• Requisition load – high compared to the current staff on hand and anticipating even more
• Adoption or desire to add CRM tools to manage the talent pipeline versus ATS
• Importance of Quality of Hire metrics (QOH) and improved talent in general
• Employer Branding

Another consistent theme was the critical need to upgrade the level of talent in the organization to gain competitive advantage (Win the War for Talent déjà vu). However, this company perspective is accompanied by an opposing trend, employees that see the need to upgrade their employer. According to the recent Manpower/Right Management survey, 60% of employees intend to leave their jobs and one-in-four are networking and updating their resumes. Just a few weeks ago USA Today reported that people are actually starting to quit their jobs to find new work, even without the new job. This means that top talent will have the power to choose as the churn begins to increase.

What did I learn at HCI that talent acquisition leaders can do to stay ahead of the wave?

• Requisition load – Break down the work into specialized roles for efficiencies, create pure sourcing teams, social media/marketing teams or niche recruiters. The successful staffing functions are also building relationships with candidates over time versus JIT for specific requisitions. Others are finding new technologies (like HireVue) or outsourcing parts of the process to RPO to shorten the time to hire.
• CRM – Use tools that manage candidate relationships versus just tracking and processing candidates for a requisition. The creation of talent pools and full pipelines is more critical than ever.
• QOH – Track hiring manager satisfaction, specifically, how calibrated is the recruiter with not only the job profile requirements but also the manager’s definition of top performance? Does the recruiter know why the top employees received their performance rating? Do recruiters clearly understand what a manager means when she says, “There just wasn’t a fit”? This is critical before you decide to put in a QOH metric of 90-day or 180-day new hire performance or a feedback loop for recruiter performance. Time to fill/hire is still important but not if quality is lacking.
• Employer Branding – Work with your marketing department to align employment collateral with product/company messaging. Involve your managers and employees in the process; let them help shape the brand (because they already have). Gallup polls consistently attribute turnover to the work environment and the manager. Websites like Glassdoor make it easy to get the real scoop on your employer value proposition. Reality is better than fiction if you want to land top performers!

Of course HireVue’s workflow tools, ability to create video talent pools, decision management tools, and branding options can help you improve in all four areas.

Chip Luman

COO, HireVue

Cody went with this approach for several reasons and explained to me, “when you meet a student at a career fair it can be very 2 dimensional. You receive a resume and have conversations that you then have to convey to a hiring manager back at headquarters or in the field. The video interview brings three dimensional life to the candidate and gives managers instant access to top talent.” Cody is also a fan of the recorded interview because it allows him to have multiple trained reviewers evaluate the candidate using different competency model assessments. All of this combined creates new campus and career fair efficiencies for his team and helps them close top talent faster than the competition.

Wal-Mart's Video Interviewing Station at SIFE

The second aspect of the career fair that I was impressed with was the attention Wal-Mart gave to their employment brand. The virtual interview room carried the same look and feel of the booth on the career fair floor. Recruiters took the time to explain why they were using the video interview process and how it would benefit the candidate. Wal-Mart opted to brand the HireVue system (click here to view).

There was positive feedback from the candidates and many were excited about the fact that several managers throughout Wal-Mart would be able to view their interviews that very same day. Throughout the event, there was a lot of buzz with many people stopping by to learn more about what Cody and his team at Wal-Mart were doing. Go here to learn more about HireVue’s campus recruiting solutions.

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – (Business Wire) April 15, 2010 – Video interviewing pioneer HireVue (http://www.hirevue.com) today announced the completion of its integration with Taleo Business Edition from Taleo Corp. (NASDAQ: TLEO), the leading provider of on-demand talent management solutions. HireVue’s powerful and easy-to-use video interviewing and hiring decision platform connects job seekers directly to employers through live and virtual interviews.

