2022 may only be a couple months old, but it is already showing signs of being another unpredictable period for recruiters, making planning a difficult task. Staffing and recruitment firms face unique challenges as global events continue to keep employers and employees in a state of flux.
Record levels of employee turnover, global labor shortages, and a growing shift to remote work are just some of the conditions affecting the recruitment process. However, in times of significant change, there is also significant opportunity.
In planning for a successful 2022, here is what staffing and recruitment agencies should be focusing on.
Transferable skills
Experience and qualifications have traditionally been the overarching criteria for candidate assessment. Although these factors are still a key consideration, current labor shortages are forcing employers to rethink job descriptions in order to attract applicants.
For example, it is common for millennials to feel underqualified when looking at job postings, despite there being a great amount of talent in this candidate pool. As well as an abundance of enthusiasm, millennials are quick to adapt and learn new skills. Despite having limited experience, it is likely that they have already acquired many transferrable skills in their career to date, making them suitable to a variety of roles.
Technical skills
Technical skills have also become prominent in the absence of academic qualifications. While a lot of job seekers will mention various abilities in job applications, their proficiency is generally unknown. It is therefore important that recruiters put candidate skills to the test in an accurate and measurable way.
Technical skills assessments are already common practice in the IT sector, where coding and development capabilities are difficult to discern on paper. Adding this layer of testing ensures consistency across the applicant assessment process and guarantees that only the most suitable candidates advance.
Taking advantage of technology
Staffing and recruitment agencies are expected to do more with less, so any software that helps save time, money, and resources is worth investing in. Automation can speed up sourcing, placement and retention tasks, while giving recruiters more time to dedicate to relationship building activities.
One basic tool that every recruiter needs at their disposal is a modern applicant tracking system. Mindscope ATS has plenty of help helpful features for simplifying the recruitment process.
Mindscope’s Shazaam! Parsing tool empowers users to capture information from anywhere on the internet. It can be used to create and update candidate records, before assigning the information to a job order. Being able to pull information from websites like LinkedIn makes it easier than ever to grow a talent pool.
Once candidates have been selected, the onboarding process can be accelerated using Mindscope’s integrated onboarding tool. It facilitates the upload and tracking of relevant documents, making the onboarding process up to 90% faster.
Updating candidate information
It is easy to neglect the information held within an applicant tracking system, but databases should be kept as up-to-date as possible in order to maximize the system’s effectiveness.
Parsing updated resumes and LinkedIn profiles is a quick and easy way to retrieve new information for existing candidates. Regular availability checks are also crucial when creating candidate pools, as it can save time and wasted effort later on in the recruitment process.
A real-time view of candidates is essential for securing placements ahead of the competition.
Redeployment
Attracting suitable candidates from external sources can be a laborious activity for staffing agencies.
However, the solution is often staring recruiters in the face. Provided they are kept up-to-date, ATS databases can provide fast access to existing candidates. As well as identifying available suitable individuals, recruiters can monitor active placements. This means they can contact employees that are nearing the end of their current contracts and redeploy them to a new position.
Mindscope’s new Placement Module enables recruiters to manage their current placements, new starts, and upcoming completions from a filterable list within the database. Users can quickly access placements and filter by job owner, candidate owner, start date, and end date.
At Mindscope, we are dedicated to supporting recruitment and staffing agencies so they can fill more job roles and reach new levels of success. Reach out to us to find out more about how Mindscope can set you up for a successful 2022 and beyond.
Related Posts
