Most of you should be familiar with the term “e-recruitment”. For those who are unfamiliar, it is a recruitment process that involves the use of technology and various online platforms to make recruiting seamless and more efficient.
Traditionally, recruiters were expected to carry out time-consuming manual tasks when that time could be spent doing other things such as building a talent pool and creating strong candidate relationships.
Today, recruiters have an array of software, applications, and technologies to choose from which have changed the scope of recruitment. It is going to be even more significant in 2023 as the world is coming out of the pandemic, into what is likely going to be the new normal for the next couple of years.
In 2022, there’s been a dramatic shift in which recruiters are turning to using professional tools to reduce the amount of time they spend on manual tasks in the recruitment process. Specific tools such as applicant tracking systems which can assist in candidate tracking, resume sourcing and storing, the utilization and optimization of career portals, and the opportunity to craft a strong employer brand.
Later on, we will explore the scope of e-recruitment and its advantages. Additionally, you’ll be able to familiarize yourself with the features of an applicant tracking system. While there are numerous features available, you’ll soon come to learn how resume sourcing and storing, the optimization of career portals, and the opportunity to craft a strong employer brand can leverage the competitive playing field, giving you a higher chance at success.
By looking at past and current trends, we can make predictions about the future direction of recruitment for the remainder of 2022 as well as into the next couple of years as a result of continuous technological developments.
The nature of the recruitment industry is constantly evolving to accommodate trends that come and go. As a result, recruiters need to always be at the top of their game even when numerous challenges are thrown their way.
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To understand e-recruitment further and how it can simplify a recruiter's job, let’s dive deep into the assortment of tools, software, and technologies available today.
Amidst digitalization, the way in which we recruit has transformed drastically. Recruiters who rely more on technology are more welcoming to changes.
The pandemic placed a considerable emphasis on the importance certain tools and software can have in sourcing candidates at a quicker rate than before. Moreover, since it was no longer physically possible to meet with potential candidates face-to-face, recruiters had to get creative and find alternative solutions.
You could say that recruiters were essentially forced onto a new path.
The alternative solution here was turning to e-recruitment as a way to elevate one’s recruiting game. Not only were recruiters revamping their skills completely, but they were now equipping themselves with some of the most powerful digital tools in the market.
Let's take a look at what these powerful tools are:
Job boards aren't exactly new, even when we're coming out of the pandemic. They've been around for a long time, with specific sites like Monster and Career Builder being in the industry since the 90s.
Today, it is an essential component of e-recruitment to source candidates locally and internationally.
So what makes it so crucial for e-recruitment in 2023? It's because of the changing demands of the workforce. An increase in competition means a hassle for recruiters as they try to scramble and find the right talent quickly.
Candidate expectations have also changed because several of them are already accustomed to work-from-home or hybrid work environments. Job boards have made it easier for candidates to find employers who meet their expectations. With the click of a button, a candidate can just browse through a job board and select a job that fits what they want.
Today, the world is nearly back to normal, which means people have busy lifestyles. Societies and economies are also becoming more fast-paced, and there's always something new happening in the world as trends keep changing.
There are many industries worldwide, meaning there will always be recruiters working hard to fill whatever position is needed for that particular industry. Job boards make the solution easier by having a range of job boards to choose from.
Job boards don't have to be too general but can also be specific, covering niche industries or specializations from law to healthcare, advertising, marketing, entertainment, and more.
Several HR software already offer integrated options for job boards, such as Manatal, which is excellent for enhancing and expanding recruitment possibilities.
E-recruitment also involves online interview processes. A recruiter can be sitting in one city but can be interviewing someone who is living in another city thanks to the rise of Zoom and Google Meet platforms. Some companies even use their own platforms to virtually screen and interview candidates.
As of 2021, out of 1,100 US employer interviewed, 82% reported adopting the use of virtual interviews as a way to screen candidates. As the world shifts back to a sense of normalcy, 93% of those interviewed stated that they would most likely continue carrying out virtual interviews.
With virtual interviews being a key aspect of e-recruitment, let’s take a look at how some of these process are carried out. An article by the Guardian gave an insight into the specific process the news corporation uses when sourcing candidates for a particular field of product and engineering. The process involved a video interview carried out on an online platform.
The way in which online interview processes are carried out is no different from face-to-face interviews. The difference is it’s a virtual setting which can also mean you lose the human touch of it. But, when looking at the bright side, both recruiters and candidates can cut down on time spent commuting to attend interviews.
A great recruiter knows not to overlook the importance online interviews have in the scope of e-recruitment.
Already have an applicant tracking system as part of your e-recruitment process? Take it one step further with a recruitment CRM.
While an applicant tracking system streamlines the process of recruitment, a recruitment CRM on the other hand helps you nurture and maintain relationships from a client side of things. Overall, this HR tool applies to recruitment agencies who work on finding and managing clients, and building their sales pipeline.