Read More…

During the webinar we did with Taleo on Wednesday, March 31st, Melissa McMahon from CDW and Lorna Hagen from Dow Jones discussed why they chose HireVue and how they plan to leverage video interviewing in their talent acquisition strategy. A number of excellent questions were asked by the audience but we were only able to respond to a handful during the webinar so we wanted to make sure to post the questions – all of them – as asked along with our responses. For those of you who didn’t get the chance to join us for the webinar, you can view the archived recording on our website. Download “Leveraging Your Taleo Investment with Hirevue”.

Leveraging Your Taleo Investment with Hirevue Q&A

Q: Can an invitation delivery be automated based on meeting minimum pre-screening requirements vs Manual delivery?
A: While video interviews can be included in your Taleo workflow, the video interview invitation process cannot be automated at this time.

Q: Does HireVue have experience with Taleo Enterprise version 10?
A: Yes. In fact, we were the first integration partner to be certified for use on Taleo Enterprise 10. For more information about the integration, contact your Taleo representative.

Q: Does HireVue have experience with Taleo Business Edition?
A: Yes. HireVue is currently the only video interviewing provider integrated with Taleo Business Edition. Contact your Taleo representative to activate the integration.

Q: Can you speak to how the candidates get the interview code.
A: When a candidate is invited via the integration with Taleo or directly from the HireVue system an e-mail is sent to them with instructions on how to take the video interview. Included is a one-time use code the candidate uses to access their customized interview environment. This code uniquely identifies the interview specifically for this candidate in the HireVue system.

Q: We use a different hiring systems for applicants to apply to positions.  Is it possible to use HireVue also without the candidate applying into two different systems?
A: HireVue has a robust API that can be used to integrate with most ATS and HRMS systems to allow for a more streamlined hiring process. However, to answer this question specifically, the video interview typically comes AFTER candidates have applied for a position and the candidate pool has been narrowed down. The Virtual 1-way video interview is typically used for screening purposes to augment or replace the phone interview. The Live 2-Way interview is often used to further narrow the pool down even more so that any in-person interviews occur only with the most qualified candidate(s).

Q: Do our recruiters need to make the comparison between the candidates or does the tool give us a report where we can see the comparison and the best candidate?
A: HireVue is a tool for your recruiters to compare and contrast candidates and use our collaboration tools to share their feedback and rate candidates. A final report is produced that aggregates all of the hiring team’s feedback and ratings to make the hiring decision easier.

Q: Is video introducing any bias in the process of hiring?
A: This is a question that was asked to Carol Miaskoff, Associate Legal Counsel at the office the EEOC at the ERE conference last fall and her response was that as long as employers carefully define their hiring practices and ensure that they follow them,  (which they should be doing regardless of whether using video or not) there is little risk of introducing bias to the hiring process. For example, a company who provides every single candidate that undergoes a video interview with the same level of technical support, preparation coaching on things like lighting, sound and other video related elements, the same question set and time to answer questions, there is little room for any bias that might not also be present through a face-to-face interview. Click here for more on the EEOC’s opinion on video interviewing.

Q: What objections have you heard from companies?
A: Some companies decide that they are not ready to implement the technology because it is so new.  These tend to be the same talent functions that are not using other Web 2.0 services like LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.  Other organizations feel that they won’t be able to sell the concept internally, but we find once they pilot it with an innovative internal client they see adoption.

Q: Are there reservations about blocking individuals from having an opportunity to interview face-to-face?
A: We do not recommend replacing live interviews with video interviews but rather using video to narrow your slate of candidates so that you are investing your time and money into your true finalist. Think of video interviewing as a screening funnel. Most of our customers use the virtual 1-way interview at the front end of the screening process to narrow down a larger group of candidates then they may use the live 2-way interview later in the process to validate a smaller group of candidates from whom they might pick a couple of finalists to fly in for a face-to-face interview. That way you’re not spending time and money and they’re not spending their time unnecessarily.

