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Video interviews, search engine optimized job searches, talent landing pages, Symantec web. Technology and social networking continues to transform the way companies hire candidates and how individuals market their skills and services to prospective employers.

Take Manpower Canada’s newly launched video interviewing technology, for example. Candidate Studio can be accessed from a desktop or mobile phone, allowing employers to pre-screen candidates wherever, whenever.

“Traditional recruiting programs and methodologies are often too slow, too expensive and take up valuable time, and results in higher cost-per-hire, decreased candidate quality and satisfaction, and higher turnover,” says Byrne Luft, vice-president of marketing at the country’s leading staffing services company.

Here’s how it works: a job seeker visits a Manpower office and answers interview questions based on their skills or the industry in which they’re seeking employment. More than 90% of candidates are open to creating a video interview with technology that can also be accessed remotely, Luft reports.

Manpower creates a “playlist” of eligible candidates for its clients. The resumé of each candidate is attached to their short video clip, allowing recruiters to assess a candidate’s hard and soft skills in one shot.

A call centre looking for bilingual candidates is one example of the kind of company that could benefit from this technology. “The hiring manager is listening to their language skills. This will play more of a role in who gets hired than most likely the resumé,” Luft says.

Depending on a company’s needs, the hiring manager may want to share their playlist with colleagues before requesting an in-person interview or hiring a candidate on the spot.

Search engine optimized job searches are also transforming the world of work. According to Luft, 300 million job searches took place on Google last year. “Many candidates are no longer going to job boards and various job sites to find jobs,” he says.

Rather, they’re entering a search string such as “journalist jobs Toronto” and seeing what pops up. “We know there’s a massive, massive pool of people that search jobs in that manner and most of them are passive candidates,” Luft says. Manpower has invested heavily in this technology and says 90% of its jobs appear on the first page of Google.

Manpower has customized landing pages that serve as job-seeking portals that offer industry-specific resources and the chance to chat with an expert recruitment professional. It also takes advantage of such social media networks as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Craigslist.

Technology will continue to evolve and improve the way job seekers look for work. Luft predicts Symantec web is the next big thing and describes an example of how it will work:

Search for “marketing vice-president Toronto” and you’ll find a list of jobs with that search string in their job description. Symantec web will refine your search, knowing you’re looking for position in direct marketing — not digital — that the position should be located within a small vicinity in Toronto, and that you want Thursdays and Fridays off.

Luft compares the technology to that used by online bookstores that suggest titles you might like based on purchases of other consumers. “That’s part of Symantec but this goes deeper,” Luft says. He predicts job seekers can take advantage of that technology in three to five years.