Benefits of Using Recruiting Software

Recruiting software includes all of the benefits of applicant tracking software (i.e. building and searching a database of candidates with almost no measurable time or administrative cost), but then adds very significant additional benefits of its own.

Recruiting software tracks candidates through the interview and hiring process, and also creates comprehensive records for client companies (or departments and locations within the same company) and hiring managers. It does all of these things with just a few mouse clicks.

Time Savings

Tracking candidates through the interview and hiring process is not an optional activity for a recruiter. One way or another, it has to be done. If you’re a recruiter, you need to know exactly which candidates are being considered for which positions. Without dedicated recruiting software, this tracking is usually done using a combination of paper records and Excel spreadsheets. It is also very time-consuming.

The time savings associated with recruiting software derive from the fact that this category of software is always a form of relational database software. In a relational database, records from one category (e.g. candidate records) can be cross-filed, or “related” to records from some other category (e.g. job order records). It takes just a few mouse clicks, (usually very “intuitive” mouse clicks), to create this cross-filing relationship.

The concept is the same as cross-filing paper records, for example, by making a copy of a candidate’s paper resume, and then filing this copy in a master folder for a given job opening, along with the resumes of other candidates who are being considered for this same job. Obviously, making a paper copy, and then filing it, is a very time intensive process.

Trying to track candidates using Excel or some other spreadsheet program is probably more efficient than filing paper records, but is still time intensive. Specific pieces of information, such as interview dates, offer and acceptance dates, etc., have to be manually entered into the spreadsheet. The resulting spreadsheet is a concise and useful document, but it has no relationship to any other record keeping systems. The keystrokes used to create it serve one purpose only.

With recruiting software, there is no manual data entry time whatsoever for this purpose. Dates can be clicked into the database, (not typed) and because recruiting software is relational, the same clicked date will automatically update multiple record types at the same time. Clicking in a single interview date will update four record types at the same time:

1. The candidate record
2. The job order record
3. The client record
4. The hiring manager’s record

Only you know how much time you’re spending today tracking candidates through the interview and hiring process. Even if you’re actively working to fill just 2-3 jobs at any given time, however, the time spent for this purpose easily amounts to some number of hours per month. A very conservative assumption will be that recruiting software will cut in half the time you’re spending on this activity. The more jobs you are actively trying to fill at any one time, the greater will be your time savings.

It may take a while to “trust” the fact that so little effort is required to keep track of the interview status of all candidates on all jobs, but once you see how much is accomplished with so few mouse clicks in a relational database, any other systems you may have been using for candidate tracking will quickly be abandoned.

The candidate tracking information in your database can be viewed on screen, or printed, if you prefer.

Productivity Improvements

The real benefit of recruiting software comes from the improved productivity that results from having so much comprehensive and up-to-date information at your fingertips at all times.

The fact is that any recruiting operation has such a heavy record keeping burden that without dedicated recruiting software, it’s nearly impossible to keep up-to-date records for every client, hiring manager, job order (or requisition) and candidate. Because recruiting software updates all four record types simultaneously from the same few mouse clicks, every record of each of the four types is always current.

The productivity gain comes from the fact that having instant and easy access to all possible information associated with every candidate, client, job, and hiring manager allows every phone call to move every transaction as far as possible in the direction of a successful hire. It may be impossible to place a dollar value on good information, but no one could argue that having accurate, complete, timely information helps a recruiter perform better.

Summary

Successful recruiting primarily requires good communication and selling skills, and recruiting software will not make you a better communicator or sales person.

Nevertheless, successful recruiting also requires something as mundane as good recordkeeping, and here software has a major part to play. Recruiting software, such as the RESUMate Professional version, can drastically reduce the amount of time needed to keep track of candidates during the interview process, and as a by-product maintain comprehensive, up-to-date records for every candidate, client, job, and hiring manager in the database.

Learn More

» Recruiting Software

» Desktop Database Software for Recruiters
» Applicant Tracking Software
» Benefits of Applicant Tracking Software

RESUMate Products

» RESUMate Pro Recruiting Software
» RESUMate Lite Applicant Tracking Software