Recruitment technology, if implemented and used effectively, can transform the way businesses recruit and hire to more quickly find the best talent available.
Read on to learn more about using recruitment technology in the hiring process and some real examples of how it gives businesses an advantage in finding top talent.
Also, to help with the details and to get a real-world perspective on how this technology is used every day in the hiring and recruiting process, we’ve enlisted the help of Cynthia Bennett, Vice President of Talent Acquisition / Partner, and Justin Montalvo, Talent Acquisition Manager. See their insights throughout the blog below!
Tracking, Reporting, and Using Data to Improve Processes
Using tools like Smartsheet and SharePoint, hiring managers can more easily track the entire hiring process to better understand the trends that arise throughout the year.
This data can be easily collected and reported to hiring managers who can use it to make more data-driven decisions in hiring practices like choosing platforms to advertise openings on, writing better and more accurate job descriptions, targeting more qualified candidates, and knowing when to amplify efforts to fill the most in need positions.
With these types of tools, they can discover valuable insights into different aspects of the hiring processes, such as:
- Turnover trends like when turnover is happening, what departments are struggling, and why it’s happening
- Allocating the hiring budget to where it’ll be most effective
- Spot potential improvements in the hiring process through trends and insights
CB: We run reports frequently—on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis—to look at these stats and make sure we’re spending our energy and time and resources on the right platforms that are bringing us the right talent.
JM: It helps to track turnover, also. Knowing the months that typically see the most amount of turnover or what managers see the most turnover to help answer the when and why. This way we can identify themes and come up consistently and address them more effectively.
Communication Between Candidates, Hiring Managers, and Departments
Strong communication between candidates, hiring managers, recruiters, and internal departments is key in the hiring process to keep things moving quickly and smoothly. In a difficult hiring market like today, businesses need to move quickly to ensure they aren’t consistently beaten out for top talent. This means having means of communication that allow for faster responses and feedback.
Slower styles like email, where a response can take days, are being replaced by instant messaging applications like Microsoft Teams that let you get quicker replies to keep from bogging down the process.
CB: The minute you get a candidate interested in your company, you have to move as fast as possible to get them engaged or you risk losing them to another company.
I think Microsoft Teams is just extremely efficient for getting a candidate in at a faster rate and being able to speed up the interview process to stay ahead of the competition, especially in such a competitive hiring market. Also, having instant communication between hiring managers and not having to wait for feedback via email.
Cloud-Based Processes and Remote Options Open Up New Opportunities for Recruiting
Remote solutions like virtual meetings have changed the game for hiring managers. This powerful tool opens the door to many new possibilities from widening the candidate pool to more than those who can attend an in-person meeting to generally speeding up the process by making interviews more accessible.
Internally, cloud-based processes give hiring managers and their companies more flexibility to view resumes, respond to candidates, and take interviews from anywhere for businesses that work remotely or have a hybrid schedule.
JM: [Virtual interviewing] is a shift ever since COVID. Virtual interviews just make it easier for scheduling purposes because people don’t have to plan out their travel or take a day off of work to meet with you. They’re able to do it from the comfort of their home or on a break at work and just jump right onto a Teams call with a hiring manager from wherever.
Process Management
There are a lot of moving pieces during the hiring process from juggling paperwork to communicating to the candidate and scheduling interviews, keeping track of it all is crucial in order to keep the candidate engaged and lower the risk of them moving on due to a drawn-out or unorganized process.
Businesses with paper-based processes and outdated communication tools are leaving the door open for human error to negatively impact their work. This could mean losing track of a candidate’s resume, forgetting to follow up or update them on their status, and losing highly qualified candidates by letting them simply slip through the cracks.
CB: I would say the biggest downfall for hiring managers who don’t utilize recruitment technology is losing sight of candidates who are interested in your company. With human error, there’s always a chance of accidental deletion of records or overlooking communications.
JM: Paper-based companies will find it much harder to find and organize resumes if they’re storing them in a filing cabinet rather than a digital document tool like DocuWare or Kofax.
Candidate Experience and Leaving a Positive Brand Interaction
The experience a candidate has can have a big effect on their opinion of your company and on their interest in working for you. Even a highly qualified candidate who fits all the requirements can say no if they experienced an unorganized, uncommunicative hiring process that can sour their excitement about working for you.
58% of job seekers have declined an offer because of a negative experience during the hiring process
The candidate experience is really a culmination of everything that happens during the hiring process from initial contact to continued communication to the speed of the interviewing process and the interviews themselves. Businesses can use these moments to show that they care about their employees, respect a candidate’s time, are organized, and are transparent with their expectations of a candidate and their hiring timeline.
Without recruitment technology, much of this can fall by the wayside. Whether it’s a lack of transparency in the process due to communication failures or completely forgetting about certain candidates, creating frustrating circumstances reflects poorly on everyone involved and can damage a business’ brand reputation online through poor reviews and word of mouth among the talent pool.
CB: If you don’t have a centralized database that’s tracking everything or streamlined communications or solid processes, you can get very upset candidates that will not only choose to work somewhere else, but also taint your brand by passing along this negative experience to someone else.
Being communicative is very important to let them know where they stand, whether they’re moving forward or not.
In Conclusion
Do you have the technology you need to streamline the hiring process so you aren’t missing out on the best talent available? Things in the talent pool are moving fast and businesses without the technological ability to keep up are missing out on hiring opportunities that could be business-changing.
One unheralded aspect of recruitment technology lies in the relationship between marketing and recruiting. Learn more about how aligning these two departments can help businesses find and keep the talent they need to be successful with our blog, How Businesses Can Use Recruitment Marketing for Talent Acquisition and Retention.
