But how do humble tech platforms, most importantly an Applicant Tracking System, really help in the modern War for Talent? 

An ATS provides a scalable, customisable “eye in the sky” view of your entire applicant base, and offers a granular look at individual applicant progress, providing both recruiter, employer and employee with ample data to adjust and perfect a job or applicant search. 

The end result, if well-manicured and maintained, is a hiring process of immense personality and leadership, built on efficient use of data and applicant visibility via a one-tech solution. 

Now, this all goes to plan in a stable recruiting environment.  

But we live in an era beset by a constant battle for talent, fighting for EVP visibility and hiring sustainability in a fast-changing world.  

We live in an era of aggressive, no-holds-barred recruitment competition, and we’d make a healthy wager any HR leader reading this has seen the frequency of talent gazumping explode over the last couple of years. It truly is a War for Talent. 

So how does an ATS help you stand above the competition when talent is in high demand and short supply, and the hiring landscape is more competitive than ever? 

The definition of “The War for Talent”. 

The beauty of living and working in a pluralist, innovative, ideas-centric culture is that there are multiple ways to build a career and myriad ways to connect with and develop talent both internally and externally.  

But these systems and networks are fragile.  

Since the pandemic, we’ve played witness to the effects of one of the biggest market shocks to this system in a generation, and the results, for some, have been catastrophic – the near collapse of talent pools across the world, mass walk-outs in others, and a considerable lack of skills and training in emerging niche sectors have all caused what can only be described as the perfect candidate storm.  

So where are we now?  

Ask any HR leader to define our current recruitment present and they’d say the market is “candidate-led”. 

• “A candidate-led market is, in short, when the number of vacancies is outweighing the number of people searching for employment and as a result, the market is highly competitive, with companies battling to attract and recruit the best candidates out there”. 

Candidates in most sectors understand their skills are in high demand, and as such “control” how and where they apply themselves.  

This has set a new precedent in a new War for Talent, and this new normal has come to define modern hiring.  

In areas of high talent demand – such as Tech, Education, Healthcare and Logistics – shortages of talent, the rise of remote work and upward pressure on wages have upended years of recruiting norms, and ushered in a hyper-competitive era of recruitment and retention. 

How an Applicant Tracking System can help in the War for Talent? 

So how does the humble ATS help in this war?  

Are the tools contained within applicant management systems the arsenal to defeat the immortal enemy of hiring managers everywhere? 

We believe there are 5 key features of an ATS that can improve hiring outcomes and help in the War for Talent: 

• Hiring Costs Reduced – ATSs are hiring efficiencies made real. As they centralise applicant details, provide accurate, real-time reports and provide the basis for establishing hiring metrics, not to mention the fact they systematically improve communication and applicant transparency, they massively impact the overall costs of hiring. They also reduce the need for relying on external companies or agencies to do the legwork of sourcing, vetting and hiring staff by providing talent management structure.
• Time To Hire Improved – ATS platforms simplify the recruitment process. They make staff more efficient, they improve applicant management, they improve talent pool management and they improve consultant behaviours and organisation. The end result is faster hiring through automated services, centralised data gathering and cloud-based accessibility.
• Quality of Hire Improved – the value of an ATS lies in the work it does behind the scenes – CV parsing; data gathering; shortlisting; automated communications. The sum result of a consultant utilising these tools is, simply, better quality hiring outcomes. By effectively screening and shortlisting the best applicants from an applicant pool, a consultant can spend more time establishing rapport and relationships with the best in class, without worrying about whether any candidates have fallen through the gaps. 
• CX improvements – in a candidate-led market, the candidate experience is often a significant career choice differentiator. Tech should not and, at this stage, cannot take the lead on establishing good CX, but it can most certainly help bolster it. An ATS can subtly (and sometimes overtly) improve the things that make CX great – open communication, application transparency and the digital foundation for real, consultant-driven emotional connection between worker and employer.
• EB Improvements – all of the above points impact the overall impact of an employer brand – the DNA of a company, the brand power and placement within a market and the overall attractiveness of a place to work. ATS’ do incredible work – they streamline applications, make communication easier and quicker, and improve shortlisting and reporting of applications. The cumulative result of these small improvements is a seamless candidate application process and a brand that screams “We hire well”.

The ATS bottom line.  

In our view, your Applicant Tracking System is your biggest weapon in the War for Talent, allowing you to engage, protect and nurture talent more efficiently, and more importantly, better than your competitors.  

