But the recruitment world is in flux and has seen almost every traditional marker of “success” change in the last few years, especially in regards to what unique balance of characteristics, skills and passion makes a top performer and a high-performing team. 

Indeed, there are quite literally thousands of thought leadership pieces on what now constitutes top performance, or what bosses need to do to guarantee top performance – from the rise of soft skills to revamping agile workflows, from unlimited leave policies to de-hierarchies within work.  

But, as any storied HR pro knows, every new workplace policy, tool or metric needs a willing team to make it a reality. And in the realm of performance, being able to identify, engage and hire willing, flexible and ultimately top-performing people becomes central to success. 

So how can modern recruiters – connected more than ever to potential candidates but overwhelmed with the increasingly high-pressure demands of hiring talent – make sure they’re continuing to identify and hire the best-in-class people? 

The trick lies in leveraging what we already know works, and simply using it better.  

What are the markers of contemporary top-performing workplaces? 

In our digitally dominant new normal of hybridity, high turnover, and upward pressure on wages (not to mention stagnant growth and productivity inefficiency) the measure of effective workplace performance has to be more than simple KPI recording, value-added or profit made.

The markers of top performance within workplaces in 2023 are now well established: psychologically safe workplaces, open communication cultures, diverse workplaces, clear feedback and goal setting, and clarity of business purpose.  

These markers have developed in the wake of the pandemic, digital innovation, and the rise of Gen Z into positions of considerable influence. 

But as the markers of business success and sustainability change, so too do the requirements of and pressure on, recruiters to deliver results. Those results are the hiring of the best people for a role, and those people have to be high performers.

What are the markers of a top performer? 

A quick dive into contemporary thought leadership tells you everything you need to know about top performance in 2023.   

According to those paragons of talent identification Indeed, the traits of a top performer are: 

• Positivity
• Goal focus
• Accepts constructive criticism
• Growth-oriented
• Leadership focused
• And, can find a healthy work-life balance.

In HBR’s piece on “How to Spot — and Develop — High-Potential Talent in Your Organization”, they focus on 3 key behavioural metrics to identify top performance: 

• Cognitive quotient (CQ): how they leverage their intellect.
• Drive quotient (DQ): what motivates them and how they apply their energy.
• Emotional quotient (EQ): how they interact with those around them. 

The piece goes on to describe that while “intellect, motivations, and interpersonal style” are key markers of top performance, it’s measuring “how people use these qualities on the job…to gauge…potential, regardless of candidates’ depth of experience” that makes all the difference.  

The mechanics of an ATS, and how it tracks candidates.  

We love an ATS at Rectec. One of the reasons we do so is we intimately understand how critical an ATS is to modern hiring effectiveness, and central to that lies in an ATS’ ability to track candidates in increasingly more effective, streamlined and predictive ways.  

A basic ATS will do the grunt work of automating and highlighting specific talent within a talent network based on scanning and sorting job applications based on specific criteria such as keywords, skills, and experience. Simple.  

But more advanced Applicant Tracking Systems now deploy a range of tools to help identify top performers, and we advise any recruiting team or HR leader to consider the following elite ATS solutions as a must-have in a recruiting toolbelt: 

• Ultra-define your job requirements, criteria and keywords: the first stage to truly maximising your ATS output is by not expecting your ATS to do all the heavy lifting for you. The most effective way to do this is by utilising customisable ATS platforms that let you prioritise or rank applicant potential by giving different keywords or criteria certain values. This creates a more fluid, more personal system of talent identification based on a unique prioritisation of skills. 

• A CV isn’t perfect: by this, we mean setting up your ATS to not immediately disqualify a candidate because of a missed word, a spelling error or quirky formatting. As any effective modern recruiter knows, CVs are simple vectors for talent identification – they are not the ultimate arbiter of talent appropriateness, skill or potential. Creating processes of inclusive, rather than exclusionary, keyword vetting will help identify more quality candidates.  

• Contact keyword evolution: an ATS should never be a fixed asset, nor should the criteria you judge candidates by stay stuck for months on end. Creating a simple keyword analysis drumbeat – and fixing dates of keyword evolution into your process planning – should make sure your candidate vetting is up-to-date, fair, and ultimately competitive.  

• A self-contained employer brand ecosystem: some ATS providers can create a seamless employer brand and hiring ecosystem, bringing together sometimes disparate employing tools to create a market-leading hiring environment. This means creating career pages that include pre-vetting questionnaires, employer brand videos, glassdoor reviews, FAQs and employee testimonials, with easy-to-access application calls-to-action. 

