By Atreyee Chowdhury
The average cost of hiring a new employee is estimated to be around $4,100 whereas the average time taken to hire a new employee is around 42 days.
As your business grows, hiring new people starts getting complex. You need to set protocols in place to ensure the most skilled and suitable candidate joins your workforce.
The rise of technology has enabled us to streamline, simplify, and optimize our hiring process with the use of hiring tools and services.
Here is a handy guide to the best tools that will make your hiring process easier and more efficient in no time.
Top 7 services which will make your hiring process easier
Services and tools that aid the recruitment process aim to automate the process to optimize it. They help you advertise job openings, attract suitable candidates and filter through them to choose the most suitable one from the pool.
Using such services has many benefits, such as saving time, and resources, and reducing the cost per hire. They are accurate as they are rooted in data and tried and tested approaches. And they are both streamlined while leaving room for deviation whenever needed.
Given below are the top 7 services that will aid you in simplifying your hiring princess and hiring better. Let us take a look at them.
1. Applicant tracking systems
An Applicant tracking system (ATS) is a collective platform that centralizes the hiring process in a firm.
Around 75% of recruiters use an ATS for their hiring efforts. It is a software application that contains detailed and organized information about the candidates applying with a firm.
This guide to applicant tracking systems will help you gain a better understanding of how they operate. They store all the data about candidates applying for job openings at your firm. You can track their progress through different stages.
Every applicant whose details are entered in the system stays in it until removed. This means that you essentially create a comprehensive database of skillful candidates. They are sortable by skills, experience, and roles.
You can also search through them by the use of keywords. ATSes simplify candidate searches by offering options such as pre-screening and candidate sourcing. Advanced ATSes also offer services such as onboarding and candidate management.
2. Job portals or aggregators
Job portals are the most common tools used by both recruiters and candidates enthusiastically. They act as a meeting point between the two. Common job aggregator platforms such as Indeed or LinkedIn are highly popular.
While you can always look for suitable candidates in unique or lesser knows ways such as niche portals, common job portals will help you give a cursory glance at the candidate market. This is because anyone in need of a job will likely be on them as they might be on lesser-known portals.
Not only do you have the option to look through myriad candidates yourself, but candidates might also approach you on their own as well. Moreover, the platforms themselves provide many tools to simplify the screening process.
For example, Indeed offers written and audio assessment tests of its own. Simply put them in place to screen candidates better. You have the option to also add tests of your own. The platform will track the applicant’s progress for you, making it hassle-free.
3. Job description tools
No matter what modes you use to conduct your job search, you need to have an inviting job description to attract suitable candidates. Job description tools help you create the perfect description in no time.
They provide you with the proper formatting and structure to craft stellar descriptions. You might also take the help of the various templates available to simplify the process even further. Convey what you want in your perfect candidate in a few simple words.
As you create the perfect job description, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Job posts that have under 300 words lead to you receiving around 8% more applications. Make sure the post is precise and conveys your points clearly.
- The post needs to have a clear structure. An ideal post would have: the role, responsibilities, and duties they need to perform, qualifications and skills needed, about yourself including your company culture and how you’ll empower your employee.
- Always include the salary as it is the most important piece of information in a job description for 61% of the candidates.
- Choose between a formal or informal tone. Try to not veer off in either direction too much. Keeping the tone somewhere in the middle helps attract a broad spectrum of candidates.
Your job description tool will help you adhere to the above guidelines with ease. With the burden of creating artistically written job descriptions out of your way, you’re free to focus on the other aspects of hiring better.
4. Candidate relationship management (CRM)
Candidate relationship management (CRM), not to be confused with customer relationship management (CRM), is your firm’s own pool of talent that can be accessed to seek suitable candidates as and when the need arises.
A CRM is a more comprehensive tool than an applicant tracking system, as it not only tracks the progress of employees applying for posts with you, it keeps a complete record of them. It keeps a record of past, present, and potential employees.
CRM aims to build relationships with potential employees before they are even considered for a role. By nurturing relationships with different kidneys of talent, you have the opportunity to single out the most suitable candidate whenever there is a job opening.
This is where a CRM differs from an ATS, making both tools distinct and complementary to one another in the hiring process. While an ATS tracks a candidate’s progress with you, CRM works to establish a unique relationship with them.
4. Video interview software
Recruitment all over the world has made the necessary leap with the pandemic. Companies are now going past the geographical barrier and hiring the most suitable employees regardless of whether they live at a commutable distance or not.
While you can manage the other aspects of recruitment such as job posting, applications coming in, and screening and testing the same way whether remote or not, interviewing is one of the more challenging steps of the process.
Video interviewing software applications make interviewing possible and efficient even when the interviewer and interviewee are in different locations. You can essentially replace in-person interviews with video interviews even when the candidate lives in the vicinity.
This is because video interviews are quick, easy, and cost far less. You have the opportunity to form a better connection with your candidate than you might on a phone interview. You might also take notes and structure the interview more efficiently.
5. Chatbots
Chatbots are one of the most crucial tools in the hiring process without directly impacting the process. They are AIs that provide automated responses to common candidate questions to help clear their doubts.
Chatbots offer a multitude of benefits that speed up the recruitment process.
- Firstly, they help candidates get answers to questions without delay. Employees don’t have to go through the hassle of asking anyone and waiting for a response. This encourages them to ask as many questions as they want without feeling uneasy.
- Secondly, candidates are not discouraged by the lack of information they need.
- Third, you get to provide complete information and prompt responses. This ensures that you attract a wide pool of talent. You don’t miss out on potential candidates because they were discouraged by a lack of information.
- Lastly, you get to reduce the number of repeated inquiries with the help of these automated responses.
6. Assessment tests
Creating pre-employment tests is an excellent way to test the skills of a candidate and judge them beyond their resume. Online tools and services help you create targeted tests for every kind of job opening without hassle.
You have the option to create as streamlined or as varied tests as you want. Having a tool to take care of the tests ensures that every topic is covered and all candidates face the same challenge if they are applying for the same post.
While you have the option to create your tests for better customization, you might also opt for the premade tests offered by the service you use. They are balanced in nature and help you judge candidates with more efficiency.
You might also opt for premade tests offered by job aggregators such as Indeed. That said, those platforms also offer customization to ensure you ask the right questions to your employees.
Recruitment and hiring are pillars of strong company culture
It is crucial to hire employees that fit the company. However, it is often a tedious process to find the perfect candidates.
Embracing the digital age has now extended to the recruitment process in companies. More recruiters are relying on software applications and online tools to simplify hiring.
Such services help you save time and resources by streamlining the process and leaving more room for authentic engagement with candidates to help you choose the best.
Let us know in the comments what you think are the most efficient services that help a recruiter hire better.
About the Author
Atreyee Chowdhury works full-time as a Content Manager with a Fortune 1 retail giant. She is passionate about writing and helped many small and medium-scale businesses achieve their content marketing goals with her carefully crafted and compelling content. She loves to read, travel, and experiment with different cuisines in her free time. You can follow her on LinkedIn.
