Overloaded with e-resumes? (On Technology)

Fight technology with technology – automation can simplify the hiring process

With the large volume of resumes pouring in, it’d be tough to convince many HR departments there’s much of a labour shortage

The task of managing and sorting through a flood of resumes for the few positions that are available, and keeping the correct people involved at the right time in the process, is a challenge.

Hiring the right candidate for the position is the ends to the means of a great recruiting and HR solution. Automation of many of these recruiting processes allows recruiting and staffing specialists to get the information the organization needs to make informed decisions and find the right people for the right position.

Even if there are no jobs posted, there never seems to be a lack of resumes for HR to review. Sorting through the resumes and determining quality candidates is simplified with resume parsing. Resume parsing is a function that extracts data from multiple electronic storage forms and saves it in a computer document. It allows organizations to sort and purge candidate data.

Once the candidate’s information has been parsed into a standard format and stored in a central database, organizations can easily manage and report on that information. Using various reporting and analytic tools, organizations can develop almost any ad hoc reports needed to determine the quality and experience of candidates and which ones match specific skill requirements.

Having the information and organizing it in an effective way is only a small part of the recruiting process. Managing the relationships between the recruiting departments, department managers, staffing agencies and other recruitment firms is also critical.

Workflow technology, built into many HR and recruiting software packages, gives organizations the tools necessary to manage the information and relationships by getting the right information to the right people at the right time.

This technology completes the task within the software and then triggers an event such as an approval to a manager to post a position or a notification to a receptionist that a candidate will be coming in for an interview. This concept has become quite popular in many HR software packages and the recruiting and staffing arena has benefited greatly as a result.

The automation of traditional recruiting tasks has allowed organizations to use workflow technology to keep all of the necessary parties involved in the process with notifications, alerts and multiple levels of approval. Escalation and proxy rules built into HR software allow another level of workflow, with approvals moving to the next level if they aren’t approved within a certain period of time, or deferred approvals being sent to another associate to accommodate time off or vacations.

In the past, these recruiting tools were really only available to recruiting firms that conducted recruiting on a large scale. But now most organizations can access workflow and parsing techniques within their own human resource management systems to effectively manage the recruiting process.

This technology is also available to organizations that use an application service provider (also called a hosted recruiting model). This model also provides access to the latest recruiting tools and can be integrated with the organization’s other software.

Jeff Koven leads product strategy for Hewiit Associates’ eCyborg HRMS solution. For more information contact [email protected] or visit www.cyborg.com.

To read the full story, login below.

Not a subscriber?

Start your subscription today!