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5 Recruitment Tools That Give You the Advantage

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The competition for talent requires organizations and their armies of recruiters to maintain a competitive advantage and a sharp edge when it comes to their recruiting and hiring practices. The modern day recruiter must be proactive, responsive, open-minded, and a little bit competitive. An applicant in your pipeline has also applied to other places so it’s imperative you’re on your game.

There are a number of things that can give an organization and its recruiters a competitive advantage in the gladiatorial arena of today’s hiring environment. Whether you face lack of applicants or lack of qualified applicants makes no difference. The fact is, the best applicants aren’t just dropping on your door-step.

An ace recruiter realizes that speed to hire without jeopardizing the process or quality is critical to winning the recruiting war. You have to be able to attract the best active job seekers to apply and make it as easy as possible for them to do so. Likewise, as a recruiter, you need to be able to sort through those applicants efficiently and recognize the best fit quickly.

Fundamentals of an Advantageous Process

There are some basic considerations when establishing a process aimed at giving you the upper-hand in hiring active candidates. The combination of speed, information requirements, accessibility and recruiter decision making all come into play.

Reducing the complexity of applications is probably one of the most critical aspects of the process. Allowing for a “quick app” collecting the minimum information needed for you as a recruiter to make a “call / no-call” decision is about all you need initially. Making your application mobile friendly is a good first step in this process as it forces you to abbreviate the information you are requesting.

Many times an application process is bogged down with irrelevant and excessive information. This can be a turnoff for some candidates and they may leave the process. There’s nothing more frustrating for an applicant than spending a lot of time on a resume, uploading it to your ATS, only to find out you want them to fill out a digital application as well. Limit the information you need to collect from them to the essential information you need for a “call / no-call.” decision. You will get more applicants!

Mobile friendly application processes will place your opportunities in the hands of more people, literally. If they they can apply with a few taps of the screen and a little bit of initial information (e.g. via Indeed or LinkedIn), you are sure to gain the attention of more people. This also means you can’t purely rely on the artificial intelligence of most applicant tracking systems. AI features are great at flagging applicants, but a human decision is still required.

Gain a Competitive Advantage with These Five Functions

Be sure that the applicant tracking system you select provides for these five key functions, which when leveraged properly, will grant you an extreme competitive advantage.  A system like ExactHire’s HireCentric ATS will provide all these features and more giving you a robust platform with the functionality you need to compete in the recruiting space.

User Interface

As mentioned earlier, the less painful you can make an application process the better. A mobile application is a must and an abbreviated process is critical. You don’t want to lose applicants before they’ve even completed the application. Take a hard look at your ATS of choice. Is it just an infinite amount of text fields requiring manual data entry?

A fast application should provide for the critical information necessary for you to make a “call / no-call” decision. This may include name, phone number, email, current position and brief summary, and any “knock-out” questions you may have. Caveat – make sure knock-out questions are actually relevant and matter.

Social Recruiting

It goes without saying that integration with social media sites is a must for every recruiter. A modern and effective ATS needs to interact and leverage social media. You should be able to push jobs to and share jobs on social media sites. As well as allow current employees to do the same. This allows a more active approach to recruiting rather than relying on the “post-and-pray” method.

Applicant Management

Your applicant tracking system is the heart and sole of your hiring process. If you’re fortunate enough to get high double-digit or even triple-digit applicant counts, you will need an efficient method for keeping them organized.  Top line features allow for the integration of applicant assessments and questionnaires. Your information gathering process should rely on who the applicant is and what they are capable of more so than a labored list of previous jobs, duties and functions. Assessments and questionnaires will provide you with an interactive look at who you’re considering for employment.

Paperless Onboarding

The hiring process doesn’t stop once an offer is made. Your onboarding process is the first impression your new employee will receive from your company. Remember, they have nothing invested yet, so a bad first impression could be the difference between a fully accepted offer and a rejected offer. Allowing for e-forms, digital signatures, video tutorials, etc.; will set you apart from the labored and antiquated new hire paperwork.

Analytics and Sourcing

What good is an ATS without the ability to leverage and mine the data that exists? Continuously improving on your process is sure to improve your speed to hire and attract more of the right applicants. Basic information such as time-to-hire, workflow, interviews, hiring yields among others, should be expected. Advanced information that gives you the ability to more precisely target your most successful applicants is what makes a significant difference.

