How to Boost Recruiter Productivity and Effectiveness with a Talent Intelligence Platform

by Veronica Blatt

Today’s guest blogger is Ellen M. Steinlauf. She is the CMO of Oorwin, a leading SaaS-based platform for AI-Driven Talent Acquisition & Management and Recruiter Productivity & Effectiveness. Oorwin’s platform is used to manage your entire Talent Intelligence lifecycle. In this post, Ellen discusses how to boost recruiter productivity and effectiveness with a Talent Intelligence Platform.  

AI technology is rapidly changing the recruitment process. Have you been able to keep up?

Modern recruitment relies heavily on a comprehensive talent acquisition solution to move smoothly from finding potential candidates to bringing them on board. Applicant tracking alone isn’t enough to pull ahead and secure the best talent for your company. Read the rest of this entry »


Must-Have ATS Features in 2022

by Veronica Blatt

Over the past 12-18 months, we have been engaged in a rigorous search for a new technology partner that can deliver a new recruitment marketplace for our members. After reviewing multiple providers, products and platforms, there are ATS features that offer value to recruitment firms of all shapes and sizes. Here are a few features that we think are “must-haves”: Read the rest of this entry »


Why Investing in Recruiting CRM Software is ROI Gold

by Veronica Blatt

Our guest blogger today is NPAworldwide partner iSmartRecruit, offering their thoughts on the importance of good ATS/CRM tools during these unusual times.

The time of tedious and expensive hiring processes that require an intensive IT and marketing department involvement is gone. With the advanced technology of recruiting CRM software, you don’t have to spend countless hours emailing candidates or invest a small fortune into a marketing strategy that doesn’t provide results. Read the rest of this entry »


How To Avoid Roadblocks That Sabotage Your Job Applications

by Veronica Blatt

Today’s guest blogger is Keith Grafman, Founder and Principal of Creative Content Consulting, LLC. CCC positions digital identity for your career, dating, and business, with a consistent presence across your digital footprint. For more information, visit: www.CreativeContentConsulting.com

Wondering why your resume that’s chock full of color, graphics, pictures, unique characters and symbols isn’t landing you interviews? The culprit is most likely all of those fancy bells and whistles—they typically work against you.

Don’t let this discourage you from taking a creative approach to your resume and career positioning because you do need to individualize yourself, but it’s important to avoid confusing the parsing systems. Rather than leading with aesthetics, focus on articulating value.

For those of you that have heard of ATS systems, AKA Application Tracking Systems, that’s not the only part of your job application process that should concern you. There are also systems referred to as parsing systems. The simple explanation of a parsing system is the technology responsible for analyzing and interpreting your digital application/resume data to be organized and reviewed thereafter. More specifically, have you ever noticed when you’re prompted to submit/attach your resume/CV, immediately thereafter, a whole bunch of information (such as your name, phone number, city/state, etc.) populates? That’s a parsing system as work.

When an applicant is prompted to attach a resume/CV, there are typically options to submit a variety of formats, e.g. Microsoft Word, PDF, etc.

There’s a lot of debate surrounding the use of Microsoft Word vs. PDF documents for the digital application process—the fact is, both file formats have value.

The benefits of submitting a PDF-version of your resume:

  • Typically an accepted format for job application submissions
  • Keeps your resume formatting secured for submission process
  • Protects your data, organization and formatting within the document

The benefits of having a Word-version of your resume:

  • An easy-to-reference version that can be modified as needed
  • Some parsing systems may require the submission of a Word formatted document

Ideally, it’s optimal to have both a Word and PDF version of your resume, so you are able to:

  • Modify/add any relevant new details, accomplishments, etc. as your career progresses
  • Control the context and visual presentation of your career-positioning assets

If you find yourself confused about which resume file format is optimal for a job application submission, my suggestion would be to submit as a PDF whenever it’s an acceptable file format—This way, you’ll be able to protect your resume’s formatting and content.


5 Things Moving Houses Can Teach Recruitment Leaders about Migrating Data

by Veronica Blatt

Today’s guest blogger is Kim Nijher of Bullhorn, the global market-leading ATS/CRM for recruitment companies. Kim specialises in small agencies and has helped hundreds of recruiters take the next step to drive efficiency and growth with their CRM. Connect with Kim on LinkedIn.

Last weekend, I moved into a new apartment and neighborhood. I love moving. Every area of inner Sydney has its own character and charm, and before I’m done, I want to tick off the busy beaches and acai bowls of the east, the laid-back beaches and spaciousness of the north, and the coffee and boutique brews of the inner west. Read the rest of this entry »


Applicant Tracking Systems are So 1998…

by Veronica Blatt

BrettIredaleJobAdder-300Today’s guest blogger is Brett Iredale, the CEO and founder of global cloud-based recruitment software company JobAdder. Founded in 2007, JobAdder has offices in London, Denver and Sydney and over 1300 customers in 20 countries.

Brett started his business career by founding a successful IT recruitment agency before going on to develop an online job board business and then JobAdder. With a technology background and extensive recruitment experience, Brett is uniquely positioned to be building and leading the fastest growing software platform for recruiters.

