Top Time Saving Tools for Recruiters

The biggest challenge for a modern-day recruiter is low measurable outcomes and a busy schedule. With nearly 99% of organizations using some sort of tools and technology in their talent acquisition process still the above challenges are widely prevalent. Therefore, HR experts are on the lookout for new features and functionalities in technology-based hiring solutions that can give a better return on investment.

While recruitment tools and platforms are well-known to assist recruiters by helping them manage applicants, they also take part in the hiring operational tasks and enable cost cutting thereby benefitting the organization as a whole. Here choosing the best set of recruitment tools with the most needed features still remains a challenge for organizations and recruiters. Now, before we deep dive into the must-have features in your recruitment tools let us understand what are recruitment tools.

What are recruitment tools?

Recruitment tools are software that help carry-out the day-to-day hiring process by automating and streamlining various steps in the recruitment work-flow. They assist recruiters during each step of the hiring process, thereby increasing the productivity of the HR team with a goal to save hiring time and cost. They also help in reducing manual and redundant steps such as data entry, thereby helping avoid manual errors while allowing recruiters to focus on identifying and building a robust pipeline that helps acquire suitable candidates in the long run.

Here is a go-to guide on the list of features you need to look for and add into your recruitment toolbox in order to make your hiring process more efficient.

1. Candidate sourcing

According to a study by Entelo, one-third of the work week of a recruiter is spent on sourcing candidates just for a single job position. Some recruiters have even reported that candidate sourcing is the most time-consuming process and it consumes more than half weeks' time for certain hard to fill job roles. This extended time-period can potentially affect a recruiters’ deliverables and the overall hiring goals of the organization. But luckily there are candidate sourcing tools that can reduce the burden. But before choosing one make sure to look for the following features in your candidate sourcing tool.

Recruiters generally rely on multiple sources to attract candidates to apply which includes the company website career page, job aggregators, company social media handles, third-party job posting platforms, and recruitment service providers. Here it is important to employ a tool or a system that can compile candidates from all such sources, keep it accessible from one location, and maintain a track record of the same. It is also important to store and maintain this data for future reference, fetch data based on keywords, rank and sort the entries, and update the data whenever required. Last but not the least, the tool should also keep a track of the source of hire for each placement which is an important hiring metric that help employers decide investing on the best candidate sourcing channel.

2. Applicant Tracking System

An Applicant Tracking System is one of the most commonly used tools by recruiters and organizations to manage applicants and many a times for managing the entire recruitment workflow. There are several stand-alone as well as multi-functional ATS tools out in the market available in varying price ranges further adding to difficulty while choosing one.

You can either choose one multifunctional tool that can perform and manage most of the hiring processes or a stand-alone ATS that allows integration with other hiring tools. To save time, look for an ATS that allows you to manage all hiring processes from job posting to onboarding from one centralized location.

ATSs that can manage and automate several hiring processes such as resume screening, skill assessments and allows resume importing, candidate management, tracking candidate’s progress, and track hiring metrics are an added advantage. Further, an ATS that provides visibility to multiple stakeholders in the organization about which candidates have been processed helps improve internal communication.

3. CRM Systems

With large and dynamic volumes of applicants it is always better to rely on tech-enabled communication. Here it is also important to keep the communication as personalized as possible while making sure to convey the most important messages and updates regularly. For such a scenario Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) system can be leveraged.

Look for a CRM tool that is combination of technology and communication strategy that provides visibility to recruiters about previous and ongoing interactions with candidates and helps in nurturing relationships with them. It is an added advantage if the tool offers a ready to use templates for important candidate communications such as templates for writing a job description emailer regarding the application status, offer letter format, and so on.

Some communication tools also offer one to one communication options such as a chatbot, messenger, WhatsApp and SMS broadcast, call back button, audio and video call feature, and so on.

4. Online Skill Assessment Tools

Assessment tools are platforms that help recruiters evaluate a candidate’s ability and proficiency to perform a job and their willingness before being considered for a role. These tools allow users to upload pre-set questionnaires, conduct online tests, and evaluate the results with the help of the answer key or enable recruiters to accurately assess the skills based on the live or recorded response. Some assessment tools are designed to obtain insights into a candidate’s cognitive abilities, personality, attitude, and behavioural patterns.

You can look for the following features in an assessment tool.

• Personality test
• Gamification of soft-skill assessments
• MCQ test with timer and result generation
• Job simulation tests
• On job assignments

5. Interviewing Software

When there are high volumes of applicants for a job position, an interviewing software assists recruiters to quickly schedule interviews for large number of applications without any confusion or overlap in the schedule. Interviewing software allows recruiters schedule interviews which the candidates can accept to confirm their presence, conduct virtual interviews, and record responses. You can consider an all-in-one video interview tool that allow recruiters conduct automated pre-screening and robotic interviews in addition to conducting regular virtual interviews and record the responses that will greatly help recruiters decide which applicants they want to assess further especially when there are large number of candidates.

Features to look for in Interview software

• Interview scheduling option with calendar and notification functionality integration 

• Video and audio meet option 

• Robotic interviews which you can train the algorithm to conduct automated interviews 

6. Social Networking

Social networking platforms are proving to be an effective medium for spreading information and promoting job postings to both active and passive candidates. Several leading organizations prefer identifying talent through social media and networking platforms as they enable easy communication and targeted reach. Moreover, posting a job advert on a social networking platform also acts as a marketing tool to promote an organization’s brand value and attract talent.

7. Recruitment Metrics

A data driven approach is beneficial for any business process where recruitment is not an exception. Moreover, tracking recruitment metrics help improve your hiring efficiency, cut hiring cost, and accelerate the hiring outcome. Given there are ‘n’ number of hiring key performance indicators here are some of the most important ones that you need to keep a track of: percentage source of hire, cost per hire, number of applicants per opening, offer acceptance ratio, time to fill, time to hire, and time taken during each step of the hiring process. Here you need to work on those metrics that are crucial for your hiring process.

While choosing a tool that can calculate hiring metrics please make sure that it can also store and keep a track of the metrics and export the same in a standard usable format. A tool that can fetch data from different hiring stages and tools and provide a consolidated report with easily understandable stats are highly recommended. Look for tools with options to customize the metric criteria, add more metrics, and collect and consolidate feedback from both candidates and recruiters.

Here it is important to note that, with evolving technology, hiring trends and needs the tools and the features also keeps changing therefore it is important to look for aspects such as scalability, customizability, and integration with other tools with additional features. Also, before choosing the tools it is important to assess your hiring needs periodically and incorporate the required tools accordingly in your hiring work-flow.

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