 

The application process is the first impression an applicant gets of your company. Make it a good one. If you keep these fundamentals in mind and choose an applicant tracking system with some key competitive features, you will surely be on your way for winning the war on applicants. Remember, in today’s labor market, you typically need them more than they need you!

 

Want an advantage? Contact ExactHire to learn how our Applicant Tracking System can give you the edge you need.

Contact ExactHire

 

Photo Credit: trainer24

How Do I Get More Applicants?

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We hear this “how do I get more applicants?” question, or something similar, often. The problem with answering this question is the variety of answers we could produce. This question is in reference to a symptom and not a problem. We first must identify what the problem is – WHY are you not getting applicants? This question can still produce a wide array of answers.

Identify the Problem

Take a few minutes to ask yourself some specific questions to help identify where you think the problem may lie.

How well is the job listing written?

  • Are you first posting with a description of the company and then the job description? Often applicants will see a preview of the first few lines and make a judgement call from that. Begin your job listing with the position description.
  • Are there keywords within your job listing? Are the keywords standard “lingo” within the industry? This will help you get more visibility and higher credibility. Have you entered keywords into the job board push area? This can help.
  • Is the length of your job listing over- or under-whelming? Length can be a balancing act. Certain positions and the employees who would fit perfectly into those positions would prefer succinct bulleted communications and others would need more descriptive, in-depth communications.

Where are you marketing the job listing?

  • We will assume you are posting your job on your own company website, but if you are not, call us and we can discuss the benefits of applicant tracking software (ATS) that you can link to your website.
  • State workforce sites (unemployment offices) have job boards with quite a bit of traffic. Take advantage of this pool of applicants by getting your job in front of them.
  • Are you using your company’s social media presence? And your own? And your employees’? Social media can go viral in the blink of an eye. Before you know it, your job listing could have been seen by thousands of people. Think Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.
  • Do you have a referral program in place? If there is an incentive, employees are more likely to share the job. Our HireCentric applicant tracking system makes it easy for applicants to name a referring employee during the application process.

What does the general public think about your company and/or the job?

  • The most difficult item to measure is what the public thinks of your company or the job in general. Try your best to highlight the truth and positives about the company and/or job.

Do Not Confuse Views With Potential Applicants

One thing you may initially find confusing or misleading are the amount of viewers for a particular job listing and the number of started applications. Your focus should be on 1) increasing the number of completed applications to more closely align with the number of started applications; and, 2) increasing the number of started applications.

I think things are easier to understand when we talk about them in situational terms. Pretend you are an applicant and you have found a job listing to which you might be interested in applying. You may send it to your partner and ask for his/her opinion. Maybe you send it to a friend, mentor, reference, etc. as well. Boom! That job listing has now had FIVE views and no applicants. This is why you should be cautious about putting too much emphasis solely on the number of views.

Morphing Viewers into Applicants

With the above pretend applicant who sent the job listing out to others for opinions, we still want to get this original “applicant” to go from viewer to applicant. There are a few different ways to encourage this behavior.

  • Turn on the “Apply On Job Listing” feature. This would at least get the person into your database as a started applicant even if he/she hasn’t completed the entire application yet. This would allow you to nudge him/her into completing the application.
  • Try using a two-step application where the first step asks the most critical pieces of information that you would need in order to take another step with an applicant. This allows the applicant to quickly maneuver through the application submission process.

Trial and Error and Time

Try implementing some of the above suggestions and see what type of impact this makes over a few weeks. Give the changes enough time to produce results. Some of these suggestions may work for certain industries and not others. Often it’s the tiniest changes that make the biggest impact.

Fore more information about the HireCentric applicant tracking system from ExactHire, please visit our resources section or contact us today.

Image credit: Joyful Runway by Ian Sane (contact)

5 Tips To Help Your Company Stand Out When Hiring Employees

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Quick preview of what’s coming below — the picture shown here is not how you want your applicants to react when applying for a position with your company!

