In a business age where most tasks are done on line for ease and effectiveness, it is only inevitable that HR managers are moving away from manual based recruitment process towards a web-based, streamlined approach. The reason for this is quite simple, the traditional paper-based recruitment process is outdated, is far too administrative, and is not cost effective.
If you advertise your vacancies on job boards and they seem to disappear into the realms of pages that are so far down the list candidates struggle to get to them, then I hope these tips may be of some help.
Recruiting the right employees is a vital part of any business and applicant tracking solutions can be used to streamline HR processes in a business. This is a dynamic and effective way of ensuring that your business is attracting the right candidates to the company and to the employment opportunities that are offered.
An applicant tracking system (ATS), is a software application designed to help an organisations recruit employees more efficiently – faster and at lower cost.
Recruitment solutions software is a vital tool in business today. It is a way of integrating the key functions of staffing a business into one seamless, efficient operation.The role of recruitment software in business today cannot be stressed enough. Without an effective recruitment software system in place the staffing of a business is an unconnected series of functions. This type of software helps combine all of the business functions such as recruitment, finance and candidate tracking into an interconnected web. With a proper system in place a business is able to capitalize on the strengths of each department to create better business practices for the company as a whole.
Your advert needs to really sell the role to your potential candidates – I know that sounds obvious but a list of skills a candidate “must” have and a list of responsibilities they can expect to do is really not going to stand out.
Recruitment solutions have resulted in a change from the traditional Excel Spreadsheet to automated technology. Hiring staff would have acknowledged that recruitment solutions has transformed their day-to-day activities, and help increase productivity, and from an organisations perspective, profitability.
Most organisations rely on technology developments in hr recruitment. For larger organisations in particular, this can be a tedious task at the best of times, and anything that alleviates the repetitive and time consuming work load is welcomed. There are a number of boxes that need to be ticked when it comes to online recruitment.
Most of the world’s largest organisations have addressed their recruitment process by increasing its efficiency. They have done so by utilising human resource recruiting software, and now many other companies are following suit. From SME’s with a staff force of under 50, right up to multi-nationals, there is a common goal that each is looking to achieve. They aspire to reduce administration and costs, but simultaneously speed up the time-to-hire and increase the quality of applicants These systems can integrate with 3rd parties to offer even more HR functionality, such as employees assessments, onboarding and performance management, helping an organisation to make a more informed decision on prospective employees.
Using technology is not a new concept for Human Resources departments. You’d be surprised though at the amount of people in HR who still struggle with unwieldy systems and paperwork to manage their employees. Using technology can make a massive difference in the way that you attract, recruit and retain people in your business and technology in HR not only makes the process easier, it can enhance and add value to the recruitment process.
You can read a hundred articles on the benefits of using recruitment software in your busy HR department, but the aspect that most HR managers want to know is how does the software work and what benefits will it bring to the rest of the company as well as the HR department? Most people understand the importantce of automation and a paperless system, but savvy HR managers want something more; something phenomenal to drive the technology and ensure management buy-in for a recruitment software system.
HR software has traditionally been thought of as a way to manage the HR functions and employees of a business. As the technology developed and HR functions changed, there was a need to develop software that handled the process of recruitment and hiring.
If you’re looking to recruit the best people for your business, you have to ensure that the very best people are going to see your job description. So many times, excellent employers are only getting responses from mediocre candidates and often it is due to the wording of their job description.
An online recruitment system is a service that automates a company’s recruiting needs by getting volumes of employment applications over the internet.
The beauty of online recruitment solutions lies in its accessibility and ease of use. Anywhere on the globe, designated individuals are able to receive process and keep a record of CV’s within a web-based information power house.
Despite the sluggish economy and doom and gloom scenarios about employment, the truth of the matter, is that the world is facing a global skills crisis. Recruitment solutions are all about sourcing the best talent and making sure that you retain them and develop them into assets for your business. The most crucial resource in business within the next twenty years will be excellent talent.
