|
I have to apologise for the extra long gap since our last newsletter. This
has been due to an unprecedented demand on my time to deal with new business,
internal reorganisation and other issues. It is my intention to always keep this
newsletter going on at least a bi-monthly basis.
This issue's topic is a short extract from a presentation, entitled
"Globalisation of Recruitment - Leveraging of Technology", that I gave at the
recent HRMATT Conference & Exposition in Trinidad.
Newsflash - The Information & Communications Society (ICTS) has announced
that nominations are being accepted for their inaugural Excellence in ICT Awards
for both individuals and projects. See
http://www.icts.org.tt/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=48&Itemid=164
for more information and application forms. The deadline for applications
is Friday November 2, 2007. There is great prestige associated with being
a nominee so consider entering yourself or other deserving people.
 Many
of you have to get involved with recruiting at some point. This means that
job vacancies are advertised and you have to deal with the influx of resumes in
the form of paper, CDs, emails and so forth.
To make your life much simpler, I recommend that you
accept resumes only in the form of emails. Don't even advertise an address
or a telephone number - just state that all resumes should be sent to, for
example, resume@companyX.com. These days, most jobs require an ability to
communicate by email so it shouldn't be that hard for applicants to comply with
this.
The great advantage of doing this is that you can leverage
technology to make the recruiting process much more effective and efficient.
Would advertising produce a deluge of emailed resumes?
There is an abundance of software out there that will scan emailed resumes and
extract skills to automatically create candidate records. You can then use the
software to find candidates on this database that match your particular skill
requirements. The software will also allow you to track the recruitment process
so you are in control.
You will save a lot of time and the search for the right
candidate will be far more accurate. Try searching on the Internet for
“recruiting software” to see which product suits you best. Of course, your
company may prefer to design and create its own recruitment software. In all
cases, considerable thought and effort must go into setting up a “skills
catalogue” to define the names of the skills that will be used in the skill
extraction process as well as the skills search process.
One big advantage of receiving all your applications by
email is that you can set the receiving email address to automatically
acknowledge receipt of the applications. For example, say you advertise that
all job applications are to go to resume@companyX.com. You can set an option on
that email address to always respond with a message like “Thank you for
submitting your application to Company X. We will review it and contact you
should we find that you are suitable for an existing vacancy”.
It is much quicker, easier and cheaper to have standard
acceptance and rejection emails, compared to corresponding by letter or
telephone. It is not a substitute for the personal touch during the recruiting
cycle, but it sure helps automate handling of the rejects.
Also, you no longer need a filing cabinet for all those
job applications, and a big garbage bag (for the unsuitable résumés). Emailed
applications can be quickly filed in appropriate PC “folders” and unsuitable
ones are simply deleted. Now all those potential candidates are easily
accessible (and searchable) whenever you like.
Plus this process lends itself to easy back-ups. No fears
of a fire or flood wiping out your filing cabinets full of carefully collected
paper resumes that are not copied anywhere else! You are in control and the
recruiting process appears slick and very professional to the applicants.
Of course it is always easier to use a recruitment agency
that embraces all this technology and does all the leg work for you and then
all you need see is the screened, short-listed candidates. Happy
recruiting!
|
We would love to hear what you think of this issue of CRS News.
And of course, if you have any suggestions for upcoming issues that you would
like to share with us, please send those too.
Comments, suggestions, feedback?
|
|
...
a leading supplier of technical resources in the Caribbean