Online Applicant Tracking: Formal vs. Informal Recruitment

The recruitment market is becoming highly specialised as people look for different ways of recruiting the best people for available positions in their organisations. There are a number of practices, as well as decisions involved in the recruitment process and HR practitioners need to have all of the information available to them in order to make the best decisions. This is why recruitment software and programs such as applicant tracking are so important to the overall process.

Human Resources is a constantly changing environment. During the 1980’s the emphasis was on hiring exceptional individuals, whereas the 90’s called for more team oriented people to fill key roles within organisations. Today many companies are not only looking for a specific set of skills in a potential employee, but a wider range of general competencies and talents. There are also new ways of discovering talent and attracting them to your organisation that have led recruiters to use both informal and formal avenues of recruitment.

Informal Recruitment

This could be described as word-of-mouth recruitment, or at management level it is commonly known as headhunting. Some recruiters choose not to use this approach as the feel that it excludes many people who may not hear about the job. Using social media networking and other forms of ‘soft marketing’ may be a way of spreading your net a little bit wider in the search for excellent candidates for your business. This is where the use of applicant tracking software and recruitment software plays such an important role in capturing key data about potential employees for your talent pool. Good recruiters do not let any information about candidates go past them without capturing them in the net. You never know who is going to be a perfect catch for the future.

Formal Recruitment

The key to effective formal recruitment is to have the right job specifications and the right advertising strategy to attract the right employees. The strength of formal recruitment lies not only in the ability to attract the right people for the job but to have the software and the technology to handle them throughout the system. Human Resource departments are moving closer to the technological advances of recruitment software and applicant tracking to revolutionise their initial attraction and selection of possible candidates.

Choosing one candidate from a talent pool does not mean you need to ignore the rest of the people in the pool. Effective HR software allows you to keep all of the data you have on prospective candidates and use it for future employment opportunities with the business.

Applicant Tracking Software: The Interview Process

Running a successful HR department is not just about attracting the right sort of people to the available positions. It is also about making the right selection. You may have a list of people that you think fit the requirements of the job, but how do you know that they are going to fit into your company and your business. Finding a perfect fit can be a challenge and the interview process is part of ensuring that you are making the right decision.

Recruitment software plays a large part in setting the parameters of an available position and defining the application process. If you run a busy HR or recruitment division for a large commercial organization, then recruitment software and applicant tracking can make the entire recruitment selection process into an effective and efficient tool. The interview process may take place over weeks and involve different people at various levels in the company. Having an effective applicant tracking software programme as part of your recruitment software makes the most sense for inter-departmental recruitment selection.

Top Interview Tips – Effective Recruitment Selection

Interviewing is a skill and a talent, one that HR managers work for years to develop. Asking the right questions and filtering through the answers to find the applicant that will fit in with the job description and the business as a whole. HR manager have noticed that if the recruitment selection process is managed well they have to spend less time, and money to train people in performance management. The first aspect of the recruitment selection process is to establish clear guidelines from the company’s perspective.

• Establish what the position entails and what skills and knowledge will the applicant have to possess in order to do the job. Make sure your job description is clear and well defined, before starting any recruitment selection process.
•  Use the recruitment selection process as a way of finding out if the applicant is suitable for the job, by testing their response to certain situations. You can test their skills level and get them to exhibit their skills in practical situation.
•  Always makes sure that they will fit into the team. This could be on a departmental level and within the business as a whole.

Recruitment selection software can go a long way to streamlining the entire process. Each department will be able to use the applicant tracking programme to make an informed report which will help the HR manager to make a decisions based on excellent information. Getting the recruitment selection process right and having the right people in your company will ensure that your business is always ready to do business.