TruHire founder Jeff Bates demonstrates the platform’s process, in which a candidate views a interview questions and responds to employers, on March 7, 2013, in Nashville, Tenn. (TMP Photo/M. Hudgins)

That’s the message Jeff Bates is sending from his chic, modern office on the third floor of Cummins Station in downtown Nashville.

Bates is managing partner of TA Staffing, a recruiting and staffing firm that got its start in Nashville some 30 years ago. He is also the brains behind TruHire, a new digital interviewing platform powered by TA Staffing.

He gestures out the window to the up-and-coming Nashville Convention Center. Its daily progress comes with innumerable employment opportunities, which serve as a regular motivator for Bates.

“Our position is: Resumes are dead,” he said. “It wastes time, it wastes trees, and the candidate doesn’t get to show who they really are. Job seekers are worn out by wasted time and energy. They say, ‘If I could just get in front of the hiring manager, I could get the job.’”

TruHire does just that, he said.

“The recruiting industry hasn’t reinvented itself in 20 years,” he said. “Staffing companies are all the same, claiming to be different.”

But TruHire’s platform is truly setting TA Staffing apart from its competitors, the MTSU graduate explains.

“Our platform allows us to build interactive questions and send to a candidate. They answer and send it back,” he said.

Here’s how the process works:
A company seeking to fill a position contacts TruHire and provides job specifications, interview questions, etc. The staff at TruHire creates a job opening on the website and uploads video, essay or even application questions (these are helpful for IT positions) in either direct view (where the opening is sent directly to interested candidates) or open view (which allows the opening to be seen by anyone).

Candidates click on the link and are taken directly to the job opening on TruHire’s site, where they will introduce themselves and answer interview questions while being recorded by their webcam.

Don’t worry: there is a practice option before candidates begin recording their responses. But they only get one shot at the actual interview questions.

This can be done on a lunch break, at 3 o’clock in the morning when their shift ends, or after work before heading to the gym.

Once candidates finish uploading their information through the site, it becomes available for TruHire staff and the hiring company’s managers to view, comment and overall screen the applicant at their convenience and geographic location. The reviews are shared, and candidates are ranked in a 9-Box that shows ratings and recommendations for each in graph format.

“It offers objective, as well as subjective, screening tools that not only confirm a professional skill-based fit but a cultural fit as well,” Bates continued.

“The system allows you to review 30 candidates in the time it takes to do one (entrance) interview. If you’re basing who you interview on a piece of paper, you could be losing out on a quality candidate.”

He clarifies that TruHire is not a video resume, nor is it a Skype interview. And it will never take the place of a face-to-face interview.

It differs in that TruHire is done at the convenience of the applicant and the hiring managers. The platform also provides a interview questions for the candidate to answer, just like they would in a face-to-face entrance interview. But, Bates said, it eliminates a waste of time, energy and money

“Technology has revolutionized the business world, and our industry is no different,” he said. “In a world where time and money are everything, TA Staffing is saving both for our clients and candidates by staying on the cutting edge. That’s why our TRUhire process uses video hiring technology to deliver convenience and results.”

According to The 500-Year Evolution of the Resume by RezScore, the resume dates back to 1482 when Leonardo da Vinci drafted the first version of a professional resume.

Some 18 years later, a traveling Lord of England offered a hand-written letter of introduction to acquaintances and called it his resume. But they quickly became an institution between 1930 and 1960. Soon after, the digital age gradually came into play, followed by the internet, which transforms the traditional resume to include multi-media features.

TruHire is a gradual next step.

“We think this is a real game changer. No one in the staffing and recruiting industry is doing this,” Bates said, adding that he’s confident the platform can help any company anywhere.

Younger, technology-savvy candidates have proven comfortable with the new platform, but Bates said his staff will walk hesitant applicants through the system. And to questions about possible discrimination via video interviewing, Bates points to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which ruled back in 2004 (and upheld its decision in 2010) that technology does not discriminate, people do. Bates said employers who do discriminate using the system would have discriminated any way.

With an official launch date of April 1, TruHire is still in the Beta stage, and Bates welcomes individuals and companies to try the system out free of charge.