The term ‘Applicant Tracking System,’ or ATS, is often used to describe a system used by recruiters to assist in managing the recruitment process. Applicant Tracking Systems were technology-based solutions developed to automate some of the more tedious manual tasks associated with recruitment. In particular, the original ATS’ were developed to assist with:

  • Electronic distribution of job ads to job boards
  • Automated capture of job applications into the system
  • Providing a simple system to organise open jobs and manage the people who had applied for them
  • Basic email-based communication and note tracking

As technology has developed, so have the breadth and capabilities of modern employment platforms. Applicant Tracking is now typically just one small component of a recruitment platform and today’s systems are no longer referred to as an ATS.

Modern recruitment technology platforms now refer to themselves as Recruitment Management Systems (RMS) or Customer Relationship Management systems (CRM).

To give you an idea of what a recruitment platform should look like in 2016, here is a list of some key functions that modern RMS or recruitment CRM systems perform:

  1. Integrated customer and contact management system. Managing customer and contact data, communication relationships are a key part of a recruitment CRM. They are no longer focused only on jobs and applicants.
  2. Deep integration with social media platforms. As a place where all job seekers (active and passive) spend time, modern recruitment platforms allow users to utilize social media as an effective talent acquisition tool. Modern platforms allow users to socialise any job ad immediately after creation, at the point where it is posted to traditional job boards and advertising channels.
  3. Without exception modern providers are cloud-based, meaning they run on any web browser or mobile device. It is essential that today’s systems are just as mobile as today’s recruitment professionals and candidates.
  4. They offer a suite of fully integrated mobile applications.
  5. Modern recruitment systems come with public APIs (Application Programming Interface) and dozens of out-of-the-box integrations with key systems that recruiters use such as email systems, business productivity tools and backoffice systems such as HR, online timesheets and payroll.
  6. A strong focus on candidate sourcing, rather than just applicant tracking. An example is integration with sites such as HiringSolved.com.
  7. Continuous, rapid product development. Typically, if a platform is developing and releasing new software every 2-3 weeks, users can be confident in the provider’s adaptability and commitment to continuous improvement.
  8. Highly visual, dashboard-driven user interfaces. These interfaces put key decision making data front and centre, allowing all users to get access to the data they need more quickly and efficiently and to take action and make decisions accordingly.
  9. Email tracking, allowing users to see when important emails have been read and actioned. Knowing that emails have been delivered and read is critically important for recruiters.
  10. Recruitment platforms with an international presence are better equipped to support today’s modern, mobile workforce. Recruitment is an increasingly global activity so in 2016 recruiters should expect multilingual resume parsing as well as 24 x 7 worldwide customer support from their recruitment software providers.

*Note: if you are working with a company that refers to their system as an ATS, then it may be a good idea to organize some demos of more modern recruitment platforms.

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It’s Time to Embrace Cloud Recruiting Software

by Veronica Blatt

cloud-computingToday’s guest post is from our newest Alliance Partner. JobAdder manages and organizes the recruitment process for anyone who hires people, offering simplicity, mobility and superior support. Learn more about JobAdder and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. We’re excited they’ll be part of our upcoming Global Conference!

Is “top drawer-ing” of resumes, and working straight from your email inbox a way of life for your company? If so, it’s time to consider a cloud based software solution to help power your recruitment process.

Here are just a few reasons to be considering cloud based recruitment software:

Scale easier: Does your agency have growth plans? Cloud based software offers your company the ability to easily add users any time in a few simple clicks. There is no additional software to install and very little training required for new users.

Reduced IT costs: With cloud based software, recruitment related IT costs can be dramatically reduced. It is no longer necessary to have a network, servers, Exchange and expensive IT support contracts. You can also run your business on low spec PCs or Macs as the machine itself is doing so much less than it once might have. Many of our clients, for example, run their businesses with the lowest spec iMac on every desk and no networks, no servers and no desk phones.

Accessibility: Access your recruitment database anywhere, anytime on any device when you make the switch to a cloud based software. There really are no limitations to where you take your business. Flip open a laptop, tablet or mobile device and get recruiting.

A single source of truth: Spreadsheets and Word docs are tedious and allow little visibility into the overall activity of your company. With a cloud based recruitment platform all activity, candidates, resumes, jobs, companies and contacts are in one central location, providing the whole business with a single source of up to date information.

Streamlined Process: One recruiter uses a spreadsheet, the other keeps multiple word documents saved locally to manage their job ads. With cloud recruitment, you can set up company wide email templates, job ad templates, reports — just about anything you want, to streamline recruitment processes for your entire company.

Increased Collaboration: Share candidates with your team, duplicate job ads, split fees — whatever you’d like. By using a recruitment software that’s cloud based, the options for collaboration are endless.

Stay up to date: So long licensing software! With cloud based software, you have peace of mind that your company is staying up to date with the latest trends in recruitment. New product releases simply appear one day when you log in. No more expensive, painful software upgrades — just happy Monday morning surprise when you log in to find new features to help you recruit better.

Has your company found a cloud based software solution? Comment below and tell us how a cloud based software solution has helped your company!

image courtesy of hywards / www.freedigitalphotos.net

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