Long text, short text, or audio, you can now decide how your candidates will answer each of your questions. This much-awaited feature offers our users more control over the type of data they collect, and the type of experience they want to deliver to their candidates. This gives Stanley the chatbot a flexibility unparalleled among its/his peers.

When should recruiters collect answers?

1. Recording audio answers is definitely the way to when checking a candidate’s communication skills. This is very useful for any customer-interfacing position such as a role in sales or customer service.

2. Audio is an easy way to check if a candidate speaks any foreign language. HR is asked to hire foreign-language speakers all the time, but that doesn’t mean they can speak the language themselves. With the audio interview feature, they don’t have to: paired with the audio-to-text transcription, recruiters can now interview candidates in any language confidently and check if the answers are consistent and coherent. Check out the video below explaining how.

This application works hand in hand with the transcription engine. As you

This application works hand in hand with the transcription engine. As you may know, Talkpush was the first recruitment software to integrate with Google’s Speech API last year. Today, reliability of this engine has further improved and more languages have been added.

When configuring your interview, you will need to choose from a long list of languages and local variations and dialect.

 

3. Audio answers are feel less rehearsed and scripted than text responses. The intonations convey a lot more information than just the words being pronounced, such as empathy, enthusiasm, and even a sense of humour. Human assessors are still the best qualified at determining those traits, and with Talkpush that’s just what they’ll do, in a fraction of the the time it used to take.

4. A phone call, really? Remember that old tech called the telephone? While the new generation definitely prefers texting/messaging over calling, phone calls are still the most ubiquitous and universal way to connect with anyone. If a recruiter wants to ask an open-ended question that cannot be answered under a short text answer, offering the audio option over the phone is the best way to collect as many complete answers as possible.

When should I use long text?

1. Technical questions. Asking your candidates to solve a math of a logical question? If you expect answers that are thoughtful and complete, the long-text form is optimum. Asking candidates to resolve a problem with a mic under their nose will definitely not get the best performance out of them.

2. Looking for specific keywords in your candidate’s responses? While Talkpuh’ speech-to-text engine now works at more than 95% accuracy, you are still advised to go with typed answers if you are looking for proper nouns or technical keywords. For example, if you are asking: “What testing tools do you have experience with?” and are tracking keywords such as Selenium, UFT or Ranorex, as indicators that the candidates know what they are talking about, then you’re better off collecting long-text answers than audio.

When should I use short text?

1. Opt for a short text if this a straightforward question which doesn’t required full sentences, such as: “Where do you live” or “What is the number of your driver’s license?”

2. Are you conducting the initial screening via SMS? If so, keeping in mind that a standard SMS is only 160 characters long, you should go with the short text answer format. Longer answers via SMS can create a number of technical challenges in organizing your data. For example, if you ask 3 questions, but receive 5 SMS… The software might not wrongly assign a response to the wrong question.

3. Multiple choice questions. If candidates have to choose between answer 1, 2, and 3 or A, B and C, then the short text submission is perfect.

What if I’m not sure?

You also have the option to let the candidates decide if they want to submit text or audio answers. This allows the candidates to pick the data entry method they are more comfortable with. If your candidate is in a loud environment, he may choose to type instead of record his answer. If your candidate in on the go, and keen to let his personality shine through, he may choose to record an an audio answer. By letting them decide which method is right for them, you can maximize your participation rate.

FAQ

· Can I design an interview with different question types? Absolutely, we encourage you to do so.

· Is the duration of audio responses limited in time? Yes, the answers are limited to 4 minutes per question over the phone and to 1 minute over

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· What other question formats can I collect? Can I collect videos or documents? Not quite yet, but we will have that ready over the coming weeks. In the meantime, you can already ask for a short video greeting to be submitted by candidates at the end of their interview.

· Can candidates resubmit their answer(s) if they are unsatisfied? This option is not currently available.

· Can I automatically screen candidates based on their answers? Yes! You can activate the Smart Filter option, which allows you to shortlist or to reject candidates based on their answers.