By: Shafiq Lokhandwala, CEO of NuView Systems
Recruiting new employees to work in an organization may sound like an easy task, especially with so many people out of work, but it isn’t! Finding a candidate who has the right skill set and fits the mold of your organization, both dynamically and intellectually, can be a challenge and every company knows how important it is to have the right fit. Compounding that search is the mountain of resumes, a virtual “resume tsunami”, of qualified (and unqualified) applicants.
The recession has impacted us all – but the economy is getting better. In fact, many businesses – both large and small – have resumed hiring again. Non-farm payrolls rose by 114,000 and the U.S. economy added 162,000 jobs in March 2010 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Industries leading the charge include Healthcare and Biotech / Pharmaceuticals, which have a captured market in aging baby boomers. As these and other businesses start growing again, increased job openings are available and recruitment begins in earnest.
According to the International Labour Office’s Global Employment Trends report, the unemployment rate in 2009 reached nearly 212 million people worldwide. Now that the economy is improving and more jobs are becoming available, businesses need to prepare themselves in order to handle the resume tsunami looming on the horizon. Many have already experienced an increase in resumes and some businesses may already be facing a deluge of applicants for every open position.
If a business doesn’t have tools to filter the incoming applicants, they are going to find themselves shortchanged, drowning in an endless volume of resumes. Quality candidates will get overlooked in the resume tide, or get snatched up by competitors equipped with tools to quickly find, interview and hire the people they need. Businesses need a plan of action for how they are going to tackle this process, quickly and effectively.
Multiple research studies have found that the difference between a “great” and a “good” company is having the right team on the bus. It is essential to find the perfect candidate, whom represents a big investment to the company from a benefit cost, training, ramp up and productivity standpoint. Candidates should also be hired with the future in mind. Do they possess the skills for the current position? Are they a better fit for another position? Do they have skills that the company will need in the future? How do these skills and competencies align with the short and long term organizational goals?
Answering these questions and navigating this process is a daunting task given that there is pressure to quickly get the right candidate in a climate of multiple qualified people looking for work. A good fit represents future success for the organization; a bad choice represents a burden on the business and added costs. Whether you choose to pursue a candidate or not, answering all candidates helps in creating the employer brand, while ignoring them creates bad press.
There are many different HRIS/HRMS tools on the market that can help businesses optimize their human resources departments and the recruiting process. Recruitment management solutions offer tools to assist recruiters and hiring managers with the entire hiring process, from requisitions, sourcing and applicant tracking and management, all the way through the interview process, to job offer and on boarding.
USING TECHNOLOGY TO TURN BACK THE TSUNAMI…AND CREATE OPPORTUNITIES
Recruitment management solutions can prevent businesses from becoming overwhelmed by the influx of resumes by transforming an applicant’s resume sent via email, or submitted via the web site, into applicant data. Applicant records are then automatically populated with key fields, including name, address, skills and education.
These technology tools graphically match applicants to open positions based on required skills, identify or rank the best applicants, which significantly reduces the time recruiters need to spend in the qualification process, resulting in faster identification, interviewing and hiring of top candidates.
These recruiting tools also generate, and track, all types of correspondence, including “resume received,” invitations for interviews, job offers and other communications. Recruitment management solutions can organize and store all these types of correspondence, making it easier for the hiring manager to manage applicant data and provide documentation for EEO and diversity analysis.
These same recruitment management tools can also play an important role in turning the challenges of the resume tsunami into an opportunity. Organizations that manage the process appropriately – acknowledging all inquiries, communicating clearly with potential candidates – can create positive impressions of a company’s brand. Organizations can use this rise in activity to build a candidate database and a favorable impression of the company, even with candidates not selected for a position, helping future hiring efforts to be more productive, particularly when organizations are faced with fewer applications and a more competitive marketplace.
ADDING TO THE RESUME TSUNAMI
There are other factors that add to the challenges of the resume tsunami. Any firm doing business with the U.S. Federal Government (as a U.S. federal contractor) must meet new Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) compliance rules for applicant tracking. The new rules establish applicant categories, classifying seekers as an applicant, a qualified individual, a job seeker or an unqualified individual. Staying in compliance with these new regulations is far easier with a recruiting technology solution. For more information on OFCCP rules, see http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/index.htm
The influence of social media has further complicated the recruitment management process. Social networking channels like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have all grown immensely popular in recent years. Many businesses are taking steps to leverage these sources in their hiring process in order to find out more about candidates. However, businesses should remain cautious because, for the most part, these social media sites are being used for personal connections, containing personal information that would be illegal to ask in an interview situation. These sites typically don’t accurately represent the professional interests and attributes of most users and should you disqualify a candidate based on the information you find, could raise the risk of a lawsuit.
And finally, it’s important that organizations don’t lose sight of internal candidates while all the external resumes rush in. Searching through candidates internally, prior to an external search, offers many benefits. Not only does it save money during the recruitment process, but it establishes company culture, enables retention and career growth and defines the employer’s brand.
If a company has an HRIS/HRMS solution in place, internal candidate performance, job history, training, skills and levels attained, competencies and salary history are readily at hand; making recruitment internally an easier process. Hiring internally can lower turnover rates, be used as a retention tool and raise employee satisfaction rates, since employees will know their efforts and hard work are acknowledged, appreciated and rewarded with a promotion in their department or elsewhere within the company. By hiring internally, businesses are also able to lower recruiting costs and fill positions faster since the process of recruiting externally, filtering incoming resumes and interviewing potential candidates, is completely removed.
AFTER THE STORM
Once you’ve made your decision to hire, it’s important to have an effective training and succession program implemented. Just because the tsunami of resumes subsides doesn’t mean the job is done. A training administration solution can track the developmental needs of the workforce and ensure that the company’s workforce obtains the necessary skills for success. Succession planning tools help managers identify, prepare and develop future leaders and managers, while defining backup candidates for key positions within the organization. Having well-trained employees, with identified successors and individual career paths, is critical to any company's future growth and its ability to compete and benefit from high employee retention and morale.
As noted above, it’s important to keep in mind that a resume tsunami can also be a great opportunity to create positive impressions of your company and brand. When the tide subsides and HR needs to be more proactive when hiring, candidates will remember your transparency during the last recruitment process and that respect for your company can pay dividends.
THE KEYS TO SUCCESS
The key to surviving – and capitalizing on – the resume tsunami is effective recruitment management. HR Departments need to implement solutions that help them effectively and efficiently sort through the flood of resumes, find and hire the best candidates for the job, train them and provide a path for long term success for the candidate and company – and maintain clear, professional communications with candidates throughout the process.
A recruiting management solution can support HR organizations by:
1. Facilitating the posting of jobs to the company website and or job/boards
2. Enabling targeted pre-screening and interview questions in the initial recruitment phase
3. Automatically create a “Best Match” ranking of candidates
4. Helping with interview scheduling
5. Providing the convenience of “one-click-hire,” so the information doesn’t need to be entered again
6. Supporting EEO report requirements for U.S. businesses that must stay in compliance and review their diversity programs
7. Ensuring OFCCP compliance by helping businesses with categorizing applicants correctly
8. Managing the communication with all candidates, making certain the organization’s reputation is maintained, whether applications are selected or not.
It is clear that the resume tsunami will soon be upon us, but HR organizations can weather the storm, and ride the tide to greater opportunities – by using these proven tools and techniques.
NuView Systems, Inc
200 Brickstone Square- Suite 303 - Andover, MA 01810
978.296.6600
info@nuviewinc.com
www.nuviewinc.com