Recruitment Software is not just a buzzword. It is a tried and tested system of integrating the staffing and hiring functions of a business, so that they become more efficient, more effective and provide a link between the back and front end of a business. Simply put, a good recruitment software system will link the hiring to the profits and vice versa. If you think that your business would benefit form the value of having a good recruitment software system, and every business will, then you need to calculate the costs of purchasing and implementing the system.
Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few years, you will have seen social media grow exponentially. The likelihood of finding a successful business without a social media presence is highly unlikely. However the same question is commonly asked. Does social media really matter? In a nutshell, yes, yes and yes again! After listening to a range of industry thought leaders and influencers at recent conferences and seminars, I have cherry-picked the most important ideas. Most notably, where to start, how to continue, and why social media really does matter.
A never ending challenge to business today is the rate at which things change and having to keep up with said changes. This is as true for recruiters as it is for any aspect of business.
From the use of social media as a tool to recruitment software in the HR process, recruitment is an industry like any other in terms of how it changes. This has never been more true than in the highly charged times we face now, with the Global Economy as much proof of the state of flux business exists in as it is a victim of that fact.
The most important resource in a business is undoubtedly the human one. A strong business stands on the actions, skills and practices of its employees, and yet, despite this, some companies choose to think of HR and recruitment as not being a revenue creating department.
Data protection is an issue which seems to only raise its head when it is too late. Due to their own negligence, a number of high profile organisations have publicly brought this issue to light. What should be noted by companies of all sizes, is to be pro-active, rather than reactive.
Research undertaken by Candidate Manager indicated that only 2% of customers using an ATS had a formal data protection compliance procedure in place. Some companies carry out a data cleansing exercise on an ad-hoc basis by many companies simply continue to overlook this and keep records of applicant details of which they have no use for several years!
Human Resources is not just about payroll, change management and budgets. The most important aspect of HR is still people. The main function of any HR department is to find, attract and retain the best people for the available positions in your business. If you lose sight of the fact that you are dealing with people, you will simply be running data through a system, and that can raise serious issues about candidate management and attracting talent to your organisation.
Using HR software that actively manages people is the only way to effectively run a HR department. Applicant tracking software does not just focus on numbers. It is tailored to ascertain the needs of your organization and match it up to the people who are applying for available positions. You can use applicant tracking to manage a potential candidate through the entire recruitment process.
Managing people is one of the most difficult aspects of the HR function. One of the biggest aspects of HR at the moment is the concept of change management within businesses. The recession and sluggish recovery of the economy has meant massive changes in structure, functioning and the development of businesses. HR cannot simply play catch up and try to ‘handle’ employees and new candidates. Every business must be focused on leading change through effective CRM software, practices and active employee management. All change management should keep the aspect of people at the very front of the line. The human aspect of HR is all about effectively managing your people as people. Not as expendable resources.
Look at your talent pool when you are hiring new people to your organization. Ask yourself if they will be able to adapt to change as it occurs and use the feedback provided by applicant tracking software to make informed decisions about new candidates or when you are promoting from within. Every position in your organization is important, and so are the people that you appoint. It is the people who work for you who will drive your business forward.
Human Resource management is all about making decisions. Choosing the right candidate for the position available is not something that should be left to chance or guesswork. The role of decision making in HR is a complicated one and using the technology and recruitment software available, you will be able to make decisions that are based on true evaluation of all the factors.
How to Choose the Right Candidate?
In any recruitment process the ability of the candidate is weighed up against the suitability of the candidate. While the interview process is a vital part of decision making in HR, it has been established that the ‘human’ factor can be the one to cause a problem. In an interview there are two or more personalities involved; this can skew the decision making process in many ways, and using recruitment software may be the way to overcome it.
“I believe in the adage: Hire people smarter that you and get out of their way”
Howard Schultze: CEO of Starbucks
Firstly, recruitment software is used to match up the ability and potential of any candidate to a specific position using a finite set of parameters. Custom based recruitment software could be exactly what your HR division is looking for to increase the effective decision making of the department. It is not always about streamlining functions and saving money. Learning how to choose the right candidate for a position is a highly skilled process. Recruitment software removes the risk of personal attitudes impairing the decision making process.