At the end of the day an ATS will never supersede the very human nature of talent acquisition – what it should do, however, is provide a platform that elevates expectations and performance. 

A good ATS is the landscape on which you do the hiring fighting, to mangle the metaphor even further – it sets the context and creates an indomitable culture of hiring that’s impossible to ignore, due to its efficiency, speed, personality and ease of use. 

At Rectec we help organisations to find the best recruitment and talent acquisition technologies to suit your needs.  

From Applicant Tracking System and Recruitment CRM comparison, to vendor snapshots, and technology showcases in our unique technology marketplace, we provide fee-free tools to help you build the perfect recruitment tech stack for your business! 

The post How to use an ATS to stay ahead of the competition in the war for talent.  appeared first on Rectec.

But how do you know which ATS is the right one for you?

Finding the perfect ATS for your organisation can be a thankless labour of love. From navigating generalist search engine results to setting aside time to demo tech, to finding your way through the SaaS packaging fog to find exactly the right balance of plug-in integration for your budget – without a solid recruitment tech strategy and some awareness of applicant tracking system particulars, it can be like operating blindfolded.

But, before you take a leap of faith into Google, think about the alternatives for identifying which vendors should be on your radar. You can ask your network for an applicant tracking system recommendation, or review any number of the online software directories for inspiration. 

But are they really going to give you the right answer? After all, how will your network understand your business requirements well enough to make an effective recommendation, and how is a software directory, listing hundreds of vendors, going to make the process of pinpointing the right solution any quicker and easier?

An effective ATS search needs to focus on your business requirements. It must consider your objectives, your processes, your current user experience, and any potential changes within your organisation too.

You want to make sure you’re approaching your ATS search from a place of knowledge, and that you’re fully prepared to engage with the best ATS in the market for your particular needs.

So ask yourselves the following questions:

Do you already use recruitment tech? If so, which elements of it do you want to keep?

While many companies are in the middle of a surge of digital transformation, sometimes the “old faithfuls” just work – those tried and tested excel spreadsheets are sometimes impossibly hard to get rid of because they fit your company’s needs and everyone knows them like the back of their hand.

So when you’re considering moving to a new ATS provider, whatever tech you know works you more than likely want to keep, or at least emulate. Whether it’s payroll integration into recruitment CRMs, marketing automation or social media integration, each recruitment team or agency has their recruitment tech quirks and their trusted forms of tech interaction, and that’s no bad thing. 

But to make any ATS window-shopping effective you need to highlight the key features you know you need and create a feature list as a magnet for ATS providers. 

One of the key features of our own ATS and recruitment CRM comparison service Rectec Compare is our product search engine: we break down your ATS search criteria into hundreds of identifiable ATS requirements, all of which you can select (or not select) based on your needs. You can also weigh these requirements, based on how important they are to your business. Our sophisticated matching algorithm instantly gets to work, providing you with a list of the best matching applicant tracking systems or recruitment CRMs in the market.

This ability to highlight certain ATS features as absolute must-haves features of any prospective ATS supplier is genuinely game-changing and saves an inordinate amount of time…but you have to know what your ATS criteria feature list is!

What ATS features or recruitment tech do you most definitely not need?

Although it may seem counterintuitive, it’s worthwhile making a partner list to the above with features of ATS platforms you most definitely don’t need. 

We advise doing this purely for one reason – streamlining. 

ATS platforms are efficient, fast, often very easy to implement and super productive, but you can quickly fill your recruitment tech stack above and beyond what you actually need, especially if you have tiers of user, myriad consultant platform access and sprawling cross-department feature sets. 

These sorts of vital data sets and ATS user pointers actually make our ATS comparison services more efficient. The more you know about what you need and what you don’t need, the better ATS implementation choice you can make. 

Have I consulted my team?

Finding the perfect ATS for your business can be an incredible challenge if you don’t have stakeholder commitment. 

While most great recruitment leaders never forget what it’s like to be in the trenches of a consultant desk, when you’re wrapped up with platform rollout and L&D on new pieces of software, not to mention running consultant teams or HR departments, it’s easy to lose track of whether your chosen recruitment tech actually works for your team. 

So take a leaf out of the “Brain Trust” school of thought – invest some time into getting your consultants involved in the ATS and CRM procurement cycle, and seek their feedback on certain features and your teams’ requirements. Our ATS comparison service Rectec Compare is free for anyone, so your teams can use it for free too!

