Recruiting can be a long slog.
All of the different components of the jobs, from cold calling for new clients, postings your jobs, sourcing candidates, reading resumes and performing interviews, can take up most of your day.
To reduce your administrative workload and free yourself to focus on tasks that matter most, many recruiters use recruiting tools to their full advantage.
Here’s a list of five tools that every recruiter needs to speed up their workflow.
1. E-mail finders
There are many tools that allow you to source emails for hiring managers and candidates alike. These tools, most of which are Chrome extensions, display all known email addresses for a person when you visit that person’s social profile.
But not all of these tools are created equally. The accuracy of the results (sending an email that bounces back sucks!) and the cost per e-mail provided are the most relevant benchmarks. Therefore, when it comes to finding the best tools, make sure to consider these two metrics. ContactOut, Hiretual, Prophet and Lusha are a few options to consider.
2. Applicant tracking systems
An applicant tracking system (ATS) is a tool that allows you to track the progress of an applicant as they move through your process from application to hire.
However, in spite of the usefulness of this software, many recruiters don’t use one, preferring to manage their candidates in a spreadsheet.
While there are a few reasons that a recruiter may forego a formal ATS, the most commonly cited is that the systems they looked at don’t have all of the functionality required. And it is true that while there is no such thing as a perfect ATS, there are a ton of great options available that can do almost everything you need. OpenCATS is a free and open source ATS that is used by thousands of recruiters. Excellent paid options include Greenhouse, PCRecruiter and Recruitee.
3. Scheduling
One of the tasks that takes up way too much time for a recruiter is scheduling calls. How many times have you sent an e-mail with your availability, only to receive a response that none of the times work? The simplest way to solve this problem is a scheduling tool that integrates with your online calendar.
There are many options available so make sure to find one that is easy to use (look for a dead simple user interface) and rock-solid integration with all popular calendars like Google and Outlook 365. Once it’s set up, all you need to do is link your calendar with the service and the service provides you with a link that you can email to anyone so that they can book any open times in your calendar. Calendly, ScheduleOnce and YouCanBook.me are popular options.
4. Video interviewing
Video interviews should be simple in 2017 but it’s surprising how often they’re not. Asking a technophobe to install a tool with video conversation capabilities like Skype can result in an hour of banging your head against the keyboard while you politely try to walk them through what seems like an impossible task.
This is where a good video interviewing tool stands out. SparkHire, Interview Stream and Odro are all options for the recruiter who wants to know that their candidate will be able to connect without any issues.
5. Data scrapers
One of the most challenging parts of a recruiter’s job is sourcing candidates. Of course, there are the usual tools like LinkedIn but many top-tier candidates do not have profiles so they are essentially invisible to the amateur sourcer. That’s where a good data scraping tool comes into play.
In short, a data scraper allows you to go to a site and grab a huge amount of data in a limited amount of time. How does this work in practice? Let’s say you want to hire a highly skilled JavaScript developer but you’ve tapped out your network and it doesn’t seem like anyone on LinkedIn is interested in the role. You can find a list of attendees for a JavaScript conference, scrape the data and upload it to your CRM or ATS. Boom! An instant list of qualified candidates. Check out Data Miner or Import.io to get started.
Conclusion
It should be clear now how valuable using software tools can be to improving your recruiting processes. Integrating technology into your workflow can be a game changer.
About the author: Zack Gallinger is the founder of a website design and marketing company, Talent Hero Media, that focuses exclusively on the recruiting and staffing industry.
