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Hiring with QR Codes

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If you’ve been dining out or picking up food to go, it’s likely you have seen or used a QR code to access your menu or even pay a bill. Want to share feedback on an experience? Often, the participant will access a QR code to provide input on a topic. What are QR codes you might ask?

What is a QR Code?

Invented in 1994, QR (Quick Response) codes are matrix barcode readable optic labels…or more simply, those black line patterned squares we see on receipts, papers, billboards and a multitude of other areas. (Even Super Bowl commercials for that matter!) Upon scanning a QR code with a mobile device, a designated webpage will open in the viewer’s browser.

QR codes are not new, but they are a bit newer to mainstream use. They provide contactless convenience to communicate essential information to the reader via a mobile device.  Those nifty square shapes of lines are rising in popularity due to our increasing need for mobile communication, especially since the onset of the pandemic.

No matter the industry, there are ways to incorporate the use of QR codes. Let’s talk about the area where we, HR Professionals, may need extra support now–recruiting and hiring.

Hiring with QR Codes

Companies are short staffed and desperately seeking interested, qualified applicants to fill their job openings. How can a company promote its brand and fantastic job opportunities with limited time and space? By hiring with QR codes!

Hiring with QR codes–or using them in your recruitment process–can be the catalyst that amplifies your applicant volume. An employer using QR codes can quickly disseminate valuable content to job seekers, reaching audiences that it might not have connected with otherwise. Plus, they present your organization as modern and tech savvy–which helps your employer brand.

How and Where to Use QR Codes for Hiring

Not sure how or where to use a QR code for hiring? Here are some helpful strategies and tips to incorporate QR codes into your recruiting and hiring processes.

  • Print Media – Printing flyers for distribution or posting in high-traffic areas? If so, then add a QR code so viewers can scan to learn more about your job listings. Motivate job seekers to apply by providing instant information!
  • Signage – Look around, and you’ll see a large number of signs exclaiming “Now Hiring!” Competition is fierce, so include a QR code on your signage to standout and compete with other companies that are vying for the same job seekers. Interested job seekers who are not ready to walk inside and apply can scan the QR code to access your company’s job info. They then can choose to apply immediately or at their convenience.
  • Business Cards – While networking face to face has been altered due to COVID-19, it still exists. Employees with personal business cards can add QR codes. If your organization prints general recruitment cards, add a QR code linked to your company’s “Career Opportunities” webpage.
  • Workroom posters and flyers – Just like using print media for an external audience, workroom flyers are a great way to target an often overlooked talent pool–current employees. Current employees offer knowledge of company culture and goals–and can often jump the “new hire learning curve”. Post flyers with QR codes in break rooms to promote vacancies and show your company’s commitment to internal growth.
  • Transportation – Take your message wherever you go by adding a QR code to your company vehicle via car wraps. It’s company mobility with a mobile message.
  • Receipts – Hospitality, service, and retail industry leaders, in particular, take note. The next time a receipt is provided to your customers, make sure a QR code to your job openings is included at the bottom. Your loyal customers might become your best employees!

Better Hiring with QR Codes

QR codes provide a tremendous amount of data with a quick, simple scan. This helps employers track the effectiveness of recruitment marketing strategies, like print and other display content. And it simplifies the application process by giving job seekers the power to conveniently apply on mobile devices, giving them a way to “apply on the fly”.

QR codes communicate directly to audiences–safely, quickly and thoroughly. As HR professionals, we seek to make the applicant experience impactful, timely, and accessible. Hiring with QR codes helps you achieve this and much more!

 

ExactHire ATS makes it easy for employers to deploy QR Codes in the hiring process, contact us today to learn more.

 

 

6 Signs Your Onboarding Process Needs Improvement

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How’s your employee onboarding process? Many companies are eager for their new hires to be off and running in their new roles. After all, that empty chair costs the company money in terms of lost productivity and hiring costs. It takes, on average, 42 days to find a new employee. And hiring a new employee costs $4,000, on average.

But if you think the work of hiring new employees ends with their first day, you’re missing an opportunity to improve every aspect of your business. Onboarding new employees effectively improves employee engagement, increases the new hire’s productivity, and contributes to a positive company culture that creates a cohesive team.

Revamping your onboarding process can solve a surprising number of seemingly unrelated problems. This article touches upon 6 signs your onboarding process needs improvement.

Your New Hire Time-to-Productivity Exceeds Six Months

One survey found that new hires take a year or longer to be fully productive at 30% of companies. And while those companies wait for new hire’s to become productive, their colleagues get overburdened with filling in the productivity gaps.

In reality, a comprehensive onboarding process can bring most new hire’s up to speed within three months, or six months for mid-level positions. Creating an onboarding process checklist that includes training modules and digital access to important documents will help new hires learn vital information independently.

You’ll always know how far new hire’s have progressed in their training. And coworkers won’t be saddled with training the basics in addition to their own responsibilities.

You See New Hires Leaving Before Their First-Year Anniversary

If you’re losing a significant number of new hires before their first-year anniversary, you need a better onboarding process.

The Work Institute’s 2020 Retention Report found that nearly 40% of new hire’s left the company within their first year. Of those, 2 out of 3 leave within the first six months. The reasons these new hires leave vary, but include work environment, well-being, career development and other reasons that can be avoided with a thoughtful onboarding process.

A welcoming onboarding process that takes into account the new hire’s needs and career goals will help stem the tide of exiting employees. Include items on your onboarding checklist that insert the new hire into your company’s fabric. Make one of those items a goal-setting session, where the new hire can express their professional aspirations and explore ways your company can support them. After setting meaningful goals, there should be a mutually agreed upon plan to check in at regular intervals. In this way, the new hire can see how the company is invested in their development.

Your Employee Engagement Survey Reveals Unhappy Workers

Having an engaged workforce improves several business outcomes, including customer ratings, product quality and safety measures. Overall, engagement makes your company more profitable.

Engagement is almost always connected with an employer meeting a new hire’s expectations. Your employee onboarding process, along with your hiring process, is critical to setting expectations for new hires. And so it’s not only important to provide a welcoming, fun, and comfortable experience, it’s important provide the new hire with honest, realistic expectations of what success looks like in their role.

When you create an onboarding checklist and training schedule tailored to each position, you help new hires know exactly what is expected of them. Additionally, things like making sure that new hires have all their equipment on day one, or asking for their feedback on their onboarding experience, will set the stage for a highly engaged, long-term employee.

Need more proof  of how employee onboarding impacts employee engagement? Gallup developed a survey with 12 “yes” or “no” questions to measure engagement.  All 12 areas of engagement could be directly linked to onboarding and the new hire’s early employment experience.

New Hires Quit, Citing Poor Company Culture

Company culture is another one of those employee experience items that have a big impact on your company’s success. According to this article in MIT Sloan Management Review, employees leaving during the Great Resignation cite a toxic culture as the most common reason.

