The War for Talent’s Secret Weapon: Technology

Posted by on May 4, 2012 No comments

ERE.net posted a blog outlining four strategies to implement as we face the War for Talent. This War for Talent has been blogged about and tweeted about ad nauseum and will continue to gain hype as the days and weeks go by, that is for certain.  Don’t get me wrong, it was a very well written and easy to understand blog with several high level strategies to think about and implement before a company invests in what the author labeled, “new-fangled” technology, and I agree.  A solid foundation of basic recruiting principals should be identified and carried out to all levels of the organization.  But assuming (and you know what they say about assuming)  your organization has an exemplary executive and recruiting staff, your recruitment technology will either help you to triumph over or lose this War for Talent.

As a technology firm that has built our reputation by creating solutions to automate the recruitment, sales, marketing financial & back office processes, we believe  that winning the War for Talent is a combination of  best recruiting practices, strategic business development strategies and of course, technology solutions to support both strategies.
The Cloud has made it possible for a staffing company, or any company for that matter, regardless of size, not only to compete but Win this War for Talent.

Here is our own list of technology strategies to consider once you have re-solidified your value proposition to candidates and clients and thoroughly developed your enterprise business processes so that they encourage efficiency to lower the operating costs of doing business.

1.  Invest in the Cloud.
2.  Consider Internal Collaboration Tools.
3.  Advanced Candidate Search Tools.
4.  Technology Marketing Tools.

1.  Invest in the Cloud. It takes time and money to make the switch, but many times, not a lot.  Find a consultant to advise you or conduct a thorough Technology Inventory Review if you are still on a server based model and plan on crawling not sprinting to the cloud. The benefits far outweigh any of your current fears about privacy & safety and besides, you can back up everything so if you’re an organization that needs safety nets, “it’s all good” as they say.

Staffing firms must at least consider the cloud to stay flexible and accessible to new applications that will empower them with increased efficiency.

2.  Consider Internal Collaboration Tools. TargetRecruit is built on the Salesforce.com platform so in terms of internal collaboration, Salesforce’s highly acclaimed Chatter feature creates a way for your entire organization from recruiting to accounting to collaborate on accounts, documents, business deals in progress and the approval processes that so many organizations have implemented. In addition, it creates a level of accountability that is critical in an organization with so many moving parts.  Now, many companies wish to limit the transparency from business unit to business unit and permissions are in place to limit accessibility.  You must be prepared internally to compete externally.

3.  Advanced Candidate Search Tools for Sourcing. Technology makes it so that searching for candidates has become an artform, not just a job within a recruiting firm.  In layman’s terms,   Boolean searches allow you to combine words and phrases using the words AND, OR, NOT and NEAR (otherwise known as Boolean operators) to limit, widen, or define your search. There are also toolbars that have been created to enhance the search process.  Are you using a Social Media technology tool for sourcing hard to identify candidates?  Is it integrated in your ATS?
Does your database have a search function that automatically matches open job orders to candidates in the system and vice versa?  The technology is available!

4.  Technology Marketing Tools.  The recruiter that gets to the candidate first …wins.  So, marketing open job orders as quickly and efficiently as possible to the pool of qualified candidates in your database or on social media sites is way too important to ignore. Email marketing that gives you the ability to mass email candidates for jobs, and similarly, templates that give you the ability to conduct a business development campaign for clients are a step in the right direction.

Questions for you:  
What cloud based technology decisions have you made to ensure you are an unstoppable force in the industry?

Start-Up, Smart-Up: How A Next-Gen ATS takes the lead in Recruitment Technology

Posted by on April 13, 2012 No comments

The very best thing about being in the industry of Recruitment Technology is that it changes about every 5 minutes. It’s a simultaneous change of both cloud computing  technology and quickly finding solutions to the staffing industry’s needs and demands.
It’s a great day when a technology company is highlighted in a respected industry blog or journal written by an industry expert.
We’d  like to share a blog that was written by Andrew Karpie, a senior analyst for Staffing Industry Analysts.  The blog was written just after the Staffing Industry Analysts Executive Forum held in Las Vegas last month.  Read Andrew Karpie’s Blog

Becoming more automated as a staffing firm and selecting the very best Recruitment Technology is getting more challenging but not due to a lack of choices. From sourcing apps to integrated VMS, recruiters needs are continuously growing almost daily.