• Don’t forget internal communication and the power of advocacy: it’s easy to think an ATS is an outward-facing talent magnet. But an ATS can also target company employees, automating new opportunity emails, and sending them directly to specific employees in an effort to leverage their contact network. Top performers tend to know top performers, so forget your internal network at your peril.  

The sheer variety and customisability of Applicant Tracking Systems means not only can applicants be contacted faster, and with more personalisation, but they are more accurately shortlisted and prioritised. In effect, the cream rises to the top. 

The bottom line. 

The true effectiveness of an ATS lies in any given company’s ability to identify their own needs, and critically analyse where maximum new hire impact can be made. 

But hiring the wrong person for a role is more often than not worse for company health than hiring no one at all, so accurate vetting is more important than ever.  

If you’re looking to identify the Best Applicant Tracking System for your business, then be sure to check out our comprehensive guide to the Best Applicant Tracking Systems (2024).

In the war for talent, an ATS is the perfect weapon – not only can the nuts and bolts of candidate contact and talent maturation be managed, but they can be leveraged to truly source, engage and pre-vet top performers.  

 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. 

The post Can an ATS help identify top performers? appeared first on Rectec.

Two years ago we launched Rectec Compare – our unique recruitment technology comparison service which connects our clients with highly matched recruitment technology vendors.

We’ve helped hundreds of recruiters, HR teams, and agencies to find the perfect recruitment technology solution for their needs.

Our recruitment technology Marketplace generates greater awareness of affiliate recruitment and HR tech within the scope of our comparison service, helping qualify new buyers directly into your sales pipeline.

We’re helping our clients to identify the perfect blend of technology for their needs, creating a powerful recruitment or TA tech stack to increase efficiency, reduce effort and save recruitment costs.

The Rectec Marketplace showcases a range of complementary tech within our comparison tool, such as;

• Job Marketing
• Remote Interviewing
• Testing and Assessments
• Background Checks
• Onboarding
• AI and Automation
• Analytics

The Rectec Marketplace is a powerful weapon for recruiters and TA leaders to build their perfect recruitment technology stack.

We’re supporting a wide range of recruitment technology vendors to elevate their brand, and connect with the right buyers…

With your very own, customisable vendor showcase, you can present your company and your solution to our users through a range of;

• Company information
• Product videos
• Screenshots
• Demo videos
• Clients
• Features
• Integrations
• Reviews
• Contact information
• Website and social links

Over the last two years we’ve focused on listening to our clients and finding the best technology solution for their needs. The Rectec Marketplace is our effort to make any search via Rectec Compare more complete, and more effective.

“Following the success of Rectec Compare in the ATS and Recruitment CRM space, we’re thrilled to be supporting a wider range of recruitment technology solutions with the addition of the Rectec Marketplace. Our mission has always been to change the way the recruiters buy tech, and this excellent addition to our offering extends the service we provide to our amazing audience who have been incredibly receptive of the work we’re doing.”

Rob Green – Founder of Rectec

Over the coming weeks and months we will be inviting more of the best recruitment tech vendors in the market to join the Rectec Marketplace, so watch this space!

We’re also incredibly pround to have been featured in Business Insider – read our Marketplace Press Release here!

For more information on the Rectec Marketplace, or to see it in action, please Contact Us today, or simply email us at hello@rectec.io

The post Introducing the Rectec Marketplace appeared first on Rectec.

So how do you go about creating a culture of appreciation, bracketed by solution-led leadership, that does the work of improving overall poor workplace performance without alienating your staff?

In our humble view, the answer lies in simple things – most importantly, appreciating that good and poor performance both lie in more than workflows, goals or rewards – but that your working culture is the conduit to how connected, psychologically safe and how heard your people are.

Poor performance in the post-pandemic era is, sadly, common. From under-appreciated workforces to poorly paid teams when inflation is rampant, good and poor performance is tethered to the times we live in. 

Good leaders take that knowledge and make impactful changes to reward, recognition and feedback in real time, with tangible goals set and feedback provided throughout.

So here we want to discuss how to handle poor performance without demoralising your team, and how simple changes can make a world of good for future hiring and retention of your best in class. 

Build the culture and the solutions will build themselves. 

Clarity of expectations.  

If your people can’t follow a delineated path to improvement you’ve failed in your job as a leader. 

Putting a plan in place for individuals to get back on track should be unique, targeted to the specific staff member, and bespoke in its goals and solutions. Clarity is paramount. Set clear goals, and get clear, uncomplicated rewards. Simple.

Feedback is king. 

Again, we reiterate the meandering path to improvement – don’t fixate on one goal or solution as the only fix for poor performance, but focus on iterative improvements, based on context and real-life execution. 