In today’s job market, new hires will judge company culture fairly quickly and leave if they are unsatisfied–there’s no sense wasting time working for an organization where they feel unappreciated, used, or uncomfortable. The employer will only receive the benefit of the doubt for a short time.

The elements of a toxic culture vary, but they are easily sniffed out early–during the onboarding process. Employees may feel that management is disrespectful. Or they may witness unethical behavior. Essentially, anything that has a negative impact on your employee’s onboarding experience will be seen as proof of a poor company culture.

So onboarding is a golden opportunity to take the reins and steer your new hires and your company culture in a positive direction. Use your onboarding checklist to introduce your company’s mission and values to your new hire. Educate your new employee on your company’s history. And tie your new hire’s role the company’s larger purpose.

You Play Moderator Too Often When Employees Don’t Get Along

Constantly bickering employees are the result of a poor company culture. The whole team suffers when employees don’t get along. The negative energy impacts everyone, engagement plummets, and the drama can escalate to sabotage that hurts a company’s bottom line.

Onboarding employees effectively means introducing employees to their colleagues as well as the company. You can set the foundation for friendly and respectful relationships during the onboarding process. Without a formalized, purposeful onboarding process–one that supports a clearly defined company culture–employees are left to create their own culture, which is a lost opportunity to build trust and respect of leadership.

So it’s critical to effectively introduce a new hire to all areas–and all people–of a company. For example, part of your onboarding process could include sending new hires to work one day in each department. Doing so will help prevent the creation of silos that often lead to misunderstandings, which in turn can develop into organizational disfunction.

Gallup’s research shows that having a best friend at work increases productivity and reduces turnover. So it’s wise to use the onboarding process to help your new hires develop friendships. Doing so will not only increase your team’s harmony, but also improve retention.

You can jumpstart your hire’s new friendships by adding a few simple steps to the onboarding checklist. Assign a workplace buddy to help the new hire acclimate to the unspoken rules of the office. Have the new hire fill out a questionnaire or write a short bio to post on the company’s intranet. Host a monthly lunch to bring new hire’s together.

You Worry About HR Compliance and Risk Management

A regulatory fine costs businesses an average of about $30,000. Much of a company’s regulatory burden is HR related. Failing to maintain employee documentation or thoroughly track hiring decisions can land your company in hot water with a government agency.

Poor record-keeping can also leave you vulnerable to a lawsuit. If an applicant files a discrimination lawsuit, are you confident you’ll be able to find all the documentation surrounding your hiring decision? If your onboarding process checklist doesn’t include important safety trainings, you could be liable for significant damages if an employee injures himself.

Your risks are far greater if your onboarding process doesn’t include digitized paperwork with varying degrees of password protected security. And if the risks of sloppy organization of HR-related paperwork isn’t keeping you up at night, it should.

How to Improve Employee Onboarding

A comprehensive employee onboarding checklist that considers the employee’s needs as well as the company’s will solve a host of HR related issues. Start by analyzing various company-wide problems that develop among employees and teams. Issues such as low engagement and poor workplace culture contribute to poor retention and stunted profits.

Studies show time and time again that creating a workplace culture that contributes to your employees’ overall well-being will improve your company’s success. Higher retention, fewer safety-related incidents, better product quality, and improved innovation are the byproducts of happy employees.

Your onboarding efforts set the stage for your employees’ engagement. The more effort you put into your new hire’s development during that crucial first year, the less you’ll ultimately spend on your hiring efforts.

Take your onboarding to the next level with onboarding software. Doing so, you’ll automate much of the tedious record-keeping associated with hiring. The checklists, training modules and role assignments will keep your onboarding process on track. Most importantly, you’ll free up your time for implementing creative onboarding ideas.

Are you ready to take your onboarding process to the next level? Contact ExactHire today.

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Best Ways to Attract Applicants to Apply

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If you’re having trouble attracting talent to your workplace, you’re not alone. The U.S. has 11 million job openings, but only 7.7 million applicants to fill them. That means companies like yours have to work hard to attract applicants. The big fish like McDonald’s and Amazon are raising their wages to recruit candidates.

But small and medium-sized businesses, still reeling from the pandemic’s economic downturn, can’t write big paychecks to attract employees. Many small businesses are getting by on shortened hours and fewer employees. But these emergency measures can only work for so long before customers start taking their business elsewhere.

Fortunately, unemployment claims are finally inching downward. But that isn’t a light at the end of the tunnel. The U.S. is still missing over 4 million workers who are sitting out the labor force because of COVID concerns, family obligations, and other reasons. Small and medium-sized businesses are still in a cut-throat competition with big chains to attract quality talent. Luckily, many of the best ways to attract applicants don’t require deep corporate pockets.

Get Job Applicants to Apply

Figuring out how to get job applicants to apply to your company begins with your employer brand and your employer value proposition. In other words, what are you doing to make your company a place where people want to work?

Start by checking your company’s reviews on Glassdoor, LinkedIn, and Indeed. These sites will give you valuable feedback about what employees really think about working for your company. They also influence candidates, who will forgo applying to your company if they read negative reviews.

But don’t wait for employees to voice their grievances online. Consider conducting an anonymous employee survey to uncover potential problems as well as those things that make you a great employer. Most importantly, after you’ve collected your feedback, act on it.

Consider also the obstacles job seekers are facing. Nearly 1.5 million of those missing from the workforce are mothers with school-aged children. Schools may be welcoming children back into the buildings, but parents still aren’t off the hook when it comes to COVID. As the virus sweeps through the classrooms, children are forced home to quarantine or recover. Revisit your policies and examine ways you can support working parents juggling jobs and children.

Many workers are also staying home due to COVID concerns. Vulnerable populations are still susceptible to serious illness, even with a vaccine. Unemployed workers caring for aging parents or unvaccinated children may be waiting until the virus is better controlled. You can encourage these employees to return to the workforce by maintaining your COVID precautions or implementing a remote work policy.

Best Place to Find Job Candidates

To know how to find good candidates for jobs, you need to know the best places to go. Most companies assume they’ll find the best candidates on Indeed and LinkedIn. But there are countless job sites out there, and your ideal applicants may be on smaller, niche job boards.

Are you tracking recruitment success rates across job sites? If you use an ATS that includes applicant source reports, you can know which sites are the best places to source employees for your industry. ExactHire ATS can filter source reporting by applicant status, so you’ll know which job sites are netting low quality talent and wasting your time.

Use social media to boost your online recruiting success. The people who follow you on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram already have a positive view of your company. Even if these users aren’t looking for a job themselves, chances are they know someone who is. Take advantage of your followers’ social connections to find job candidates.

Don’t rely solely on the internet to source talent. Take advantage of job fairs, universities, and your local employment office. Implement an employee referral bonus. According to Statista, referrals were a close second to LinkedIn as the most effective source for staffing firms. New hires are more likely to become successful long-term employees when they come from an existing employee’s network.

