Finding the Right Applicant Tracking System

Finding the Right Applicant Tracking System

With the economy beginning to finally show signs of upward mobility, employers are slowly beginning to hire again. There is a surplus of candidates on the market, and without an easy and automated process to manage candidate flow, the recruiting process can become increasingly more challenging. Do you feel like you are spending too much time with the wrong candidates and not enough time with the right ones? Have you ever lost a top candidate to a competitor because the candidate fell through the cracks or your process wasn’t timely enough?

These inefficiencies are costing your company real dollars each and every day. Although the “human touch” may never be completely eliminated in the recruiting process, technology can certainly help you become more productive and decrease your time to hire. Not only will an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) eliminate redundancies in data entry, it will also allow you to match skill set, experience, education, and geographic location quickly, thus giving you an edge in a competitive marketplace.

Once you have decided that you have the need for an ATS, look for these key features in a vendor:

Profile Creation: Allows candidate to create career preferences such as salary range, desired position, location, skill set, etc that are viewed by potential employers. This profile can be edited and activity can be tracked by the candidate. Resumes can be attached to this profile.

Scheduler: Tracks all aspects of your recruiting including calling candidates, arranging interviews and follow-ups, and taking notes from phone calls. Allows you to share tasks, manage status of activities, and link hiring managers to potential candidates. Managers are able to update HR when milestones have been met with work-flow capability.

Remote access and Smartphone Integration: Provides better time management by helping you get things done without being in the office. Grab information from any secure online connection including applications that are downloadable to smartphones. Share and collect information, schedule interviews, and monitor the process from anywhere you can reach the internet.

Keyword/Data Search: Saves the time it takes to sift through every detail of a resume or cover letter. Can search data fields and email attachments for specific keywords to best match employees.

Saved searches/hot lists: Sorts by characteristics such as open job orders, locale, position, or years of experience. Save customized searches for future reference so you don’t need to re-enter the data.

Online application with job screening questions: Requires candidates to answer qualifying questions for quicker filtering of candidate pool. This could range from compliance based questions that are answered via drop down menus to behavioral based questions that allow you to screen for personality and cultural fits.

Automated Candidate Communication: Ability to send system generated emails to candidate communicating profile receipt, acceptance and rejection of the profile, and interview process status. Create emails and send to multiple people at once including the candidate, hiring manager, department head, etc. directly from the system. Keep track of correspondence with potential candidates.

Reporting capabilities: Provides details on candidates and suggests which ones are the best for the job. Documents response rates and helps you determine if you’re getting an ROI through your ATS. Provides capability to track successful hiring sources including recruiting agencies, job boards, or internal referrals. Capability to facilitate EEO reporting and ensure compliance if applicable.

Customizable fields: Creates fields for specific departments, contact managers, job responsibilities, and other items unique to your organization. Allows you to easily search for specific information when you need it.

Promote job openings: Can publish open jobs to company Web site and fee-based job boards.

These are basic functions that are core to most applicant tracking systems on the market today. Depending on the complexity of your needs, function rich systems could include employee assessments in conjunction with the system.

To maximize integration, you may want to consider an HRIS system that includes an ATS within it, as opposed to buying a separate ATS system. At the very least, make sure to select an ATS that can create an export file for upload into your existing payroll or HRIS system. This will eliminate the timely data entry process involved with on-boarding as well help you to build a skills inventory which will help your organization to promote internal candidates as part of your total recruiting strategy and succession plan. Robust HRIS systems with Applicant Tracking  will also store job descriptions, include job requisition creation with workflow for approval and job offer letter creation and approval processes.

If your organization is considering implementing a system to better manage your recruiting efforts and would like to explore the options available, contact Centripetal Consulting Group to learn how we can help.

Recruitment Process Outsourcing — Is It Right for My Company?

In the last few years there has been an ever-increasing rise in the use of Recruitment Process Resourcing (RPO). It certainly seems to be a trend and industry that is growing, but as a senior HR leader or Director, how do you know this strategy is the best for your business?

A good place to start is how much recruitment your organization is carrying out and whether there is a need based on the volumes of hires you make? Recruitment outsourcing can range from retained recruitment with agencies to full blown outsourced agreements with RPO companies/consultants on site at your business.

Ultimately, you are considering recruitment outsourcing because you have some type of problem with your current recruitment processes. You need to look at what this problem is specifically.

Questions to Consider:

• Is HR not capable of making enough direct hires because they do not have a strong recruitment background?
• If proper recruiting is in place, is there so much volume that your HR department cannot cope?
• Are you planning to embark on a heavy recruitment drive?
• Are you looking to cut costs around agency fees?
• Are you just sick of dealing with agencies directly?
• Is HR slowing down the recruiting process because they are inefficient?
• Does HR not have the right tools in place or processes in place to be efficient?

The list goes on…

Once you have evaluated your problem and realized the specific need you want to address – you are now in a much more informed position to make a decision on whether outsourcing is right for you.