Providing regular feedback is the only way of doing this. It gives your staff member a clear track of their movements and a leadership-eye-view on how they’re performing in light of changes made and expectations changing. 

Create psychologically safe workplaces.

Improvements don’t happen in a vacuum.

You need to curate a culture of improvement and high performance always, across every department and every staff member. The only way to do this is by creating a workplace that values collaboration, ideas sharing, and the ability to make mistakes without fear of demonisation or abuse – a psychologically safe workplace. 

A psychologically safe workplace engenders your people in a more positive frame of work. It gives them a safe place to learn and grow, whilst sharing in the benefits of a peer group who want to succeed and a leadership team who value fair feedback and positive criticism.

Administer with accuracy and honesty.

Document progress and commit to logging solutions.

Putting pen to paper is committing to action and feedback in real time.

Not only does this give you, as a leader, oversight of performance to date, but it also shows your staff you’re fair in setting new goals and are eager to use bias-free, objective feedback as a baseline for ongoing guidance and leadership. 

As any HR pro knows, documentation means you have a paper trail for action further down the road. We love the fact managers are keen and close enough with their people to take them for a coffee to chat about business. But really good leaders always take notes.

Use tech to your advantage. 

As this is our expertise, and as our Marketplace helps people do exactly the following, it cannot be ignored that good tech in the form of performance management platforms, peer-review software, anonymous feedback forms and digital collaboration tools has made it easier than ever to support poor performers. 

But word to the wise – any HR or workforce tech needs to be targeted, well-understood and relevant to your staff management needs. 

Don’t simply build a stack for a stack’s sake – do your research, engage in demos, ask your staff for feedback on what they feel is lacking in performance management standards and find the best platform for your needs.

Lead with vision and purpose.

Be specific about the problem, and address it openly and without bias.

This is leadership 101, and we won’t hammer home the point – but it’s amazing how some business leaders are fearful of professional and fair confrontation. 

In our view, it’s easier to be critical of someone’s work when you’re specific. Generalising criticism will only result in generalist solutions. 

Constructive criticism works!

By this, we mean focus on positives and specific, targeted solutions. 

Contextualise a solution, offer a platform or a path for improvements, set positive goals and be inclusive throughout. 

Fair is fair.

Don’t bully, or patronise. Don’t demean or belittle. Yes, the best managers know when to be hard or soft when it comes to performance management, but in our view when it gets personal you’ve taken it too far. 

Be focused, entirely, on fixable performance issues and how you see them in the context of overall business performance. 

Be fair, leverage data, use feedback and make it fair!

Patience is a virtue.

You can’t build an award-winning company overnight. Products and services aren’t formed in an instant, ready to be sold on a whim. 

Progress takes time, so be patient. Allowing a reasonable amount of time to change and adapt to new goals or performance requirements is not only the right thing to do, but it also garners long-term trust and improved connection with your teams who see you being fair with feedback, and not unreasonable in your demands.

In our view, setting reasonable deadlines for improvements or feedback is wise, but don’t be too fixed! Be adaptable, and allow your people the chance to improve their workload around personalised, time-agile solutions. 

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 handle poor performance without demoralising your team. appeared first on Rectec.

This past week we had the pleasure of being an exhibitor once again at the Recruitment Agency Expo, at London’s ExCel Arena.

The event was a huge success – to be witness to how the wider HR industry is transforming in the wake of COVID-19 and the drive toward digital transformation is awe-inspiring, plus we got to meet more of our newer clients, announce some deeper partnerships with some of our vendors and introduce our growing company to the recruitment tech great and the good.

What we’ve found is that, as the recruitment technology world’s most agnostic and objective hub of innovation, ideas and futurism, our stand at every event becomes a little hotbed of opinions.

So what are agency folks saying about the state of recruitment in 2023, and what were industry leaders discussing during the event?

Here is a brief breakdown of what we learned at the Recruitment Agency Expo 2023.

AI is here – but step cautiously.

Naturally, much of the tech chat revolved around AI, innovations in the chatbot and comms space, programmatic marketing and NLP.

Our future is, seemingly, being written as we speak – with OpenAI, Google and Microsoft all pitching into the NLP-led space and ChatGPT soaking up so much marketing, content, comms and CX oxygen of late, it was perhaps inevitable table-talk would revolve around how the recruitment marketplace specifically is evolving and how agencies are adapting to this rapidly approaching new tech horizon.

That said, NLP is in its relative adolescence and the tech world is furtively attempting to bring unalloyed AI growth to heel. Often, novel tech advancement moves quickly, and the “impact” is hard to judge, plus platform user base can spread unevenly, resulting in demographic and geographical inconsistencies in market effectiveness.

