In most modern organizations, a large part of the human resources (HR) team's workload centers on recruiting and hiring new employees. Although those activities are essential to maintaining a productive workforce, there are several benefits to streamlining recruitment processes and workflows through a cloud-based talent acquisition solution.
A recruitment workflow refers to the various, yet intrinsically linked, procedures and tasks that are essential to filling a job vacancy. Those tasks range from identifying open positions in an organization and creating job ads to interviewing, hiring and onboarding successful candidates. Let's take a look at the typical recruitment workflow used by many organizations.
After creating an accurate description of the job position in question, the next step entails attracting suitable candidates to apply. The method used by organizations to find potential hires may differ because of variations in company size and industry. The skills required, job role and seniority may also contribute to the method used by HR teams to look for suitable applicants.
Recruiting and hiring the talent of tomorrow can require different techniques, depending on the role that needs to be filled. For instance, headhunting can be used when finding candidates for senior management or a highly specialized role, while using a recruitment agency or posting job advertisements is better suited for middle management and frontline employees.
After identifying suitable candidates, HR teams need a way to keep track of the number of applicants and where they are in the recruitment process. They also must compare the experience and qualifications of suitable candidates and use that data to make informed decisions for the next stage of the recruitment process. Most HR teams find a talent acquisition solution to help keep everything organized.
The interview process can easily become a logistical nightmare. It depends on the availability of the applicant, interviewer, HR personnel, line manager, and other decision-makers in the organization. Interview schedules should be set up in such a way that they don't affect the primary workload of line managers and other personnel.
After concluding the interview stage and getting the candidate best-suited for the position (you hope), the HR team still has to make an offer, generate contracts and other employment paperwork, negotiate terms and conditions, and agree on a start date. That is a great deal of work and will entail lots of information exchanges with the new employee.
Once all the above have been dealt with, the next and final phase is the onboarding process. That is concerned with helping new employees make a seamless transition into the organization, especially when onboarding remote hires. It's basically an induction program in which new hires undergo requisite training, meets their colleagues and managers, receive on-the-job coaching, set up their IT equipment, etc.
For organizations in which each stage of the above workflow is executed manually, it's easy to see how labor-intensive and time-consuming hiring and recruitment activities can be for HR teams and line managers. Besides that, a manual approach to recruitment gives rise to other challenges, one of which is identifying quality candidates.
Finding the best match for open positions is no easy task and a manual approach to recruitment makes it even harder. While the pool of qualified candidates is shrinking for most industries, HR teams often focus on the wrong criteria when preparing job descriptions and handling interviews. Also, manually posting job descriptions limits the reach of job ads, thus reducing the number of talented people who would view such ads. This is such a problem that we identified solving manual recruiting processes as one of the key areas to retain employees.
To solve those challenges, organizations should use cloud-based HR software that simplifies, optimizes, and automates hiring workflows. Such software enables interviewers and recruiters to edit, update and review information anytime, anywhere. As such, they can easily post new job ads, match applicants already in the system to new job openings, track applicants as they go through the hiring process, and seamlessly share information.
Such software helps reduce the lead time between the submission of resumes, scheduling interviews, and making a hiring decision. By providing easy access to applicant resumes and other relevant details, HR teams can quickly compare qualifications and skillsets and make informed decisions. It also makes it easier for HR personnel, interviewers, line managers, and other decision-makers to collaborate effectively on recruiting and hiring activities.
The best HR software also has a unified human capital management system that transfers information from the applicant tracking system to the HR and benefits application once they are hired. HR teams can schedule orientation and training programs for new hires and track attendance as they go through the onboarding process.
For hiring professionals using a manual approach to recruitment, administrative, applicant-management, and other non-hiring tasks make up a huge part of their workload. By leveraging best-in-class HR solutions, HR teams can automate such activities and focus more on hiring the right people.