Create a talent pool of previous applicants to source your future hiring needs. Oftentimes, your hiring decision is a close call between two or more applicants. You can keep in touch with those who didn’t get the job. Of course, you need to implement a stellar candidate experience so rejected candidates will still want to work for your company.

Creative Ways to Attract Talent

These basics will go a long way in helping you attract and retain talent. But in the current labor shortage, you’ll need creative ways to attract candidates.

When you’ve ironed out your employer value proposition and you know the core benefits your company offers employees, create content to get the word out. Your branded careers site is the perfect place to showcase employees’ individual accomplishments. You can also create videos to give candidates a feel for what it’s like day-to-day in your workplace.

Create a lot of recruitment-related content and spread it around the internet. Think about all the things potential applicants want to know about your company. For example, on Medium.com, you’ll find articles about “How to Get a Job at Amazon” and the “5 Things You Need to Know Get a Job at Facebook.” You can post workplace photos on Instagram and links on Twitter. Or upload recruiting videos that highlight your culture to YouTube.

Consider joining a virtual job fair or hosting your own. If you haven’t seen job fairs in your local community, it could be that they’ve gone virtual. Search for virtual fairs locally as well as nationally to recruit candidates interested in moving. You can also create your own job fair. You can create a space in which job seekers can learn more and ask questions. Then, you can create meeting rooms where hiring managers can interview attendees.

Outside-the-Box Recruiting Strategies for Conversion

Up until now, we’ve focused on getting job seekers to want to work for your company. Now, it’s time to get them to want to complete your job application. The sad fact is most job seekers quit the application process. If you want to increase the number of completed applications you receive, think outside-the-box and consider your candidates’ perspective.

Your ideal candidate either already has a job or is so motivated to work that she’s made finding work her job. Either way, she’s too busy to fill out a long, complicated job application. And with so many jobs available, she doesn’t have to.

Make sure your application takes less than 15 minutes to complete. Your employer branding efforts may convince job seekers your workplace is amazing. But that doesn’t mean they’ll spend half a day filling out your job application.

Many candidates prefer the convenience of their mobile device when searching for jobs. Hourly workers may only have access to a smartphone. And many Millennials prefer using their smartphones to fill out job applications. In other words, regardless of the position for which you are hiring, you’ll attract more applicants if your careers page and application are mobile friendly.

Make sure your branded careers site contains an Applicant FAQs page. You can improve your candidate experience by providing an overabundance of information. Applicants will want to know how long the application will take, how to apply to multiple positions, and how to check on the status of their application, to name a few questions.

Your careers site and application form are your candidates’ first interaction with your company. Making these pages mobile-friendly and easy to use is your first step in creating an exceptional candidate experience. Your candidates’ experience continues during the interviewing and hiring phase.

HR Best Practices for Interviewing and Hiring

You can improve your candidates’ experience during the interviewing and hiring phase with these HR best practices.

  • Clearly communicate during each phase of the hiring process using the candidate’s preferred method. An ATS that incorporates text recruiting, message templates and interview scheduling can help.
  • Introduce interviewees to the team and take them on a tour of the workplace. You’ll demystify your workplace and allay candidates’ anxieties.
  • Provide a lot of information. Tell candidates whom they’ll meet with. Give them detailed instructions on where to park and what to wear. And tell them what to expect from your hiring process and your timeline.
  • Follow-up with candidates who didn’t get the job. Give them gentle feedback and ask them for feedback about their experience. And don’t forget to wish them well in their job search.

A massive labor shortage on the heels of a debilitating pandemic is pushing too many small and medium-sized businesses into survival mode. But you can get back to your regular business hours and get on with serving your customers with these best ways to attract talent.

Attract applicants to apply by developing your employer brand and make genuine efforts to be a great place to work. Remove obstacles that are holding back 1.4 billion Americans from searching for a job. Then get creative with your recruiting efforts. Finally, create an exceptional candidate experience and create a talent pool to invite past candidates to apply again.

You have to work harder to attract applicants to apply to your company. But an ATS can make your recruiting efforts more efficient and save you time. Using ATS data and reporting features will help you implement the best strategies for finding candidates and avoiding time-wasters.

Contact ExactHire today to find out how our ATS can help you find quality applicants.

 

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

How Do I Post a Job Ad for Free? And Should I Pay?

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The talent shortage of 2021 has many companies expanding the rate at which they post jobs online for free. If you’re looking to post a job for free on Indeed or any of the other online job boards available, you may feel overwhelmed.

There are plenty of choices for free job advertising and even more choices for paid job postings. When deciding where to advertise a job for free or when to pay to post jobs online, strategy is key. Create a winning strategy with data analytics to help you find great workers when you post jobs online.

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Attract the Right Candidates with a Free Job Ad

There are nearly as many job openings as there are people looking for work. And although there is a willing worker for each job opening, every recruiter knows only a small percentage of applicants will make a great new hire. Recruiters who post a job for free online increase their chances of attracting quality applicants.

But applying to a free job posting is easy and quick. That’s why when you advertise a job for free online, you also risk attracting unqualified candidates. So, while free job advertising on sites like Indeed and LinkedIn is a crucial component of a successful recruitment strategy, use these tips to attract high-quality candidates while discouraging unqualified candidates.

Be clear about qualifications. Whether it’s a bachelor’s degree or a welder’s certification, be clear about what you need. But don’t raise qualifications just to cut down on the number of resumes you need to weed through. Imposing unnecessary qualifications on a job may be discriminatory. And needless educational requirements may exclude diverse candidates with hard-to-teach soft skills.

Be clear about less desirable aspects of the job. When recruiters advertise a job for free online, they sometimes gloss over unsavory traits of the position. Neglecting to mention things like mandatory overtime may net a greater number of applicants. But you risk a poor fit and costly employee turnover if wait until your new hire clocks in to break bad news.

Write a job description tailored to your ideal new hire. Think about all the reasons a hard-working, go-getting team player wants to work for your company. Opportunity for overtime? Advancement opportunity? Tuition reimbursement? When you advertise a job for free online highlighting these benefits, you’ll attract employees driven to succeed—and discourage those without the work ethic to take advantage of these rewards.

Optimize Your Free Job Posting

With 9.2 million open positions out there, you may be tempted to pay to get your free job advertisement in front of candidates. Sometimes it makes sense to pay for advertising to find your new hire when you post jobs online.

For example, you may occasionally have a professional position to fill. Open positions for which there are fewer qualified candidates and those that have a larger impact on your operations may benefit from a sponsored job posting. For other positions with higher turnover, you can get good results by optimizing job ads when you post a job for free on Indeed or any other free job boards.

You can start by making a list of all the words candidates will use to find your open position. Now search for positions on sites such as LinkedIn or Indeed using the keywords. Make a note of how often each job posting uses your keyword, keeping in mind the first few results are likely sponsored. Now aim to use your keyword more often than the other job posting on the first page of results.