Genuine change is hard to qualify, and the benefits at this stage of AI are theoretical, rather than meaningful. But we’re on the precipice of material, total, and generationally defining change.

Much more qualified voices than ours have already highlighted where the pitfalls of relying on NLP lie, but in our view, all this shockingly incredible tech still hasn’t yet replaced the human element of effective recruitment – feedback from agencies on how AI will affect more intangible assets like Employer Brand and Referral Networks , for example, was muted and confused.

Tech Skills Shortages remain.

This is hardly groundbreaking recruitment or HR news but skills shortages – and getting tech to help do some more of the heavy lifting of sourcing niche talent and assessing them accurately and quickly – was a major pain point for our display visitors.

Because Rectec straddles the middle ground between emerging recruitment tech and agencies looking for a stack revamp, the question of “how does this vendor or that vendor help” is difficult to answer. But it’s clear as day that recruitment agencies of all sizes and stripes are in a positive frame of mind when it comes to utilising tech to attract passive candidates, candidates in niche sectors, or candidates looking to reskill and develop in a new market.

This, we found, is a hugely positive and exciting place for the industry to be in. Tech is not feared, nor misunderstood, and the agency sector seems less dubious than ever of tech and how it can help recruitment, CX, branding, payroll and more.

Despite our scale, we’re still new!

Rectec Compare has completed hundreds of thousands of comparison searches. Our recruitment technology Marketplace grows by the week. Our products have won awards and yet we are still relatively unknown!

Events like the Recruitment Agency Expo are as much brand awareness raising as they are vendor networking events – and, like every event we’ve attended, the response from agency owners and vendors to our services was wholly positive.

This, of course, is a good problem to have. We have cornered a clear niche in the market, and our Comparison service and Marketplace complement the other and provide two key solutions to a multi-faceted problem.

We know that, as a startup, we’re facing some rough headwinds – a fast-changing industry, inflation, high employment, skills shortages and a disrupted political environment, all of which impact everyone across the recruitment landscape from candidates to business owners.

But without a doubt the Recruitment Agency Expo provided us with confidence that what we do – and how we support the hard work of recruiters and providers – is more valuable than ever.

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.

The post Seeing the future of AI in Recruitment at RAE 2023 appeared first on Rectec.

Rectec can proudly announce we are looking to hire an ambitious Commercial Success Manager.

2023 is panning out to be our best year yet – but to realise that potential and for us to reach the levels we want to reach in our pursuit of becoming the central focal point for all recruitment tech purchasing and vendor information, we need a visionary, customer-focused and dedicated Commercial Success Manager to join the team.

As a remote technology start-up in a fast-paced industry, we’re looking for an individual who can be adaptable to the challenges that this role will bring, and be proactive in creating and executing ideas.

In return, you’ll gain commercial experience across a wide remit, benefit from the freedom and flexibility of home-working, and have the opportunity to contribute significantly towards our continued growth.

“Rectec are on the cusp of breaking the mould of what can be possible for a recruitment technology marketplace – we’re doing what no one else is doing, and are putting the foundations in place for years of growth.

To that end, we want someone to join the team who shares this vision – who can push us to hit new heights, who can serve as the primary point of partnership contact, and who can positively impact our client relationships and business development.

If this is you, give us a call!”

Rob Green – Founder & Director

You can find a full job description on CV library   https://www.cv-library.co.uk/job/218948911/Commercial-Success-Manager

You can apply for the job there, or simply contact us at the below:

   +44 203 983 5511

   hello@rectec.io

 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.

The post We’re Hiring! appeared first on Rectec.

It isn’t bad business practice, exactly, to create a set of expectations, workflows, KPIs and goals that point your people towards success, based on what works.

After all, if it ‘aint broke don’t fix it, right? In a disrupted working environment a bit of stability can be a good thing, a lighthouse in the service world storm if you will.

But to deny your people change, to turn away and discount new ideas, new workflows, innovative tech or creative ideation is to hamstring your business for good. 

Whilst we cannot advocate enough for mentoring and perfecting staff performance on a company-wide basis – celebrate the wins, by all means – here at Rectec we know that innovation is the true power behind success. 

Innovation doesn’t mean burning the old to make way for the new. What it means is utilising what already works, and combining it with new ways of working that elevate sustainable performance.

Innovate to accumulate.

Here at Rectec, we witness, daily, just how innovative people and business leaders can be. 

But innovation is so much more than new tools or cool UX – it’s about offering sustainable solutions that fit hyper-specific needs, on-demand, at scale.

The simplest example we can give is this: there isn’t just one Applicant Tracking System that everyone uses. No one company monopolises talent acquisition tech or controls how creative recruitment tech can be. 

