Eight months ago, I graduated from college with a shiny new bachelor’s degree.  I knew my family and friends would be very proud of my accomplishment.  However, it seemed no one was really that interested in my diploma.  They were, understandably, more curious about something else:

 “Did’ja get a job yet?” 

I spent my entire senior year of college on the job hunt; applying to positions, preparing for interviews, and visiting potential employers.  During that time period, I developed a complaint or two about the job hunting world.  My classmates and peers also shared my resentment, and we used each other to talk and vent our frustrations.  After some time, I developed what I like to call “application fatigue”, and it was hard to stay motivated in the job search process.

Ironically, I ended working for a company that provides HR talent and management solutions, including applicant tracking, and it has been interesting to finally see the other side of human resources…the recruiter side.  
Recruiters, here are some tips to help ensure a more pleasant candidate experience (and hopefully a more pleasant experience for you, too):

1.    Take a step back and look at your organization from a candidate’s perspective.  How would they see you?  Job seekers are increasingly using technology to figure out a company’s culture before they even apply.  How well does your company take advantage of media to encourage candidates to apply?  Drive quality candidates to apply to your positions with branded career sites.  Use new technologies like mobile applications, videos, and social media to stand out and engage potential candidates. 

2.    So, a potential candidate liked what they saw on your branded career page and has applied to a position within your company.  The application process should be smooth, quick, and easy.  A good applicant tracking system can help eliminate candidate grievances with a superior resume parsing feature, a product with few bugs (and a commitment to fixing those that exist), and features that ensure that top, quality candidates don’t get lost in the shuffle and are easy to find. 

3.    Now, you want to begin the interview process with an applicant that seems like a good fit.  What else can be done to ensure a pleasant candidate experience?  HR Departments, although a fancy media presentation can make a great first impression on candidates, you are the front line.  A candidate’s perspective of the organization may not start with you, but it certainly finishes with you.  For companies that hire hourly positions especially, you will most likely end up rejecting candidates that are also loyal customers.  Don’t leave applicants with a sour taste in their mouth and a negative view of the organization.  After interviews, there are two things candidates will remember most, and they are 1) your attitude and 2) how they were treated while onsite.  Once you’ve made a decision to hire or reject, follow up quickly. (No one likes the waiting game!  Seriously, NO ONE.)  If you need more time to make a decision, keep candidates in the loop.  They’ll sincerely appreciate it.

4.    Voilà!  You’ve hired a quality candidate and it was a pleasant experience for everyone involved!  Your new recruit can’t wait to hit the ground running!  And, since I have your attention, how’s your onboarding experience for new employees, by the way?  ;)

It’s the day after Halloween! Yes, that means that it’s time to shed that itchy polyester costume, pick the fake spider webs out of your hair, and empty out those pockets filled with candy wrappers. What’s next you ask? Well, with all the Halloween festivities, you didn’t have time to think about how to solve your recruiting issues at work! But there’s no need to fret! Perhaps we can use some of that Halloween spirit to help you out!

First things first, take a look at your trick-or-treat bag. Think of your bag of Halloween treats as your talent pool, and your candies as candidates. Just as you would sift through all the candies to find the one you want, you also need to sift through your talent pool for the right talent. But finding the right person for your organization isn’t an easy task. Candidates’ resumes are like colorful candy wrappers, each one is different with so much to look at, making it even harder to choose one from another. This is where automation would be helpful. Instead of manually going through each and every resume, there is technology out there that can automatically filter, screen, and rank qualified candidates. They can also sort through resumes to find specific skills sets and requirements through an easy-to-use keyword search.

Secondly, keep the candies you’ve picked. Once you find the candy you want, you don’t want someone else taking it away from you! What many people don’t realize is that retaining key talent starts with the onboarding process. Having an onboarding portal can help new hires transition into a company more smoothly and efficiently, while making it a positive experience. Allow your new hires to fill out electronic forms and documents prior to their first day of work. This will ensure faster new hire productivity and increased retention rates!

