Applicant tracking systems: if you’ve tried them before, you probably don’t like them. Applicant tracking simply does not encapsulate the modern hiring process. Who is the applicant? A person. Say it with me, hire people. It is not about, when will my package of tools arrive? In recruiting, there are no packages to track. Recruiting is about attracting and interacting with talent. Be Social.
Applicant tracking was born from the processing of computers, and it will die at the hands of social networks. Applicant tracking had a bloated enterprise run. The infancy of the Internet promoted rapid growth of collecting and numerically grading resumes, creating an era of interviewing (and not interviewing) candidates based on resume keywords. That time has passed. Remember, interviews occur because people want to work together.
Social networks have given expanding businesses everywhere a chance to cut the automation. People are not automated. The social profiles layout more information than a resume. And they are easier to read. While resumes list skills and tell of past work, social profiles verify skills, as well as, show past and current work. A social profile offers more accurate and up to date information, resulting in online footprints that are ever evolving and not recyclable. A database of resumes is more useful than LinkedIn to recruit top talent in the vein that the eroding skeletons in the graveyard are more likely than the working people in the office to produce the next great American Product.
There is no need to preach, you know the wealth of a social profile (see the IPO of LinkedIn and the evaluations of Facebook). The question is: what does the Internet’s maturity mean for recruiting? The social aspect of the Internet has given businesses a second chance. To recruit right. The social aspect of the Internet gives business an opportunity to bring recruiting back to its roots as a social activity.
To recruit, the principles of social networks must be applied, as in, you show up for the people. Social Recruiting is about sourcing. The source is people. You cannot upload a person into a database. But recruiting software can bring company to where the people are. Recruiting software is not a tracking platform.
Recruiting software is a sourcing and engagement platform. Recruiting software distributes your job openings to find people. Recruiting software shares job openings within your network to create the “Kevin Bacon” effect and find your perfect candidate. Don’t forget, when talent is engaged by your product, browsing your site or facebook page, recruiting software makes sure they see your open jobs through features such as Career Sites, WordPress plugins, and Facebook apps. Because at the end of the day, recruiting is about finding people to build great products together. Recruiting software gathers people from all sources.
Post originally appeared on Talent Management Tech as “Why Do We Need Applicant Tracking?” Word Cloud Credit Wordle.
