ATS software supports every stage of the recruitment process. It helps to achieve a faster, more efficient and often more effective process. In this blog we tell you more about successfully using an ATS in the recruitment process. To get a grip on the complete process, we have broken down the different recruitment phases.
ATS for sourcing candidates
Finding suitable candidates is one of a recruiter's most important tasks. By using an ATS for sourcing candidates, recruiters can find potential candidates faster and more efficiently to add them to their talent pool. It can also help organize and evaluate these candidates for recruitment in the future.
The system is integrated with various job sites, job boards and social media used by candidates. This allows recruiters to (re)post jobs online quickly and easily. When candidates apply, their data is automatically processed in the ATS system.
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ATS for candidate management
When a candidate has responded to one of your jobs, a profile is automatically created. This profile contains all the information entered by the candidate. Any information supplied at a later stage of the process is also automatically incorporated into the profile. During the candidate's recruitment process, information and tags are added to the profile, clearly indicating the candidate's status and qualifications. Even if the candidates prove unsuitable now, they remain in the ATS database, so they can still be placed in the future. The (almost) automatic creation of this talent pool is invaluable to any recruiter.
ATS for candidate selection
After the candidate's profile is created, the system automatically checks all information to determine if the candidate matches certain sets of requirements. The system can easily scan for manually specified skills by the recruiter such as experience, education, certifications.
Based on this information you can then determine whether the candidate may proceed to the screening phase. This example is one of the main reasons why an ATS system removes so much workload and makes recruitment so much more efficient.
Might also be interesting: OTYS Hunt & Select
ATS for managing hiring
Once the desired candidate is chosen, the ATS can easily initiate the next steps. For example, the system can immediately generate templates where the recruiter only needs to check the terms and conditions and press the send button. When the candidate accepts the proposal, this too is automatically processed in the candidate's file.
ATS for onboarding
Once a candidate is hired, the ATS can be used to assign and track the progress of onboarding activities. This can apply to company-wide onboarding or role-specific onboarding activities. Specific tasks and deadlines can be tracked within the ATS to ensure the new employee stays on track.
Studies show that candidates who receive proper onboarding are 69% more likely to stay with a company for three years or more. The ATS supports management of administrative operations.
ATS for optimizing processes
Most ATS offer reporting capabilities that allows recruiters to identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies in their process and workflow. This way you are always shown where there is room for improvement. ATS give recruiters access to a wealth of data to drive (and improve) their hiring decisions and processes.
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Today more and more companies are using Artificial Intelligence (AI) during the recruitment process. While AI offers many benefits, applicants may as a result also find themselves in an anonymous process. This can lead to a lack of engagement and decrease of interest in the job posting. Therefore it is crucial to maintain the personal aspect of the recruitment process, even when AI is used. In this blog we will discuss 5 ways to keep the recruitment process feeling personal, even when using AI.
Keep the communication personal
Make sure e-mails, messages and other forms of communication to candidates feel personal and you do not use standard templates. For example, use personalized communication by using the applicant's name in e-mails or by referring to specific details from their application. AI can also be an extremely useful supporting tool for adding those details in the communication. In addition, offering a personal interview with a recruiter or HR manager can help increase applicant engagement.
Combine human and bot
Another way to keep the process personal is to combine the use of AI with human evaluation and feedback. You can for example let AI technology do the initial screening, but integrate human evaluation into the recruitment process, by having recruiters themselves then evaluate candidates based on their personal experiences and soft skills. Something humans often do better if not differently than AI.
Make smart use of video interviews
AI can be used to conduct automated interviews with candidates, such as through video interviews. Speech and facial recognition technology can be used to analyze and assess candidate responses. But make sure the candidate feels comfortable and add personal touch points, such as a welcome message or a personal introduction to the company.
Utilize smart chatbots
Chatbots can be used to greet candidates and answer questions during the recruitment process. By using chatbots, candidates can feel more personally treated and the process can still be largely automated this way.
You may also find this interesting: Smart writing for Recruitment Chatbots is done like this
Let candidates know that they are important
Send candidates regular updates on the recruitment process and the status of their application. Make sure candidates know that their applications are taken seriously and that they are valued as potential employees. This can be automated with the right software (such as OTYS) to further reduce the time it takes to keep candidates updated. Take, for example, the track-and-trace page for candidates developed by OTYS and Joboti for Strictly People.