There is no doubt that outsourcing your recruitment can help alleviate several of these problems and put your mind at ease, knowing you have experts running your recruitment campaigns. But there can also be pitfalls and a lack of control: sometimes outsourced companies can create more problems, adding tiers to the recruitment process and prolonging the cycle from time to hire. Let’s look at both the advantages and disadvantages for you implementing an outsourced recruitment department.

Advantages:

First, you will have experienced recruiters dealing with your hiring, rather than HR personnel whom are often not “recruiters,” as their core skills are in other areas. This hopefully will mean that the recruiters will be able to source candidates directly and have experience using headhunting methods, saving you money from paying high agency fees for every new hire you make.

Secondly, many RPO’s work on a flat monthly fee, making this a predictable cost model. Recruitment outsourcing companies sell their services on the premise they will be saving you money on your recruitment budget, so you need to scrutinize the numbers carefully. You may want to confirm whether they have the experience and capability to deliver on your requirements directly or if they in turn are using agencies for additional support. If the latter is the case, then you must question whether this is truly the most efficient method.

If you simply want to relieve the time and pressure of recruiting off your own shoulders and have no HR function, outsourcing can be a very effective way of handling the process. They will free up your time to run the business. You will benefit from having just one point of contact running your recruitment that then facilitates the process on your behalf with agencies and external providers. You will have effectively delegated this to people who understand the recruitment business.

Disadvantages:

There is no question that RPO models have their challenges. For starters, how can they guarantee an effective recruitment campaign just because it has been outsourced? Will they be more effective than your current HR department, or is it just going to cost more money?

By implementing a recruitment company in-between the business and agencies, you may then be adding an unnecessary layer to the process. The RPO will try to maintain control of the process which could potentially mean excluding agencies that are niche players and may have the best candidates, simply because they aren’t on a preferred vendor list. Many times the business doesn’t care where the candidates come from, as long as the requisitions are filled with the best people.

Making a Decision:

If you are embarking on this process and considering outsourcing, remember to assess your problem and specifically understand why you want to outsource. You may need a total outsourced model or just a managed recruiting service to eliminate multiple points of contact. Choose your RPO very carefully, and caution whether they will be using their own resources or looking externally. Furthermore, learn about the processes and tools that they use for candidate sourcing and applicant tracking. Utilizing technology and creative sourcing strategies will ensure utmost efficiency and a quicker realized return on investment.

Recruiting Top Sales Talent

It is sometimes very difficult to discern a quality candidate when you are in the interview process. This is especially true of salespeople who communicate for a living. Most salespeople come across very personable and make it tough to decide whether they truly will benefit your organization or if they are just a nice person. It was once said to me by an old sales manager that all salespeople are “just a little bit off”……. after all who would honestly CHOOSE to spent their career being constantly rejected? Surprising several. These days, I definitely find truth in that statement and as a sales recruiter it is my job to separate the true talent from the truly desperate.
How I Find and Evaluate Top Talent

My Network. In sales it is all about who you know, who they know, and what people know about who you know. I look to the people I trust in business to send me the names of potential candidates before I do anything else. Once I have some quality leads it is easy to build rapport based upon the referring person’s recommendation. In this case, I have moved past sourcing active candidates and into recruiting passive candidates. These are the salespeople that are consistently #1 and #2 in sales rankings and don’t have time to talk with a recruiter because they are out closing so much new business. A great tool to use in this capacity is LinkedIn, Click Here (Check out if we know any of the same people!)

Candidate Referrals. Your best candidates usually produce your best referrals. Salespeople are ego driven and will certainly not pass along the name of someone that is not at least as good as them. It is key to ask early and often for referrals. I even compensate for these because they are so valuable.

Once I have located candidates, I have a method for qualifying them further.

Proof of Performance. Many salespeople love to talk about the success they have had….. It is my job to determine if it what they claim is really fact. Before submitting a candidate to my client, I ask for all supporting documentation of sales success. I want to know where the stand in the rankings, the biggest deal they’ve ever closed, and what they have forecasted to close. From here, I utilize my resources to verify as much information as possible. The truth really is in the numbers, at least from a sales managers perspective. If the salesperson has documented repeated success, chances are it was not by luck.

Creativity and Uniqueness. I challenges my candidates to answer questions around why they feel like they are better than the next salesperson. I am curious to know what they do differently then their peers and why it works. This involves everything from sales process to contract negotiation. I need to know why people buy from them and how they have adapted during challenging times. If I am not hearing new ideas, I begin to wonder about the long term success probability.

Manageability. I must truly understand the management style that my candidate is most successful under. It is amazing the diversity that I find in this area. If I cannot match a candidate with my client’s management style, I know this will not be a successful match for either party. It is also important to understand what may be going on in a candidate’s personal life that may end up affecting their performance. It is better to uncover these issues up front so management is aware and can react accordingly.

Professionalism. I feel that a salesperson must take pride in how they appear in business if they are going to be successful. Outward appearance is a direct reflection on how one feels about oneself and the confidence that they have about their company and/or profession. A positive professional appearance is essential in my criteria for evaluating sales success likelihood.