Recruiting and Google Glass? An exploration of the possible! Interview with CEO of Take The Interview

It is always great to see companies pushing the boundaries and trying to figure out how to use new technologies in their delivery model. I have personally been wondering how Google Glass (or equivalents) could be integrated into HR, and it turns out that the CEO of Take The Interview, Danielle Weinblatt had been wondering the same thing. She was kind enough to participate in this brief interview! 

1. First of all, tell us a bit about yourself and what led you to the HR technology space? 

I saw tremendous opportunity in the HR technology industry based on my experience at Citigroup. When interviewing candidates, I observed several inefficiencies throughout the interview process. I would often meet candidates who could not articulate why they want to be an investment banker and clearly couldn’t communicate why they wanted to work at Citigroup compared to other banks.  Recognizing the amount of time it took to review candidates who were not the right fit for the company, I strived to come up with new ways to be more efficient, especially when interviewing multiple candidates. This led to the idea of using video-based interview technology and how it could enhance not only interviews, but also company performance as a whole. It still boggles my mind that today, when our economy is so service-orientated, that organizations still neglect talent acquisition and hiring talent in favor of other business lines. Our goal is to demonstrate that hiring better people and putting a greater emphasis on talent acquisition can improve financial outcomes and impact the bottom line. 

2. The digital interview is now beginning to be more accepted, and there are more and more vendors out there with solutions. What differentiates Take the Interview from others?

Take the Interview has always strived to stand out from the crowded digital interview space. That’s why we’re the only product offering complete, end-to-end interview management technology to really streamline the process and solve the challenges associated with interviewing, regardless of the interview medium or technology. While some providers tend to offer only one technology, such as video interviews or platforms for collaboration, our solution solves all of the challenges associated with the interview process. By including collaboration, schedule coordination, candidate reviews, analytics and more, we provide a single platform to solve the most challenging aspects of the screening and interviewing process, while enabling employers to get feedback – and thereby hire the best candidates – much faster. 

3. Now to the fun question! You are doing something with Google Glass?  So tell us a bit about the overall approach? How would it work? 

Our Digital In-person Interview, for Google Glass is designed to help organizations leverage the latest technological advancements to streamline and improve their in-person interviewing processes. We’re currently in the beta stage of development, and excited to have launched the Expedition Program, in which organizations are invited to apply to participate in the program. The goal is to solve challenges associated with the in-person interview in three ways:

1. Delivering greater standardization by having key interview questions determined in advance. Interviewers are then prompted with those questions during the interview.
2. Recording the interview and storing the video in our Interview Management Platform, enabling other team members to review and provide their comments.
3. The use of swipe and tap to provide feedback via a wearable device, during or after the interview. Imagine being able to offer a great candidate an offer letter even before they leave the building – with real-time feedback, that may be possible.

4. How do you see the Google Glass project growing within your business? 

The Digital In-person Interview was developed with the goal of reimagining the interview process by combining the benefits of digital interviewing with the high-touch value of in-person interviews. At the same time, we saw the opportunity to leverage the growing use of wearable technology and be an early adopter of its enormous potential. We see this project as a chance to springboard experimentation with other types of wearables and mobile devices. While the use of wearable technology in the workplace is still nascent, mobile technology continues to explode. Drawing a parallel to the world of fashion, Google Glass is like the high couture you see on the runway at fashion shows, but those outfits don’t always translate to ready-to-wear. Mobile technology is ready to wear, but the exciting thing is that there is still a great deal of white space, since it is still not widely adopted. In addition to what we expect to learn from the use of Google Glass, we plan to apply that to our mobile capabilities development.

5. Lastly, since this is really cool stuff, if a company wants to get involved - who can they contact? 

Companies interested in participating can apply for the Expedition Program on our website, and we’ll evaluate whether they qualify for the program.