In short…
The use of AI can improve efficiency, reduce recruiters' workload and improve candidate quality. However, it is important to remember that AI is not the only solution. It is important to have a balanced approach that combines AI with human interaction and evaluation to achieve the best results with candidates.
By using AI combined with OTYS Recruiting Technology, recruiters can make their recruitment process more efficient while also maintaining the human side of the process. Contact us to discuss the possibilities or send an email directly to customersales@otys.nl.
In today's tense job market, simply posting a vacancy on Facebook is seldom enough. Attracting new staff depends on a successful employer branding strategy. Perhaps the most visible part of this? Your vacancy website.
Is your corporate recruitment site attractive (and clear) enough to convince a candidate to apply for a job with you? Does it sufficiently display your organization's identity? Or is it just a listing place for your vacancies? A good vacancy website contributes to strengthening your employer brand. Therefore I have tried to figure out what exactly makes a good employment website.
Texts that actually have something to say
Although today's candidate is more visually oriented than before, you (of course) cannot escape having texts on your website. How else are you supposed to get your message across? But, texts can be more than a boring enumeration of soft and hard skills you are looking for in an employee. Good texts contribute positively to radiating your corporate culture and propagating the core values you stand for.
Possible the leader in this field? Coolblue. With their mission "anything for a smile" they have been conquering the e-commerce market since 1999, but also secretly my heart when it comes to labor market communication. Like their mission, the texts on the website do everything to put a smile on the faces of the reader. They achieve this very effectively with phrases like “Code museum. Bits and pieces.” or "Get your black belt in pleasing candidates."
Keep in mind that humor on a vacancy website can be either a smash hit or a complete miss. Awareness of the kind of organization that you are and the kind of employee that goes with it is key. So humor is not a requirement for a strong (corporate) story. The Dutch De Belastingdienst (Tax and Customs administration of the Netherlands) demonstrates this nicely on their vacancy website. Less informal than Coolblue, but full of to the point text that immediately makes it clear to you what kind of organization you are dealing with, without it ever feeling boring or stuffy.
An organization with personality
If you've ever googled "tips for a good vacancy website", you're bound to have come across the following advice: make it personal. But how do you make a vacancy website personal? One way is to give your employees a platform to keep your story as personal and authentic as possible. Show what the colleagues within your organization really look like. Coolblue for instance shows employees through photos and their shared company outings.
One company whose entire recruitment site strategy is built around the people behind the organization, and which in my opinion does a fantastic job, is Deloitte. On the homepage, they put their people at the center and you are immediately triggered to read the personal stories of the employees. The portraits of these employees really take center stage. In an article by Werf-en, Sjoerd Kuipers of Stuurlui writes "be diverse" as one of the 10 commandments for corporate recruitment websites, but disingenuous diversity is something a candidate can spot from a mile away. It’s better to actually show who really works for you.
Deloitte is not the only successful worksite focused on showcasing your potentially future colleagues. A.S.R. also approaches their vacancy website from this strategy. On their website you can scroll through employee testimonials and stories as if you were looking for a job post, that's how many there are. This really gives you as a job seeker a good idea of the kind of workplace you will end up in. The people at A.S.R. are really their focal point, and this becomes quite clear when you see all their communication.
But, it can also be a little more low-key. At a company like vanHaren you won't see a photo on their vacancy site without an employee on it, and they (clearly) also put their employees in the foreground. They really want to show and convey what kind of people work at vanHaren. Not only in the stores, but also at headquarters and within logistics.
Pictures say more than a thousand words
With good friends you usually need but half a word. With good vacancy websites, the same is also true. And, some companies lend themselves perfectly for a visual rather than a primarily textual story. The Department of Defense undertands that all too well. The hero banner, this is the first image and typically the eye-catcher of a recruitment website, shows us a visual story that immediately triggers a feeling. It conjures up an emotion, it makes you want to be part of that story.