Last but not least, know which houses give out the best candy…so you can go there next year! Sourcing is one of the biggest challenges recruiters face. Many have a hard time finding which job sources bring in the best candidates. Whether it be job boards, employee referrals, or social media outlets, it’s important to identify the most effective outlets for acquiring top talent. One thing you can do is measure the effectiveness of sources you currently have. And, if you have already automated your program, reporting and tracking is as easy as 1-2-3. Once you find your most successful sources, you can manage and optimize them. You can then try using social recruitment tools to post jobs on Facebook and Twitter, or reach specific talent through unique job boards to optimize your job search!

You’ve picked the best candy (candidates), you learned how to keep them (employee retention), and now you know where to get the best candy for next time (sourcing). Thank goodness for all of the Halloween spirit!

A couple of weeks ago, I got this notice in the mail that brightened my day, well week, well actually a good month. It was a jury summons! Wait what? Yes, you’ve heard me correctly…jury summons. I was so thoroughly excited to receive my jury summons notice that I told nearly everyone I knew. I would receive phone calls from vendors looking to schedule upcoming campaigns, and before we would get off the phone I would have to mention, “Oh, and just so you know, I’ve been selected for jury duty. So I would like to make sure the plan is up and running before I leave.” I would hang up the phone and find myself looking for the next new person I could tell. This kept up for the entire month before jury duty. Without even realizing it, I was making it a part of every conversation I had. Yes, I know there are probably very few people who are genuinely excited at the prospect of sitting in a courthouse for an unknown amount of time, waiting to find out if they would be selected for a trial. Okay fine. I may be the only person on earth who is excited at the prospect of reporting for jury duty.

(They make it sound like a bad thing...)

The day before I was scheduled to report, I said farewell to my coworkers reminding them once again, that I was off to jury duty. When I got home that night, I called the NJ courts telephone number and to my terrible disappointment, my juror number was not called. I had to wait another day to see if I had been selected to report. I was sure I would be. So the next day, after a long day at work, I wished my coworkers farewell again, and told them I would see them as soon as I completed my duty to the state! Again when I got home, I was not needed for the following day, but was required to call back. Then, the third day I was officially dismissed. I looked up to the sky and shook my fists, “why has the state forsaken me!” Okay, not really, but I was quite saddened that I would not be able to experience jury duty. You must be thinking, “Okay, she’s crazy, why would she want to go to jury duty and what is the point of this post?!?!” Well the truth is, while I was looking forward to hearing the case, I was more interested in listening in on the selection process.

Selecting the perfect juror is a difficult decision. You have to find someone that will be unbiased and fair, among many other things. But, how do you find that perfect juror? Well, the only way is to have day-long interviews of every candidate that has been called. This forces lawyers, judges, and court officials to hang around all day to interview every prospective juror available (well except me of course….okay fine, I’ll let it go) causing the jury selection process to be time-consuming and draining to all parties involved. What if the recruitment process was the same? Interviewing each resume you receive, and spending countless hours trying to decipher interview answers. Unfortunately, recruiters often face a challenge very similar: sorting through hundreds or in some cases, thousands of resumes and applicants in search of the perfect person for the job. How horribly inefficient is this!?! But recruiters have an advantage that courthouses do not. The people who are qualifying for the position actually want to get chosen, whereas most potential jurors try to think of excuses to get out of the selection process. Having applicants that will openly speak about their qualifications can help you filter faster and select the best candidate possible. But you may still get a lot of candidates. There are a few things that recruiters can do that the courthouses cannot do (at least at this point in time).

Review the job description.
As companies grow, positions change and job responsibilities move around. I know you know this but make sure you have the most accurate and up-to-date account of the position.  Schedule time semi-annually to review and update job descriptions - or, more often if necessary.