No one size fits all. Variation and personalisation are key because every industry, every TA team and every candidate has different needs and requirements. And, to fully appreciate the service rhythms and outcomes of each industry and every candidate, a variety of endeavours is required.

So we want to channel a bit of that into some quick-fire hints and tips about how to get the very best out of your high performers. Because high performance doesn’t ever manifest in isolation, and every high performer deserves to be celebrated in the right way. 

So here are some things to remember when you’re looking to replicate success across your organisation!

A rising tide raises all boats.

This isn’t just a slogan for fair people management – this should be an ironclad rule for all businesses.

By “rising tide”, and in regards to high performance, what we mean is the ability to contextualise what makes a particular worker good, and adapt those same ethics, productive behaviours and positive attitudes for every member of staff, individually. 

Consider the differing people management styles for neurodivergent staff, for example. The best leaders make workplace changes to be more inclusive to neurodivergent talent because not only is it the right thing to do, it means businesses can utilise the focused, logic-centric, analytic power of neurodivergent thought processes for total, complete business good. 

Simply put, use your high performers as benchmarks, but don’t assume that simply cloning their targets, KPIs and attitudes will work for others. 

Bring new ideas of “success” into the fold and mentor your people into finding their niche version of high performance. 

Do your business goals match your people’s personal goals?

Improving your bottom line, nailing that new client pitch, scaling to demand, releasing that new product – all of these are objectively great business targets. 

But do they match your people’s targets?

When more and more people want to work for purpose-led companies, and when millions of staff quit their jobs over the last few years because their professional ethics and personal morals clashed with the sometimes cold, calculating nature of business targets (not to mention lack of commitment to ESG policies or unsustainable target hitting), alignment between the business and personal is key to elevating total, company-wide performance. 

Of course, every staff member’s personal goals cannot be, at all times, accounted for at all times – but you should know what drives your people to succeed, and use that energy to parallel what you want to achieve as a business. 

Adjust your leadership styles and don’t be afraid of c-suite change. 

It cannot be ignored that leadership visibility – the elevation of diverse leaders and minority talent into leadership roles – has a significant and immediate impact on performance and business success. 

Diverse hiring strategies and bringing new ideas into the fold should be of prime consideration for any leadership team looking to attract the very best of the best.

Adaptable management styles and cultures of leadership are the foundation of these moves to a more equitable workplace – and it starts with existing leaders turning their analytical gaze on themselves. 

As per this wonderful piece in HBR titled How to Help Superstar Employees Fulfill Their Potential, there are 5 primary business leadership challenges every leader should consider:

• How should we lead teams?
• How should our leadership change?
• Does our leadership style match our needs?
• How can we continue to lead at scale?
• How do leaders drive business results?

Every single of these leadership elements profoundly affects team performance and, in this case, individual performance and the ability to grow and get better at a job.

But the critical thing to remember is that the best leaders adapt to each pain point in the search for a well-balanced business. 

Diversify your big billers.

Whilst we slightly baulk at the term “big billers”, anyone who’s worked on a sales floor understands the critical importance of elite delivery of ROI for clients, users or customers. 

However, consider this – if the vast majority of your business success comes down to a small, high-performing team who goes above and beyond, what happens if that team leaves? What happens if that team gets sick, or falls out? What happens if the team becomes dysfunctional, or has an off week?

Consolidation of income streams is hardly a novel business decision, but when it comes to high performance it’s critical you spread the “risk” over as many well-performing teams as possible. 

Start simple, diversify what success looks like, and reap the rewards. 

 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.

The post How to elevate your high performers. appeared first on Rectec.

Most, if not all, recruitment tech platforms are created with a goal in mind, efficiencies to implement or an integration to perfect. Most, if not all, tech platforms understand their platform doesn’t operate in a vacuum: they need to compete against other digital creators and seamlessly fit into workflows and recruiting practices without reducing recruiting impact or ROI. 

And of course, within this matrix of technical decision-making and tech creation sits the very human user. A cruel irony that plagues the HR and recruitment tech sector – an irony shared by every other technical sector – is that a digital platform is only as good, effective or efficient as its very human user. 

Digital illiteracy can undo years of product perfection. A recruitment team who doesn’t invest in digital L&D can pour 6 figures into the most modern, most well-integrated ATS and receive a grand total of 0 applications to roles because of platform misuse. When melded with tech, traditional hiring techniques can (if not suitably reworked to fit our digital age) actually work against hiring platforms and the efficiencies they produce. 

Naturally, this is down to one thing – a critical lack of understanding just and how and why recruitment and HR tech works, and how technical success lies in augmentation, not replacement, of the human-centric elements of hiring. 