Do I need to build a relationship with the demo team?

You have to trust your ATS partner, and the only way you can trust them is by building a good relationship with their business development leads and account teams. 

Business Development Reps, Sales Development Reps, Account Execs, Implementation Consultants, Customer Success Managers, whatever your ATS provider calls them and however they structure resources, these people are your first and last port of call for all training, integration, digital transformation and data migration, and as such you need to have a very close professional relationship with them. 

An ATS implementation will be made so much easier if you know the person conducting the demo and training, and they understand your business needs, and organisational processes. 

To find the perfect Applicant Tracking System for your business, register for Rectec Compare or check our our Guide to Applicant Tracking Systems.

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.

The post How to find the perfect Applicant Tracking System for your business. appeared first on Rectec.

We’re so excited to be launching Rectec Compare to the UK market, that we’ve decided to provide exclusive, free access to organisations who pre-register their interest.

Pre-registration is open now and can be submitted using the form below.

Rectec Compare is our revolutionary software comparison engine, designed and developed to analyse your detailed business requirements, and compare and match these with best Applicant Tracking Systems available – helping organisations like yours to quickly and easily find the perfect ATS.

We’ll provide you with a unique shortlist of the ATS vendors who best meet your needs, including an accurate match score for each vendor, as well as all of the other information you might need – all in one place. From company information, to industry leading reviews, key clients, product videos and screenshots, and a comprehensive feature-list – with real-time feature ratings!

We’ll save you time by requesting live demonstrations on your behalf, and our powerful assessment feature will provide you with a bespoke ATS assessment, allowing you to quickly and easily assess how well each product meets your specific business needs.

We’ll automatically add your demo assessment scores to your ATS shortlist, leaving you with just one thing to do – Choose your ATS with confidence!

Whether you’re looking for an Applicant Tracking System for the first time, or whether you’re reviewing or renewing your current technologies, then Rectec Compare is your unique opportunity to quickly and easily identify the vendors you should be talking to.

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 complimentary tech 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.

The post Pre-Register for exclusive access to Rectec Compare. appeared first on Rectec.

Working remotely has become normality for many and video calls and video conferencing is being utilised more now than ever before in place of meeting in person. Television studio audiences are now made up of people sat in their home in front of their laptop and mobile devices, virtually seated in an audience of some of the biggest shows on TV. The events industry has virtualised, for now at least, and the way that businesses procure products and services is changing.

At the end of September 2019, before the word Covid had a place in our daily vocabulary, I made an incredibly tough decision to leave a job that I loved, working with great people and managing an amazing team. I decided to leverage the many years of experience I’d gained to setup my own business with a key objective; to solve a common and significant problem that exists in today’s recruitment and HR industry – finding and procuring the right recruitment technologies.

I’m Rob Green, the Founder and Director of Rectec. I’ve spent almost every waking hour of 2020 pursuing my vision and I am super-proud to announce, on the last day of this incredibly challenging year, that Rectec has successfully created a powerful and unique solution, designed to connect organisations with the right technologies for their business needs.

I’ve worked with a team of wonderful experts to make this happen, conducting detailed industry research, designing and developing a sophisticated software product, and forming unique industry partnerships.

I am incredibly proud to introduce to you, one of three new services that Rectec are launching to the Recruitment and HR industry in 2021. Our software puts years of experience and industry research at the fingertips of our users, saving enormous amounts of time, money and effort, and significantly reducing the chances of making the insurmountable mistake of implementing the wrong solution.

We want to improve how technology is used and increase the harmony between a business and the vital technologies it depends on to achieve its objectives.

Introducing Rectec Compare – Our revolutionary software comparison engine, designed and developed to review and match your detailed business requirements with the best technologies in the market, like never seen before. Listen out for more news from Rectec in the new year, but for now I’ll leave you with a video introduction.

If your organisation is looking at reviewing or renewing your recruitment technologies, then we can provide you with the information, help and support you need to get it right. Contact me to register your interest and I will personally ensure that your organisation is provided with free access our tools to support your procurement process.

Happy New Year everyone, here is to a prosperous 2021 as we continue our path to the new normal.

We’re Rectec, and we’re changing the way that Recruiters buy software…

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 complimentary tech 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.

The post Big news at the end of a challenging year… appeared first on Rectec.