Software for recruiters – a best practice guide

February 20th, 2023 | Industry News

It’s been an insanely demanding few years for HR professionals: pandemics, inflation, economic turbulence – no wonder that recruitment has come to feel both complicated and pressurised. So how are HR managers and recruiters coping? The answers are sometimes surprising

Measure what matters

Metrics have become more important – and good recruiting software gives solid metrics that allow recruiters to know how well they are doing. But what are recruiters looking at?

• Candidates responding
• Candidates passing screening levels
• Candidates passing first interview
• Candidates offered position

These are the four key metrics that HR professionals and recruiters are using to assess performance. However, different technological assistance may be needed to effectively engage with each area. For example, the best recruitment CRM comes into play between candidates passing first interview and candidate being offered the position, as 63% of candidates in the UK can confirm – this being the number that complain that job recruitment takes too long! 41% of USA companies surveyed recently said exactly the same thing.

One reason for this could be that only 39% of recruiters are using specialised software to track their performance in recruitment – meaning that they aren’t gaining the best insight into where, and how, they fall short of best practice, which in recruitment terms often means falling short of hiring the best candidates.

Failing to capitalise on employment opportunities

Common problems in this area include failure to interview – a whopping 53% of companies admit to having failed to interview a valuable candidate because they couldn’t agree an appointment time; slow processing of applicants and; poor communication with candidates. Effective recruitment management software should resolve most of these issues, giving recruitment consultants, and employers more opportunity to engage with better candidates more often.

Demonstrating best practice helps companies recruit

A perfect example of this is emerging in India, which tech companies have traditionally found to be fertile territory for recruitment at all industry levels. However, as big tech firms make well publicised layoffs, start-up companies in India are struggling to recruit – partly because their candidate base is looking for something they haven’t needed to value so much until recently: security. Recognising what candidates are looking for can help companies, and recruiters, shape advertising and social media comms to demonstrate what matters most to potential hires. Recruitment website design should be responsive to such changes in attitude and demand and using the web as an effective communication of company values can be a potent and cost-effective way to attract good candidates.