Stagger Your Job Ad on Free Job Posting Sites

When you post a job for free, you steadily go down in results pages as your job ad ages. You can keep your job posting on the first page of search results when you stagger the sites on which you advertise a job for free.

Job seekers use more than one site to look for jobs. Your new job ad may appear on the first page of results when you post a job for free on Indeed. Then as that ad ages, it’s less likely to appear at the top of search results regardless of keyword optimization.

When your free job posting slips to the second page on Indeed, you can post a job for free on LinkedIn. Candidates who don’t find your aging free job ad on Indeed will be more likely to find it on LinkedIn. By staggering the sites on which you post a job for free, you attract more job seekers by extending the life of your free job advertising campaign.

Get Your Job on Google Results Pages

Here’s another reason to stagger your job postings. Positions listed on many online job boards also appear in Google for jobs results. When candidates search Google for “administrative positions in Cleveland,” Google aggregates open positions across job boards on its results page. Candidates can click on the ad from Google and apply right on your branded careers site.

Make Posting a Job for Free Easier with Applicant Tracking Software

Don’t have a branded careers site? That’s too bad because having a branded careers site will make posting a job for free easier. When you post jobs for free online, many job sites will ask if you already have a careers site where applicants can apply. Without an online application, you’re stuck creating questions for candidates on each free job board.

ExactHire’s applicant tracking system includes a branded careers site where candidates can search open positions and apply, even from their cell phones. But there are other ways an applicant tracking system will make it easier for you to post a job for free online. Using ExactHire’s ATS system, you can create your job ad and post it to as many free job sites and social media platforms as you want with a single click. The ATS will store all of your passwords and will streamline the process you use to post a job for free.

You can also use ExactHire’s applicant source reports to find out which advertising methods work best in your recruitment campaigns. You’ll be able to see the performance metrics for each free job site on the same screen. Over time, you can fine tune your recruitment strategy to save time and money while reducing employee turnover.

Are you ready to learn more about how ExactHire’s ATS can make your free job advertising campaigns more successful? Contact us today.

Photo by Souvik Banerjee on Unsplash

 

 

 

How Do I Create an Online Job Application?

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If you’re like most employers, the current worker shortage has you rethinking your hiring strategy. This is especially true in industries like construction, restaurant, and home service. Perhaps in the past you’ve been able to avoid implementing an online job application without sacrificing the quality of applicants you attract. But if you’re one of the thousands of businesses forced to shorten hours or reduce the number of customers you can serve because you don’t have enough workers, you can’t afford to not have an online job application.

But how do you go about creating an online job application? Even after you create an online job application, you’ll have other difficulties to puzzle out. You need to get the application onto your website. And as long as you’re going digital, isn’t there an easy way to capture all that candidate information and sort it to find your best new hires?

Benefits of Online Job Application Forms

Considering how complex creating an online job application seems to be, it’s understandable if you’re still handing applicants a paper form. But you’re missing out on great new hires if you don’t give job seekers a chance to apply online.

According to Pew Research, 77 percent of Americans own a computer. And 85 percent own a smartphone. Digital access means a majority of job seekers go online to find their next job. Online resources outpace other, more traditional ways to look for work, including personal or professional networks, job fairs and employments agencies.

You risk losing out if you require job seekers to open their email application, paste an email address, and attach their resume. The best candidates won’t bother hopping in their cars to drive to your location to fill out a paper form, either. Including an easy-to-complete online job application within your job ad will help you hook the right talent before they click over to your competitor’s job ad.

You’ll see the most benefits from your online job application form if it’s mobile-friendly. Pew Research also says that more than half of young adults use a smartphone during a job search. Overall, 41 percent of smartphone users have used their smartphone during a job search. Smartphone owners are even using their mobile devices for complex tasks. Half have used their smartphone to fill out a job application. These smartphone-wielding job seekers will pass over your job ad if you don’t create a mobile-friendly job application.

Job seekers prefer online job applications for obvious reasons. They don’t have to travel to your location to fill out a paper application. Applicants can take their time answering the questions on your online job application. And if your careers site is mobile-friendly, they can fill out the application almost anywhere. Workers who have multiple jobs or children can fill out applications more easily online than in person.

Simple Employment Application Form

Now that you’re convinced of the benefits of an online job application, how do you go about putting one together? A simple job application form format is your best strategy to get more job candidates. The online job application you create should take no more than 15 minutes to complete and should include fewer than 20 questions. Your online job application should be easy to find within your job ad with a link that says “apply online now.”

Just like with your paper application, you should examine your simple job application form for potential legal liabilities. Education requirements that go beyond the knowledge necessary for the job or questions about criminal history may make you vulnerable to discrimination claims.

Your online job application must be mobile-friendly to attract young people or candidates without computers. You can create a mobile-friendly online job application by including drop-down menus or check boxes where possible. To create a truly mobile-friendly form, you’ll need to understand tech-savvy issues such as responsive design and programming.

Simplicity isn’t just for your job applicants. An online job application should be easy to create and should make your hiring process easier. That inexpensive solution may be prohibitive if your team struggles for hours to understand it. Or a blank job application form in a Word document may not be all that convenient if you’re printing it and throwing in a stack just like your old-fashioned paper applications.

Online Employment Application Software

You’ll reap the most benefits when you choose the right online employment application software. Look for these benefits and capabilities.

  • Flexibility. Your company is exceptional, and you’re looking for a standout new hire. Run-of-the-mill application questions won’t cut it. You want the ability to create custom questions to find candidates that fulfill your unique needs.
  • Mobile-friendly. You’re missing out on a major benefit of a paperless job application if it isn’t mobile-friendly. A free online job application form may seem attractive until you try to complete it on your smartphone. Remember, a third of applicants—and half of young adults—will pass over your online application if it isn’t mobile-friendly.
  • Data-capture. What’s the point of going digital if you’re printing applications and sorting them by hand? When you capture applicant data and store it digitally, you’ll be able to sort applicants and find the people with the skills you need.

This final point is key, and the benefits of data-capture don’t stop there. Over time, you can build a talent pool to draw upon for future open positions. When it comes time to file compliance reports, a few clicks of your mouse will gather the required data. Pairing your online application with applicant tracking software will also help you hone your application process. You’ll know which sites net the best applicants and which online application questions most effectively narrow the field.

 

Choosing the Right HR Software

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Applicant Tracking System or Online Application?

An online job application will improve the applicant experience and increase the number of applicants you receive. But without an applicant tracking system (ATS), you risk wasting time thumbing through applications or overlooking quality candidates altogether. When you use an ATS , you’ll easily be able to create an online job application and much more.

Create multiple applications with an ATS. Some positions only require a one-step application, while other positions should have multi-step applications. You can even create an internal application for current employees.

Work within an intuitive, easy-to-use interface. Our applicant tracking system allows you to choose from a library of application questions or create your own. You can also choose the best format for the answers, such as text box or multiple choice.

