Are You Still Using Accounting Software for Your Hiring?
Companies have specialist tools for every important aspect of their business. They have Trello for project management, Hootsuite for social media, Mailchimp for email marketing and Intercom for customer service.
But when it comes to hiring a high-stakes investment where they’ll choose their future team, what do they use? A tool built primarily for numerical data analysis. That old chestnut: the trusty excel spreadsheet. Why?
Spreadsheets and emails are not hiring tools
Chances are you will have experienced this scenario. You receive CVs into your inbox, you exchange some emails with colleagues to get their feedback. This to and fro of emails means that very quickly the CV is lost in your busy inbox or condemned to an email folder never to be found again. You waste time searching for CVs in email folders and lose track of your colleague’s feedback and your own notes. Maybe the candidate’s details have been entered into a spreadsheet for safe keeping. Maybe that’s been forgotten though and even if you do spend time logging the details, no one will check there again anyway.
It’s all a complete waste of time, but the worst part is it frustrates and distracts you from the real purpose of hiring: making hard people decisions. It doesn’t end there. Without the right tools, it’s hard to build long-term value from your candidate pool. There are gems to be found in those previous applications, but spreadsheets and inboxes are a sure way to lose them. With an ATS you can easily search your candidate database and find great talent who you’ve engaged with before.
This isnhttps://www.recruiter.com/recruiting/wp-admin/post-new.php’t just great for employers; it is great for candidates too. Losing CVs, asking candidates the same question over and over again, not notifying them about the outcome of their application: these are the most common frustrations for candidates when they are applying for jobs. We know all of these tasks are time consuming and tedious when you’re using spreadsheets and because they often get overlooked. But this damages your employer brand and your chances of attracting the best talent in the future.
It doesn’t have to be this hard
There’s a better, more efficient and more enjoyable way to manage your hiring. Modern, inexpensive, web-based recruitment software and applicant tracking systems help organize your hiring by keeping all the information in one place. They will store candidate details, feedback and communication in a collaborative online space where you and your colleagues can find and sort them out.
Need to check the resume of a candidate you spoke to a couple of weeks ago? Don’t start racking your brains for their name or start trawling through your inbox. Simply check your ATS and there it is alongside their work history, application details, your colleagues feedback and a record of all your communications with the candidate. All in one place, like it should be.
Now, that’s better
Hiring needn’t be so stressful. Getting your recruitment organized shouldn’t need a large HR department or big investments in expensive software. Here’s the good news: It doesn’t.
An applicant tracking system can help your company streamline the most time consuming aspects of recruitment. That way you and your colleagues can focus on the important questions like “Is this the right candidate for us?” You’ll love it and your candidates will enjoy the benefit of a more streamlined recruitment process too.
If you ever thought “there must be a better way than email and excel to do this”, here’s your answer: there is and it’s available to all sizes of companies now, not just the big ones with big budgets.
This story was written by recruiting software provider, Workable, and is a part of Recruiter.com’s 2014 Recruiting Technology Trends series.