10 Technology Commandments for HR When Hiring In 2012

1.  HR shall not be intimidated by IT folk who talk in big, scary words.

2.  HR shall not let their software lead them, but shall lead the software to help meet their goals.

3.  HR shall not collect a bunch of superflous information from applicants via an online application, just because they can.

4.  HR shall not allow their marketing department to place the link to the career section anywhere but on the home page of the brand web site.

5.  HR shall not let resumes slip into the infamous black hole, but rather should get to know their ATS and use it.

6.  HR shall not buy any software without first understanding why they need it.

7.  HR shall not assume that the software companies with the biggest marketing budgets have the best software for their needs.

8.  HR shall understand and walk through their hiring process as an applicant from beginning to end at least once a year.

9.  HR shall not waste their applicants’ nor their recruiters’ time with extraneous information gathering and unncessary form validation.

10.  HR should keep asking questions of technology experts until they gain the understanding they want and need.

Happy Applicants and myStaffingPro

As a society we don’t spend enough time celebrating a job well-done.  We are always pressing on the next goal, finding another need to fill, and rarely stop and say “good job!”.

I keep a record of positive comments about our software that have been passed on to me.  I thought I would share some of the comments that have come from applicants applying for jobs.  It’s a way to congratulate our product team on a job well done!

Check out these actual emails or support tickets from job applicants using myStaffingPro to apply:

Subject: Help
Request. Support Code: 18431592

Thank someone at your company for making your on-line application process so easy.

Subject: Help
Request. Support Code: 19374142

I wanted to commend you on an excellent site.  The application and questioning process was very simple and quick.  Thank you

Subject: Just Thank You

Your Web site is very easy to understand.  The whole process is the best by far.

Subject: Help
Request. Support Code: 28576810

Not a question or a problem!

I want to thank the individuals who are responsible for creating and maintaining the web site where I just completed an application for a _____, for the tremendous job they’re doing.

I have submitted many online applications over the last several months, but although the experience is never pleasurable, it was pleasurable indeed to have the opportunity to provide ___ with all of the information they requested in a highly readable format with as little effort as possible while also being able to provide them with additional information that I believe will be useful to them.

Your online application process is very, very much better than any other I’ve experienced. Thank you!

Subject: Help

There is no question or problem.  I just wanted to let you know that your online job application is one of the best I’ve ever filled out.  Simple and efficient.

Subject: Visitor Email via Contact Form On Marketing Site

 I just wanted to leave a comment. I was searching for a job on the ____ website and noticed it is powered by you. It is a great tool. I am very impressed. It is easy to use, it works, and, is very aesthetically pleasing. I could go on and on. Every time I am searching for a job and see powered by ____, I want to write those people and tell them their product needs alot of help. It actually annoys me while searching for a job. It’s the opposite of your product. It never works right, it is ugly, etc. I hope you can try and persuade their customers to come to you. Maybe I should be writing them also. Have a great day.

And finally, for a good laugh… one of our help desk representatives had to share this unique experience with everyone in the company!

Live chat script:

Help Desk: Hello. How may I assist you?

Applicant: hi my name is jake and i am wanting to become a country music singer. i also know i need a manager and i have no idea what to do.

Help Desk: Hi Jake, I am a technical helpdesk for the application process and I don’t think I am able to help you. But, good luck to you.

Geek Talk Wrap-Up

myStaffingPro held its first ever Geek Talk on Tuesday, August 4^th.  Geek Talk is a conference call/ webinar in which myStaffingPro customers or prospects can chat with the developers behind the software.

From past research, we have found that as many as a third of the requests users have for new features on our software are for features that already exist.  I’ve heard of a study that Microsoft completed for its Office products in which they found the same.  The trick is getting the right features in front of the users who want them, while hiding those features from users who don’t.  This allows for the greatest ease of use for most users, but does pose a communication challenge.

We spend quite a bit of time on continual education and communication with our customers.  Since everyone is inundated with information daily, it is a challenge.  I was excited to learn during our Geek Talk session that at least one of our customers is benefiting from that approach.

“Your system has been really easy for me to train others also.  I like that too.  It’s excellent when you have 50-60 features, but when we started you offered just what we needed,” said one user.  “You have expanded like you have been consistently doing over the years and I think it was an easier transition initially from paper to the system for us … now it’s not that hard for me when I’m training someone on a new feature or new module because it’s just an add-on because they are already familiar with the basics of the system.  So that was a good strategy.”  We are glad to hear that our modular design makes training so easy.  That’s why we designed it that way!

Our next Geek Talk is scheduled for Thursday, September 15^th, 2011 at 2 pm.  If you’re interested in being a part of the session, add  comment below, or email me at Jennifer@mystaffingpro.com.

Sneak Preview of New Mobile Job Application

Next week myStaffingPro is releasing a new mobile job application. I thought I’d share a sneak preview of the new technology. When released, hundreds of organizations will immediately give their applicants the gift of a mobile friendly career site.