Direct applicants to a branded careers site. Don’t require your applicants to download a job application form or a Word document. Instead, improve your applicant’s perception of your brand with a careers site in which they can fill out your online job application.

Make it easy for smartphone users to find and apply to jobs. Chances are, at least a few of your positions are generally filled with a demographic that primarily uses their smartphone. ExactHire’s online job application is always mobile friendly, without any of the compatibility problems you’ll find with free online employment application software.

Easily sort candidates. With your current paper system, are you able to know at a glance why a candidate wasn’t hired? Using an applicant tracking system, you can create a list of applicant codes. Using these codes, you can always know what prompted a candidate’s advancement to the next step in the hiring process. And you’ll always know the reasons candidates were disqualified.

Final Thoughts on Creating an Online Job Application

Up until now, you probably considered digital job applications a costly addition fit for larger companies. But the current worker shortage has probably shown you that neglecting online job seekers is far more expensive. Don’t waste your valuable time trying to figure out complicated free online employment application software. Instead, let ExactHire create a customized, scaled solution for your hiring needs.

 

Photo by Rodion Kutsaev on Unsplash

 

 

What Is Programmatic Job Advertising?

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Have you ever wished your recruitment advertisement strategy could target your ideal job candidate with as much precision as Instagram when it showed you that goat-shaming Farmers Insurance ad? After all, if the internet can know you go ga-ga over baby goats and you’re insuring two teenage drivers, then why can’t it deliver your job ad to experienced IT candidates in the local area who know SQL?

The targeted ads you’ve been noticing—the ones that seem tailored-made for you—are the result of a thing called programmatic advertising. These nifty algorithms are traditionally the domain of tech giants and commercial marketers. But in recent years, the recruitment industry has been taking notice. Hundreds of job boards, along with crappy candidates crowding out the champions, leave recruiters wondering if there’s a better way.

There is, and the better way is called programmatic job advertising.

Programmatic job advertising brings targeted ads to job seekers. Using programmatic job postings, companies can create job advertising campaigns that zero in on the best candidates, wherever they may be on the internet. Job ads appear on the right site, at the right time, just when the right candidate will see it. But programmatic job advertising does so much more.

Programmatic Advertising

Advertising on the Internet is nothing new. We all remember the flashy banner ads on Myspace. What is new is programmatic advertising that uses big data, machine learning, and predictive analytics to target the right audience.

When your grandfather told you “Nothing in life is free,” he might as well have been talking about all those free apps on your devices. It’s no secret that everything we do digitally is stored in a cybernated profile. Programmatic advertising uses this information, collectively known as “big data,” to target consumers.

Don Draper and the rest of the “Mad Men” only had standard demographics to work with when creating audience profiles. Big data adds hundreds of input fields to create a complete analysis of an ad’s intended audience.

All those factoids are too much for humans to interpret and act upon. Enter machine learning. Software can analyze the data and match ads with users most likely to convert. The software will always make the best choices using algorithms that analyze all that big data.

The ad’s performance metrics are fed back into the algorithm. When this performance data is factored into the big data, the software can make better matches in the future. Predictive analytics is what happens when machine learning produces increasingly better results.

But the software doesn’t stop there. Programmatic advertising completely automates the purchasing and managing of advertising space. Programmatic advertising software can find sites and purchase or bid on space within a spending budget set by the user. Humans can always step in and make adjustments. Programmatic advertising platforms take the grunt work out of marketing campaigns while making them more efficient and effective.

Programmatic advertising is why you see an ad from REI for a mirrored sighting compass after you purchase “A Walk in the Woods” from Amazon.

Recruitment Advertisement

Despite the advantages of programmatic job advertisement, most companies still use traditional recruitment strategies to place job ads.

Traditional recruitment advertisement operates a lot like those old Myspace ads. Recruiters hand-select the job boards to which they wanted to post. They log into each one individually, then purchase space and upload their ad. They cross their fingers and wait.

Traditional recruitment advertisement doesn’t have the advantage of big data. Recruiters can’t know which job board has the most forklift operators or which ones have the most active users in their area. Traditional recruitment advertisements are basically a crap shoot in which recruiters hope they’re posting to the right jobs site at the right time.

Aptitude Research, a Boston-based advisory firm, estimates recruiters waste 40 percent of their advertising budget with traditional job advertising. According to Aptitude’s founder, Madeline Laurano, “Traditional job advertising is expensive, inefficient and, at times, ineffective.”

Applicant tracking software can help improve the efficiency of job advertising with one-click posting and single screen analytics. Recruiters who use an ATS can increase job seeker conversion with a branded careers site and a multi-step application. ATS can also streamline other recruitment-related tasks such as HR compliance reporting.

Pairing applicant tracking software with compatible programmatic job advertising software can help companies zero in on the best candidates, wherever they may be. The result is a recruitment juggernaut that finds and converts the best candidates, then streamlines and optimizes every step of the selection process.

Programmatic Job Advertising in Recruitment

Programmatic job advertising by definition will help you reach the right candidates, wherever they may be. With the help of programmatic job advertising platforms, your job ads will appear on the job boards where your ideal candidates are hanging out. Glassdoor and Monster cater to different types of job seekers. Your job ad will appear on the best choice, whether you are looking for an operations manager or a forklift operator. Your best job candidates aren’t spending all their time on job boards. Programmatic job advertising software will place your ads on sites you may not have considered.

HGS, a business process management company, pivoted to mostly programmatic job advertising from traditional job advertising in response to the pandemic. To keep their workforce safe and healthy, HGS closed their call center doors. Their newly remote workforce meant that HGS could recruit from almost anywhere in the U.S. and Canada, rather than the few physical locations they previously operated. Casting a wider net in a larger talent pool meant their job advertising costs ballooned. Programmatic job advertising helped reign those costs in while improving time-to-hire.

According to Trish Robb, the General Manager of North American Recruitment and Talent Management at HGS, “With some of the time that we’ve gained back, our team has been able to focus on other recruitment marketing strategies, like engaging with talent through our social media channels, creating virtual job previews, responding to employee reviews and improving our reputation as an employer.”

Affordable Programmatic Job Posting

In the aftermath of the pandemic and the current labor shortage, HR teams are looking to programmatic job advertising to save money and find great candidates. According to Aptitude’s research, companies that use programmatic job advertising improve their time-to-hire as well as the quality of their new hire. Filling open positions quickly with top talent is the first step to improving employee retention.

With hundreds of job boards available, both you and your advertising budget can get overwhelmed. Programmatic job advertising software will help you effectively branch out to the most effective niche sites without wasting money on ineffective job boards. The algorithms written into programmatic job advertising software will use real-time data to adjust the software’s recruitment strategy.

