Whether you are running a recruiting agency, hiring for an enterprise, or staffing a smaller company, it is important to evaluate your recruiting systems. With the range of different applicant tracking systems now available, it can be tempting to jump on the next big thing in hopes that your recruiting pain points will be assuaged. Instead of moving ahead blindly, it is important to perform a system evaluation so that you know what you are looking for and have an idea how to get there.
Identify What Is Working
In most cases, there will be a few things about the current recruiting system that are working, no matter how dire your recruiting situation may seem or how outmoded your systems may be. Perhaps your application process is simple and attracts a large candidate pool or your in-house referral incentive program secures some of your greatest talent. When looking to identify what is working for your company, make sure to write it down so that you can build around it when devising your new strategy.
Collaborate with Your Main Hiring Staff
Your hiring staff or consultants will never be on board with changes that you make to the recruiting system if they don’t feel that they were included in the evaluation or selection process. In fact, excluding them will alienate your key players and make them less likely to willingly adapt to anything that you change – even if you are trying to make their lives easier. The best recruiting system evaluations come from a collaborative effort between employers and hiring staff.
Share Observations and Goals with Full Staff
After consulting with the main hiring staff and doing some research to pull out what is working with the system, the best course of action is to call together a full staff meeting with all of the staff members that are involved in recruiting in any way and share your observations regarding where the recruiting system is and where you feel it needs to go. This meeting may be a terrific opportunity for your staff to brainstorm and respond to your findings, which can make it easier for you to figure out how to move forward.
Make Small Changes as Needed
If there is anything that you can change to improve your recruiting system and move towards your identified goals without doing a radical system overhaul, do that first. Even if you end up purchasing an ATS or making other dramatic changes eventually, making small changes now may help to ease the implementation process and optimize the eventual result of your labors. Small changes will be easy to adapt to at first and should be easily convertible along with the other aspects of the system that are working.
Prioritize Needs for System Improvement
After you have made all of the changes that you can without purchasing new software, it is the perfect time to perform a reassessment with a specific focus on what you still need to improve in your recruitment process. Prioritize the needs as you create your list and collaborate heavily with your key staff. Keeping this list near your list of what is working will give you a good jumping off point when you start to review ATS software features to begin the selection process.