Luckily, we’ve been able to grow steadily-even rapidly, as a result of implementing technology and recruitment solutions as part of our daily business-as-usual.  By listening to the needs of recruiters, managers and executives, we’ve been able to create solutions for some of the industry’s toughest challenges.  We’d like to know more about your challenges as it relates to recruiting and technology.

Please join in on the conversation:  Creating Solutions for Your Toughest Recruitment Challenges: How an Automated ATS can HELP.
When:  Thursday, April 19th 11:00-12:00 CDT
Click here to register.

Overcoming Recruiting Challenges: How an Automated ATS Can Help

Posted by on March 28, 2012 No comments

Staffing firms typically contact TargetRecruit with several specific goals and a list of high level requirements as they evaluate Applicant Tracking Systems. These requirements vary for every staffing company, in fact, no two staffing company’s requirements are exactly alike. The ultimate objective, however, is always the same:

“Increase our staffing company’s sophistication as an enterprise by automating workflows, business processes, and communications to increase placements and bottom line profitability”.

Sound familiar?

For the purposes of this blog, I posed the question to C-levels, recruiting managers, recruiters, sourcing authorities and attendees at the SIA Executive Forum, which TargetRecruit was fortunate to sponsor last week, regarding their current recruitment challenges.

Here is a list of top challenges:

1. How to increase the database of candidates in general.
2. Candidate searching in specific markets.
3. Reduction in time to fill a position (Search to placement).
4. External competition for candidates.
5. Quality of Hire.
6. Communications with passive candidates.

This is not an exhaustive list, but represents the top responses.
In an effort to describe how an ATS can assist with these recruiting challenges, we’ve listed the ways that a comprehensive ATS can help drive and manage your toughest recruitment challenges.

1. Challenge: How to Increase Database of Candidates.
Solution: Candidate Portals & Job Board Integration

Believe it or not, many staffing companies still do not have an adequate Candidate Portal that enables candidates to easily submit their resumes via the staffing company’s website. This is a costly mistake. An ATS such as TargetRecruit makes it easy for staffing companies to create a Candidate Portal and start receiving resumes, CVs, cover letters and other documents directly from the website and automatically create candidate profiles without manual data entry into the ATS.

If you do not currently have an ATS that enables you to efficiently post open job orders from your system or database to multiple job boards, you are probably wasting a good chunk of time that could be better spent on more lucrative activity. With TargetRecruit, it is possible to post new and exciting job opportunities to your favorite and most effective job boards from within the system with the click of a button.

2. Challenge: Effective Candidate Search in specific markets.
Solution: Effective Candidate Search Functionality

We have several clients that recruit for local talent and several clients that recruit for global talent. The process, however, can be equally as challenging. If your search functionality is not powerful, streamlined and accurate, searching and finding local or global candidates can be limiting. Boolean searching and creative search processes are constantly changing to source hidden and passive candidates. Also, you must consider a customizable solution that gives you the ability to create enhanced search filters.

3. Challenge: Reduction in Search to placement time.
Solution: Full System Automation

Shorten your search to placement with a fully automated system including streamlined search functionality (mentioned above), job board integration (mentioned above), and streamlined communications. An ATS that provides all three is ideal and recommended.

4. Challenge: External competition for candidates.
Solution: Timing seems to be everything, right? Faster (quality) candidate acquisition.

When you are fully automated and running on all cylinders, the search to placement time is reduced and the ability to win placements faster is a logical outcome. It is now possible (and imperative) to integrate “one-click functionality” that will replace ancient, arduous and time consuming tasks like scheduling interviews, notifying active and passive candidates of newly acquired open jobs and job applicant submission to hiring managers.