Filter by skills.
Once you have posted the job and after you’ve received a hundred resumes for one position, filter by exact skills. While this is not a sure-fire way to find the perfect candidate, it is a good place to start. Nine times out of ten there will only be a percentage of applicants who meet the criteria. This cuts down on the number of non-qualified candidates going through the interviewing process. This is a luxury that lawyers and judges do not have.

Have tiered interviews.
After the applicants get a chance to meet with the hiring manager, have them meet with high-performing employees around the company to measure how the person would fit culturally within the organization. This will help ensure that the candidate not only has the right technical skills, but also the right values that will align directly with the company’s.

Leverage technology.
Let's face it; recruitment technology is a part of the recruitment process now. Of course you can stick with a manual process, but if you do, you are not using your time efficiently. You are wasting too much time on administrative duties and interviewing too many candidates. Certain technologies, like applicant tracking systems, can track and manage candidate information online, allowing you to easily search for the candidate that has the skill sets you need. You can filter the unqualified applicants in a matter of seconds. 

You may be nervous about implementing technology, but there are plenty of resources that can help simplify this for you. If you are a mid-size company looking for recruitment software, here is a webinar to check out, “Choosing a Recruitment Technology for Mid-Sized Organizations.” And, if you aren’t a mid-size company, still feel free to listen in as a lot of the principles are universal to all sizes.

Recruiters have many more options when it comes to facilitating a hiring program. If there is anything we can learn from the jury selection process, it would be: don’t do it the courthouse way – it’s an inefficient use of your time. Okay, I’ve talked enough. What are you doing to find the perfect candidate?

P.S. Wish me luck on the next jury summons!

Today's guest blog post comes to you from Ryan Yeoman, co-Founder of Capterra, a business software company that provides a comprehensive resource for all your business software needs, notably applicant tracking software.

People are typically the largest expense for a company; so it’s no wonder that the #1 priority for most CEOs is recruiting and retaining good people. The right applicant tracking software can help you find good people and will reduce expenses related to finding them. ATS is a proven tool that helps you focus on your top priority.

There have long been ATS options for large and mid-sized companies, but until recently, applicant tracking solutions were too expensive and too complex to be used by smaller companies.

As more ATS solutions are offered as a service and hosted online, more companies can take advantage of the benefits.

Are you ready?

Top Reasons to Consider ATS

• Automate so you can interview.
  
  Applicant tracking software helps manage and automate the recruiting and hiring process. It doesn’t take away the work that you have to put in, but it does greatly reduce the administrative headaches, paper pushing, and time it takes to fill a position. Perhaps most importantly, it enables you to focus on the candidate rather than the paperwork.


• If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.
  
  With the right ATS solution, you can quickly and easily create the metrics and reports needed to gauge the effectiveness of your hiring process. ATS software gives hiring managers, team members, and Human Resources associates visibility into the entire process.


• Stay compliant.
  
  It’s getting tougher to keep track of all the activities, reports, and statistics required to maintain compliance when hiring. With applicant tracking software, you can capture and report candidate activity with ease. Cumbersome paper applicant and hire logs and reactive audits become a thing of the past.

How do you know if you’re ready?

If you’ve caught yourself thinking any of the following, you’re ready:

• “I’ve had it. I can’t keep up with this mountain of resumes. I can’t possibly review and manage all of them.”
• “You’re kidding me. I can’t possibly fill all those positions by then.”
• “Ok, think. Where did I put the incoming applicant worksheet? And where did the applicant activity log go?”
• “I’m sick and tired of copying and re-copying all this information on 19 different forms. Why am I entering all of this again?”

Today's guest blog post comes to you from Kyle Lagunas. He is the HR Market Analyst at Software Advice, a company that provides consumer information such as HR and applicant tracking software reviews. Please find the original blog here.

