Cost v Time

by Felix Stroud-Allen,
Head of Sales for UK & Europe, Recruiternet UK

August 16 2005 - Applicant tracking and candidate management is one of the key areas where organisations are not taking full advantage of the time-saving benefits of the internet. A quarter of the UK's workforce now expect to find their next job online but the UK's recruiters are still behind the game when it comes to their ability to realise and leverage the benefits of online applications. Organisations are shying away from what they perceive as an additional cost of buying software to address their particular recruitment issues without realising that the initial outlay can easily be surpassed by the return on investment that is on offer.

Today's Market

Application forms have been prevalent on corporate websites since the late 1990s and 5.8m British jobseekers have now used the web to apply for a job. But only 30 per cent of the FTSE 250 are using applicant tracking software (ATS) that would manage the entire recruitment process, and dramatically reduce the cost of hire, the time to hire and the administration time and paper that their HR department invariably produces.

What are the time-saving benefits of ATS?

Recruitment software enables typically small recruitment teams to manage volume recruitment and therefore enable them to be proactive rather than reactive. Effective screening and ranking tools ensure that HR teams identify and review candidates with the relevant skills first.

Candidate Assessment

Screening and ranking tools can be used to identify and score quantifiable criteria - for example, a particular role may require a specific qualification in conjunction with a minimum number of years of experience. The software can effectively sort all these applications into a yes, maybe or no pile before the recruiter has even sat down at their desk.

Automated personalised communications can assist in preserving the employer's brand by their rapid deployment. The candidate may not have been right for that particular role but have been dealt with in a professional manner and are more likely to consider a future, relevant, opportunity with that organisation, should it arise.

Interview - Recording of Details

By creating an interview assessment process in conjunction with ATS, organisations have the ability to uniformly document hiring manager's interview feedback. This allows analysis of the hiring decision based on the relevant criteria and can also provide return information to unsuccessful candidates who demand the reasoning behind their failure.

Storage of Information

A fully functional recruitment website will be able to capture, rank and screen all direct or speculative applications. The ATS model will give organisations more avenues for candidate generation. They can utilise search engine keywords to push their recruitment website to the top of the search list, they can capture speculative applications and maintain contact with sought after skill sets (jobs by email or automated emails). The first place an organisation should look is its own talent pool. Not only is this the most cost effective method, but it's also the quickest.

Cost Savings

The initial cost of ATS can be easily surpassed by the savings it can generate in the recruitment process - organisations can reduce their average cost per hire by as much as 50 per cent. These savings are derived from a reduction in the need for recruitment advertising, increased efficiency within administration and proactive reporting that identifies efficient candidate sources.

In Conclusion

Organisations have started to use job boards and have been successful in recruiting via the internet. Now they need to embrace the technology that is available and exploit the cost and time saving benefits that are on offer with ATS and its management of the entire recruitment process.

• More Recruitment Articles