Designers and developers were given three goals for this application:

• High usability
• Integrated employment branding
• Robust online application functionality

 The career site, accessed directly from the employer’s corporate web site, launches with a career search page that looks and feels like an app, and showcases the employer’s brand:

Designed for “fat fingers”, applicants can select a job with just one touch:

Social networking tools are embedded into each job posting. Information the applicant actually cares about is presented in a simple layout:

Only minimal information is requested in easy to use form fields (again, with the small screen in mind):

Full prescreening functionality supported – customized to each job:

The applicant is given the opportunity,via an email in his inbox, to attach additional documents, like a resume and/or cover letter, to the application by using his personal computer.

I’ve seen a lot of hype out there about mobile applications. Many companies are just tweaking the width of their web site and calling that “mobile.” To create a truly mobile experience, developers need to take the time to design and develop an application that is easy to use on a small screen, contains only the information that is important to the user, and has the look and feel mobile users have become accustomed to. If you’ve created a mobile web site you’re proud of, please let me know! I’d be very interested to take a look at it, and maybe even highlight it on my blog.

The Evolution of a SaaS Applicant Tracking System

I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane, and give a short pictorial history of myStaffingPro applicant tracking system.

1999

Our first product as a company was DialApp, an interactive voice response system that companies could use to automatically collect job applications over the phone.

2000

Within a year, we built a web portal for reporting the applicant data collected over DialApp. We called the web site DialApp.com. I can still clearly picture the brainstorming meeting we had to choose the web application name. I don’t think that name lasted a year!

2001

Here we are in 2001 with our expanded application – this is our Build a List of Applicants feature. Notice we’re searching for a new name already. Kind of looks like fashion from the past, doesn’t it. But hey, we were proud of it at the time, and the functionality was robust.

2002

New logo – new name!

2003

In 2003 we streamlined the look of Build a List of Applicants a bit, added some shading, made it less crazy. We’ve still got the Quick Tools. Of course, there’s a lot more functionality not pictured here. We added a Requisition module, Sourcing module, and enhanced Reporting module.

2004

In 2004 we released our Fast Track Edition, a SaaS applicant tracking system that could be implemented by the customer with no technical support needed. Previously, implementations required support from our client services and technical departments.

2006

Fast forward to 2006 – the same Build a List of Applicants feature is displayed. The design is better, but we haven’t gotten rid of that awful teal color yet.

2007

We’ve replaced teal with blue – hooray! Build a List of Applicants:

Plus, a new logo:

Today

And now, we have a SaaS applicant tracking system with 10 years of feature rich development that offers over 75 add-on modules.

Build a List of Applicants:

Use Your ATS Like a Resume Database? Not Good.

Traditional applicant tracking systems slap software against the old file cabinets of resumes, so instead of a metal file cabinet, you’ve got an electronic file cabinet.  Problem is, you’re still spending time sifting and sorting electronic resumes – time wasters, and not very effective at finding quality candidates.

What your applicant tracking system should be doing, is presenting you with the best candidates for the position, and automating the hiring process.  Here’s a good example of how that is done.

Old way:  The company has a Mechanical Engineer opening.   The hiring manager emails HR the job request.  HR adds the job to the ATS, then searches through the ATS, and potentially external resume databases, for resumes with the words “mechanical engineer”, “IT engineer”, or whatever synonyms she can come up with.  The recruiter reviews each resume and wonders if that person from 6 months ago is still looking for a job.   She emails the candidates she finds and asks them if they are interested in applying.  Meanwhile, she pays to post the job to CareerBuilder & Monster, and gets a flood of resumes to manually review in that pretty electronic database.

New way:  The ATS provides hiring managers with an easy to use portal for creating a new job opening.  The portal automatically submits the job for approval to the appropriate people.  After approved, HR gets a notice that a new job opening is in the ATS.  HR reviews the job opening and with one click posts it to the company’s corporate web site and to free job boards.  One more click, and the recruiter sends emails to candidates who have previously expressed interest in that category of job, within that location, inviting them to apply online.  The next day, the recruiter logs in to find 50 new candidates.  Out of the 50, 30 of them have passed the pre-qualifying questions that screened out basic criteria based on the job  (minimum age, work visa, degree requirements, etc).  The other 20 she can ignore.  She quickly reviews the 30, who’ve answered questions specific to the job requirements, and submitted a resume, and clicks a checkbox next to each one she wants to submit to the hiring manager for review.   She clicks a button to send the checked applicants to the hiring manager, with a brief message.  The hiring manager gets an email with the new applicants, clicks a link to log into his portal to enter his feedback, and indicates which candidates to interview.  The system auto-emails the selected candidates an interview invitation.  And that’s only to the point of interview.  There’s a lot more I could talk about after that point.

Sound great?  Sound like an efficient use of technology?  It is.  We’ve designed our applicant tracking system that way at myStaffingPro.  But it’s not common, and I rarely hear HR departments encouraged to truly automate their processes.  I challenge you to see what you can do when you stop using your ATS like a resume database.