If Rectec knows anything, it’s the value of efficiency within recruitment.

The entire premise of our game-changing ATS and recruitment CRM comparison tool Rectec Compare is to create efficiencies where none existed.

Indeed, our platform’s ethos echoes that of any other genuinely effective SaaS platforms – of creating change where it’s needed, in the pursuit of better service, through saving time, money and labour that is typically labour-intensive and, at times, ineffective.

In that frame of mind, we wanted to talk about efficiencies in recruitment – specifically, what sort of efficiencies will actually be effective in 2022, and what may be more hot air than substance, all with the aim of improving recruitment processes and outcomes.

2022, in a nutshell

Towards the end of 2021, a piece went out via LinkedIn titled, Recruitment trends you should prepare for in 2022. We think the points raised in it are the perfect guide to talk about efficiencies because, as you’ll see, the list covers a broad church of recruitment practice, operations and expectations.

In it, the following have been stated as trend-setting movements for the coming year:

  • The continued importance of, and pressure, of a candidate-driven market
  • More selective applications
  • Continued use of remote recruitment processes
  • Bolder Employer Value Proposition
  • A focus on retention
  • A rise in data-driven recruitment

Let’s look at efficiency as a starting point – how do you measure efficiency against the above benchmark trends for the coming year?

We think the basis of efficiency recruitment services has to be a holistic balance of old school measurements of labour, recruitment and follow-through metrics – let’s call them Old Metrics – and a reimagined form of post-COVID interpersonal recruitment metrics, which we’ll call New Metrics.

Old Metrics we’re defining as the meat and drink of recruitment – the numbers that are raised at each stage of the hiring journey, or at each level in your hiring funnel.

Typical Old Metrics include stats like:

  • Cold Calls made (typical sales KPIs)
  • CV submission metrics (numbers sent, numbers opened, numbers taken to interview)
  • Candidates Pre-Interviewed
  • Interviews Arranged
  • Job Offer efficiencies (acceptances, rejections)
  • Cost Per Hire
  • Time to Hire
  • Attrition Rates

New Metrics are the metrics defined by an emotional reaction, relationships and networking – the personal connection behind the numbers. These are not necessarily brand new recruiting techniques, and many recruiters have been deploying these metrics for years.

But separated from Old Metrics, and in light of the trends for this year, they do stand apart as crucial in meeting the recruitment moment.

New Metrics we like to define as:

  • Quality of Hire
  • Retention (not attrition) Rate
  • Candidate Job Satisfaction
  • Referral Follow Throughs
  • Client Satisfaction

Trend-beating recruitment

Let’s revisit our trend forecast for 2022 – are our metric efficiencies trend-beating?

  • The candidate-driven market – while brute KPIs are always effective in shuffling the candidate deck, the real measure of good candidate sourcing is relevant jobs, consistent, trusted communications – measuring that takes a reactive and effective ATS. This also goes for selective applications and seeking out the diamond the talent rough.
  • Remote recruitment practices – if you have yet to source an effective recruitment tech platform like an applicant tracking system or CRM you’re immediately one foot behind everyone else. Remote recruitment is the future, and many ATS providers have an entire suite of tools to help the remote recruitment process, such as video interviewing.
  • EVP – effective, efficient and consistent marketing of your EVP is essential to candidate attraction. Again, your digital presence is all-important, and the data you can pull from CRM platforms for instance are vital in understanding if your EVP is being seen and understood.
  • Retention focus – are you measuring your client’s retention rate, and are you providing them with the tools to measure their candidate’s happiness in a role? If not, why not? Measuring the emotional connection to an employer is vitally important in both supporting your client, and preparing for staff to leave (in the worst-case scenario).
  • Data – if you have yet to see that all of the above efficiencies are driven by data, you’ve missed a trick. Data is recruitment metric manna and is the only way you can effectively measure efficiency in your recruitment provision. Again, you can only get the right data if you have the right data capturing tools, such as an ATS.

What can recruiters do better to make sure they’re getting the right tech, support and guidance from recruitment tech and service providers that answer the questions raised by the above list?

Improve efficiencies with data

The easiest, and most integrated, way of improving efficiencies is by carefully choosing an effective applicant tracking system or recruitment CRM that can highlight the right data for your recruitment enterprise, so you can easily trace, pull up, and highlight efficiencies in real-time.

Going back to the original list of recruitment trends in 2022, one of the most important trends is understanding the full power of data, and how data can wholesale improve your recruitment services.

This is where efficiency makes its mark – through choosing the right ATS, you can give your recruiters, and your clients, relevant data that shows just how effective your systems are and it can show you how efficiencies carved the way to candidate hiring success.

A quick, responsive process is what you need to attract and engage the best talent.

At Rectec we help organisations to find the best Applicant Tracking System or best Recruitment CRM to suit your needs, accompanied by our unique complementary technology marketplace, to help you build the perfect recruitment tech stack for your business.

You can click here to register for Rectec Compare – and best of all, it’s completely free of charge.