With the emerging prominence of social media and cloud-based computing, sourcing and hiring strategies have no doubt changed in recent years. More and more hiring professionals and human resources (HR) departments are relying on applicant tracking systems (ATS) to automate, streamline and organize the complicated processes associated with bringing on new employees. In order to get a strong pulse of the market, I recently interviewed executives from three applicant tracking software vendors: Dresser & Associates, AcquireTM, and iCIMS. Who better to tell us where things stand and where they’re going than the leaders of the pack?

Before we jump in, though, let me introduce you to our roundtable participants.

Jason Barnett, CIO and co-founder of EON Applications, Inc.
As the Chief Information Officer and co-founder of EON Applications, Inc – creators of Acquire Talent Management – Jason is responsible for product and strategic technology planning. He brings over 15 years of software product development experience across several industries delivering enterprise software. Prior to founding EON, Jason worked as a consultant for several Fortune 500 companies.

Mark Dresser, President and CEO of Dresser & Associates
Dresser & Associates is the leading Sage Abra HRMS partner in the US. For over fifteen years Mark's company has provided unique solutions for hundreds of businesses to boost productivity using human resources software. Providing the highest level of expertise in the HRMS applications, they deliver products and services that meet customers’ needs and surpass their expectations.

Susan Vitale, CSO at iCIMS
As Chief Strategic Officer for iCIMS Talent Platform, Susan directs business strategy to drive corporate growth. She works closely with linking iCIMS' business vision to the product roadmap to help bring valuable new functionality to market through iCIMS’ Talent Platform. Prior to overseeing corporate strategy, Susan was iCIMS' Director of Marketing, leading all strategic marketing initiatives.

Q: What trends do you see as having the largest impact on the ATS market?
Barnett: HR and hiring professionals, as well as third party recruiters are all focusing more on finding passive candidates. To accomplish this, they’re using social media to tweet jobs and share information via Facebook and LinkedIn. And while we all hear that social media is a great tool, how do we leverage it? From a product perspective, we have to dive in and provide deeper integration with Twitter, Faceboook, and LinkedIn. Using these platforms should be easy for someone who hasn't been utilizing social networks before. Accordingly systems are becoming much easier to use, and the adoption rate is growing.

Dresser: With the recession and the tight financial market of the past few years, I think companies have realized that they needed to start doing more with less. What they used to do with 10 people, now they're trying to do with 7 or 8 – and they they need to attract and retain the best quality people. These companies need a system that can automate the process – that helps them find ways to attract the best candidates. Where once it was only large companies using these systems, we're now seeing more of the smaller companies tapping into ATS in order to improve their hiring processes and stay competitive.

Vitale: We're seeing organizations becoming more progressive with their recruitment efforts by leveraging networks – social media sites, social networks, employee networks – to bring talent in. They’re sharing jobs through these mediums instead of relying on more traditional sites like job boards like Monster or Dice. I think social media is going to change the dynamic quite a bit. Certainly not overnight, but I absolutely see social media as the number one massive change that will be taking place in applicant tracking.

Q: How has the emergence of software as a service (SaaS) changed the way hiring professionals use ATS?
Barnett: SaaS has simplified the process of implementation. The complications with legacy systems – connecting remote users, determining whether the system is going to be able to work on a wide area network – those types of things all go away. Being able to log in via an internet browser and use the application drives it deeper into the organization. Also, keeping the application up to date is taken out of IT's hands, and brought back to the vendor. We're usually doing updates every other week. We have liaisons who work with our customers who bring this info back to our development team, and that's how we develop our product. If it wasn't for SaaS, we wouldn't be able to make these changes and get them out to customers in a timely manner.

Dresser: With cloud computing, you have the flexibility to accommodate what employers need to get their information out to potential candidates. You can have as many requisitions as you want and have those requisitions have specific questions. Then you can have those requisitions followed up by specific hiring managers and recruiters. You don't have a hiring manager who has to do everything. The ATS gives everyone involved the visibility to see where your requisitions stand. Where does this requisition stand right now? Why hasn't it moved? Who is holding it up? What is going on? And this makes things faster for people.