We like to think of Rectec as straddling two parallel but different worlds – the digital creators and SaaS platform revolutionaries on one side; and the job-seeking, career-focused employees that keep our country moving on the other.

So a word to the wise for our client-handling recruiting contingent reading this – no matter the brilliant ATS vendor you use, or the incredible CRM platform you dive into every day, your actions determine the effectiveness of these platforms. 

So here are 4 simple but essential rules to successfully utilise recruitment tech.

Never stop learning. 

To say the recruitment tech industry moves fast is a savage understatement. However, most recruitment teams or agencies are not in the habit of changing ATS providers every couple of years – if anything, once a consistent and usable platform is put in place that helps teams effectively recruit it’s wise to keep a steady ship and not rock the technical boat. 

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep an eye on changes to technical provision in the sector, especially when it comes to candidate attitudes and interactions with recruitment tech.

Consider career pages and employer branding – 5 years ago a simple ATS provider more than likely wouldn’t have prioritised employer branding storytelling. Now, many ATS providers include employer branding, career page and even social media integrations to help better communicate with potential candidates. 

Keep it human.

Never, ever expect the technical tools you use day in, day out to source, interview, vet, assess or hire people to replace you. 

In simple terms (and we consistently beat this drum for good reason) tech should be used to augment what you already do, rather than replace what you do. 

As chatbots and AI find themselves seeping into automotive flows it’s becoming apparent that NLP-built tools are hard to distinguish as a bot. Yes, within reason and at some stages of the hiring funnel chatbots are suitable tools to help connect with and contact candidates. 

But at the business end of recruitment, every candidate wants more than efficiency – they want someone in their corner, fighting for their needs and career, leading with emotion and professionalism.

Recruitment Tech doesn’t make you happy. 

Happiness indicators and assessments are nothing new. 

In the last 20 years, it’s become imperative for employers to market their workplaces as happy places to do work. The cult of the “work wife/husband” has not been bred from nothing – people want to like where they work, they want to find friends and peers where they work, and they want to feel a sense of value and purpose where they work. 

Tech cannot do this. Only human interactions, relationship-building and good workplace culture can.

Does recruitment tech make you a better recruiter?

This is a bit of a trick question because, in reality, we’re asking you whether KPIs and data-supported ROI is the primary indicator of recruiting success.

As anyone who’s ever stepped onto a sales floor knows, recruiting can be about short-term gains and interview-to-placement ratios, but good recruitment cultures are built over time, not over placements. 

Make sure your tech helps you build a sustainable, attractive, affordable and effective recruitment culture, not simply a machine to throw talent at jobs. Recruitment is so much more than that.

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.

The post 4 rules of successfully utilising recruitment tech. appeared first on Rectec.

If you ask the average recruiter to define traditional recruitment methods, the answers will undoubtedly follow some tried and true set processes. 

Those traditional methods of sourcing, vetting and hiring staff have, in the main, defied the steady march of time, numerous talent crises, economic woe and multi-generational changes to career building, skills development and what constitutes good candidate experiences.  

From modern Applicant Tracking Systems augmenting and collating previously siloed recruitment processes to digital onboarding and remote work-as-standard, recruitment is now bookended by tech platforms and digital interactions, buffeted by our fast-paced online culture. 

So how have the standard recruitment touch points – the sourcing, vetting, interviewing, onboarding and post-placement – changed as a result of innovative technical advancement?

Sourcing with HR tech.

Whilst a significant proportion of candidate sourcing has been conducted online for the best part of 20 years, the dominance of SaaS hiring software – and its seemingly limitless integrative possibilities – has opened a new front in hiring efficiencies. 

Candidate sourcing – the identification and entry into a hiring pipeline of new candidates – has been transformed by tech, especially by modern Applicant Tracking Systems and how they now seamlessly integrate multiple talent networks into easy-to-access sourcing pools. 

But that’s not to say the “human” has been replaced. The best ATS platforms on the market utilise automation, AI search tools and manual, hands-on traditional face-to-face candidate connections to create the most relevant talent pools available. 

Vetting and Testing with HR tech. 

Candidate assessments have long been a bulwark against poor hiring and are the first barrier against misplacing the wrong talent into a role. 

In the digital age, assessments can be done anywhere, at any time. In the remote working age, borderless testing (due to a now limitless digital talent ecosystem of remote workers), has reinvigorated the need for bespoke testing solutions.

Employers require rapidly deployed digital assessment tools and need digital accessibility across borders, demographics and languages. 

Naturally, those very same assessment and testing facilities have been moulded into ATS, recruitment CRM and performance management platforms for a more singularly branded, unique and improved candidate experience all under one roof.

