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Delivering a Managed Recruitment Experience

Delivering a Managed Recruitment Experience

Contact Us: 01908 265111

Online Recruitment Software

Today's Job Seeker may be Tomorrow's Customer

Matt Steel-Jessop, managing director of hr management software specialist P&A Group, discusses the importance of maintaining a good relationship with job applicants and the benefits of online recruitment.

If you have ever been unemployed or made redundant you will be familiar with the roller coaster of emotions that arrive every day with the postman. It’s not necessarily the letter of polite regrets that leads to depression; at least you tried, and at least they had the courtesy to acknowledge your CV.

Let’s take a look at the other side of the equation. For many organisations that find themselves fielding dozens or worse, hundreds of speculative letters of application, the resources of time and human effort can mount to intolerable levels - and that’s before any advertisements have been placed. The inevitable response is no response. Eventually it simply becomes impossible to reply to everyone.

To view this problem as merely a hr management issue is to take a very blinkered approach. Prospective employees are often also consumers of products and even potential shareholders of the companies where they seek employment. A simple thing like the lack of a rejection letter can make the difference between someone having a high opinion of a company and utter contempt. So communication with job seekers should be an integral part of the public relations of any organisation – in the same way that existing employees are informed of what’s going on.

Fortunately our electronic age means it’s far easier to solve the nightmare of sackfuls of unsolicited mail. For companies that find themselves weighed down by traditional recruitment methods, Internet-aware systems and specifically hr management software provide a real alternative. What’s more, job seekers are increasingly turning to the Internet to access employment information and to post their CVs. The whole process can be incorporated into one seamless and semi-automated electronic operation where the benefits accrue not only to the organisation doing the recruiting but to the job seeker as well.

The most vital element of an electronic recruitment strategy is the adoption of online application as the preferred method. Such a strategy immediately removes one large but essential administrative task – that of data entry. What’s more, it is to be hoped that typographical errors are less likely when the applicant themselves is inputting the information.

The use of online ‘killer-questions’ is also an extremely effective way to deal with time-wasters. An auto-responding email can be sent to the applicant informing them kindly that they are, unfortunately, unsuitable for the position. This use of personalised auto-responders using hr management software ensures that applicants are informed of the progress of their application at all times. The essential message that the applicant gets is that company appreciates the application. It is this element of an electronic process that can bring about a revolution in the HR department and more widely where line-managers get involved in the selection process using an effective hr management software.

So the benefits of such hr management software are not only kinder to applicants but can save vast amounts of time and resources for HR departments. An online system integrated with a recruitment software package will enable management of the entire process with the minimum of staff and resources and is likely to bring significant cost savings.

Even if the job seeker is unsuccessful, their opinion of the organisation is likely to be unchanged at the least, and probably enhanced. For companies with really ‘joined-up thinking’, where it is appropriate, there are all sorts of additional opportunities, such as, sending marketing messages with emails, special offers or opt-in newsletter offers. Today’s job seeker may be tomorrow’s customer. Being overloaded with applications is no longer bad news. It can be turned into an extremely advantageous opportunity to maintain good relations and build a reputation worth having.

 

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