Posting Jobs To Job Boards – How To Automate

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Automate posting to job boardsI talk with groups frequently about the use of social media tools to help drive qualified candidates to their open positions. While I believe strongly in those efforts, the fact remains that job boards still account for a significant amount of applicant traffic for most organizations. Naturally, then, clients typically want to know where they should post jobs and how to keep track of them.

The first part of the question (where to post jobs) is a separate conversation unto itself. The second part of the question (how to keep track of which job boards are being used) is my focus here today. To break this down a bit, I see this in two phases:

  • To which job boards have certain positions been posted (and what is it costing)?
  • What is the payback from these ad sources (what kind of applicant traffic are they generating?)

The act of getting positions posted to job boards can be time-consuming. Once you’ve created your job description, you typically must visit each board, log in, paste in your description, provide the additional information needed as required by the individual board, and confirm that the formatting looks correct. This allows the position to be posted. Then, when the position has been filled or the posting time limit is reached, you usually must then revisit the various boards and take the listing down.

As to the payback of various boards, most organizations don’t have the time to really consider this at all. For most, the only way to track the listings and the expenses associated with each is in a spreadsheet or manual file. Even if a company is willing to log this, they are still faced with the issue of not knowing how many applicants are coming from each board. The only way to know is to ask those applicants, which leads to yet another column in a separate spreadsheet that logs all applicants and from where they came. I think you get the picture at this point — this is way too painful for most.

The exception to both of these instances is when an organization chooses to use an applicant tracking software solution. The right ATS should allow you to automate the posting of your open positions to most any job board, alleviating the need to visit the individual boards and complete all of the steps I mentioned above. In addition, using a software tool like this should allow applicants to share what board led them to your open position, including tracking the costs of each posting and the number of applicants coming from each board. Our HireCentric ATS even allows organizations to review analytics documenting traffic to an organization’s careers portal, including a list of referral sources (i.e. job boards in many cases).

While this may not be the sole reason an organization seeks out a recruiting software tool, it is one of the more consistent points on which we receive positive feedback. To learn more about ExactHire, please visit our resources section or contact us. 

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Applicant Tracking Fits The Needs Of The Healthcare Industry

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The healthcare industry has obviously been through many, many changes in this country. This affects all aspects of healthcare providers – from the services rendered to patients to the other side of the spectrum…such as the benefits of the health care workers themselves (not to mention the benefits of all employees in all industries). That being said, I think we can agree that human resource representatives, especially those working for hospitals, clinics and other providers, have their plates full these days. With limited time and resources available, healthcare organizations stand to gain a lot from automating some standard HR processes such as recruiting and onboarding. For example, with the right applicant tracking software (ATS), they can quickly alleviate some of the headaches of hiring in this chaotic, current landscape.

While the issues detailed below can occur for HR within any industry, they can especially cause BIG problems in hiring for healthcare positions.

Overtime for current staff and using temporary, contingent staff

When there are many positions open, current staff is sometimes forced to work more (which of course costs more!); or, the organization may need to hastily hire temporary staff (which is also expensive in itself). After all, the healthcare industry is not a place where you can just “close down” until a new hire is found or chalk involuntary turnover up to embraced attrition. For example, some positions can be 24 hour shifts that require constant employee attendance. When using an ATS in the healthcare industry, you will be able to make hires more quickly and efficiently when utilizing existing job templates and automated job board posting features; thus, keeping costs down and being more effective with your staffing process.

Never ending paperwork

This headache can apply to an applicant or the hiring manager. However, by integrating an effective hiring software tool into your organization’s recruitment process, job applicants will generally appreciate the ability to access your employment application online so that they may complete it at their own convenience and without rifling through a paper application. An ATS can be configured to allow them to upload files representing any additional documentation you may require such as licenses, test scores and transcripts.

And, hiring managers will be able to use an applicant tracking system to quickly launch and receive approval on new job requisition requests instead of having to wait for multiple layers of people to manually deliver paper forms to one another. In addition, hiring managers can design screening questions that score and/or disqualify applicants who do not meet minimum requirements so that they may reduce the number of applicants they need to review to keep the process moving for all involved.