5. Challenge: Quality of Hire.
Solution: Automatic Skill Set and Specific Job Criteria Matching

A system with the ability to automatically match key skill sets of candidates to specific job criteria  to open job orders is a tremendous technological advantage to any recruiting organization. This is similar to having an automatic co-pilot doing a big chunk of the work for recruiters. This does not, however, take the place out of quality conversations that recruiters and employers have when qualifying intangible qualifications, but certainly aids in the efficiencies of hiring a better qualified candidate.

6. Challenge: Finding and contacting passive candidates.
Solution: Email templates and social media integration

Keeping in touch with passive candidates is a huge challenge in today’s market place. Log on to any recruitment blog and there is a post regarding passive candidate strategy several times a day. Effective tracking of communications with customized email templates and social media outreach is key. Does your ATS have this capability and how do you measure its efficacy?

We’d like to know your challenges so that we can continue to provide technological tools to enhance and automate the search to placement process and solve your most problematic recruitment issues.

Please join us for a live webinar:
Creating Solutions for Your Toughest Recruitment Challenges
Thursday, April 19th 2012 11:00 am -12:00 pm CDT

Click here to Register

Message us direct @Target_Recruit or email us at info@targetrecruit.net with your challenges in advance so that we may address on the webinar.

@Booth18:TargetRecruit a Tech Sponsor-SIA 2012 Executive Forum

Posted by on February 22, 2012 No comments

I’ve experienced a good many trade shows in my day.  If you’ve attended or been involved in organizing a trade show as a professional you know that they can be extremely exhausting. It is challenging to maintain the kind of energy it takes to claim a “successful” trade show whether you’re an attendee planning your daily agenda or whether your a vendor or sponsor planning a smart trade show strategy.

Our TargetRecruit team has been really busy gearing up for the Staffing Industry Analysts 2012 Executive Forum in Las Vegas March 13th-16th. We’ll be a sponsor of Tech Day(s) on Thursday and Friday:     @Booth 18! The really neat thing about this event, from a sponsor’s point of view, is that through the beauty of technological communications (and a really cool application called Zerista) we’ve been able to connect with attendees and partners in advance so that everyone involved can maximize their time.  What a concept! I’m a lover of communication tools so anytime I find a tool that will help me plan to be  successful rather than leaving it up to chance is what I call a super-find.

We wanted to make sure that our experience is just as rewarding as attendees because inevitably, our enjoyment will shine through as we communicate TargetRecruit’s value proposition to the staffing and recruiting industry.  TargetRecruit, in the opinion of our clients and partners, is the most comprehensive and easy to use Applicant Tracking System on the market today.  And because it is built on the Force.com platform it is the best of breed cloud based CRM.  And now, the staffing industry has both an Applicant Tracking System and CRM in ONE.

Over the past few months, I have been interviewing just about everyone on the staffing industry food chain including CEOs,  independent recruiters, Recruiting Managers and VPs of Human Resources.  One thing is true: Adoption of Recruitment Software is the key element to whether or not it will be successful to the enterprise.  If recruiters aren’t using the system effectively or maximizing its potential, it is of little value. Even if a system claims a “robust reporting” feature, it is no good if the data is not entered into the system correctly by the end-user.

So, we’d like to encourage attendees at the Executive Forum to download the FREE 30 Day Trial of TargetRecruit. It caters to the front end needs of recruiters, back office needs of accounting and finance, supports sales and marketing with all the tools they could ever need from Salesforce.com’s application marketplace and it’s all housed in ONE system.

If you’ll be at the event, come on by TargetRecruit’s Booth #18. Come for the candy if you must or come to win one of several Amazon.com gift cards that we’ll be raffling-off in true trade show fashion. But realize that once you leave Booth #18, you’ll understand why TargetRecruit is the fastest growing Recruitment Software in the industry.

Social Staffing Strategies

Posted by on February 9, 2012 No comments

It’s likely that you and your company will be interested in implementing a social staffing and collaboration strategy this year. Maybe you’ve done so already and kudos to you…you’re ahead of this ever changing curve.  It’s glaringly obvious how social media has changed the way that recruiters and staffing professionals do business.