When you use programmatic job advertising in recruitment, you can rely on predictive analytics and algorithms to make the most efficient use of your recruitment budget. You can avoid wasting money purchasing paid advertising on sites or for open positions that perform well through less expensive posting options. Programmatic recruitment marketing platforms will identify the open positions that aren’t receiving enough applicants. The programmatic job posting software will then your recruitment spending into those positions by purchasing ads on the optimal sites.

Final Thoughts About Programmatic Job Advertising

Whether you’re hiring hundreds of high-turnover positions each year or searching for a unicorn with mad JavaScript skills, you can use programmatic job advertising to reduce your costs and free up your time for other recruitment activities.

After all, posting job ads are just one part of a comprehensive recruitment strategy. Rather than spending your time analyzing your recruitment ROI across dozens of job sites, let programmatic job advertising software send your job ads to platforms where your best candidates are hanging out. You can focus on boosting your employer brand and selecting the best new hire.

Are you ready to dive deeper into the cost-saving possibilities of programmatic job advertising? Contact our solutions team for a personalized demonstration.

 

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How Much Does Onboarding Software Cost?

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Companies may be breathing a collective sigh of relief now that the vaccines have arrived. The end of the pandemic is in sight. Economic recovery can begin.

Not so fast.

Have you thought about what the pandemic’s end means for your employees? A new survey says one in four of them will be quitting your company. Eagle Hill Consulting released a survey that indicates 25 percent of employees are planning to leave their jobs once the pandemic is over. The number climbs to 33 percent for Millennials and parents with children who are remote learning.

People will be leaving their jobs for a variety of reasons. But their departures will mean one thing for your company: rising employee turnover. Low employee retention can cost your organization thousands. As you prepare for future recruiting, you can also incorporate strategies to reduce employee turnover.

Effective onboarding increases employee retention by 82 percent.

You can prepare now for the new hires in your future. And by doing so, you can improve what may be the most important ingredient for creating high employee retention: your onboarding process. Effective onboarding increases employee retention by 82 percent. Onboarding software can further reduce your costs while improving your new employees’ experience.

Estimating the Price of Employee Onboarding Software

Before you can know the true cost of anything, you have to know the price you’re paying for not having it. You can’t calculate the ROI of best employee onboarding software until you know what your current onboarding process is costing you.

First, there’s the hours spent onboarding new hires. Someone in your organization is printing off those new hire forms and putting together the new employee packets. Your new hire is spending time completing the forms and handwriting the same information multiple times. Then the documents make their way to someone who inputs the information into a variety of software, databases, and spreadsheets.

Then there’s the not-so-straightforward hours spent onboarding employees. Someone is charged with chasing down forms when they’re not completed on time. That same person searches for forms that long-term employees completed on their first day. Has a sales person ever left your company for a competitor and there was nothing you could do about it because the non-compete form he signed a decade ago was MIA?

Next, consider the obscure number of hours spent training the new employee. These numbers are difficult to estimate if you’re not using employee onboarding software. Chances are, employees are stepping in to help when they can. Without onboarding software to outline a training plan, your new hire’s introduction to your company is an ad hoc assortment of good intentions and tedious forms.

Now you’re probably wondering, what does employee onboarding software do to improve the onboarding process? Software will streamline your onboarding process, saving both time and money. You’ll improve your new hire’s experience, increasing employee retention. Over time, you’ll collect data which can be used to further improve your onboarding process. You’ll find the cost savings and benefits make onboarding software essential to an effective and affordable employee onboarding process.

Factors that Affect the Price of Software

The price you pay for your new software will depend, in part, on how many employees you typically hire per year. As you consider what features you need from your employee onboarding software, also consider the current cost to onboard new hires at your organization.

New Hire Onboarding Packet: Your employee onboarding forms can be digitized for efficiency and to reduce errors. The information entered into electronic I-9 and W-4 forms can seamlessly integrate with your payroll software. Onboarding software also includes E-Verify integration, and electronic signatures are legally binding.

Company Policy Manual: Are you sure your new employees actually read your workplace and sexual harassment policies? You can integrate all of your new hire’s training into the onboarding software with training modules. These modules will educate your new hire on your company policies and ensure they have the necessary knowledge with short quizzes.

Assign Tasks with Email Reminders: With software, you can create a customized workflow for the onboarding process with tasks. You can assign each task to a stakeholder. This person will then receive email reminders to mark the task as complete within the software. Everyone will know their roles. You’ll always know where the onboarding process stands.

These are just some of the affordable onboarding software features to consider when you calculate the ROI of onboarding software. Onboarding software will also assist with various federal compliance tasks, such as reporting and security measures that keep information confidential.

Choosing the Right Onboarding Software for Small Businesses

When you decide to buy employee onboarding software, you may find companies that sell onboarding solutions cater to large organizations. Not only are these providers more expensive, they may not offer the level of HR support as a provider catering to small and mid-sized businesses.

Look for a provider that offers customer support for onboarding software tailored to SMB. A support team that is SHRM-certified will give you the detailed HR support small and mid-sized businesses need. And a realistic timeline expectation–or even a guarantee–for software implementation, along with a money-back guarantee, mean less risk for SMBs.

When considering how to choose employee onboarding software, look for E-Verify integration and comprehensive support features. In addition to HR-related support, you’ll want in-house technical support staff. And of course, software that is cloud-based means you won’t need to invest in IT infrastructure.

Get a Price Estimate for Employee Onboarding Software

Before you get a price estimate for employee onboarding software, make sure you find a provider that can handle your unique employee onboarding process needs. As an SMB, you’ll need unlimited onboarding software customer support at no extra cost. Many so-called top HR software vendors target large corporations and may not provide unlimited, personalized support.

Also consider how your employee onboarding software will integrate with your other HR systems. “Best of breed” onboarding software can readily accommodate payroll and other HR software systems. By creating a seamless digital onboarding experience, you save time, reduce errors and improve your employees’ experience.

Regardless of your timeline for HR software implementation, make sure your provider won’t tack on additional hidden charges. Look for a pricing structure that is straightforward, where you won’t need to pay extra for support or implementation. And finally, ask if you can try onboarding software risk-free for a couple months.  With guaranteed support, a risk free trial period, and a solid set of onboarding features, you’ll be ready to decide whether the cost of employee onboarding software is worth it.

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What is the Best Employee Onboarding Process

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The benefits of effective employee onboarding are often overlooked. But, done correctly, onboarding will contribute to your organization’s financial health. When you make the effort to acclimate your new employees to their new roles, they will become productive more quickly and will stay longer.

Finding and training the right people is expensive, and you risk wasting financial resources if you don’t do everything you can to make your new hires successful. By creating an effective onboarding plan, you’re also shaping your company’s culture into an environment that bolsters teamwork.

Onboarding acclimates your new hires to the company and their position within it. The best employee onboarding process will steer new hires toward success in their roles and create alignment with the company’s culture and values.

New Employees and Getting Started

It’s easy to be overwhelmed when considering how to onboard a new employee. You’ll need to create an onboarding schedule that’s unique for each role, even though many tasks will be the same for all new hires. For example, every employee will need to know and understand your harassment policies, but those in management will require further training.