Q: Have you talked to candidates and how do they perceive interviewing using Video Technologies?
A: We provide 24/7 candidate support as part of our offering and so we hear from many candidates and their feedback is almost universally positive. Some of the most prevalent feedback we get is about how easy it is and how thankful they were that they didn’t have to take time off, lie to their boss or interview over a holiday due to travel. We also hear how happy candidates are that they can interview once instead of having to repeat themselves as much as 8 or 10 times in one day’s worth of interviews. Learn more about why job candidates like HireVue Video Interviews.

Q: How many individuals are on this webinar?
A: Over 125 Talent Acquisition professionals from all over the world attended and many more have accessed the video interview webinar recording here.

Q: I used video interviewing for one position and the feedback I have received is that the candidate did not like the process as it took out the personal touch or two-way interview.
A: Video Interviewing is not meant to replace face-to-face interaction but rather to augment it. It’s a screening funnel. Most of our customers use the virtual 1-way interview at the front end of the screening process to narrow down a larger group of candidates then they may use the live 2-way interview later in the process to validate a smaller group of candidates from whom they might pick a couple of finalists to fly in for a face-to-face interview. That way you’re not spending time and money and they’re not spending their time unnecessarily.

Q: What are the legal implications of using video in the hiring and screening process? Do the candidates agree to being recorded up front?
A: We can’t answer for all video interviewing providers, but here at HireVue, our pre-recorded product provides a completely standardized interview that insures the same questions are asked to all qualified applicants in exactly the same manner as required by the EEOC. This approach also insures that a trained interviewer will have the opportunity to review each candidate and the responses of each hiring manager to insure a consistent assessment. You can go to our online video interview and recruiting resources page to find links to information posted at the EEOC regarding the use of video. Candidates are given the opportunity to opt out of the video interview process if they are not comfortable with it and give their consent via electronic approval before participating in the interview.

Q: How does this solution work in multiple languages?  Is there a built in translation tool?
A: Questions answered by candidates via video can be input into HireVue in any Roman-character based language and candidate interface screens are currently supported in six languages (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Italian) and can be easily localized in any other Roman-character based language at the customer’s request.

Q: How can you be inclusive of those candidates in technology backward or limited locations like the Philippines or South Africa where feeds are not up to video standards?
A: This is one of the most exciting things about HireVue. We have facilitated interviews in over 100 countries including South Africa and the Philippines. Our technology has been designed to work well even over very low bandwidth connections for this very reason. In situations where candidates do not have access to the Internet from their homes, our customers will often set up an on-site kiosk in high volume areas for candidates to use and other public options like libraries and Internet café’s will work well, even with the high level of security inherent in the HireVue system.

Q: Are there any components (plug-ins) that need to be installed in a browser to allow HireVue to work? What if the candidate doesn’t have access to a computer?
A: All you need to use HireVue is a computer with a browser, internet connection (we recommend a minimum 56K connection) and a webcam. If a candidate does not have a webcam, HireVue will provide one. If candidates cannot get access to a computer via family, friends or through community resources like libraries or internet cafes we offer an “On-Site” solution where kiosks can be set up at your office locations so that candidates can come to you to record their virtual or live interview.

Q: So much of interviewing is using probing questions as follow up.  How do you address that?
A: Many employers use our virtual 1-way interviews to ask knockout questions or they break the probing questions into a sequence of questions in the one-way interview to insure more thoughtful responses by the candidates. They then use our live 2-way interview to meet with the candidate face-to-face to conduct an interactive discussion. Face-to-face interviews can still be scheduled – in fact, we recommend them – but by using HireVue you ensure those interviews only occur at the right time, with the right candidates and at a far lower cost than the traditional interview model.

Q: How do you sell this to senior leaders who are used to and require face-face meetings with candidates for executive positions?
A: Many executives quickly become proponents of the process.  If used as a screening tool it saves them time and wasted meetings.  They can view a set of pre-screened finalists at a time convenient to them and insure that the right candidate will qualify for the face-to-face interview.

