Sunday, February 06, 2000
ENTREPRENEURS
Recruiter gets voice applications
BY JOHN ECKBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Every survey last year listing small-business fears had a common concern at the top: the unrelenting and difficult task of filling key slots on the payroll.
Good workers were hard to find. Good workers left one company for another for a scant quarter more an hour. The nos to a job offer always outnumbered the yeses.
What's more, advertising, identifying, interviewing and assessing potential job candidates chews up time for any businessman who wants the right person for the right job.
Personnel Profiles, a Covington firm, brings the latest in Interactive Voice Response Technology to businesses to screen workers through a toll-free telephone number. The system, said Paul Nolan, president of the firm, promises to end the costly and frustrating treadmill of organizing interviews for applicants.
With IVR technology, the hiring company places a classified ad in the local daily morning newspaper and requests that applicants apply for the job on a toll-free number or on the company's Web site.
When online or on the phone, they are asked customized questions, and those who meet standards are transferred to other menus for automatic interviews. The system saves time and makes applying for a job a convenience rather than a chore for the worker, who is probably wrestling with duties of an existing job.
So far, businesses like Toyota, Cintas, Corporex, Rumpke, Siemens and the Federal Reserve Bank are among the 71 companies that have used the system and sliced costs by an estimated 20 percent.
With headquarters in the Tristate for 12 years — other offices are in Cleveland and Columbus — the company is now targeting small and medium companies with common sense as well as technology. Mr. Nolan, one of three in the Covington office, shares some of his suggestions on how companies can cut costs:
• Shrink ads by using bold type and eliminating redundancies.
• Put up posters in fraternities, sororities and elsewhere on college campuses to find workers.
• Pay workers a bounty for friends and family.
While big companies get headlines, the bulk of the firm's clients are small — and for good reason. Every time Toyota needs to hire 300 workers, 15,000 show up, and most applicants are from small companies. There is another reason why smaller firms are in the company cross hairs:
“It's easy to get in contact with the decision-maker — easy for us to show how we have products that help,” he said.
“Companies are living through the warm-body syndrome. Does the guy have a pulse? Does the guy fog a mirror? Hire him. It's a mistake to go that route, but what are a company's choices? Small companies are trapped.”
John Eckberg covers small-business news for the Enquirer. Have a small-business question, concern or quandary? Call him at 768-8386 or e-mail him at jeckberg@enquirer.com, and he will find the expert with the answers.
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