As a recruiter, you don’t just want to find the right candidate for your client’s open position, you want to find that candidate NOW. Actually, you want to find them yesterday . . . or quite possibly the day before that.
Recruiting is a game of inches. It’s often the recruiter who gets their A-level candidate in front of the hiring manager first that wins the placements and the placement fee. That means recruiting is also measured in terms of speed: the faster, the better.
Having the perfect candidate for a job order means absolutely nothing if you submit that candidate after the position has already been filled. There is no “A for effort.” Instead, there’s an “F for slow.”
However, this IS good news. That good news takes the form of recruiting software—an applicant tracking system (or ATS) that can put your recruiting desk in overdrive, help you source more quality candidates, submit those candidates, and blow the collective socks off hiring managers.
Below are four ways software can speed up the recruiting process:
#1—Automate tasks
If you sit there, manually adding data all day, when will you make placements? Never, that’s when. It is absolutely imperative that you keep manual processes to a minimum during the recruiting process. That just slows everything down. Your recruiting software package should be making things happen automatically, so that you can devote the time you would have spent doing those activities on things you should be doing—like prepping candidates, extending offers, closing deals, and cashing placement checks. Cha-ching! (Sound effects are optional.)
#2—Streamline systems and processes
Where can you eliminate steps? Combined steps? Both eliminate and combine steps? Where do bottlenecks exist? Is there an overlapping of duties somewhere? How many questions in a row can I ask? You need a recruiting software that works the way you like to work. Then you need to use that software to speed up the placements, continually making tweaks and improvements along the way. The goal: sourcing, screening, and submitting at roughly the speed of light.
#3—Keep everybody in the loop
This is important for firms that have multiple recruiters, researchers, and/or administrative personnel. They might all have a hand in the recruiting process. If so, none of them should be slowing down the process because they’re not being notified of what’s happening. The placement process should be a well-oiled machine. Let’s face it: candidates and clients slow down the process enough as it is. The last thing you want to do is slow it down yourself because of communication breakdowns. That’s called shooting yourself in the foot. BANG! (Sound effects are optional.)
#4—Provide metrics and data analysis
From where are your best candidates consistently coming? You should be tracking that. What is your firm’s average time-to-fill? You should be tracking that. What’s your firm’s average cost-to-fill? You should be tracking that. Which sources are yielding exactly no placements? You should be—well, you get the idea. The only way to get bigger, faster, and stronger is to accurately analyze the data and make adjustments based upon that data.
How does your software package speed up the recruiting process for your firm? Could you go even faster with a better ATS? Do you even have a software package? If not, time is wasting . . . and that means wasted placement opportunities for your firm.
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