Vitale: A ton of organizations are moving away from these licensed point solutions in favor of SaaS suites. SaaS solutions are far more flexible and scalable. You're getting upgrades for free, so you have more competitive tech. As your organization grows, it's very easy and cost-effective to add more users. If your org goes global or acquires another company, it's easy to scale that out–and scaling is an option as well. At the lower level, about 60 percent of iCIMS’ SMB customers come to us having never used a solution whatsoever. And these smaller companies tend to reap really great benefits when it comes to SaaS.

Q. What are a few major factors that are driving the increased adoption of ATS in the SMB market?
Barnett: As job boards have become more prolific, so have the candidates using them. As such, HR departments are getting inundated with a flow of candidate information, and they know they need a better way to manage it. A SaaS-based ATS model is more accessible and easier to use. You can use it without getting involved in a long-term contract. Literally, you could sign up for two or three months, and if that was all you needed it for, then move on. A SaaS solution is an expense rather than an asset. You can just put it on a credit card and solve a problem.

Dresser: There is a lot of competition out there for top-quality candidates. As competition gets stronger, hiring professionals at small and mid-sized businesses want to make sure they have a system in place that can easily identify and tag talent for them. When you have an ATS in place, you can do keyword searches within your database and rate applicants so you're always looking at the cream of the crop. A big part with the ATS experience is instant access to information, and knowing exactly where people stand. With SaaS-based systems, small and mid-sized businesses have access to this sophisticated functionality without a huge IT staff.

Vitale: The efficiency is tremendous. When you're a small or medium company, you may have a handful of people in recruitment or HR. And when you're going through a growth spurt, that kicks you in the butt to get a system. Recruiters are dealing with a million emails and are literally using Outlook and Excel to manage that information. If recruitment is not a good function within an organization, it literally can stifle growth. So there is a lot of buy-in from an executive level to say, "let's get recruitment right," and using an ATS is just a tremendous benefit to doing that more easily. ATS help ensure things get done better – from the candidates' perspective as well as the recruitment and hiring manager perspective.

Q: How do you see social media effecting the future of ATS?
Barnett: I think it's difficult to say right now because it's so young. There are a lot of people talking about job boards falling away, speculation that everything is going shift to a social media environment – and people have been talking about that for a while. Although social media is certainly going to be an integral part of ATS, I don't know that it is going to be the end-all solution when it comes to managing applicants. I see social media functionality becoming better and more deeply integrated into the ATS, as well as becoming more a part of how HR interacts with their applicants. But I don't know how much further we're going to see things go until the social media platform mellows out a little bit.

Dresser: Social media allows you to get your words out there to passive candidates. As such, I think any ATS is going to need to be able to adapt or evolve to be able to access all of the social media vehicles that are there now, as well as what comes up in the future. That’s what's great about cloud systems: if you buy a system and you own it, and a new system or whatever takes place a year or two down the road, then you have to do an upgrade, etc. Whereas the SaaS models are going to have to be constantly evolving to meet what today's needs are for them in order to stay competitive.

Vitale: It's going to get more sophisticated. Hiring professionals are leveraging social networks to post their jobs and promote opportunities opportunities at a given organization. That's the push mentality. What we're really going to see, though, is the pull mentality. It’s not just "How do I post and advertise jobs?" but " How do I get the appropriate social media content into my ATS so that it's a better candidate experience?" We’ll see a better recruitment experience because we’ll rely on data that's fresher, that's more real-time using social content.

Reposted from Software Advice.

Striving to be the best at whatever you are involved with - whether it's a job, sport, or school - plays a major part in defining who you are. Accepting mediocrity now-a-days just isn’t good enough. It is a competitive world we live in, and in order to be the best and stand out, you must shine at what you do, with little to no mistakes. You know who has got this idea down perfectly? Derek Jeter. If Derek Jeter’s name was in the dictionary, this would be his definition:

Derek Jeter: Captain and Shortstop for the 27-time World Champion New York Yankees, is an influential, highly successful baseball player and role model for children and adults, within the sports and business world.

