Say Goodbye to Recruiting Events, Resumes, and Traditional Job Applications

That's not a valid work email account. Please enter your work email (e.g. you@yourcompany.com)
Please enter your work email
(e.g. you@yourcompany.com)

Future

I recently wrote at length about some of the unique hurdles  that companies hiring for service and support workers are faced with. In conversations with many retail, restaurant, hospitality, and service companies, we hear how defined hiring processes are often bypassed for the company’s hourly and store positions.

This is not terribly surprising, given the nature of the positions in the job market that are being hired for (different skill requirements require different hiring practices). But giving up on the recruiting workflow and reverting to paper job applications and open-call recruiting events is definitely not the solution.

In our work at Apploi, we have always been committed to helping bridge the gap between those looking for service and support positions and the companies that want to hire great teams. Since the launch of Apploi, I have dreamt of a single, streamlined process where those in the working groups faced with the highest unemployment rates (such as teenagers and minority groups) could be quickly captured from any device  – particularly mobile devices, given that more and more people are turning to mobile in favor of desktop Internet access.

This should be a fast and simple experience that job seekers could engage in anywhere and at any time, similar to popular consumer apps like Instagram, where we capture photos (instead of uploading entire albums), and Twitter, where we capture our thoughts (instead of long articles). Apploi quickly captures an applicant’s best qualities instead of every past experience all at once.

WomanBut the dream can’t stop there. The connector is only the beginning. For the greatest impact – and to avoid those all-to-familiar boxes of job applications that make store managers shudder – this capture needs to easily feed into the companies’ recruiting workflows and systems.

We have been fortunate to create several integrations with third-party systems that have become great partners in helping us pursue our mission, but what we have just developed with iCIMS  is, I believe, truly revolutionary. It has the power to change hourly hiring forever.

Say goodbye to recruiting events (in person or virtual), the resume bombing of unengaged applicants, and paper job applications. Instead, picture large retail stores and malls or busy stadiums in need of high volumes of service workers. People can now easily be captured (at a kiosk on location, or by scanning a QR code with their phone, or while sitting on a bus), and they  can quickly demonstrate their passion for the position. They can be prescreened (with video, audio, and other question formats), and then the quick capture feeds directly into a company’s ATS and existing workflow.

Hiring managers in fast hiring cycles will now have richer information about their (engaged) applicants – and they won’t need to shut off revenue-generating space for hiring events or distract their store teams from sales targets in order to get it.

This partnership has made the dream a reality, and hiring practices will change in these industries as a consequence – to the advantage of both the company and the applicant. Further, and even more importantly, this will lower the hurdles of entry into the workforce, leading to new beginnings and massive economic empowerment.

This article originally appeared on LinkedIn.

By Adam Lewis