Using Your Technology to get Optimized for Success

Technology is always evolving. You’ve probably been tempted to try to fix inefficiencies in your recruiting department by investing in the latest and greatest high-tech trend.

But are you sure your people are fully utilizing the technology already available to them? If they’re not getting the most out of their current applicant tracking system, an upgrade might not be the right solution. It would be far less expensive — and probably just as effective — to give them deeper training on the technology that’s right under their noses.

To determine if further training is needed, use the following checklist as a guide.

Candidate Communication:
Do your people use their technology to communicate with candidates? Sending and tracking messages is vital if your department will successfully determine which passive candidates are interested in what you’re offering.

Hiring Manager Communication:
Do your people use their technology to communicate with hiring managers? They should be making it easy for managers to quickly see what requisitions are still open and to express opinions about candidates.

Job Board Posting:
Do your people use their technology to automate the job board posting process? Most applicant tracking systems enable users to quickly enter their requisition information and simply choose the job boards to post it to.

Candidate Pre-Qualifying:
Do your people use their technology to choose the most qualified prospects without manually reviewing zillions of resumes? They should be able to do this quickly — before the best candidates get snagged by your competitors. Also: do they filter out less qualified candidates via screening questionnaires?

Prevention of Duplicate Candidates:
Do your people use their technology to prevent duplicate candidates? They should be able to configure the technology to prevent themselves and others from submitting candidates who are in the system already. They should also be able to prevent candidates from submitting applications for requisitions that they’re already associated with.

Candidate Alerts:
Do your people know how to configure their technology to get automatic notifications when top tier candidates apply for a job?

Candidate Scheduling:
Do your people use their technology to schedule interviews and track candidate availability?

Employment Law Monitoring:
Hiring and employment laws change very frequently. Do your people use technology to keep track of pertinent laws and regulations?

Offer Management:
Do your people use their technology to ensure job offers are carefully examined before being given to candidates? They should be able to let approvers quickly approve or revise the offers.

Getting Your Process Optimized for Success

My previous article focused on the importance of getting your people optimized for success. As is the case with any business, the quality of your people will be the biggest determiner of your department’s success or failure.

After you’ve examined the people side of your department, your process should be carefully considered.

For your recruiting department to be successful, your people need to consistently follow a well-planned process. And since time is always of the essence, they’ll need to move from step to step quickly, with set time limits in mind.

While recruiting processes vary in detail and complexity, make sure your department’s process contains at least these nine steps.

Step 1: Really knowing your requisitions

• Is it a standard part of your process to talk to your customers about the positions needing to be filled? It’s never enough to rely on the job description alone.
• Is it standard procedure to look for all the sales points and benefits that each job possesses? It’s vital to constantly dig deep and ask, “What could we say to a candidate that would make him or her choose
  this position over another one?”

Step 2: Advertising

• Does your recruiting department place high value on effective job ads with convincing messaging?
• Do you post job ads quickly? (Not much more than 24 hours after a requisition?)

Step 3: Sourcing

• Does your recruiting department search blogs and other online forums for qualified candidates?
• Are you skilled at finding passive candidates who are currently employed, but who would be open to new opportunities? Do you find candidates through professional networks?

Step 4: Resume examination

• Is it part of your process to see beyond a candidate’s clearly stated skills? Your people should also be looking for
  transferable skills and experience.
• Does your recruiting department go over resumes quickly after receiving them?

Step 5: Screening

• Does your process accurately match the candidate’s desires, needs and qualifications to your open positions?
• Do you single out the top-tier prospects and make them your department’s primary focus?

Step 6: Phone interviews

• Are in-depth phone interviews a standard part of your department’s process?
• If they are a part of your process, do your people sell the position and the company during the interview?
• Do they spend enough time conducting their interviews? Five or ten minutes per interview isn’t enough to determine whether or not the candidate may be an ideal fit.

Step 7: Onsite Interviews

• Is each person on the interview panel tasked with assessing specific skills of the candidate? Do you have a full assessment of the candidate’s ability once the interviews are complete? Make sure your onsite interviews are not repetitive and you maximize the time with the candidate; capturing all the information needed to make an informed decision.
• Do you conduct thorough interview debriefs timely once the onsite is complete? Are all the interviewers present at the debrief; providing their assessment and discussing areas of concern?

Step 8: Background checks and drug testing

• Does your recruiting department do thorough background checks? (Including criminal history checks, employment and education verification, credit reports and DMV reports?)
• Do you conduct thorough reference checks that include written reference reports?
  

Step 9: Onboarding

• Do you take the right steps to help the new employee integrate with the existing team? Are they given the tools they need to “hit the ground running”? This is a critical time for a new employee and taking the right steps helps to ensure a successful long-term employment relationship.