JEDDAH, 9 January — The electronic interviewer (e-interviewer), an on-line facility that allows employers to interview potential candidates for recruitment, has been launched in Saudi Arabia. The new facility allows a recruiter to conduct on-line interviews with applicants all over the Kingdom or even the entire region, and job seekers can respond to interview calls from anywhere, at anytime.
The new process, described as the first on-line recruitment solution in the Middle East and North Africa, makes it easier for employers to refine the selection of people from the massive and fast growing community of candidates that use CareerSaudi.com.
From the candidates point of view, it removes time limitations and pressure for the first interview, according to Tarek Amin, chief marketing officer and co-founder of CareerMidEast.com. "This powerful facility makes it easier and more cost-effective for companies to find the right person and a candidate to find the right job. This moves us further in our goal to take the pain and hassle out of the recruitment process," he added.
Once interested in a job seeker, the recruiter can invite the prospective candidate to take an on-line interview by sending an e-mail initiated by the CareerSaudi.com website and direct the candidate to the electronic location of the interview. When the job seeker accepts, the e-interviewer can be accessed through a link provided in the e-mail.
The website's e-interviewer question format is deigned to assess the candidate's suitability for the specified job by establishing the range of his available skills. The fields vary depending on the position being applied for, including questions on creativity, leadership and interpersonal skills. The questions are divided into 27 fields, and three categories. Each field contains semi-important, important, and very important questions that help define candidates' suitability.
The e-interviewer allows job seekers to choose a long or a short interview. The job seeker may take the interview at anytime and anywhere, with a no 'time to complete' limitation. The website also furnishes real-time assistance for its job seekers through a help facility.
"Where the job seeker doesn't complete the form, the electronic interview allows the candidate to return at a later time and auto fill previously completed responses. However, questions are randomly generated with categories on each visit to ensure genuine responses," Amin said, hoping that the web site's value-added services would broaden its leadership in on-line recruitment in the region.
