In the highly competitive modern world, businesses need to find and hire the best. And they have to do it quickly and efficiently. Plenty of recruitment tools exist to assist hiring managers; let’s look at the ones worth your attention.
Why should you use talent acquisition tools?
HR automation and social media have revolutionized the way recruiters work. Tools currently at their disposal include job boards (job aggregators), applicant tracking systems (ATS), recruitment CRMs, candidate testing and assessment software, AI chatbots, etc. HR professionals can use open source recruitment software or more advanced paid options.
01 Sourcing
Creating job postings on job portals and social media platforms.
02 Tracking Applicants
Screening resumes & shortlisting cadidates based on skills, education, and experience.
03 Pre-Hire Assessment
Interviewing, testing skills & personality, reference & background checking.
04 Collaboration
Sharing interview feedback, candidate assessment, applications, and other.
05 Onboarding
Training and orientation of new employees.
06 Analyzing Recruitments
Generating reports relating to the time taken to fill a job post, source of hire, applicant-to-hire ratio, and many more.
But are these tools worth the money and effort? Here are some benefits:
- Save time. Automated hiring systems lighten administrative burdens and speed up the recruiting process. With automated hiring systems, recruiters can easily contact, screen, and communicate with hundreds of applicants;
- Ensure consistency. With recruiting technology, you can set clear benchmarks for candidate selection and assessment, and testing results are easily comparable. Consequently, recruiting becomes less prone to errors and subjective judgments;
- Improve the quality of hiring. Recruiters spend less time and effort on mundane tasks, devoting their resources and expertise to more important projects. Additionally, they accumulate a larger pool of candidates to select from;
- Attract talent. The recruitment tools you use sends a message to your applicants. A modern, well-designed user interface conveys that your company keeps up with trends and is determined to find new employees. This encourages talented people to apply.
The traditional recruitment process hasn't become irrelevant, but it certainly has earned some innovative and dynamic competition from tech-driven, mobile-first solutions. Brands looking to attract tech-savvy, digital-native talent from Gens Y (millennials) and Z (iGen) need to meet that talent on the platforms and in the digital spaces where they spend their time.
Marilyn Tyfting CCO at TELUS International
A list of the best applicant tracking systems
An online applicant tracking system (ATS) allows businesses to track and analyze the records of candidates. ATSs process data and records using software for resume parsing. ATSs also help improve the communication process, access to applicants’ skills, and storing and retrieving interview notes.
The number of solutions soars as the ATS market grows. MarketsandMarkets expects it to reach 1.81 billion by 2023. Here are the Top 5 ATSs according to TrustRadius, a review platform:
- Greenhouse. The product supports 2,000+ teams and offers an ecosystem of more than 300 technology partners. Among its features are team collaboration and automated task management. Greenhouse uses predictive analytics and machine learning to estimate the likelihood of hiring a candidate on a schedule;
- Jobvite allows recruiters to configure and manage application forms and job fields. Candidates can be pre-screened with the help of questionnaires or video screenings; and you can automate scheduling interviews with Jobvite’s Smart Self-Scheduler.
- LinkedIn Talent Hub is a combination of LinkedIn Recruiter and Jobs. Its ATS capabilities are tuned to provide effective recruiting on LinkedIn. The list of features includes collaboration support and integration with other HR management software;
- JobDiva is a cloud-based platform for staffing enterprises with 30,000+ users around the world. Its partner ecosystem includes more than 150 integrations. JobDiva users can search resumes for candidates by specific requirements or years of experience and conduct e-interviews or video interviews;
- SmartRecruiters is a web-based hiring platform for companies with 50+ employees. It allows HR specialists to create and manage talent pools and scan their talent database with keywords. Additionally, tasks and reminders can be set up quickly to keep the team on track.
Top candidate assessment tools
Recruiting efforts are expensive and time-consuming, so you want to be sure to make the right decision. Candidate assessment tools are designed to automate the screening process, making it easier and more efficient. Recruiters can assess not only candidates’ skills but also culture fit. Recruiters can compare results across the candidate pool and, as a result, make more impartial hiring decisions.
Here are some of the best candidate assessment tools, according to the SelectSoftware Reviews:
- VidCruiter allows recruiting teams to test both hard and soft skills using automated assessments. HR professionals can supplement testing with in-platform video interviews;
- CodinGame is an assessment tool, with over 15 million coding challenges completed on this platform. Prominent companies use CodinGame to hire engineers, including Nintendo and Facebook;
- Harver is used by more than 4 million applicants each year. It offers a wide variety of assessments for everything, from hard skills to behavioral traits. Additionally, video and situational judgment tests provide an applicant with an idea about the job role;
- HireVue was one of the first video interview platforms. HireVue offers a suite of assessment tools, including game-based and traditional assessments, that help recruiters make the best decision;
- SparkHire is one of the most popular video interview platforms. It also provides a score of features around evaluating candidates and scheduling. An extensive repository of case studies allows HR to link their work to the broader business goals.
The benefits of AI recruitment tools
Artificial intelligence technologies are changing the landscape of many industries, and recruitment is not an exception. 42% of HR leaders consider AI integration one of the largest transformation challenges in the next five years.
By supplementing human intelligence and creativity with technology that reduces menial processes, there is a great opportunity to enable recruiters—not replace them. McKinsey's research shows that over two-thirds of businesses (69%) believe AI brings value to their Human Resources function.
—Rebecca Skilbeck, the Head of Customer Insights and Market Research at PageUp
One of the main benefits of employing AI is the reduction of an unconscious bias. For example, recruiters may use loaded words in job descriptions, limiting the pool of candidates. AI tools help to spot such mistakes and avoid such mistakes. Shortlisting candidates for interviews using AI not only speeds up the process but ensures objectivity.
The use of AI conversational software—chatbots—can reduce recruiters’ workloads. Chatbots can ask applicants qualifying questions, find out more about their goals and aspirations, and even provide them with useful content. Some candidates may actually prefer interacting with an AI rather than a human interviewer. For instance, candidates may feel freer to ask about salary and job location.
Social media and recruitment
Social media continues to be an indispensable bundle of free sourcing tools for recruiters. HR professionals can reach out to hundreds of potential job seekers and learn more about applicants. It’s hard to overstate the impact of professional platforms such as GitHub for recruiters. Github, a repository of code used by software developers, provides real examples of applicants’ work, which are more concrete than claims in resumes.
Here are several ideas to get started with your social media recruiting strategy:
- Participate in the right conversations. Be active in LinkedIn groups and use hashtags to attract the attention of suitable candidates;
- Promote your company culture. Show that your company is a wonderful place to work;
- Pay attention to niche networks (GitHub, StackOverflow, Moz, Warrior Forum, Quora, etc.);
- Get your employees involved. Encourage your staff to share vacancies and promote your brand on social media;
- Recruiters should use not only corporate accounts but develop their personal social media presence.
LinkedIn is the social media platform modern recruiters use most often. Recruiters may get a lot of useful information about candidates’ professional lives and interests from their profiles. But this platform can also help you find talented applicants who are beyond the reach of your networks. LinkedIn recruitment ads can be designed to target users who meet certain criteria, warming up passive candidates and building a talent pipeline.