Q: Who are your competitors and how do you differentiate?
A: There are a number of video interviewing providers out there – LiveHire, InterviewStudio and GreenJobInterview.com to name a few. Surprisingly video interviewing offerings actually vary widely so it’s important to consider the difference between simple video interviewing and, as Aberdeen Group put it, “Video Enabled Talent Acquisition.” We discussed some of this during the webinar but if you would like a list of 10 things that differentiate a Video Enabled Talent Acquisition Provider like HireVue from the rest, please e-mail sales@hirevue.com to request a copy. You can find additional details in Aberdeen’s whitepaper available for complimentary download from HireVue here.

Q: Will the slides and other materials be made available?
A: A recording of the entire webinar is available along with other premium content and collateral on the HireVue website here.

Q: What happens if a candidate’s Internet crashes part way through the interview?
A: When they log back into the system for a one-way interview they will start after their last completed question. For a live interview they can log back into the session as long as there is still a participant logged in.

Q: Is your solution compatible with any standard Talent Acquisition technology (i.e. Duet, SAP eRec)?
A: As mentioned earlier, HireVue is integrated with Taleo Enterprise and Taleo Business Edition. We are working on a number of other integrations with the top tier ATS vendors in the market. Additionally, we have built an open API that allows us to easily create ad-hoc integrations with other HRMS technologies and vice versa.

Q: How long are videos retained/stored?
A: The HireVue solution is both EEOC and Safe Harbor compliant. As a result, we are required to store videos for 2 years. Arrangements can be made to archive them for longer if needed.

Q: what is the average length of time of each interview?
A: Virtual 1-way interviews typically take about 30 minutes. Candidates have 3 minutes to answer each question during a virtual interview. Live 2-way interviews usually take no more than 1 hour.

Q: How long does it take to set up the interview?  For example, how long would it take to set up an interview with 10 questions.
A: Setting up the interview is very simple and takes about 30 seconds per question if you already have the questions defined. so a 10 question interview would take about 5 minutes to set up.

Q: What is the average size of each file of the video interview? Are there any special system requirements?
A: We store and stream the video files in our proprietary system so there are no storage requirements and file size is irrelevant since it is accessed over the Internet. The only system requirements are a computer with a browser and Internet connection and a webcam. HireVue provides webcams as part of our service.

Q: How much does this cost?
A: At HireVue Pricing is based by the interview.  You purchase Interview credits in packages.  The more you purchase upfront, the lower the cost per interview. Pricing starts at $225 for international or $175 for domestic per interview credit and scales down based on volume.  HireVue clients typically save 5x what they spend with HireVue annually doing US only interviews.  If they are doing interviews outside of the US, their cost savings can be as much as 10x what they spend with HireVue.  Their Return is almost immediate once they start using HireVue. There is no time limit per interview.

Q: Is there a fee required to use the Taleo integration?
A: The Taleo Passport Integration Module is required to use the integration. You can speak to your Taleo representative about pricing and implementation details for Taleo Passport.

Q: One concern is how to propose implementing video/HireVue to recruiting firms who have to fill top upper management positions for which they believe there is no substitute for the process of performing an initial phone screen then a face-to-face interview. How would you handle this?
A: Recruiting firms typically utilize a video conferencing solution when client companies request that they “meet” the candidate. For searches where that is appropriate, HireVue is a lower cost alternative with the added benefit of recording and reuse. HireVue has been used for recruiting C-suite candidates in the corporate setting.

Q: As a contract recruiting firm, we’re curious about the mechanics of bringing in client middle managers into the process and making it appealing to them.
A: HireVue has been used in the contract recruiting process and typically the recruiting firm builds the one-way interview based on the client’s requirements.  The completed candidate interviews can then be shared with the client middle managers from the recruiting firm for review and selection of final round candidates.  Live interviews can be conducted and shared in the same way.

