentor cannot mentor more than three students at the same time.

Luxury French fashion houses have come under scrutiny in recent years for exploiting the desperate interns trying to gain experience in the competitive fashion industry.  Some have been accused of taking advantage of unpaid interns and using them for ‘slave labour’.

In Australia the lines are still blurred, the Fair Work Act states employers must pay employees a minimum wage, so it can be argued if your intern is performing work someone would otherwise be paid to do you may be non-compliant.

There are exceptions for vocational placements and voluntary not-for-profit work, but with a grey area for other free-office work, employers should understand their boundaries before the Fair Work Ombudsman enforces them for a hefty fine.

Office Overtime Reduces More Than Just Your Sleep-In

/in /by

[responsive]Office Overtime[/responsive]

Sunglasses over tired eyes, espresso in hand and ten-minutes late to work. Sound familiar? No, we’re not talking about the effects of a mid-week hangover, this is the morning snapshot into the lives of more than a third of employees who work overtime every week.

While late night desk jockeys might impress some managers, meeting urgent deadlines may be at the expense of employee health.

A recent poll by recruitment firm Employment Office found 37% of people work an average of 2-5 hours overtime every week and 22% clock up an additional 10 hours every week.

Although short-term benefits might be tempting, including fuller pay cheques, prolonged periods of overtime actually aren’t beneficial for employers or employees.

A study published in UK medical journal The Lancet last month revealed staff who work 55 hours or more per week have a 33% increased risk of stroke and 13% higher risk of coronary heart disease compared to people who only work 40 hour weeks.

The results led by scientists at University College London reviewed 42 studies from across Europe, the US and Australia. While they couldn’t definitively say long hours give people strokes, the study shows a clear link between working long hours and these serious health conditions.

Putting significantly long days in at work can also result in a number of less serious issues for staff, including increased levels of stress and fatigue, with these complaints often leaving employees feeling burned and  resulting in decreased productivity.

Employment Office Managing Director, Tudor Marsden-Huggins says employers can mitigate negative effects of excessive overtime by implementing an overtime policy which is regularly assessed.

“It’s essential to document an overtime policy, particularly for organisations who deal in shift work or extended opening hours. Establishing a formal rotation of overtime within a team or department will see extra work distributed fairly and won’t leave one person feeling like they are overworked.

“Long stints of overtime can lead to increased absenteeism and high employee turnover. Encouraging employees to turn their emails off over the weekend is a simple way to reduce the desire for staff to be contactable at all hours, and to have a real break away from work when they are out of the office,” he said.

So while it might seem enticing for your people to clock in more office hours, kerbing the chained-to-the-desk mentality will see happy, healthier and more productive staff in the long run

For further information or to arrange an interview please contact Brooke Chapman, Employment Office Publicist on 0407 163 876.