Online Recruitment: Tips for selecting the right system

All online recruitment systems are not created equal. Selecting and implementing the right cloud-based hiring software platform is critical to the success of your company’s recruitment process. When reviewing your organization’s recruitment and technology capabilities, it is important to focus on those features and capabilities that will help your company effectively compete in the war for top talent. It is also important to look for an online recruitment system that is built with modern hiring practices in mind and can help your company take full control of its recruiting process and advance its talent acquisition capabilities to the next level.

Let’s take a look at some of those technology capabilities of an online recruitment system that are necessary for companies to be successful in attracting talent and in effectively managing their recruiting funnel. More importantly, not only is it necessary for all these capabilities to be available and integrated in the same platform, the usability of the platform and how easy it is for your staff to learn are also critical considerations.

An online recruitment software platform is intended to help you organize everything related to the hiring process in one place, so you can easily manage and track the hiring activity in your recruitment funnel.

Streamlined Applicant Tracking

Attracting and acquiring the right talent today involves a lot more than simple storage of applicant resumes, as is the case with most previous generation applicant tracking systems and recruitment technology. Hiring has become one of the most critical and strenuous organizational endeavors. Talent acquisition now involves tracking and management of different types of candidate related information. It requires collaborative capabilities for all company employees to work together so they can contribute in one way or another in the various aspects of the recruiting process.

A team-based approach allows a company, small or large, to leverage the network, skills and experience of every individual in the hiring process. Moreover, this is a critical organizational strength that companies need to build in order to compete for top talent. However, it could easily turn into a logistical nightmare if the entire team is working in silos and does not have the recruitment technology and applicant tracking system that provide the software platform for agile recruiting in a fast-moving, talent-hungry, socially networked, time-sensitive and collaborative environment.

Tip: Look for a next-gen online recruitment management platform that has a fully integrated applicant tracking system and id designed to streamline the entire recruitment process from job creation and publishing to candidate interviewing and hiring.

Cloud-Based Access

As cloud computing gets wider adoption, enterprise software users are increasingly looking for the convenience to access their business applications from any location with any connected device. A true cloud-based solution is also much faster to implement and costs only a fraction of what traditional solutions can end-up costing. Faster implementation and a significantly lower cost of setup and maintenance are extremely important considerations for a business when selecting a new online recruitment system. While some solutions may be delivered via a cloud-based model, their implementation practices are outdated and similar to those of traditional enterprise software. They take longer to set up and are likely to charge you an arm and a leg for their set up and implementation fees.

Tip: Look for an online recruitment system that was built for the cloud era. The system should be easy and quick to set up and integrate with your enterprise environment. Getting your recruiting team functional and your branded career site launched are critical – you need something that is readily available and rapidly customizable – not something that would take weeks and months to set up.

Social Media Recruiting

Social media activity has risen rapidly in recent years and the bigger social platforms such as Facebook, Linked, Twitter and Google Plus touch people’s lives multiple times everyday. At least 90% of recruiters are already using social media to find, source and connect with talented candidates. Doing so helps HR and hiring managers expand their reach to all those online platforms where talent now hangs out. When looking for an online recruitment management system, pay attention to the system’s ability to help you and all your employees easily share company jobs with their friends and colleagues. Are the social media recruiting features easy to use for all employees? Does the system track all social sharing activity and provide important reports and analytics?

Tip: Your online recruitment system should make it very easy for your users (HR staff as well as employees) to connect their social media accounts and seamlessly share jobs with their networks.

Candidate Communication

Maintaining active communication with those who have applied to your company’s open positions is at least as important as attracting talent to your company’s jobs. According to a this survey, most of the job seekers complain that they did not hear back after sending their application in, which made these applicants think less of the company that shows poor candidate manageme. Communication and engagement with each candidate is imperative to effecting recruiting and hiring. Your online recruitment platform should make connecting with potential hires quicker, easier, and hassle-free.

Tip: You need a system that is built from the ground up to manage and track two-way communications with job applicants. It should be able to utilize auto-responses based on the candidate’s status, send notifications and improve communication opportunities to establish a relationship with your candidates.

Employee Referral

You hiring process should help mitigate the potential of hiring an employee who won’t be a good fit or will not be able to perform up to certain standards. One such smart hiring tactic is to create an employee referral program through an effective implementation of online recruitment system. By enabling your employees to participate in the employee referral program, you are able to virally tap a vast network of pre-selected talent that is part of your employee networks including social media platforms. An incentive based employee referral system keeps the employees engaged in the process as they can visually track and monitor the progress of their referrals in the recruiting workflow.

Tip: Look for an online recruitment system with integrated employee referral functionality. The recruiting software should enable you to manage rewards and incentives to motivate current employees so they share jobs with their networks and take the time to refer the best candidates to the company,

Do you have some tips of your own for selecting an online recruitment management system? Learn more about Simplicant’s platform or request a demo.

Image: Courtesy BrivinCorp