Human resources has become a highly specialised niche market. It is no longer just about finding labor or sifting through CV’s to see which one appeals to you. Using technology is way of bridging the personal decision making process and the science of recruitment in a seamless solution. HR departments should develop policy that filters through the entire organization. This will allow for better decision making when it comes to attracting and developing talent.
The most important question that savvy HR professionals and recruiters are asking is “What does it cost?” and “What do we get?” The benefits of using a Candidate Manager Recruitment Solution is the return on investment in the shortest possible time. When you need to make it simple, cost-effective and fast, Candidate Manager has a range of HR and Recruitment solutions for your business.
One of the most important function of HR and the key to the success of Candidate Manager recruitment solutions is the ability to reduce the time it takes to hire the right people. This can be achieved by streamlining the entire process. Requisition approval is automated, increasing communication between departments. Candidates are automatically ranked and screened, while the system is self-searching, allowing the system find suitable applicants for you!
How You Benefit:
Candidate Manager Solutions are based on the model of paying for what you use, not for what you don’t use. The costs of installing the software and the use are an important part of the return on investment.
Recruitment agency and vacancy advertising can be dramatically reduced, while hidden costs such as postage, photocopying and HR resources are also reduced. Candidate Manager also builds up a structured Talent Pool of candidates, which can be checked first when a new vacancy arises.
How You Benefit:
Candidate Manager is at the cutting edge of technology that can be used to reduce costs and ensure that HR and recruitment function at the very best of their ability.
With recruitment software from Candidate Manager, candidates are instantly filtered, ranked and stored, and tracking their progress is simple. Candidates are communicated with at every stage, and management reporting allows analysis of the process, and enables ongoing improvements to be made. Administration and paperwork between departments is reduced by storing information in a secure, and easily accessible, centralised system.
How You Benefit:
Candidate Manager uses the technological advantage of Applicant Tracking Software to reduce the administrative workload for HR staff, who can then concentrate on identifying talent faster, and focus on the most suitable candidates. Detailed reporting allows for evaluation of efficiencies, and whether further efficiencies can be introduced. Our Talent Pool gives a critical competitive edge in the continuous search for new talent.
How You Benefit:
The recruitment market is becoming highly specialised as people look for different ways of recruiting the best people for available positions in their organisations. There are a number of practices, as well as decisions involved in the recruitment process and HR practitioners need to have all of the information available to them in order to make the best decisions. This is why recruitment software and programs such as applicant tracking are so important to the overall process.
Human Resources is a constantly changing environment. During the 1980’s the emphasis was on hiring exceptional individuals, whereas the 90’s called for more team oriented people to fill key roles within organisations. Today many companies are not only looking for a specific set of skills in a potential employee, but a wider range of general competencies and talents. There are also new ways of discovering talent and attracting them to your organisation that have led recruiters to use both informal and formal avenues of recruitment.
This could be described as word-of-mouth recruitment, or at management level it is commonly known as headhunting. Some recruiters choose not to use this approach as they feel that it excludes many people who may not hear about the job. Using social media networking and other forms of ‘soft marketing’ may be a way of spreading your net a little bit wider in the search for excellent candidates for your business. This is where the use of applicant tracking software and recruitment software plays such an important role in capturing key data about potential employees for your talent pool. Good recruiters do not let any information about candidates go past them without capturing them in the net. You never know who is going to be a perfect catch for the future.
The key to effective formal recruitment is to have the right job specifications and the right advertising strategy to attract the right employees. The strength of formal recruitment lies not only in the ability to attract the right people for the job but to have the software and the technology to handle them throughout the system. Human Resource departments are moving closer to the technological advances of recruitment software and applicant tracking to revolutionise their initial attraction and selection of possible candidates.
Choosing one candidate from a talent pool does not mean you need to ignore the rest of the people in the pool. Effective HR software allows you to keep all of the data you have on prospective candidates and use it for future employment opportunities with the business.
So you may be a small/ medium sized business that has seen rapid growth, a larger company looking at changing providers or an established business using old school methods in your recruitment processes, choosing a ATS provider can be a daunting process. Reading through company websites, understanding technical terms, jargon, buzz words etc this can seem overwhelming especially to non IT related companies.