Additionally, there’s pressure to come up with creative new ways to onboard employees. Like most employers, you’re probably experiencing a shortage of qualified applicants. You don’t want to risk losing your new superstar under piles of employment forms and reels of outdated videos.  

COVID-19 has created yet another series of challenges as many human resource professionals wonder how to onboard new employees remotely. You can get started by breaking down the steps to onboard a new employee.

First, consider your onboarding goals. These goals will vary for each position. In general, the onboarding process should transform a new hire into a productive team member.

Determine the metrics you’ll use to measure how long it does take for a new employee to be productive. These metrics will become goals for the new hire. Determine the support your new hire will need to achieve each goal. Armed with this information, you’re ready to create an onboarding process flow chart.

Employee Joining Process Flow Chart

An employee onboarding process flow chart is a powerful visual tool because it creates benchmark deadlines. Your onboarding flow chart should take your onboarding processing from the preboarding stage through to the employee’s first annual review.

A team member should be assigned to each phase of the flow chart and a deadline should be assigned. Goals should be clearly communicated for each item. You can use onboarding software to manage communications and organize important documents.

Onboarding software can help you create a flow chart for the new hire training process. The flow chart you create with onboarding software can assign tasks to your onboarding team. The customized workflow can automate assignments and trigger reminders. Team members will be able to access files and reports from within the system.

Software can help you organize your onboarding process and save you time. Using software, you can easily create an onboarding process flow chart template for every position in your organization. New hires will be able to fill out their employment forms digitally and their information can seamlessly merge with your human resources system. Everyone on your team will spend less time inputting data and managing records.

New Employee Orientation

The best orientation practice will help your new employee understand how his role fits with the company’s larger picture. Orientation is your opportunity to present your company’s mission. This crucial introduction will help rally your employees around the company’s values. It’s a key component to creating a strong team.

Many organizations create games to make new employee orientation fun and memorable. You can create a mock game show using questions about the employee handbook. Or you can create an office scavenger hunt for new employees. To help new hires get to know their coworkers, give them an autograph book. Tell current employees to initiate a short get-to-know you conversation when they sign the book.

The best practices for employee onboarding will incorporate a technology perspective. You can use onboarding software to create training modules for your new hires. Use the triggering feature to avoid overwhelming employees. You can even send automatic reminders to gently nudge employees to complete training modules.

Onboarding software will come with free templates and checklists to make new employee orientation easier to manage. You can create new hire packets quickly and easily.

Virtual New Hire Orientation Ideas

COVID-19 has upended the onboarding process for many companies. If your organization operates in a state that has mandated work-at-home policies, you may be concerned about providing your new employees with the support they need. Even if your employees are able to work onsite, masks and social distancing policies may undercut your efforts at team building.

Now it’s even more critical to make sure new employees are able to build rapport with their coworkers. Advise supervisors and team members to check in with new employees while they learn to navigate their role in a pandemic world.

Many organizations have turned to creative ideas for new hire orientation during the pandemic. Make the most of virtual meetings. You can avoid “Zoom fatigue” by utilizing breakout rooms and doing interactive activities.

Team members can also create a welcome video for new hires. You can also encourage team members to have a virtual “coffee break” during which they can chat and get to know each other. You can use these techniques and others to encourage the socializing and relationship-building that happens naturally in the office.

Ideas for orientation can include a presentation for new hires during which the team can get to know each other with ice breaker questions. These ideas include employee orientation videos and PowerPoint slides that new hires can view remotely.

New Employee Welcome Packet PDF

You can send the digital portion of the welcome pack to the new hire’s email. Include welcome messages from the new hire’s manager and team members. Also include a link to the online benefits portal as well as their digital employment forms.

The welcome pack should include the things all new employees need to know. Include the company’s mission statement and organizational chart with the employee welcome booklet. The new employee welcome packet PDF should also include the company handbook and policies.

The welcome packet is also an opportunity for your new hire to get to know your brand. Throw in some company swag such as a t-shirt or a hat. Mix in professional items with fun items. A personal development book with something fun like a mini basketball net to go over the waste basket will foster productivity and creativity.

Your new employee will grow as she moves through the stages of the onboarding process. The welcome packet, orientation, training, productivity goals and ultimately the first year performance review should all be structured to support your employee’s success.

Employee Onboarding Process Flow

The key to a smooth onboarding process is a checklist. Software can help you easily create and customize a checklist for each position. You’ll be able to assign tasks and deadlines from within the application. Each stakeholder will be able to access the checklist and communicate from within the software.

The employee onboarding process should flow seamlessly from the preparation stage all the way to the first annual review. When you use onboarding software, you can track your progress and data so you can improve the onboarding checklist over time. You can create a questionnaire for new hire’s to complete at the end of their first year to find ways to improve your onboarding process.

If you’re wondering what the phases of the onboarding process are, we’ve broken it down for you here.

Employee Onboarding Process Summary

Strong job growth over the past decade and, more recently, the pandemic have forced organizations to get creative with their employee onboarding process. The talent shortage of the past few years has made hiring more difficult. COVID-19 has made it difficult for new hires to build relationships and acclimate within their new organizations.

The unique challenges companies face going into 2021 mean the employee onboarding process is more important than ever. By using digital tools to foster community and putting extra effort into team building, you can increase employee retention and build a stronger team.

Companies are finding it takes more than converting their welcome packet into a PDF file to meet the digital challenges during the pandemic era. As it becomes more difficult to find and keep talent, more companies are asking what is the best employee onboarding process that will reduce turnover.

But the best onboarding process hasn’t changed in these stormy times. A new set of challenges simply helps you see the solution more clearly. By seeing the onboarding process as an opportunity to support your employee’s success and develop a dynamic company culture, you can bolster your organization’s financial health. 

 

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Why Are Applicant Tracking Systems Important?

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It’s no easy feat being a hiring manager in the digital age.

A dozen online job boards means a dozen passwords and methods for posting openings. Over 150 million applicants are scouring those job search sites. Every position you post will likely receive hundreds of resumes. You have to sift through them all before you find the four to six candidates with the skills and experience to warrant an interview.

Or maybe you don’t. An applicant tracking system will give you the power to harness the digital age to make the most of your recruiting data.

You can let an applicant tracking system do the grunt work for you. The benefits of using software to track your hiring efforts go beyond saving a few clicks or tossing your password book. The built-in analytics that come with the system will help you hone your most effective hiring and retention practices. Ultimately, better candidates will become more valuable new hires with better retention rates.

Intro to Applicant Tracking Systems

An applicant tracking system will help you manage all your recruiting efforts, from posting the position to sending the offer letter and everything in between.

You’ll finally be able to post your open positions to multiple job boards and social media sites with just one click of your mouse. You’ll also be able to monitor your posting’s response across all those platforms. The data an applicant tracking system provides will help you optimize postings to attract higher quality candidates.