Recruiting:  Here‘s how  a search assignment used to work:
Receive a search assignment. Next, scour your internal database for  qualified candidates with matching skills and appropriate experience. Then, search the hundreds of  job boards for qualified candidates “looking” for jobs. Rinse and repeat.

However, social media sites like Linked In can provide literally hundreds (and thousands) of qualified candidates that have or have not necessarily been proactively posting their resumes on job boards. In fact, direct social  recruiting is not only accepted it is expected. Social media recruitment and social media profiling  is not just another step in the search process, its a whole new  business process within the search process specific to online recruitment and engagement.

Client Collaboration and Communication:  Recruiters now have the ability to  collaborate with clients on a social platform which opens the door for a  social partnership rather than a vendor-client relationship. Not only that, but recruiters can share links, blogs and analytics via the social platform to establish subject matter expert status and become viewed as a trusted and valuable resource for industry advise and trends.

Social Media Profile Integration: Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) now have the ability to pull social media profiles directly into the system more efficiently than ever, so that a recruiter can develop a better picture of a candidate in addition to a comprehensive resume or CV. For example, a Facebook profile enables a recruiter to really get a sense of a candidate’s  online profile, which is increasingly more important in a day and age where transparency rules.  It also enables recruiters to communicate via a social platform, rather than just sparse  email communications.

The same goes for a client’s social profile.  A company’s social profile can help a recruiter to communicate a solid career opportunity  when the company’s mission, vision and social values are vividly expressed on their social profile.  It very well may be how a candidate first falls in love with a  future employer, long before the interview is even scheduled.

Here are a few pointers for your Social Recruitment and Communications Strategy:                                                                                                                                                                                                 1.  Your staffing firm must have a solid social profile on the leading social media sites: Twitter, Facebook and Linked In. It opens your world to new candidates and clients exponentially.  You knew that, right?

2.  Establish social communication guidelines within your company so that each recruiter understands and carries out those guidelines entirely.

3.  Encourage social communications with clients and candidates, but make sure those communications are being tracked in your database, CRM or ATS.  Fellow colleagues and recruiters should always be “in the know” of ongoing communications regarding job opportunity presentations, interview feedback, placement activity or fee and compensation notes,  just as any email or phone conversation content should be tracked.

4.  News, information, how-to’s, blogs, videos and resources for candidates and clients shows that you are invested in their success. Post them on social sites where they are easily accessible and don’t forget to use key word best practices!

In closing, we’d like to know how social media has changed the way you conduct your business. How has it enhanced your overall search and candidate evaluation processes? How have you used the social platform to leverage your relationships with clients as a true business partner and subject matter expert and how do you manage all of social platforms?  We’d love to hear from you!

Enjoy the growth of the social media recruitment revolution!  It’s here to stay and will play a vital role in the growth of your staffing business.

How to better use your ATS in your candidate search

Posted by on January 5, 2012 No comments


It seems as though recruiters these days are getting busier and busier. This has a lot to do with the economy, but also with the fact that job postings are so much more visible now. Recruiting technology has made it so that job postings can be posted to hundreds of job boards and social media accounts with just a click of a button. With more eyes coming across your postings, you can certainly expect to receive way more applications for each job than you ever used to. So, how can recruiters sift through all resumes and applications in a manageable timeframe? How can they do this without accidentally missing out on great candidates who get screened out early in the process? I recently came across this article that suggests a great solution for this problem. The best part is, it’s right in front of you – it’s your ATS.

Don’t rely on fully automated screening

The problem comes when you rely too heavily on your ATS to do all the work for you. Recruiters need to work with the search functions on their ATS to figure out exactly what kind of screening capabilities it has. If you set it up properly, you can make sure that quality candidates are getting through the initial screening process but also cutting back on the time spent sifting through the mountain of applications you’ve received.