Higher turnover rates

It can be common in the healthcare realm for organizations to suffer from higher turnover rates. This could be attributable to multiple factors. For example, sometimes when a hospital is understaffed, the extra shifts may cause more employees to disengage, burn out and then leave the organization. Its a vicious cycle and the turnover rate then gets higher and higher. Again, using an applicant tracking system can help reduce the time to fill a position as well as the cost (especially in terms of time) it takes to make effective hires for the positions open.

People are the most valuable resource for not just the healthcare industry, but any industry. However, they are also the biggest piece of the pie when analyzing the operating costs of any organization. Using an applicant tracking system can help to ensure that you find the right fit for your positions in a time-sensitive and cost-effective manner.

To take the hiring process one step further – ExactHire can also assist you with background screening options and employee assessments to make sure the you find the best fit and retain your talent in the long run.

To learn more about ExactHire’s hiring software solutions, please visit our resources section or contact us today.

Image credit: stethoscope by Dr. Farouk (contact)

Equal Employment Opportunities Make Good Business Sense

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Individuals in Human Resources already know there are laws that prohibit discrimination in the workplace against existing employees, but equal employment opportunity also relates to hiring and recruiting new employees, as well. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against someone (applicant or employee) because of his/her race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information (EEOC.gov).

How does EEO affect the hiring process?
Here are a few considerations when examining your selection process to ensure that you are in compliance with EEOC regulations:

  • Employment Applications – Nothing on the application can ask about or refer to a class of people in a way that could be construed as being discriminatory. Avoid asking questions that may single out a group based on gender, age, religion, sex…and the other federal law factors mentioned above.
  • Job Ads – Remember when posting a job advertisement not to hone in on a specific group, such as recent college grads (may seem like you are not inclusive of all ages) or women (though some jobs may seem like they have been traditionally held by a certain gender group in the past, you cannot focus the job ad to that sex).
  • Applicant Referrals – Word of mouth job advertising can be tricky. If you have a workforce that is a similar demographic, and you exclusively, or very heavily, recruit based only on employee referrals, you are likely going to minimize diversity across your workforce and run into issues of adverse impact.
  • Talent Acquisition – If all your recruiting is targeted to a certain age group, gender, race or other protected group, then you are violating the laws for equal employment opportunity. Make sure, when sourcing applicants, that you use a wide variety of external ad sources so that you do not disproportionately exclude any type of applicant based on the protected classes above.

Just a few other potentially inflammatory EEOC-related issues to keep in mind:

  • Promotions – When promoting an employee, do not make a decision based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information; but rather, on experience and/or performance/merit. In human resources, it is important to keep a documented history of performance reviews to support any promotion decisions.
  • Benefits – Regardless of age, religion, gender (including pregnancy), and the other factors mentioned throughout this blog, all employees and applicants should be offered the same benefits. Think of benefits such as health care plans, 401k and stock options that may be offered to an incoming applicant. This includes a woman getting the same pay as a man for the same job, as just one example.
  • Discipline – When it comes to the discipline of employees, the rules need to be just, legal and applied consistently across the board. This will eliminate discrimination issues as well as harassment in the workplace.

Remember to put processes and training programs in place to stay compliant with federal anti-discrimination laws beyond the recruiting process, as well.

How can ExactHire help with EOE requirements?

Using an applicant tracking system can help to streamline and ease the challenges that can sometimes be associated with compliance reporting. An ATS also has tools in place to automate the process of posting jobs to a diverse set of external ad sources so that you can more easily amass a diverse group of engaged applicants. We can show you tools to find diversity and inclusion ad sources as well as coach you on how to build reports to help you stay compliant with EEOC laws.

For more information on our applicant tracking software, please visit our resources section or contact ExactHire.

Image credit: Macro Pencil Pink EraserSymbols and Signs by Pink Sherbert Photography (contact)

Hiring Software Works For Internships

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I can’t believe it’s already November! Fall is in full swing and school is back in session. I love this time of year, cool crisp weather and football all weekend! Unfortunately, time flies and seasons change! Before you know it, it will be full blown holiday season…is your company ready? Do you offer internships through holiday break or even for spring quarter? Believe it or not, college kids are already thinking about their potential internship opportunities! A hiring software solution, such as an applicant tracking system or employee onboarding software, can be a wonderful tool for helping to source and onboard not just permanent employees, but also interns for your company now and in future hiring seasons.