You may be asking yourself right about…now, “How does Derek Jeter relate to the HR world?” Well the answer is relatively simple. Jeter, as a top baseball player, indirectly drives profits and success within the sports and business world, just as the number one applicant tracking system can serve to power the success of an entire organization.

Jeter recently joined the elite 3,000 hit club in the Big Leagues, becoming a part of the small, yet immortal, group of 27 other remarkable players the sport of baseball has ever seen. In addition, Derek was the very first New York Yankee to ever reach this astonishing milestone. He has become the biggest, most recognized figure in all of professional sports! How did he do it? The same way you get to Carnegie Hall. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! Oh, and little thing called good work ethic, and an electrifying team that has one goal in mind at all times, be the best of the best. And, at the end of the day, he became the best!

Now although Derek Jeter has been the Captain of the Yankees for 8 years, he couldn’t have won 5 World Championships without the help of his team or vice versa. Team is a very interesting concept. First off, there is no “I in team” (so cliché, I know). The Yankees' great teamwork and key players have directly contributed to their major success. The same thing can be applied to organizations.  Without a good team, the atmosphere of the work-place and performance can be greatly affected. When it comes time to hire new employees to add to your growing team it  is essential to find the right ones to facilitate team success. You can do this best by using a top applicant tracking system. With the proper HR software leading the way to a prosperous future, your business is on its way to winning some of its own championships. Did I just compare Derek Jeter and the Yankees to HR software? Yes, that just happened!

So the next time your company begins the recruitment process with the goal of hiring the best and the brightest, make sure you are being represented by a leader just like Derek Jeter. Work is always going to be filled with a whole bunch of bumps in the road, but there are a few software choices that can be there to help you along the way. Don’t let your business suffer with underperforming solutions. Recruit more efficiently with the best ATS on the market and be of the same caliber as the Yankees with Derek Jeter! Can you tell I like Derek Jeter??

Today's guest blog post comes to you from Kyle Lagunas. He is the HR Market Analyst at Software Advice, a company that provides consumer information such as HR and applicant tracking software reviews.

Growing your organization is no cakewalk. The search for the proverbial needle in a haystack is time-consuming, and time is one thing many hiring professionals have little of. Thankfully, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, and your hiring headaches can easily become a thing of the past. Thanks to the emergence of web-based Software as a Service (SaaS), small businesses can tap into feature-rich web-based applicant tracking software (ATS) and streamline their hiring process.
 
If you think you are ready to retire your Rolodex and recycle those paper resumes, here’s what you should know about ATS:

1. ATS automates the entire hiring process: from online applications and document management to interviewing, hiring and even onboarding talent.
2. ATS ensures the work-flow is easily accessible to everyone involved in the hiring process: From HR to hiring manager to CEO.
3. Some ATS delivers better than others. We’ve put this easy-to-digest guide together to review some of our favorite systems.

 
To learn more about which applicant tracking systems can fit your needs, review this guide in its entirety at: http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/hr/web-based-applicant-tracking-systems-comparison-1070711/...

Every November, aspiring writers throughout the creative community participate in a mind-boggling writing frenzy known as NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). The goal of NaNoWriMo is to inspire both new and veteran writers to each write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days or less. While NaNoWriMo’s leadership and support groups provide feedback, pep talks, news updates, and fun tools to motivate the writers, the real work is completely up to the author. In the end, the writer is responsible for concepting, creating, writing, editing, finishing, and submitting the novel.

As a NaNoWriMo participant, I can attest to the chaos of the entire creative writing process that becomes my November. While I find it invigorating to join in on the writing spree, I am nearly burned out by the end of the month. On top of my quest to complete a novel, I have a full-time job and several side projects that are writing focused. Keeping up with my usual responsibilities in addition to NaNoWriMo can become extremely overwhelming. I typically make it to the end with most goals achieved, but not without losing a ton of sleep in the process.

