Introduction

The new economy is also a knowledge economy. It's based on the know-how of everything we produce and how we produce it. We add value by using our brains, not our brawn.

The new economy is also about adding ideas to products and turning those new ideas into new products. A customization of sorts.

In the book, Digital Economy the author, Don Tapscott states, "Today we are witnessing the early, turbulent days of a revolution as significant as any other in human history. A new medium of human communication is emerging, one that may prove to surpass all the previous revolutions – the printing press, the telephone, the television – in its impact on our economic and social life."

This column will discuss the new economy as it applies to the Kootenay region of British Columbia. Improving processes, managing information, networking, creating new businesses by adding ideas to products and creating a new product, focusing on adding value, creating wealth, strengthening our supplier economy. We can all learn from the changes that impact our everyday life and out everyday businesses.

Using technology to create a better way to hire staff.

As a former Program Director, and person responsible for hiring staff at radio stations, Alexander knows the hiring process. 'I always though it a cumbersome process, having been on both sides of the fence," said Alexander. "It's time consuming for the station to wade through the resumes, and expensive for the on-air staff to send out packages to the stations. Many on-air staff send out as many as 15 packages a month to various radio stations, hoping that on the day the resume arrives, there's an opening," he said.

Here's the old way of finding a radio on air personality. Receive unsolicited envelopes via post or courier. Open, read resume, put tape in tape deck, listen for 30 – 60 seconds, make notes on envelope, put everything back in envelope and file. Somewhere. Write occasional letter asking them to stay in touch in case something comes up.

When an on-air personality is needed, go through pile of envelopes, hope resumes and tapes in envelopes, match. Short list candidates. Hope person still resides at place from which they sent resume/tape; contact personality; arrange telephone interview, arrange face-to-face interview if close by; check references, hire.

Not much different than any other hiring process except that in radio unsolicited resumes/tapes sent by prospective on-air staff are the norm while advertising in trade magazines and journals is rare.

The process takes a minimum of 4 weeks and often radio stations are left with a vacant position to fill, for more than two weeks.

So cumbersome was the process that he knew there had to be a better way and he felt that the Internet was the way to go. Alexander needed only two new technology tools: a computer and an Internet connection. From there he registered his own domain name, http://www.online-talent.com/ and Online Broadcast Services was born.

Very simply, Online Broadcast Services improves the process for station management to meet and subsequently hire, on-air personalities. No more wading through piles of envelopes, resumes and audio tapes looking for candidates to short list. Station management simply logs on to the Internet and goes to the online-talent site, sorts the listings by geographic region, number of years of experience, and the position they want filled. Up pops the list of on-air staff that meet the criteria.

A simple click on the name of the on-air staff, leads to a one page resume and a link to a 60 second air check. Instead of scanning through a 3 or 4 page resume, trying to find the pertinent highlights, those pertinent highlights are on one page. Instead of inserting a tape into a tape deck, station management simply clicks on 'download a demo tape' and about 90 seconds later, they are listening to the air check courtesy of Real Audio. "If they don't have RealAudio, there is a link to the site where they can download it for free," Alexander continued. Instead of trying to track down someone who has moved several times since they first submitted their resume and tape, all the address information is current.

Not only has Alexander improved the processes of station management to hire staff, he has also changed the processes on-air personalities use to find work.

Instead of mailing resumes and tapes to prospective stations, at an average cost of $3 each, on-air personalities mail one copy to Alexander. He reorganizes their resume to highlight only the information for which he knows the station is looking. The audio tapes are created as RealAudio files and are only 60 seconds long. The perfect length for busy station management to listen to. Both are uploaded to the website, ready for viewing/listening. The price is very reasonable; less than the cost of mailing 3 resumes per month.

So now that the site exists and the list of on-air personalities subscribed to the service is increasing, Alexander is now improving his processes of marketing the site.

"In the last year, there's been a 100% increase in the number of radio stations that have an Internet connection, and it's growing every day," said Alexander. "My job is to make the radio stations aware of my site, encourage them to visit it when they are looking for staff and continually promote the site both on the Internet and off."

Alexander continued, "Even though radio stations are online, doesn't mean that station management understands everything it can do for them. I talk with radio stations all the time and once they see how Online Broadcast Services can help them find staff quickly, they are amazed. The best part is, it's a free service for the station. All it costs them is 10 or 15 minutes online. They can have heard the audio tapes, read the resumes and even emailed the on-air personality to ask more questions or set up an interview."

Since he launched the site seven months ago, Alexander has already improved his own processes for adding on-air staff and personalities to the site. "Just in the last year or so, as radio station control rooms and production facilities became digital, the need for on-air personalities to have computer skills, is growing. I'm amending my data base to include computers skills of my subscribers," he said.

So how does someone like Alexander, who is offering the first type of service of its kind, get the exposure to the on-air personalities so they will pay to be listed, and attract the radio stations who hire them?

"Internet marketing is very different than off-line marketing," Alexander said. "It's easy to reach the station management by advertising the service in the trade journals, sending faxes or email messages promoting the site. Rather than blatantly advertise it, I ask them to look at the site and provide feedback. I don't want to turn them off, I really do want their feedback. If the site doesn't meet their needs, then I have to change it and improve it until it does. So far though, the comments have been wonderful," he said.

"Finding on-air personalities who understand the power of using a service such as Online Broadcast and who understand the savings and potential it creates for them as they look for work, is a bit harder. "People don't like to change. They've always sent unsolicited resumes and tapes looking for work. They've always done that because that's the way the industry used to work."

"Well, now the industry is changing the way they hire people and those looking for work are going to have to change too."

Alexander is already looking ahead to 1998 and 1999. "By 1999, finding radio on-air staff, by using online services such as Online Broadcast, will be the industry standard," he said. He sees the opportunity to expand easily into the US where more radio stations are online and looking for his type of service. He also sees the improvements being made to computer video and believes his service could help TV on-air personalities find work in the near future.

"I'm constantly improving the processes I use to create and market the service online and off-line. I also understand people's reluctance to change. But I've got resumes for on-air personalities from Fredericton to Penticton and they realize how this type of service will help them find work. Station managers already tell me that they see how this service can save them time and help them shortlist candidates."

For Rob Alexander and Online Broadcast Services, taking an old process of trying to find on-air staff by sorting through envelopes, resumes and tapes, improving it by using new technology, and adding value to both sets of customers, has an added benefit. He has created his own job and his own business.

"I probably won't ever hire anyone to help me in the business, but my suppliers are people like Kootenay Computers, my ISP, office services companies and accountants and lawyers. I'm not a big client, yet, but I'm one of a growing group of businesses in the Kootenays, who are keeping the economy growing by helping other existing businesses, grow their business," Alexander said.

It's called finding a niche and filling it. Not only improving the way people are hired for radio stations, but literally changing the way the hiring process occurs.

So what cumbersome process do you have in your business, that could be re-thought and benefit from the use of technology? That's the new economy. And it's already here in the Kootenays.

Other articles in the "New Economy" series by Marilyn Strong:

• The New Economy - New uses for an old acorn
  
• Picture Perfect: Personalizing for Profit
  
• Involving your customers in your business
  
• Sharing company secrets
  

copyright (c) Marilyn Strong 1997, 1998.