Filter out the bad candidates earlier in the process

You can also help this to happen by screening applicants during the application process. By working with your ATS, you can set up screening questions or requirements as part of your initial application process. This sets up filters so that any candidates that don’t meet your initial screening requirements won’t pass through to the first round of application screening. This can help cut down on the initial number of applications for review and also helps to make sure that your hiring pool is filled with quality candidates and the process isn’t being clogged up by a ton of applicants that aren’t qualified for the position you’re trying to fill.

You can drastically cut down on time spent sorting through resumes and applications just by learning how to work with your ATS and customize it to suit your needs. Check out the rest of the article to see other ways you can get your ATS working better for you. Are you using your ATS to its full potential? What changes could you make to help improve your efficiency?

What recruiters can expect in 2012

Posted by on December 21, 2011 No comments

I came across this great article on ere.net about the top 10 predictions for the recruiting industry in 2012 and wanted to share it with you. 2011 was “The Year of Social Media”, but what will 2012 bring for recruiters? According to Dr. John Sullivan, an HR thought leader, 2012 will be all about mobile.

The Year of the Mobile Platform

It only makes sense that recruiters should start paying more attention to mobile. With more of us relying on smartphones to keep us connected, it is becoming increasingly important for every industry to have a mobile platform. Not only do we need to think about smartphones, but also the growing popularity of tablet computers. We are already seeing some people get rid of desktop and laptop computers completely in favour of tablet computers. In the case of the staffing industry, mobile access to recruiting platforms will be important for both recruiters and job seekers.

The continuing influence of social media

Some other predictions for 2012 address how social media will affect the recruiting industry, but not just in a direct way. First, we will likely see more solid analytics for social media, which will allow recruiters to better target campaigns and more accurately measure results. Perhaps the most interesting change to come about due to social media will be the focus on candidate experience. Companies are going to need to start paying more attention to how candidates are treated throughout the hiring process, as candidates now have more avenues to share both positive and negative experiences with recruiting. Any negative comments about your hiring process could be discovered by other potential candidates and could drive away applicants.

Check out the rest of the article for more of the top 10 predictions for the recruiting industry in 2012. Do you think these predictions are solid? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.

Why recruiters need to embrace cloud technology.

Posted by on December 8, 2011 No comments

Talent management is about attracting, developing and rewarding & retaining talent. The first crucial step is to attract talent. This is best done through applicant tracking and recruitment activities, which can include social media, attending conferences, holding recruitment events, etc.  This first step is going to become more and more important as the recruiting industry prepares to respond to the changing demands of the workforce.

With 78 million baby boomers turning 65 between the years of 2011 to 2030, there will be a huge gap in the number of skilled workers. Additionally, we will start to see a higher rate of turnover or churn through of employees. Millennials (also known as Gen Y-ers) are expected to engage in 4 to 7 different career changes – yes, that’s careers, not jobs ­– in their lifetime. Gone are the days of people working for the same company for 30 to 50 years. (Or even 10 years, for that matter.) In order to fill these positions at a higher rate, recruiters and staffing departments will need to have a flexible applicant tracking system in order to meet the on-going demands and handle fluctuations in the job market.

What does this mean for your business?

It means that as you start thinking and planning your upcoming business activities for 2012, you’ve got to develop a plan for dealing with the ever-changing needs of the workforce. As we’ve discussed in a previous blog post, the faster you can respond to the market the better. Recruiters will need to get themselves into a position where they are able to fill a position with minimal time delays to avoid business being disrupted due to staffing changes.

How cloud technology can help.

When you think about your business goals for 2012, does cloud technology fit into them? If not, you might want to consider it. Cloud technology is performing a greater role in recruiting these days, as it allows for greater flexibility and efficiency. With cloud technology, you can simply use a web browser and find potential candidates without cumbersome on-site premises. There are 5 immediate benefits to cloud technology:

  1. Installation – Implementation process is simplified
  2. Reduces the need for in-house IT personnel
  3. Customizable to work with your existing business systems
  4. Access from anywhere simply by using the internet
  5. Source candidates quicker and faster than previous systems in real-time

When implemented correctly, cloud technology can give your business a powerful edge over other recruiting firms. It gives your team the flexibility to work from anywhere, have access to up-to-date data and drastically cut down on admin time, which will be very important in the very near future.