Why not use applicant tracking to recruit interns, or even seasonal help?

Revisit your typical recruiting process for picking interns…do you use a separate employment application for these positions; or, is it the same standard application used for permanent positions? Either way, ExactHire’s ATS can help streamline your internship application process. Students (who are, by the way, your potential full-time employees of tomorrow) will be impressed with the overall recruitment experience and technology. This promotes positive word of mouth awareness for your company – it’s a win-win!

In addition to your standard application questions, you may still use job-specific screening questions with scoring and disqualification filters, too! Think about what you would ask of a current student before hiring them as an intern…for example:

  • Have you had an internship previously? If so, what did you enjoy/dislike?
  • Please describe how your school extracurricular activities have prepared you for this internship position.
  • Are you able to work while still attending school?

All of these (as well as other topics) are important and can be made into screening questions. After you have a pool qualified applicants, you will be able to start to narrow down your choices and pick the final intern candidates that best fit your needs and company culture.

Another bonus of using applicant tracking software for your internship hiring process is that you can accumulate an inventory of students that fit your requirements. The next time you have an internship or full time position to fill, you already have a pool of “warm lead” applicants from which to engage interest and potentially convert candidates.

Using a hiring solution such as an ATS to find those students that will be the best fit for your company’s intern positions makes the selection process more efficient and consistent, benefiting your company in the long run as well.

To see our software solutions in action, please visit our resources page or contact us to schedule a live demo.
– See more at: https://www.exacthire.com/hiring-software-works-for-internships.blog#sthash.22fUkHZO.dpuf

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Should I Use Cognitive or Skills-Based Assessments for New Hires?

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It’s no surprise that in an age where there are often many candidates applying for any given job, many hiring managers are using pre-employment assessments to review applicants. Using assessments can help a company find new employees who are the best fit for its company culture and for the position. There are several kinds to choose from; picking the right one for your needs depends a lot on the organization and the type of job being filled.

Cognitive Assessments

These assessments test a person’s ability to process information or thoughts. These tests are similar to IQ tests. They can measure memory, numerical and reading comprehension, speech, the ability to learn and even problem solving capabilities. Hiring managers may use these tests to help determine if the candidate is likely able to meet the performance requirements for a job. By doing this, the new hire and team will be more efficient and this productivity can lead to reduced employee turnover. While pre-employment testing should never make up all of a hiring manager’s employment decision for a candidate, assessments can certainly contribute to around 25-30% of the decision.

Job Skills Tests

These are tests based on a specific job skill that is required for a position. The skills in question might be very broad or very specific. Broad examples include general math, Excel, customer service or grammar skills. More specific examples of these tests might include automotive technology, light industrial math, accounting software, legal terminology or medical billing. As you probably can guess, this type of assessment can be useful in many types of industries. If you need to fill a position that requires proficiency in Excel, than you want to make sure the candidate is up to speed on this software – the skills test would be perfect for this situation. Also, skill-based tests can be useful when hiring for a lot of job openings at once – jobs that require particular skills. You can rank the many candidates based on their scores and do comparisons.

Behavioral Pre-Employment Testing

Assessments that test the behavioral traits of an applicant, especially when combined with cognitive or job skill tests, are also useful. Behavioral traits are sometimes referred to as “soft skills,” but are still very important, especially to job fit and one’s potential to assimilate well into a company’s culture. Just a few examples of the kinds of traits tested include: independence, energy level, assertiveness, sociability, objective thinking and decisiveness. Knowing how the candidate is hard-wired to think and respond to situations is just as important as knowing if one has the skills or IQ to do the job. This type of assessment can help ensure that an applicant is more likely to mesh with the team, department and/or overall organization.

Depending on budget, you may not be able to give assessments to each and every applicant for all open jobs. However, in the long run you may opt to use any one of these (or two depending on the type of role involved) to make sure you make the right hire for your company – especially for the positions that are particularly difficult to fill and/or that experience relatively high turnover.

Selecting a partner to help you administer validated, job-relevant pre-employment testing can prevent you from making a bad hiring decision, as well as save you time, money and frustration! ExactHire offers options in all of these assessment categories and can even assist in building customized job pattern models to establish targeted performance ranges for your organization – these models are invaluable when analyzing candidate results.