Q: How does this work for non-management level positions?
A: HireVue is a great solution for high volume front line roles such as retail, call centers, etc. Our on-site subscription service provides a low cost alternative for sourcing local candidates at a set location within a facility. Companies typically have candidates take a one-way interview that allows them to process a high volume of candidates to determine the most qualified people to bring in for face-to-face final interviews.

Q: Logistics…what is the best way to manage the logistics of the process including getting a candidate a web cam?
A: With HireVue all of the logistical elements are taken care of. All you need to do is set up the interview questions and invite the candidate to perform the interview and we’ll take care of the rest, including the delivery of webcams, training and 24/7 customer and candidate support. Learn more about how video job interviewing works.

Q: Do you find many candidates have difficulty setting up the web cam equipment?
A: About 1% of candidates require assistance with their webcams. The HireVue support team is available 24/7 to help candidates with webcam setup and testing.

Q: What if the candidate doesn’t have a webcam?
A: We can’t speak for other video interviewing providers, but we ship a Client Branded Interview Package (via FedEx) to candidates.  The materials are completely customized by our clients and include information about the HireVue Process, Tips for Success On the Interview, Company Information/Brochures (ex: Annual Report), Job Related Information (Job Description) and a Logitech Webcam (which can be branded with your logo).  This presents a unique opportunity to push YOUR employment brand as well as information to the candidate in case you want to educate them along the recruiting process.  The candidate gets to keep the webcam afterward since the HireVue Service is all-inclusive.  Even if the candidate does have his or her own webcam, the quality varies drastically.  So, almost all of our clients elect to have HireVue ship the Client Branded Interview Package out to the candidates to ensure consistency and extend their employment brand.

Q: What are some sample applications where customers are using Video Talent Acquisition Today?
A: There are a number of sample applications that include:

• Geographically dispersed Recruiting: Either candidates are in different countries or the hiring team is spread across different geographies.
• Internal Hiring: Candidate in a large organization is applying for a job but is in a different office than the hiring manager (or hiring team).
• Campus Recruiting: Budgets have been slashed in campus recruiting and companies are using Video as a way to still reach all the schools on their Target Recruiting List.
• Bi-Lingual Positions: Great chance for those companies who need to hire bi-lingual candidates to see them in action giving answers to the same question in different languages.
• Retail/High Volume: Set up an interview room or kiosk in locations where you have a lot of foot traffic.

Today, I conducted yet another interview on Skype. I routinely use videoconferencing in either Skype or Google to do business outside of domestic American borders. Like many technical things, the rest of the world is fairly well ahead of the US in communications technologies.

It happened while we weren’t looking. While there is sure to be a real mobile boom, with all sorts of interesting recruitment advertising schemes, it will be while the US catches up to the rest of the world where mobile advertising is mainstream. The same holds true with video communications (unless you are a Mac user). The rest of the world is quickly grabbing on to trans-global video communications. The range runs from Cisco’s astonishing products to the more humble laptop based chat tools.

I have not been a fan of the idea that video interview companies were going to be able to add value in the HR marketplace for a sustained period. I’ve had more than one CEO hang up in frustration when I asked, “How is this different from having a telephone?” In most cases, it isn’t. Simple bandwidth offerings, posed as something else, will be early roadkill. Video calls will be as common as telephone calls in a couple of years. The technology is already good enough.

Last week, though, I had an amazing call with Mark Newman, CEO of HireVue. The company, which grew by 800% last year, is rooted in the delivery of pain reduction for the talent acquisition process. The flagship video interviewing tool is just a gateway to a company that makes hay reducing cycle time. I’ve been peppering him with the ‘video can’t be the only thing’ query for more than a year. But, I’d never seen the product up close.

Continue reading…

The right people on the bus. Every business book, manager, CEO, recruiter – you name it – talks about constantly striving to have “the right people on the bus”, “the A-Team”, “the highest level of talent in the industry”. But what does it all mean?