Have you thought about switching to a cloud-based applicant tracking system? What are your reasons for switching? Please share your thoughts with us in the comments.

How a Candidate Portal Can Improve Your Hiring Process

Posted by on December 1, 2011 No comments

Hiring for both temporary and permanent positions can be a challenge for a small to medium sized business. You can try using the standard hiring websites such as Monster.com, but you will likely find that their hiring process isn’t right for you. In addition, your existing hiring process involves multiple steps and at times, internal communications have cost you time and money. Every business is unique and has different requirements for a hiring process, which is why using a recruiting site designed to follow a generic process probably won’t work well for your business. A better solution would be web-based recruiting software.

Benefits of using a web-based ATS

Online-based recruiting applicant tracking solutions are a better way to manage your hiring process. They provide an easy, manageable process for internal staff to follow and track the flow of communication. Since these applications are web-based, all staff have access to the same information, no matter where they are. This improves the flow of communication and cuts down on time spent managing internal communications processes.

Save time with candidate portals

These systems also provide the benefits of a candidate portal feature. A candidate portal feature directly brings candidates into your HR system and automatically qualifies suitable candidates. This cuts down on the time you would normally spend sorting through resumes individually, trying to sort through all of the information. This helps you find the right candidates faster and more efficiently. In addition, a candidate portal allows you to maintain your company image and branding. The candidate portal allows for customization, which enables your brand and back-end requirements to work together.

The flow of data becomes easier because you can track the process of internal staff and potential candidates from the same place. When you have the ability to track candidates, schedule meetings, send emails, etc. from one application, you save time and money by having fewer programs to manage. The key to improving your hiring process is to streamline it, which is exactly what a candidate portal does for you.

Think about your business and its HR process. If it seems to be too complicated and slow, is it time to consider an Applicant Tracking System with a candidate portal?

Getting Ready to Meet the Demands of Temporary Recruitment

Posted by on November 17, 2011 No comments

In September 2011, 52,000 new temporary/contract positions were posted in the US. This is an increase of 31% in temporary job postings since September 2010. One might think that since these jobs are not permanent, they are not as helpful to the economy. However, these temporary jobs offer great opportunities to the unemployed and help to get people back in the workforce quickly. In some cases, these positions could also lead to permanent employment opportunities later on.

Trends in the temporary job market

Market growth drives industry performance and there has been substantial increase in software & healthcare sector jobs in the temporary job market. The online ads have fueled the volume of and ultimately increased the market potential in these industries. Ultimately, temporary jobs play a vital role in marking the trend of the industry.

With temporary and contract positions becoming more commonplace in the market, businesses need to make sure they are equipped to handle this type of recruiting process. These positions tend to pop up very quickly and need to be filled just as quickly, so you need to make sure your recruitment process is firmly established. In addition, positions in the high tech or healthcare sector often have very specific requirements which also means your recruitment process can handle customized job requirements.

How to prepare for temporary recruiting
Recruiting for temp jobs requires your system to be able to process applications very quickly. Think of your recruitment process from beginning to end and ask yourself these questions to help you determine if your system is as efficient as possible:

- Can you post the job quickly to job boards and social media?
– How quickly and easily can you search through applicants to pull the most qualified candidates to interview?
– What’s the process of getting new employees set up in your system?
– Is your end-of-employment process easy or slow and complicated?

These are all questions you should be asking to handle temporary work placements. The faster and quicker you can place candidates, the better satisfied your clients will be. In today’s changing job market, your hiring process needs to be nimble and agile like the economy. The companies that will get ahead in the marketplace aren’t tied to complicated systems; they are using customized systems to follow the changing job trends.

Is your existing system flexible enough to handle the changing economy? If not, you might need to start looking for a better solution to manage your recruitment process. Many of these tasks can be managed through improved recruiting software solutions. If you decide to choose a new ATS, check out our post on what to look for in an ATS.

Have you had experience with temporary recruitment? Did you have to make changes to your process to accommodate it? Please share your experiences with us in the comments.