TOP SIX RECRUITMENT TOOLS & TECHNIQUES YOU NEED TO KNOW

 With so many channels available, HR must not only identify which are best for their needs but also find ways to use them efficiently and effectively. Similarly, areas such as video-interviewing and gamification offer potential to improve recruiting practices. When it comes to the mobile space, organizations will need properly thought-through and coherent strategies that will deliver exceptional candidate experience.

Tools and technologies are being developed in many areas that can help HR make more effective use of existing and emerging recruitment channels. Here’s our rundown of six technologies and tools we think have the potential to change the way you work.

1. APPLICANT TRACKING SYSTEMS (ATS)

ATSs are among the first pieces of online recruitment technology that emerged in the 1990s. Early systems did little more than track incoming CVs but in recent years they have expanded their functionality into areas such skills-matching, CV parsing and job posting to multiple channels, including social media. As talent management research and advisory firm Bersin by Deloitte underlines, today’s ATSs are “integration platforms” that connect to other tools and services used in the recruitment process.

How it will impact the way you work

Although they have always been a core technology for HR departments, the new generation of ATSs can help bring many recruitment functions into a central place (Centralization of Recruitment), further streamlining practices. One is Tribe Pad, which describes itself as a “social” ATS and whose users can advertise their jobs anywhere on the web. It features intelligent skills-matching based on semantic technology and provides built-in real-time analytics to evaluate what channels perform best.

Importantly, the product allows hirers to create specific communities based on skills and location so they can more easily communicate and engage with those candidates on the system. Recruitment and HR departments need to extract maximum value from their ATSs, not just when looking for talent but to capitalize on the talent that already resides in the system.

2. MOBILE RECRUITING TOOLS

The lowdown Mobile internet and recruitment has had many false starts, but record sales of powerful smartphones and tablets are likely to result in mobile usage leapfrogging desktop browsing for the first time this year. It has pushed mobile recruiting to the forefront and is predicted to become the key channel for hiring.

Research from ComScore shows 2.8 million jobseekers a month already access job listings from mobile devices in the UK, with 67% looking daily. A Potential Park study found 88% of them look for jobs on their mobiles, with one in three keens to apply using their device.

How it will impact the way you work

Mobile takes recruitment into an entirely new space. While, in theory, it is one familiar to many of us, employers must be aware it marks a significant shift in how they communicate, engage with and recruit talent. Understanding how candidates behave in the mobile environment and making sure it rivals the quality of the full desktop will be crucial. Mobile recruiting tools can be broken down into four main areas: QR (quick response) codes, text alerts, apps and mobile-optimized websites. But often it is the latter that is neglected, with many corporate career sites failing to offer candidates any customized mobile experience.

3. COLLABORATIVE TOOLS

The lowdown Despite the vast potential of enterprise social networks such as Yammer and Jive to share and exchange information and interact, take-up in UK is limited. Jon Ingham, HR blogger and executive consultant at Strategic Dynamics Consultancy Services, suggests that there is a tendency for collaborative tools to be used by recruiters for conversation but not for collaboration.

How it will impact the way you work

Such networks can help integrate HR and recruitment with the rest of the organization and eliminate the silo approach that can hamper effective recruitment. Ingham suggests one application could be for recruiters to scope out a personalized role that an individual could play in an organization, particularly if they have been identified as top-level talent.

“The technology allows recruiters to do this but few organizations are talent-centric enough to want to try,” he says. The main opportunity is to use collaborative tools internally to share information between recruiters or with hiring managers and agency or internal recruiting functions. “Recruiters could be collaborating over defining job specifications, encouraging employee referrals, comparing candidates and deciding on offers over reward,” Ingham says.

4. LOCATION TECHNOLOGY

The lowdown Geolocation is the ability to identify the real-world geographic position of a person from their mobile phone or computer device, typically using the user’s internet protocol (IP). Still in its early stages, it offers a low-cost way to target potential candidates on the move at an individual level and alert them to relevant job vacancies. Last year, mutual insurance, retirement and investment group LV= became one of the first employers to use IP recognition on its careers site so it could automatically provide candidates with vacancies and contact information relevant to their location.

How it will impact the way you work

It has the potential to bring recruitment and HR teams much closer to the right talent. Despite increased mobility, a large part of recruitment is still conducted at local level. “When you ask jobseekers, what is important to them, the three things are always salary, job title and location,” says John Salt, director of TotalJobs.com, which has released a feature that tells people about vacancies near their location or as they travel through a particular area such as on their commute. Salt believes the ability to serve up targeted job advertising based on location is something jobseekers now expect and that HR professionals should take note.

5. VIDEO INTERVIEWING

The level of development has so far exceeded HR and recruitment’s appetite to use the tools available. But this may be changing: a survey this year by specialist recruitment consultancy OfficeTeam UK found 41% of HR directors had increased their use of video-conferencing to conduct interviews compared with 2010.

How it will impact the way you work

Video interviewing can pick up on subtle emotional clues and body language. Although this should not replace face-to-face interviews, its speed and convenience allow more candidates to be seen close-up, together with something of the personality, in the early stages of the recruitment process.

Video is also the medium of younger generations so HR must become more accepting of its place in the recruitment process. “Managers are finding it increasingly difficult to source skilled local professionals and are turning towards technology to assist them,” says Phil Sheridan, managing director of OfficeTeam UK. “It [video] is particularly useful for candidates who have a long journey and allows hiring managers to conduct a visual and verbal assessment of the candidate.”

6. INTERNET SOURCING

At the most sophisticated level, internet sourcing refers to highly-skilled individuals deploying a range of advanced searching techniques to seek out hard-to-find talent. On an everyday level, social and professional networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Beknown and XING have become the sourcing tools of the trade for hiring professionals.

How it will impact the way you work

The advent of LinkedIn and Facebook challenged conventional recruitment practices. Suddenly, by performing keyword searches in-house recruiters and HR departments could gain access to the same candidate details previously held only by established recruitment agencies.