The Magic of Conferencing
On June 15 and 16, Cambridge Healthcare System (CHC) conducted a series of interviews and sessions with more than 30 prequalified applicants for the U.S. Aside from interviewing the nurses , Teresa Taylorson and Kim Losiewski of CHC conducted a briefing session among the applicants, and talked to the group about how long the processing of their U.S. visas will take.
So, what's new with this?
Teresa and Kim were actually in Baltimore, while the Filipino nurses were more than 9,000 kilometers away, in the Abba offices in Manila.
Welcome to the world of video conferencing.
Abba has done video conferencing before, but on a limited basis, or in a faraway place in Makati or Ortigas. This time, the video conferencing was done right smack in the Abba office.
CHC and the nurses made use of the Polycom VSX 7000 Series, a video conference system recently installed at the conference room of the Abba office in Ortigas. With the System, an applicant can be seen in the U.S., or any country in the world, on one of two monitors that emit crisp sound and real-time audio.
Unlike PC systems where images are in gray or black and white, with video and audio not exactly synchronous, the
Polycom system produces color images in high definition and the audio is heard in real time. Which means that aside from looking at people in rich color , the participants get to hear what the other side is saying the moment the word is spoken from miles away. There are no split second delays in the delivered words , and the people look alive and cheery, making the interview session almost of broadcast quality.
With the System, the applicant gets to see her interviewer on a monitor the size of a table. She can also see, on the other monitor, an image of herself as she speaks. With the built-in camera, the interviewer can zoom in for a close-up of her subject. Or, she can do the reverse, and get a panoramic view of all the people arrayed in front of her.
To the applicant, the System has been a big help. Aside from enabling her to highlight her talk with gestures, it also gives her the chance to have a conversation with her prospective employer.
The System has also content sharing capabilities, which means that the interviewer can play back the interview and analyze how the applicant replied to a particular question, or more elaborately, run a transcript of the entire interview .
The Polycom System will supplement Abba's current client-interviewing methods. Because of its quick set-up time and easy availability , clients need not visit Manila if they intend to talk to only a few applicants. Referred applicants could be interviewed and seen live on the monitor , giving the employer a chance to know the applicant better. Video conferencing also holds some advantages over phone interviews, where the applicants can only be heard and imagined, instead of being listened to and seen.
Aside from client interviews with applicants, Abba sees the Polycom System as a precursor to more frequent interaction with clients and prospects. The System carries visual and audio communication capabilities that will do well in any meeting environment, be it in a small office, or a boardroom or a large conference room.