The labor market is no longer flooded with people looking for any type of job they can find. For employers and HR folks charged with recruiting, the landscape is changing. Posting open jobs and forcing applicants to jump through hoops to simply be considered for those jobs no longer works the way it did in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

A big part of what’s changing is the expectation applicants have about how they should be treated when applying for work with an organization. The ability to apply online is a given at this point, but how can your company look different and have a more positive brand in the hiring marketplace? Below are 5 things any size organization can (and should) do to compete for great talent:

Be honest about your workplace

There’s nothing wrong with emphasizing the strengths of your company or the job you’re trying to fill. At the same time, don’t paint an unrealistic picture. Applicants appreciate honesty and expect that not everything is perfect with any job or company. Promoting transparency from the beginning of the process (day in the life, pay, work hours, etc.) will serve you well.

Make it easy to apply to your company

This is directly opposite of advice you received when the recession hit. Applicant volume was so overwhelming that many organizations intentionally asked for more information upfront in the hiring process to try to cut down the exorbitant number of candidates. As the applicant market has corrected, this no longer makes sense. If you’re still requiring applicants to provide a full application to be considered for openings in your company, now is the right time to reconsider that approach. Things such as shorter applications, multi-step applications, applying with social media profiles (LinkedIn, Indeed), etc, are all things that are very attainable with today’s technology, and all create a more favorable impression with potential job applicants.

Clearly explain your hiring process

This doesn’t need to be any top secret endeavor. Let applicants know upfront what will be involved in your unique process. This ties in with the honesty tip in #1 above. If applicants know what to expect, they’re more motivated to apply and more likely to stay engaged as you go through your cycle. Publish this in your Careers section or make it part of the online employment application process.

Stick to your process

Be sure to follow what you layout to your candidates. Meeting expectations is important, as this will quickly help applicants form an opinion about your organization. Try not to deviate from what you’ve laid out and do everything possible to keep a good pace/momentum to the process. This will keep you top of mind for those better applicant targets and help keep people from dropping out of your funnel.

Communicate with your applicants

Nothing kills momentum or great impressions like failure to follow up. Ask any job seeker their number one complaint and it’s almost assuredly the lack of response after a resume or application is submitted. Don’t fail to capitalize on the time and effort (and dollars) spent to get good applicants into your cycle. Keep them informed about next steps and timing for those. You’ll stand out relative to other potential employers and establish goodwill with your applicants.

There are more specific strategies for any of these core items listed above. These are simply big-picture ideas to use when framing out or revamping your hiring process.

To learn more about ExactHire’s applicant tracking and onboarding software products, please visit our resources section or contact us today.

Image credit: Zelda was Kicking my Butt xd by Ashley Sturgis (contact)

What if Applicants Charged You for Their Time?

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Recently I received an article forwarded from a friend that discussed applicants charging companies for their time during the interview process. Sounds a bit outlandish on the surface, doesn’t it? In summary, the article, “Ask The Headhunter: Should Employers Pay to Interview You?” (by Nick Corcodilos) is really about managing expectations.

There are tons of questions that could be asked if this were a serious threat:

  • What if you had to pay applicants for their time once they made it past the first interview?
  • What would you do differently?
  • Would your decision timeframe be shorter?
  • Would you make an external status code from your applicant tracking system visible so that applicants knew where they stood without having to ring you?
  • Would you send mass email updates to your applicant pool with personalized email templates?
  • Would you have a stricter selection process workflow with your hiring managers?
  • You told the applicant you would follow up…did you actually do it?
  • What about when the applicant followed up on the promise you made to follow up and you never returned his/her phone call?

Not every applicant has the luxury of disposable time. And let’s be honest, the ones who do, may not be at the top of your candidate list. I challenge you, for one month, to start acting as if your applicants would charge you for their time. If you were on the other side, acting as the applicant, would you prefer the manner in which your company already conducts the hiring process; or, would you likely prefer the way in which it is conducted during the one-month challenge period?

It is no doubt that the applicant experience is an extension of your brand. “More than one-quarter of US consumers (26%) say they are more likely to tell family, friends, and coworkers about a bad experience with a product or service than a good one (MarketingProfs).” Keep in mind, we’re all six degrees of Kevin Bacon and somewhere, somehow, your company will be impacted if your hiring process is lackluster.

Looking for ways to improve the applicant experience at your organization? Contact ExactHire for more information about our applicant tracking software.