For more information about our products, please contact ExactHire.

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Eric Stauffer – Chief Technology Officer

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Eric Stauffer began working with ExactHire as Chief Technology Officer in 2014 and brings a wealth of development and strategic technology management experience to the team.

Chantel Hatch – Client Services Associate

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Chantel Hatch began working with the ExactHire Client Services team in 2011 as a Client Services Associate. She’s available to help ExactHire clients by offering thorough training on applicant tracking system features and ongoing product/tech support. She helps our clients take full advantage of all HireCentric ATS product features; thus, enabling them to use their software applications more efficiently.

Chantel received a degree in Business Management in 1999. She has had 15 years experience working in client services-related positions…from office manager to technical support.

How Do I Calculate ROI For Applicant Tracking System?

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There are several ways to calculate the return on investment (ROI) for an applicant tracking system (ATS). But to start, you need to first determine the cost of your hiring activities without an ATS.

Equation #1: Time Cost

Let’s say we have an HR Employee who handles hiring (I’ll call her Joy). Consider the number of hours that Joy works on hiring activities in a week (H) and multiply that number by her amount of pay per hour (P).

If H = 40 hrs.

and P = $20 per hour

Then, H x P =  $800 per week focused on hiring activities without an ATS

An applicant tracking system could easily reduce that employee’s work by 25% and cost as low as $30 per week (C). So let’s look at the ROI in that scenario:

If H = 30 hrs.

and P = $20 per hour

and C =  $30

Then, (H x P) + C =  $630 per week focused on hiring activities with an ATS..a savings of $170 per week or a 560% ROI.

Equation #2: Labor Needs

But what if Joy can only review 40 applications per day and your organization really needs to review 60 applications per day? If you want to get through 60 applications in a day without a backlog–and without investing in applicant tracking software, you’ll need to hire another person.

So if one employee (E) can review 40 applications per day (A) and you need 60 applications reviewed per day (N), let’s determine how many additional employees you’ll need.

If N = 60

and A = 40

Then, N ÷ A = 1.5 employees to review 60 applications per day.

Equations #3: Labor Cost

Now, let’s combine the results of both equations to find the time cost for this scenario where hiring is the solution to meeting capacity requirements.

(H x E) x P = $1200 per week focused on hiring.

Now we have a ball-park figure we can use to see if the cost of the ATS is equal to or less than the additional labor cost.

Reducing Labor Cost With Applicant Tracking Software

An ATS can review applications more quickly than a human through the use of automatic scoring and/or disqualification filters associated with answers given for application screening questions. With the aid of these filters, the applications can be sorted and the reviewing process can begin with those applicants that most closely align with what you are seeking for that given position.

This means that Joy in our example above should have no problem reviewing 60+ applications per day, saving the organization from hiring a part-time employee and saving $400 per week in labor costs…or $1600 per month. When you consider that the price of HireCentric ATS starts at $120 per month, that’s a big return on your investment!

ROI for Applicant Tracking System Analysis Factors

Beyond the time cost savings, let’s consider some of the other items to factor into your ROI analysis:

  • Focusing on just the more-qualified applicants (as determined by the screening questions mentioned above) usually leads to better hires, because recruiters and hiring managers are no longer buried by resumes. Better hires tend to ramp up faster, perform better and stay longer. This means a better bottom line for your organization.
  • Candidates no longer “slip through the cracks” — the better ones are more quickly identified and may be contacted quickly to avoid them going elsewhere.
  • You’re now building an actual candidate pool from which to draw later. This means fewer postings to paid job boards and dollars saved because of it.
  • Jobs may be shared through social media by both your applicants and your existing employees. Again, this means more quality applicants without over-relying on paid job boards.

My experience is that focusing ROI efforts on time savings alone tends to fall on deaf ears when approaching a CEO or CFO for approval. Using some of these alternative ideas, along with the time savings and low cost nature of an applicant tracking software tool, should improve your odds of making a business case to executive management and getting the solution your organization needs.

If you would like to discuss pricing and/or ROI for ExactHire’s applicant tracking software further, please contact us today.