So what does NaNoWriMo have to do with human resource management? A lot, if you compare the hectic pace and influx of creative writing that is NaNoWriMo with the high demand for new hires that many HR professionals face each November. As the end of the year approaches, companies begin preparing for seasonal hiring to accommodate business surges or for talent sourcing to align with strategic plans for the new year.

What are the lessons you can take away from the NaNoWriMo experience?

Plan in Advance – For NaNoWriMo, creating detailed outlines can help a writer stay on track. I try to sketch out the key elements that I need to include and where I want them to appear in the story. In the HR space, planning ahead can save time down the line when your workload increases. Automated checklists can help you outline and prepare in advance for talent requests. Knowing when hiring surges will occur and scheduling job posts in advance can help you stay ahead of deadlines and remain on track.

Equip Yourself – With creating writing, there are a few tools that can help the process run smoothly – a distraction-free word processor, ambient music, and a searchable thesaurus, to name a few. HR professionals can reach for a variety of tools as well, and an applicant tracking system can consolidate the tools you need to move forward efficiently. Streamlining sourcing, CRM, and onboarding materials with one system brings together the information you need more efficiently. With the proper tools, you can focus on results rather than process.

Avoid Burn Out – Since the point of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words in 30 days (averaging more than 1600 words a day), creative burn out is almost inevitable. But human resource experts can avoid burn out by building a candidate pipeline to call upon when the need arises. Don’t wear yourself out managing your talent management needs in short-term sprints. Collect quality talent information along the way that you can store and come back to later when faced with a hiring surge.

Now that NaNoWriMo is over, I can recuperate and enjoy the upcoming holiday season…and give thoughtful consideration to whether I am up for the challenge of Script Frenzy next April.

Looking to add some part-time employees for the holiday season/new year?

Before your organization can count the money saved with adding part-time workers vs. full-time, it’s important to educate yourself on the logistics and legality behind it.

Whether your retail business is looking to add seasonal hires or your mid-sized organization is growing, part-timers may be the key to keeping costs down and productivity high. Before you start recruiting, take a moment to review the basics:

Recruiting for Part-Timers:

Despite the down economy, students may still be your best bet for part-time help, especially for summer, evening, or weekend hours.  Allbusiness.com suggests:

To tap into this applicant pool, try advertising in local and student newspapers/websites, as well as on bulletin boards at nearby high schools and colleges. You can also call nearby schools to see if they have employment offices that match students with potential employers. Other resources include temporary agencies and websites targeted at seasonal or part-time employment. In addition, retirees are good candidates for part-time help; consider advertising at local supermarkets or calling nearby retirement associations. 

Leveraging an applicant tracking system can be a big part in keeping your part-time and full-time talent pools separate during the recruitment process. Use an ATS that constructs a dynamic workflow within the Applicant Flow to mimic the client’s hourly/part-time recruitment strategy. This includes additional Bins and Status Levels designed to match the hiring process for part-time candidates. Additional process includes screening questions focused on availability and experience to limit and manage large applicant volumes.

Hiring Part-Time Workers:

A recent article in the LA Times offered some “Did you Know” tips for organizations looking to add part-timers to their workforce:

Did you know…

• Part-timers qualify for overtime, and meal and rest break rules might apply to them too. In California, which has a daily overtime rule, even an employee who comes in one day a week could be due overtime if he or she works more than eight hours in one day.
• Some benefits, including certain retirement plans or leave laws such as the Federal Family Medical Leave Act, can be triggered if a worker exceeds a certain number of hours in a year, regardless of the employee's part-time status.
• Even a single part-time employee must be covered by workers' compensation insurance, and minimum-wage laws must be followed.
• Bringing a part-time worker aboard might bump up a business' status with regard to employment laws. For example, if adding a part-time worker boosts the workforce from four to five, the business might have to comply with a state's workplace disability rules.
• If a small business expects to add part-time workers, it's important for the owner to learn the rules that apply ahead of time and put the proper procedures in place.

