Electronics giant Sony hosted a videoconferencing link-up between London, Sydney, Paris and Cologne and invited recruiter Appointments Bi-Language (ABL) to conduct interviews via the weblink.

Tim Venn, director of ABL in London, interviewed two candidates from the Sydney office and his colleagues in Australia questioned two London-based candidates.

Venn said he saw the technology as an important way of widening the talent pool. “This business is all about speed and if we know we can access these candidates in Australia quicker because we’ve got this technology then it’s a great thing.”

Kees Hoogstraate, product manager for Sony, said: “This is a great milestone for us to be able to introduce this to the recruitment industry.

“We wanted to chose a small-to-medium-sized business such as Appointments Bi-Language because that’s the type of company we think can benefit from this - one which is doing well but can be at the forefront of things with this technology.”

It costs €2,000 to establish a one-way link-up and it takes about two hours to learn how to use the equipment.

Once the session has ended it can be saved onto a USB stick and shown on a computer. It can also be sent in an e-mail, providing the file size is small enough.

The weblink is also secure, keeping security concerns to a minimum.

Venn said that he hoped ABL would have the technology in place early in the New Year.

“When you think about what it would cost us to fly an Australian candidate to London for an interview, and even then they may not get the job, this method makes a lot of sense.”