Recruiting is a people business, which means it’s full of labour-intensive processes. Technology, when used appropriately, can enhance the applicant experience and take the administrative burden off your plate. Unsurprisingly, new tech solutions are introduced into the talent acquisition process all the time. The drawback, though, is that this can also make recruiting much less personal.
I am, however, a strong advocate for a high-touch recruitment process – there are many excellent technology resources that can make the process much less daunting.
Here are three tech tools that can make your job easier.
Applicant tracking systems
What it’s good for: Organization, candidate experience, and reducing recruitment spend
How: An applicant tracking system (ATS) is an HR software application that helps HR departments and recruiters manage applicants’ information, resumes and applications, job posting, recruitment statistics, and more. Applicant tracking systems collect resume applications from the employer career site, and allow recruiters access to requisition statuses at a glance.
Many applicant tracking systems allow for automatic replies or pre-populated communication messages, that when used consistently, keep an open dialogue with applicants and candidates to let them know where they are in the process. This approach enhances the candidate experience, as it keeps candidates in the loop.
ATS tools are also great to retain the information and resumes of applicants, allowing recruiters to revisit candidates for future roles. This alleviates the need to post a job every time you have a new vacancy. If you have qualified applicants from past open requisitions, simply see who you have before you post again.
Don’t have an ATS? Check out Workopolis’ Recruitment Centre, an all-in-one hiring dashboard that lets employers manage job postings, sort and track applicants, and search our resume database.
Video interviewing
What it’s good for: Time-saving, reducing time-to-fill, and eliminating unnecessary meetings
How: Video interviewing is by no means a replacement for a face-to-face interview, but it is a great time-saving tool to help pre-screen and select applicants. Video-based interviewing can be pre-programmed and sent to applicants to eliminate the need for telephone interviews, or scheduling one-on-one meetings with applicants that don’t have the most basic qualifications.
Recruiters can pre-record video questions or simply write text-based questions for applicants to respond to in video format. Completed interviews can then be shared with internal stakeholders.
Taking out the need to play phone-tag with applicants to set up the initial telephone interview is a huge time-saving tool. A video interview can be emailed automatically, and the candidate can select the most appropriate time to respond within their schedule.
Executives and recruiters are extremely busy, and no one likes sitting down with an applicant who you can tell is wrong for the role within the first five minutes. Using a video interviewing tool and pre-screening applicants prior to booking them into meetings with senior executives can make you, as a recruiter, look like a rock star.
Career website
What it’s good for: Applicant experience, employer branding, and talent attraction
Career websites get overlooked in the grand scheme of a corporate brand, but they are in fact the most valuable resource when it comes to corporate recruitment. A boring or confusing career page can have a significant impact on whether your site works for or against your recruitment efforts.
Career websites should have maximum impact in a short amount of time when it comes to speaking to top talent. The site should showcase your Employer Value Proposition (the unique factor that you offer your employees that makes them love working for you), and give candidates a glimpse inside your culture.
Career websites are a perfect canvas to showcase real, original photographs of your employees (or company Instagram), answer FAQs about working with your team, and showcase any community or charity involvement your company participates in. All these “real life” snippets of your company’s culture help show the applicant what it’s like working in the role, enhancing the candidate experience.
The career website should also be current when it comes to open opportunities, and provide applicants with a means to get in touch for future roles. Ideally, applicants should be able to express their interest in hearing about future roles in their field, and sign up for notifications. This will help ensure you have a pipeline for new qualified and interested applicants.
With the tech solutions mentioned above, you should be able to reduce the bottlenecks that prevent applicants from connecting with your recruitment team, enhancing your recruitment process (and candidate experience), and giving you the time to focus on what’s important. Don’t fear the unknown!
Sonya Matheson is a recruitment and employer branding consultant with Workopolis. Specializing in candidate experience, she has been working to help companies hire better for the last 15 years.
See also:
Hiring without an HR team: 11 time-saving recruiting tricks
What NASA can teach us about hiring
What a Calgary microbusiness can teach us about hiring for fit
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