Digitize to humanize

Today, digital transformation is a reality in all business areas but has only more recently affected the Human Resources (HR) function.

The digitization of HR will accelerate in the near future. PwC’s Human Resources Technology 2020 Survey explores the effectiveness of technology investments from the views of 600 HR and HR information technology (IT) leaders on six continents. This survey shows that 74% of companies want to increase spending into HR tech in 2020 and interestingly they will prioritise investing into recruitment software (or ATS) to address their acute talent needs.

A recruitment software is not just a tool to administrate your recruitment process. It is actually the best way to improve the candidate experience which is especially crucial for companies trying to attract top talent. It is important to understand that job seekers will turn down offers due to bad recruiting experiences.

According to PwC’s 2019 ‘ The future of recruiting’ survey, 92% of candidates say they’ve experienced poor recruiting practices at some point in their career. 49% of respondents turned down an offer due to a bad recruiting experience. And 56% say they would discourage a friend, family member or colleague from applying due to bad recruiting practices.

Delivering a poor recruiting experience does far more damage than simply give one candidate a negative impression of your company. It can cause lasting reputational harm and even hurt your chances of hiring the workers who are hardest to find.  

A recruitment software can help you deliver a superior recruiting experience by supporting in these 4 key areas:

#1 - Create an engaging ‘digital employer brand’

Companies with a renowned customer brand are clearly more visible to candidates. But the majority of job seekers agree that a company’s reputation as an employer and what the business stands for is more important.

Your company website is the place to start and where you can create an attractive employer brand. Directing traffic to your website will be key in recruiting: it is easier to transform this traffic into job applicants. On your website, do show how you create an inspiring work environment (despite generalised homeworking), how you value your employees (use videos of inspiring employees), how the company truly lives its values and, more concretely, what sort of concrete benefits you offer (training, internal mobility, flexible working hours, home working, generous financial packages, etc..).

Also you will need to regularly monitor your organization’s reputation in the marketplace. It is key to check what previous and current employees say online about what it’s like to work in your company and about your culture—especially about factors that matter most to job seekers, like training, flexibility and inclusion.  

It is important to analyse this data but even better to work with top management in developing strategies to enhance positive perceptions (or combat negative ones).

#2 - Produce a seamless digital experience supporting positive and direct human interactions

Today a digitalised recruitment process is considered as a given by most job-seekers and not as a differentiator. What makes a stronger impression are the human interactions they have along the way.

To be clear: technology does and should play an essential role in recruiting but it is key to use it to reinforce the human side of it.

A recruitment software or АТS streamlines routine tasks therefore making the hiring process faster, easier and helping save time for the HR team hence allowing them to truly add value i.e. focus on the quality of the job offer, ensure a good alignment between the various managers, chose a more personalised follow up… For example, in the selection process, automatic selection of CVs based on Artificial Intelligence enables the match between key words of your job description and key words in the CVs.  Thanks to AI, it is then possible to select the top applicants with the best matching scores.

Also digitisation can simplify all other steps such as invitations to interviews, interviews themselves, testing…until the signature of the contract. You can also dedicate a space for each applicant so they have access to an application dashboard where they can see where they are in the process.

#3 - Ensure positive, direct human interactions throughout the recruiting process

It is clear that this need intensifies as candidates advance through the interviewing stage. Many studies show that candidates prefer personalized initial outreach and it makes them more likely to apply for a position. And when negotiating job packages or accepting formal offers, people do by far prefer in-person meetings or phone calls to automated technologies like chatbots.

#4 - Facilitate a quick decision process with clear communication

Most candidates think that the hiring process should take less than a month from the time they submit their application. While this can be unrealistic for many businesses, it is key to give candidates a clear timeline as early as possible and a way to check the status of their application.

Also it is critical not to stop all communication suddenly and without explanation, especially after a candidate has had an interview. This is so frequent that this trend has even a name: ‘job ghosting’. It is important and at least ethical to frequently communicate frequently at all stages of the hiring process. Let candidates know when they’re no longer in the running as most people prefer to hear feedback quickly and also with a clear explanation why they are turned down.

Even if you choose not to hire someone, you still want to give them a good impression of your organization to help preserve a positive reputation among job seekers. After all, a negative answer today does not mean a negative answer for ever.

In a nutshell…

Finding great people to join your team is a constant challenge. And it’s not getting easier any time soon, given the tight labour market, shifting employee expectations and a shortage of people with in-demand skills. Recruiters must do more than make the right hire—they have to give every candidate a great experience and that is where an ATS comes in. If you want to find out more about our own ATS, Talentfinder, please click here.