From a managerial and personal perspective, I am fully convinced that the right talent on your team can make your life better. When you have the right people on your team and you are achieving your goals you can’t help but have a personal high that seems to make everything better. Stress is lower, relationships are strong, results take care of themselves. Think about the best team you have ever been on – can you agree that life in general seemed a bit more positive?

From a customer perspective though, what does the right talent mean? A few examples:

• The nurse who saves a life by averting an infection or drug interaction
• The teacher who gets your child to absolutely fall in love with reading and learning
• The mechanic who catches a life threatening defect in your brake system that someone else missed (happened to me)

The examples are endless. Notice something though; these roles are hardly ever top of mind when people talk about talent. We can all admit it. When most people think about talent (and I hear it constantly when I have conversations with managers), the discussion invariable turns to comments like “this VP is amazing” or “our Head of xyz is an all-star”. In reality though, the quality of your talent is not in the singular role of a manager or department head. The quality of your talent is in the person you think about last. The front line person, the statistic in your organization (e.g., the 5000 call-center people sitting in Duluth), the so called “cog” is actually the true indicator of your quality of talent. On a personal level, a board member recently said to me “you guys are growing fast, you need more people, life is hard and stressful because there is so much going on, but it will be worse if you settle and bring on the wrong people.” We are small compared to most of you but the requirement is the same. Every company who uses HireVue expects the best. Our people need to be the best. Your customers (students, buyers, companies, consumers, patients – you name it) need you to be the best. It pays off personally though too.

In the current economy, quality and cultural fit of talent has been the key differentiator in determining success. The companies with the right people in place at all levels are the ones who adapted, improved, managed, grew, developed, and survived. However, it’s not about the right VP or the right CEO (these help) but it’s about the right store manager, the right nurse, the right teacher, the right customer service representative. Our economy is improving (all indicators are pointing that way at least), and when times are flush standards can slip when it comes to hiring in large numbers. The key is to make no excuses and to not settle for mediocrity. The requirement to find the person that makes you better, makes the company better, and who will be so engaged that they will go to the ends of the earth to serve you and your customer should not change. One thing I’ve noticed over the last year is just how selective managers have been when it comes to interviews and hiring compared to earlier times – that’s not a bad thing and it will be important to keep it up.

I hope you are having a successful 2010 thus far. As we grow we want to ensure we have the right people on board and constantly want your feedback as to our results. For you, we will go to the ends of the earth to make sure we do everything we can to help you find the right talent. It’s not just for your company’s results (although we always want to contribute to improving those!) – I’m fully convinced that if we help you find the right people we can make your life better too. Yes I do drink our Kool-Aid, but it’s not just about delivering video interviews, it’s about changing the lives of the candidates who interview and the managers who hire.

Thank you for your constant support. As always, please tell me if there is anything that I can do for you.

Sincerely,

Mark

This article also appeared in this month’s issue of THE VUE, HireVue’s monthly newsletter. To sign up, go to the HireVue home page and scroll down to the newsletter sign up on the right.

Sarah White, HRMDirect

Without great employees even companies with the best products can struggle to be successful. But in the mix of all of those resumes and names that come through your door, how do you actually measure candidate quality? Measuring candidate quality can be broken down into three distinct parts of the hiring process:

1) Pre-Screening
2) Interviewing
3) Post Interview

The pre-screening phase is one of the most critical and where untrained recruiting teams (and poorly designed process) often miss high potential candidates.   In this phase, the actual measurement is frequently managed in a much more quantitative way through Applicant Tracking systems or other tools that do pre-employment screening, the dreaded “knock-out” questions or through a series of more open ended interview style questions.  While these pre-screening methods are effective, and relatively proven – they can leave the door open to over look high-potential candidates or those that would have highly transferable skills. That’s why whenever possible I recommend more interactive pre-screening methods including phone screens and especially the virtual type video interviews that allow hiring teams to see candidate’s thinking on their feet as their responses to those pre-defined knock-out questions are recorded and stored for review. Companies like HireVue have made this extremely simple and cost effective.

