It’s April 2020 and the global quarantine is still in full effect. It may seem endless now, but this time will not last forever. In terms of hiring, employers need to be ready for when the business is fully operational and the massive amount of unemployed workforce begins to apply for open positions.
Time lost in hiring is time lost in producing much needed revenue, so it’s more important now than ever to utilize technology to quickly hire the right candidates to get your business up and running.
Below we list the Top 5 Ways to Use Technology To Speed Up the Hiring Process.
#1: Applicant Tracking System
Many AI hiring applications contain an advanced applicant tracking system that will enable you to easily monitor key hiring metrics such as “time to fill,” “cost per hire,” and number of applicants applying for certain positions. This means you can accurately keep your hiring budget in line. An example would be to see that a certain position has less applicants and then allocating more advertising budget to that position.
#2: A Short-Form Messenger Service
Since it is expected that there will be a flood of applicants, it can be assured that communicating with them all in long-form, traditional emails will be a big time suck. Setting up a messenger system that can quickly ask filtering interview questions will be invaluable to hiring managers. The majority of applicants in 2020 are conducting job searches on their phones, so being able to shoot them quick text messages with questions you would normally save for an intro interview will be efficient for both the interviewer and the candidate.
#3: Personality Assessments and Background Checks
Personality and background checks are usually saved for later on in the interview process. However by moving this up to the intro stage you will quickly identify the best candidates for your company culture before even asking any interview questions. There are many free personality tests online that you can send the candidate to in the beginning stages of the hiring process.
In addition to a personality fit, you need to make sure the candidate’s criminal background is clean. Usually it takes up to 3 days to get a background check so pushing this up to the forefront for qualified candidates can save time in getting them to work. Unlike personality tests, criminal background checks are not free so a hiring manager will have to be be able to utilize all the information available to them to make sure they are checking only qualified candidates.
#4: Video Interview System
Applications such as Zoom enable businesses to take their meetings online via professional video conferencing. While this is not new technology, most entry-level candidates are not asked to participate in video interviews. By opening this way of interviewing up to all positions, a hiring manager can both start the job search process as early as possible and interview multiple candidates at one time. Imagine having your top 10 candidates for an entry level position all on a video conference and being able to ask them the same questions to see how they compare to each other? Probably stressful for the candidates but very enlightening for the interviewer.
#5: Learning Management System
Lastly, outside of the hiring process, the most important aspect in bringing on new employees is the onboarding process. Many companies have well thought out material to ensure the success of their new employees. However, oftentimes that learning system is dependent on in-person training and takes time away from seasoned employees that will need to be dedicating themselves to their own jobs when things are back up and running. Now is the time to invest in an onboarding system that a new hire can complete online, possibly from home.
An online company academy need not be only for new hires! You can utilize it for continuing education for your current team, making the financial investment work double time for you.
Software such as Enboarder and WorkBright are great examples that you can consider for your company.
While it may seem that this is a time where productivity has halted, you can instead start to discover all the great technology that is out there to make your transition back to “business as usually” quick and painless. Possibly even better than before!