When digital hiring platforms advertise their services as “end-to-end”, here is where it really matters – taking as many candidate interactions points under one roof, and hyper-personalising them for maximum hiring investment ROI.

Interviewing with HR tech. 

Since the advent of COVID-19, remote interviewing has become part of the recruiting landscape. The scale of remote interviewing software solutions has proliferated – investment into video interviewing is breaking records, and when the rise of job offers being made remotely has tripled, it’s a significant sign remote interviewing is not only a digital necessity but essential for overall hiring success.

The rise of video interviewing and remote working-as-standard has built entire new cultures of work, completely revolutionising how workers earn their keep and how candidates build new careers.

Onboarding with HR tech.

Akin to remote interviewing, digital onboarding has offered a uniquely contemporary flavour to staff integration, training and induction. 

Onboarding innovation is rampant in the recruitment tech space. Applicant Tracking Systems are leading the way, building suites of onboarding tools to complement their talent acquisition and vetting platforms. 

And, as improving hiring diversity becomes central to hiring culture, digital onboarding providers are finding solutions to bias-less hiring where others can’t.

Post-placement with HR tech.  

Aftercare within recruitment is all important. Post placement, the ability for new hires to feel integrated, psychologically safe and valued is a high priority, and again many ATS and recruitment CRM providers are leading the way in establishing new models of performance management and L&D that are changing the fabric of work. 

The bottom line. 

Recruitment is and always will be a job for humans, made by humans. But it’s hard to ignore the power of tech and how innovation is rapidly transforming the industry from an analogue one to a hybrid digital experience.

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.

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The issues of hiring speed, flexibility and long-term effectiveness are acute within SMEs especially. Smaller companies with limited resources have forever battled against massive corporate hiring budgets to snare the best in class. In 2023 we predict this fight for talent will move into a new phase of hyper-competitiveness. 

The reasons are myriad – AI is slowly but resolutely taking a flamethrower to the dominance of Google; TikTok is becoming the world’s search engine; Gen Z workers are methodically changing workplaces; expectations in the wake of the pandemic are still changing, on and on the list goes. 

With big budgets come options – so how do small firms fight 6-figure HR departments? It all starts with your choice of Applicant Tracking System or recruitment CRM.

Here at Rectec, we see it as our mission to not only educate firms seeking HR tech where and where the best operators are in the market but to re-educate company owners and HR leads that the ATS and recruitment CRM market is one of the most exciting and innovative tech growth areas. And, critically, that even a modest investment in a well-placed ATS can take you above and beyond your hiring expectations.

Is it time to evaluate your ATS commitments?

Taking some time to analyse and evaluate what sort of value you get from an ATS is no bad thing – after all, you want to evolve as the recruitment market evolves and make the best and most effective hiring impact possible with the limited resources you have.

However, a common refrain we hear from SMEs struggling to hire, or for smaller companies looking at scaling, is that an ATS is nothing more than an “electronic filing cabinet”, and that investing in a more complex system isn’t a good use of limited resources. 

Well, once upon a time that’s exactly what they were – simple storage facilities to access a candidate or hire’s basic career and application information. 

But the sector has come a long way, and the ATS provider of 2023 is a far cry from the one you may have heard about in 2013. 

So here is why a well-placed ATS or recruitment CRM is ideal for UK SMEs.

Optimises recruitment outcomes. 

When time is money and money is limited, you want to make sure your hiring decisions are targeted, effective and relevant. Modern Applicant Tracking Systems and recruitment CRMs now provide an eagle-eyed proactive look into the recruitment market through innovative tools such as scouring social media platforms for talent; automating contact with existing candidates in the pipeline, and integrating recruitment stages such as interviewing, assessment testing, training, onboarding and feedback, as well as the basic keyword CV scanning facilities and administration/data handling.

Whatever ATS you choose has to be right for your company and your needs, and that’s the magic of the market – there are no hundreds of providers to choose from, each with their own variants of plug-and-play tooling and recruitment features for you to create a competitive and useful recruitment experience via one platform.

Flexibility.

As mentioned above, the wide array of ATS and CRM vendors on the market means it’s never been a better time for an SME owner to dip into the market to find the right system for them. Prices are customisable and flexible, and feature/product innovation is rife. 

SaaS customisation as standard.

The wider HR tech market has emulated that of the wider online consumer and subscription market – you pay for what you want, discount what you don’t, and you can build a stack of useful recruitment tools on one platform that suits your needs, rather than the needs of the provider or what the market determines.

If you want to prioritise onboarding over skills testing, you can. If you want to guarantee seamless integration to external platforms as part of a larger stack, you can do that too – the options, if you look in the right place, are endless!

Scalable. 

