We all remember the recruiting days of old. The days when we printed job openings in the local newspaper or publication, then waited patiently for the CVs to start rolling in. We’d select a few of the top candidates to proceed with the process, and the other “maybes” would go into the filing cabinet, or the digital filing cabinet known as Excel.
For better or for worse the times have changed and now many aspects of the hiring process can be performed and managed digitally. According to research, recruiters spend an average of about six seconds looking at a resumé before deciding whether or not that candidate will be brought in for an interview. For those who look promising but aren’t a perfect fit for the job at hand, they are sent to the depths of a database (paper or otherwise). The issue with this process is how those people are remembered within your system.
For example, maybe you label your candidate in particular ways in Excel, in certain folders in your filing cabinet or within your email. Let’s call the candidate Jenna Smith. In Excel, maybe you write down the position she applied for, label her level of qualification, who she interviewed with, if anyone, and if you’d like to reach out again. If you’re using a paper filing system, maybe you have particular folders for certain jobs, folders for certain hiring managers, or even the classic “yes, no, maybe” pile. While this system seems well-organized and time tested, take a few seconds and ask yourself the following:
If you weren’t sure on some of those answers, it may be time to rethink the process and integrate recruiting technology.
If you’re like many recruiting professionals, you have a system in place that works for you. The real question then is how can technology enhance or improve your existing system? Having a streamlined and teachable system ensures not only that candidates in your pipeline are more accounted for, but also assures the process to move smoothly for months or years to come. The only question to ask yourself now, is how can technology enhance or improve my system?
At Recruiting.com, we host a user-friendly Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) system that is integrated with our custom-built career sites. With our system, any applicant to any position is stored and tracked in your Talent Community. At any later point you are able to track their timeline through the process and any actions that were taken. You can search the CRM for key words, names or any other identifier that will pull up a candidate, along with their resume, contact info and any notes that were included by a hiring manager at point of application or interview.
The benefit of an automated and interactive system like this, is that is has searchability. Imagine the difference when trying to find that one letter or invitation from a few months back with the ease of searching for “Letter from Sally” in your email inbox. In the latter, every communication with those words is immediately pulled up for you.
This is not to say that you will or have to stop printing resumes and taking handwritten notes. These systems have enormous value and are personalized for each person who uses them. What’s important is the availability to have that information work for you in an easily searchable and customized way.
The human element is and always will be the most important aspect of the recruiting and hiring process. The way we manage and store candidates, however, is a piece of the puzzle that is made more efficient and organized with a little help from our electronic friends.