Again, the benefits of utilizing a Talent Management system greatly facilitate the headaches of paper-work (automate it!) and compliance laws (track it!). So before you amp up your work force with part-timers for the holiday season, make sure you have a plan in place! Familiarize yourself with state laws for part timers, and make your life easier by having an applicant tracking/talent management system in place.

Additional Resources:

Part Time and Temporary Employees – Employee Rights Center (findlaw.com)

Part Time Employment Overview (United States Department of Labor)

Understanding the Federal HIRE Act (White Paper)

Early in my career, I was a developer and one of my first projects was to work with the HR team to build an candidate management system in Lotus notes. I started by having meetings with recruiters, then recruiting managers, then hiring managers and finally leadership. Each of these groups had different needs, request and demands. Leadership eventually overruled many requests that were made by recruiters and I was able to start building the new tool for the recruitment team. I spent several weeks designing and building out what I thought would fit based on their requests. We had meeting after meeting to redesign, tweak and address new issues that came up. Several months later, I had this monster of a database with candidate applications, work flows, and all kinds of other bells and whistles. I then moved on to a new billable project. 

A few months later, I was sent several change requests but unfortunately I was on a new project. And, the internal project took a back seat to the billable one. The company was forced to put a new developer on the candidate management project who was unfamiliar with the background of the project or why things were designed the way they were. Recruiters left and new recruiters, who wanted more changes, came in and eventually the once completely customized candidate database, meant to meet the needs of the recruiters, was outdated and needed lots of updates and changes in order to keep up with the quick changing HR industry.

In retrospect, the thought of “Build vs. Buy” seems like an easy one and here is why.

1. Using internal resources seems like a great idea but usually after a developer rolls out the project they are not nearly as accessible to make needed changes. If the developer is on another project you may be assigned a new developer to make the changes. Therefore, you must either wait for the new developer to understand how the software works and what you would like it to do now or worse, you must stay in limbo waiting for your original developer to find the time to make those changes. In that time, you may be losing valuable candidates that could make a significant impact within your organization.


2. The recruiting industry changes fast! Look at a couple of years ago; we had a shortage of candidates and wanted easy applications as to not deter candidates from applying. Nowadays, there are so many candidates that recruiters are often overwhelmed; therefore, the application may need to change in order to weed out candidates that aren’t a good fit. The industry is getting more and more complex. Further, integrated background, drug and assessment testing are available. Electronic job distribution and sourcing tools that will post your job to multiple job boards in real-time or search multiple job board databases at once are available. There are integrations to payroll systems, onboarding, succession planning, compensation, and performance management. And, now video interviewing and mobile solutions have even emerged. This could be entirely too much for any developer to keep up with, without being dedicated to the project.


3. Cost, yes cost! According to salary.com the average cost of ONE web software developer is right around $71,000 per year. That is just one resource. A candidate management system with all the bells and whistles would not even come close to that cost.

   

4. If your company needs to report on EEO and OFCCP, this could be really difficult with a home grown system.  A true candidate management or applicant tracking tool has these pieces built in and can run real-time reports if they were ever needed. Not being able to accurately report on these could result in steep fines by the government or worse the loss of your government contract.

Candidate management systems with tools such as applicant tracking have come a long way in the last few years and have a team of people behind them to ensure that the system is on top of all state and federal government regulations. They also are constantly trying to stay on top of where the industry is going and creating best practices for current customers. They hold user groups to ensure that each of their customers is being heard, and their development requests are being put into place. They are fighting to stay ahead of the game and either win or keep your business; all for less than half the cost of a web software developer.

So really, it just makes sense to avoid building!