Buying into an ATS platform isn’t a knee-jerk purchase. We’ve found in conversation with our own customers that ATS users don’t want to constantly shop around every year for a new provider or feel like their service is limited – they want an ATS database and platform that works consistently, over years, and that can scale to requirement as the vendor user grows. 

An HR department (even if that department is a team of 1) without suitable administrative oversight, a secure CV database and an effective, efficient form of recruitment and retention is no HR department. As your company gets bigger you’ll need to rely on a platform to provide payroll, hiring, recruitment, performance management and L&D information rapidly. That’s where you need an ATS or recruitment CRM. 

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.

The post An ATS is more than an electric filing cabinet – a guide for SMEs. appeared first on Rectec.

Mid-COVID crisis management dictated extreme HR measures, as we well know. Those extreme measures (see: furlough) may have saved UK plc from going under, but those decisions birthed a whole new way of looking at work, work/life balance and the future.

Despite all the best intentions to hold companies to account and keep employers focused on keeping staff welfare, staff happiness and staff security front and centre, enterprises everywhere had to focus on keeping a roof over their heads.

The response – record vacancies, disengaged workers, record gaps in the market that aren’t being filled. And, 2 years post-pandemic, we’re facing a recession and a downturn of potentially unfathomable proportions that could only exacerbate the same feelings of workers being adrift, facing global events out of their control and facing insecurity at home.

Career support in a crisis.

In this frame of mind, workers across the UK are wondering whether their careers can ever truly develop in such a dysfunctional economy. 

But we’re here to remind you, the humble UK employer, that some of the simplest career support solutions are contained within HR solutions many of you are already implementing. But, and here’s the rub, taking career support to the next level may require some tech tweaking.

So here are a few key, yet simple, reasons why having a well-sourced recruitment tech stack can not only help you recruit great staff but can elevate employee career development. 

Performance management included. 

We will keep banging this drum until the cows come home, but effective staff development means you have to be able to measure, assess and reward performance, in context, continually. 

Modern HR tech platforms are built on universal features – they’re often cloud-based for easy, remote access; they’re central points of control (or easy to integrate) for everything from payroll to rota management to performance reviews, and they’re often designed with easy-to-navigate UX.

Within this fluid, data-heavy ecosystem are the two things employers need, more than anything else, to help advance staff careers – measurable data to help workers improve, and the ability to hyper-personalise analysis of that data.

So bosses, HR pros and L&D specialists everywhere take note – recruitment tech should be as much angled towards career development as any other product feature. If anything, your staff retention strategy depends on how well you collate and analyse data pursuant to your employee’s career direction and skills development.

Also, it’s worth pointing out that in the context of career development, personalised performance management also improves the perception of your company, which is great for reputation and hiring.

Although perceptions are subjective and often somewhat illusory, they are emotionally central to how an employee (or prospective employee) looks at your firm. So bear that in mind!

L&D and upskilling.

Upskilling, reskilling, L&D, development – it doesn’t matter how you term it, an important feature of any work tech stack has to be how you provide the platforms, assessment tools and learning centres for staff to get better at their job. 

We’re not saying every CRM or CMS has to be a part-time classroom, but good work tech makes the barriers between learning and assessment seamless. It makes learning easier.

For example, we urge employers to consider integrating recruitment-adjacent features into ATS or recruitment CRM software – like skill assessments, psychometric testing, diversity integrations and, you got it, skills development platforms.

A good skills development system is only as good as how interconnected your data systems, L&D and employee outcomes are, and how easy it is to pull together disparate skills development data (for example, peer reviews and assessments displayed together) into one, easy-to-analyse place. 

Do you know what does all that? TECH. 

Putting your technical money where your emotional mouth is. 

Career development is as much an emotional endeavour as it is hard skills effort. 

Creating a workplace that values growth mindsets and that’s supportive and reassuring is as much a part of skills development as having a world-beating L&D super-platform. 

In this regard, tech doesn’t have to be an all-singing, all-dancing skills cheat code – it needs to provide objective, qualified data that gives astute development direction and accurate feedback on performance. It has to provide realistic, real-time feedback for your people.

As we always say at Rectec, recruitment tech and recruitment adjacent tech aren’t designed to replace the human in workplace HR management, it’s there to augment it.

So never compromise on the emotional component of skills development and utilise tech to drive emotional connection and value where you can!

If you haven’t seen our ATS and recruitment CRM comparison service yet, what are you waiting for? 

Rectec Compare is totally free to use, and you can input your requirements in under 20 minutes to see what ATS or recruitment CRM best fits your needs. 

Get started Now!

The post Tech can transform how you manage your employee’s career development. appeared first on Rectec.