You can track a clients progress in the sales funnel, store client data, track sales report and more. Tools like a recruitment CRm and their importance should not be overlooked as one of the key features in e-recruitment, especially when we’re dealing with the client side of things.
While the work landscape is a mix of work-from-home and hybrid work, employees still need to become acclimated to a new work environment. Significantly when people can move to other countries for work now, it is still a challenge to get employees from other cities or countries to adapt to the workforce.
This is why even in e-recruitment, some degree of onboarding still happens. While it won't be similar to how onboarding is usually done, there is still some semblance of an overall process.
Whether it be in the traditional sense or in e-recruitment, onboarding is all about making a new hire feel welcome. You want to make sure they are able to build connections and what better way to do this than through collaborations and team-building?
Technology is an obvious facet of e-recruitment which makes it easier to carry out virtual team-building activities. Depending on the size of an organization, a new hire can be welcomed by playing virtual ice-breakers such as Bingo all in the comfort of their home.
Don’t skip pre-boarding and onboarding even though you’re heading in the direction of e-recruitment because you might have the candidate, but you also need to make sure that you’re able to retain them for the long run.
As we head into the last few months of 2022 and towards the future, the importance of e-recruitment needs to be emphasized. A global shift towards digitalization will mean a heavier reliance on technology to get things done.
More industries are adapting to digital tools to accommodate changing candidate expectations and demands such as work-from-home and hybrid work landscapes.
Recruiters need to be more proactive than ever now, especially if they’re working from home. Knowing how to use these tools in the right way can make sure you’ve hired the right candidate and not make you feel as if the candidate is “the one that got away”.
If you don't want to lose out on the best talents and are not reluctant to use e-recruitment, here are some advantages for you:
With more recruiters coming into the industry, this means that competition is at its peak. Everyone wants to meet their KPIs and hire the best candidates because that reflects on the recruiter's skill and talent. This isn't easy, though, with everyone working hard and trying to find the best ways to source candidates.
An analysis created by the US Bureau of Labor and Statista reported that by 2025, there will be approximately 850,000 recruiters working in the recruitment industry in the United States of America alone.
With fierce competition, some recruiters might feel like they will no longer have the advantage they used to have when hiring talent. However, if they use e-recruitment it could assuage these worries.
E-recruitment essentially saves time and the hassle a recruiter would normally take in sourcing, recruiting, and maintaining a high-quality talent pipeline.
As e-recruitment involves the use of HR tools to enhance the recruitment process, this in turn provides recruiters with access to a wider talent pool. For instance, instead of relying on just one central platform to source candidates, headhunters can use multiple job boards and refer to their candidate pipelines to find the talent they need.
Moreover, sourcing candidates is no longer limited to finding talent from local and regional pools. Instead, with technological advancements and a changing workforce, recruiters can now hunt for talent internationally.
Hybrid work systems and work-from-home practices make it even easier for a headhunter to source talent for vacant positions from all over. For instance, if a recruiter has an open position to fill in Thailand and the company has a remote working policy, then they can source for talent from America or Europe. This increases the chances of finding qualified candidates.
Aside from finding talent across multiple countries, recruiters also have access to a wider talent pool because of their talent pipeline. When using recruitment tools such as an applicant tracking system, you can refer back to passive candidates in case they are suitable for a current position.
Long gone are the days of recruiting, only to find that the candidate does not deliver as promised. Instead, one can easily hire quality candidates through the use of an Applicant Tracking System as part of the e-recruitment process.
An ATS gives a recruiter the ability to verify which candidates meet the criteria they are looking for, and can even help a recruiter build a strong talent pipeline. Let’s say you currently don’t have any active candidates that meet the mark, but you still need to fill that position. With an ATS as part of e-recruitment, you can refer back to past candidates because of the talent pipeline you’ve created for yourself.
Who wouldn’t want a strong talent pipeline, especially when there is a global talent shortage but an exceptionally high need to hire? E-recruitment grants the possibility to build a robust talent pipeline ensuring you have quality candidates at the tip of your fingers. Ultimately, as a recruiter, you will come to find that you will always have talent on hand.
Aside from that an ATS also grants you the opportunity to screen candidates at a faster rate. The screening process gets streamlined because of a feature called candidate scoring. Manatal’s ATS candidate scoring feature allows for multi-language resume parsing, candidate recommendations based on AI and criteria that has been set earlier. With this feature, a recruiter will be able to differentiate whether a talent fits the job description or not based on the total score the candidate has received.
This saves you the time and effort of having to cross-check a candidates resume yourself, or going based on your gut feeling.
As the saying goes, time is money, and money well spent could just be the ticket to success for a recruiter.Money well spent for a recruiter who wants to dip their toes into e-recruitment should consider using a program such as Manatal’s. It’s not only an applicant tracking system but gives you the chance to create custom job boards and build your talent pipeline. Start your 14-day Free Trial to explore our innovative features and find out how you can leverage your career portal within a few clicks.