An applicant tracking system will allow you to customize your application for each position and location. You won’t need to depend on an individual job board’s capabilities. You can also use job screening questions to automatically rule out unqualified applicants. With an applicant tracking system, you can test your candidates’ resumes by requiring them to complete assessments.

Now that you have only qualified candidates in your job pool, you can begin sorting and applying status codes to applicants. An applicant tracking system can find resumes using keywords and other search parameters. You can save applicants and import them as potential candidates for future job openings.

An applicant tracking system doesn’t just make finding the perfect new hire easier. It also helps you track data for federal reporting purposes. You can automate the tasks and reports you require to ensure recruiting compliance. An applicant tracking system will even update the latest requirements to help you remain compliant.

Applicant Tracking System Features and Benefits

Applicant tracking software offers benefits and features throughout the hiring process.

Being able to attract more qualified candidates is just one applicant tracking system feature. For example, perhaps you’ve been too swamped to post your positions to more than a couple job boards. If so, you may have been missing out on your ideal applicant. With an applicant tracking system, you can post to multiple job websites with a single process.

Once job seekers find your posting, they can opt to apply for more than one job. The resumes and applications you receive can be saved for future job openings. With an applicant tracking system, you’ll be able to create a pool of applicants who have already expressed interest in working at your company.

You’ll be able to engage applicants on the devices they use the most. Millennials make up the largest demographic in the workforce. Your hiring process must be mobile friendly if you are going to reach the most candidates.

An applicant tracking system will make it easy for job seekers to post their resume and fill out your application from a mobile device. When it comes time to contact desirable candidates, you’ll be able to send text and email messages from within the applicant tracking system.

An applicant tracking system can improve the workflow of your entire hiring process. Everyone on the hiring team can work within the same platform. You can set up multiple users with varying levels of access. You’ll be able to set up interview questions and other documents for each position. You can search, sort and apply a status to applicants so only those who are most qualified are at the top of the pile.

From there, you can easily view all your communications with applicants. You’ll be able to schedule interviews. You can even disqualify candidates for future consideration. You can order background checks and send offer letters from within the program. Once you have your new hire, you can transfer all of her relevant information into employee onboarding software.

Applicant Tracking System Advantages

Companies spend billions each year in their recruiting efforts. Much of this cost comes from the time it takes to find, hire and train new employees. The cost is compounded when new hires leave before their first anniversary and hiring managers must go through the process all over again.

An applicant tracking system can help you reign in those costs. Many companies lack a centralized platform for their recruiting efforts. Job postings, resumes, and candidate communications are scattered in a slipshod collection of spreadsheets and filing cabinets.

An ATS offers features that you just can’t replicate. For example, the system can seamlessly integrate with online job boards. When an applicant tracking system is an Indeed partner, you’ll be able to allow candidates to view and start the application process for your job posting directly from Indeed. An applicant tracking system can upload a resume in PDF format to make it easy for job seekers on-the-go to quickly indicate their interest. Then, you may invite screened candidates to provide more information later in the selection process with a multi-step job application.

Putting your hiring documents and information in one easy-to-use platform will help you avoid wasting your team’s time. A robust platform that integrates with the latest hiring trends is better than learning how to build an ad hoc applicant tracking system with spreadsheets and a paper trail.

An applicant tracking system is better than an Excel template because it’s designed to parse through a large collection of data. Applicants will be loading their information into the system themselves when they apply on an easy-to-use job site featuring your company brand. From there, you’ll be able to search through applicant data without complex formulas. You’ll have simple searches and reports readily available.

With your system and hiring process in the cloud, you won’t need to rely on your company’s slow IT team. Your applicant tracking system also won’t be limited by the functional requirements of your company’s server. The scalability of an applicant tracking system means it can grow with your company.

Applicant Tracking System Disadvantages

Tracking applicants through an ATS doesn’t work for all employers.

It’s nice to have the capacity for data. But you’ll need to invest time for training stakeholders to manage the hiring process within an ATS system. For that reason, even stand-alone applicant tracking software is not for employers who hire rarely. And, an ATS that may be a part of an enterprise HRIS (human resources information system) is generally used by mid-sized organizations and larger businesses.

An applicant tracking system may not be necessary for employers that are not required to file recruiting compliance data. For example, businesses with fewer than 50 employees that also don’t have government contracts may not benefit from the data capabilities of an applicant tracking system. Such companies likely have just one person who manages the bulk of the hiring process using email folders, spreadsheets or a web form on their corporate website.

Characteristics of Top Applicant Tracking Systems

The best applicant tracking systems in 2020 bring candidates and the entire hiring team together. They’re more than a holding place for data. These platforms work harmoniously across users and sync across multiple websites.

Look for a platform that gives appropriate levels of access for all stakeholders. Your team will be able to collaborate from within the program. From the job’s qualifications to the interview questions, you’ll have an organized repository for the position’s important information.

A great hiring experience isn’t just important for your team. It’s essential for the applicants too. Look for a system that offers a customized online application on a jobs site that complements your branding.

The top applicant tracking systems in 2020 work seamlessly with the latest hiring trends to save time and money. But the savings don’t stop with the text recruiting feature. ATS analytic capabilities will help you zero in on the hiring practices that net you the best new hires. Increasing hiring efficiency is how many companies use applicant tracking systems.

Countless valuable features are why 98 percent of Fortune 500 companies rely on applicant tracking systems.

Perspective on the Applicant Tracking System Free Scan

One of the most powerful features of applicant tracking systems is their candidate profile scanning capabilities. You want to make sure the system you choose gets this feature right. Otherwise, the best candidates may float to the bottom of your talent pool if you can’t perform robust search queries.

Tech-savvy applicants will strive for an ATS-friendly resume. They may load their resumes with the keywords they think you’ll search for in your job scan. There are plenty of blog posts about applicant tracking system free scans online that may inform them and impact their perspective.

You don’t want a new hire who can manipulate the system. You want the best qualified candidate for your position.

Some online job boards offer an applicant tracking system free download. But these low-quality platforms don’t offer a robust job scan for candidate profiles. An applicant tracking system that’s free is not necessarily good for qualified job seekers and could sabotage your hiring efforts.

The digital age connects you with more highly qualified candidates than ever before. But if you don’t have a robust applicant tracking system, you’ll be bogged down with too much data and redundant processes. You’ll never know where you consistently find your best hires, and you’ll have trouble knowing how to increase your employee retention rates.

Coordinate more efficiently with your team. Advertise across job boards and social media sites with minimal effort. Find the best resumes without bothering with low-quality job seekers that try to buck the system.

A robust applicant tracking system will help you manage and organize your hiring efforts. Once your open positions are populated with rock stars, you’ll be able to retrace your steps and gain insight that will save time and money in the future. 

Want to learn how to choose the right recruiting and HR software?

Choose Right HR Software | ExactHire

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