The second phase, the Interviewing phase, is where the actual candidate quality can be determined.  It is where you can see (or hear) a candidates passion for your organization and the position, see the cultural fit for yourself and determine a match.  It is where you can truly learn about the success and failures they have had – and how they learned from each of them.  It is the most important part of the process and also the most time consuming. The power of a solution like HireVue is that it actually allows you to reach a wider set of candidates with less manpower behind the process and lets the recruiting team focus on evaluating the quality of a person’s answers on a particular topic or question in an effective and efficient way.

The final phase, the post-interview phase, was traditionally thought of as the most reliable when it came to determining candidate quality.  Unfortunately, many companies have stopped the practice of speaking freely about past employees and candidates have learned to share only the very best of their references with a company.   In cases where a reference does speak negatively – other questions have to be addressed – was it a bad company/job fit, was there a personality conflict, are there other extenuating circumstances that would explain why your star candidate wasn’t a star at 1 of his last 3 companies?

Even for companies who follow this process measuring quality can be pretty subjective since it depends so much on your company culture, the needs of the job and the expectations of the hiring manager. At the end of the day, making a successful hire means depending on your people. To do this, you need to make sure to give them every opportunity to bring their knowledge and experience to bear in every stage of the hiring process without crushing them under the weight of the work. I see video playing an enormous part in that over the coming years. It allows your hiring teams to see more, evaluate quicker and at a higher level of accuracy and, if coupled with the right tools, collect feedback and gain consensus far more efficiently. Video tools can be enormously helpful, but they will never replace the highly skilled recruiter. They are the actual moving parts of the company that get things done, win the wins and manage your culture.

Sarah White is Chief Strategy Officer for HRMDirect . She is also well known for her Human Capital blog I’m So Corporate where she writes about everything from HR strategy to Employee Relations and everything in between. You can follow Sarah on Twitter @ImSoSarah.

This article also appeared in this month’s issue of THE VUE, HireVue’s monthly newsletter. To sign up, go to the HireVue home page and scroll down to the newsletter sign up on the right.

Now I would venture to say that technology has proven to make elements of HR more “fun” (correct me if you think there is a better word). Fun for HR people (ways to make their job easier – ATS/HRIS, video interviews, performance management) and fun for the people affected (blogs, social networks etc to talk about it). Now there is one more element that makes layoffs REALLY FUN for everyone: Twitter.

Just how fun? How about seeing a chronicle of the last day at your company online? Ryan Kuder did just that on his last day at Yahoo. Ryan used Twitter to announce that Yahoo is laying off some very amazing people who will have no problem finding new jobs (Ryan being one of them). Twitter allows people to give updates of what they are doing and where they are to their network. Ryan took the opportunity to twitter his last day at Yahoo.

Henry Blodget of Silicon Alley Insider picked up the line and ran with it – he published Ryan’s tweet here – it is a true piece of layoff art. Congratulations to Ryan for making the front page of Techmeme and if you want to find a job in the mountains instead of Silicon Valley email me “mark at hirevue dot com” – we are hiring and I know a lot of others who are too.

According to Joyce, Job Interviews for Dummies is:

“The latest and greatest on the changing interview scene

The fun and easy way® to give a show-stopping interview and land the job you want

Whether you’re fresh from the classroom, a prime-timer over 50 — or somewhere in between — this friendly, authoritative guide helps you outprepare the competition, overcome your fear of interviewing, and outrageously improve your interviewing success. You meet Internet video interviewing techniques and learn how to present yourself on a global scale. You get new advice on giving targeted responses, pinpointing the critical part of questions, and following up after the interview in this outstanding handbook of contemporary interview arts.”

Joyce offers some absolutely fantastic tips in regards to job interviews and especially video interviews. We will give a more in depth analysis soon but in the meantime, check it out here on the Dummies website

Thank you Joyce for including us in your publication!

Mark Newman

Take a look at the article here: About.com – Alison Doyle’s Favorite Job Sites