Organizations like the Department of Defense are great for building a and sometimes also building upon an existing image. The Dutch Police force, for example, also achieves this quite successfully with a video reel in their hero banner. But De Belastingdienst, with a significantly stuffier image as an organization, also perfectly knows how to use video to set an atmosphere and convey a feeling. Take a moment to click through their expertise pages and you can’t deny also being a little bit impressed by the story, right?
On the other hand, developing video's (or having them developed) is not a cheap job. But even with stills you can effectively portray a company's image, as KLM proves on their website. Picnic in turn does this by deploying region-specific recruitment pages, such as one at Utrecht. Perhaps as a Utrechtian myself I am somewhat biased, but I think the personal touch works well.
Design does not undercut usability
You may dress up the website and the employer very nicely, however if a website does not adhere to the minimum conditions of a good vacancy website, the site will never work for them. So, you will have to think about the image, about your employer branding strategy, about your personality as an organization, but you will also have to ask yourself the following questions: as a candidate, am I able to apply easily? Do I have the possibility to set up a job alert? Are there filters for the open jobs to make searching easier? Is there a clear menu navigation?
In other words, did you adhere to the best practices for a vacancy website. Lastly, as well-scoring website, we will take NS as an example for the following "best practices" checklist.
- Logo can be found at the top left and is visible on each individual page.
- There is a clear navigation of the website.
- The corporate identity of the vacancy website is in line with the corporate identity of the organization. Preferably with recurring recognizable style elements.
- There is a search bar on the homepage that makes it easy to search for jobs. A positive aspect of NS is that this is designed like the route planner on their regular website.
- Good use is made of (moving) images.
- A Job Alert is present. Extra pluspoints for showcasing the job alert on the homepage and throughout several points in the customer journey.
- The extensive employee content.
- There is a (visual) representation of what the application process will look like.
A vacancy site that works
But in the end, what do all these examples have in common? What makes a good vacancy website? The fact that they all tell a clear and unambiguous story. The personality of the organization shines through in both text and image.
In addition, it then helps if it also has a unique identity. You'll get even more points if the website is also user-friendly and easy to navigate.
Have you already evaluated your website, maybe compared it to the checklist above and aren’t you scoring to good? Are you and your organization running into employer branding issue, or don’t you have any idea where to start? Please don't hesitate to contact us. We have spent years specializing in recruitment websites that work. We also have several professional and knowledgeable partners, with whom we connect, who would love to be your sparring partner.
Just to name a few OTYS partners: Stuurlui, Rankdata, GetNoticed or Booston. Ready for a new step? Take a look at all our web solutions.
We've all experienced it once. You got a bill from, let's say, your energy company that you don't quite recognize. So you think: I'll get in touch with the company. You navigate to the website, you log in, click on the customer service icon and you are presented with a chatbot: 'describe your problem in a few short sentences'. You write a short description with your question, but you always get the answer: “Sorry, I do not understand your question. Can you type it in a different way?” Well... no! Besides the bill, you are now also stuck with a feeling of frustration.
This is the exact opposite of what a chatbot is supposed to do. You want a chatbot to contribute to the candidate experience in a positive way. To quickly give the user an answer or quickly tell the applicant the status of their application. In this blog, we'll give you some tips for writing texts (conversational copywriting) for a chatbot to make your chatbot a definite hit and not a miss.
Tip 1: Give your chatbot a clear personality
A conversation with Annie is not as informative as a conversation with Lisa tends to be. And a chat with Harry is not nearly as funny as a chat with Melvin. This is exactly the same when talking to chatbots. Just like how your brand has a personality (archetype), the chatbot should also be an extension of the brand with a consistent brand voice.
Always keep this personality in mind when writing for the chatbot. You want it to have a recognizable tone-of-voice. The bot has to sound almost human. And you can only do that if you give it a personality. After all, the way you address a candidate can make all the difference between a successful job application or not.
Here you can find the definitions of all the twelve different brand archetypes, if you want a little refresher course.
Tip 2: Write in colloquial language
Unlike what you learned in school, you will have to completely abandon all official writing rules.
Starting sentences with And? Totally fine!
Using 'annoying' filler words like: uh, yes, actually, just? Definitely do it!
That just adds that extra touch of personality and human character.
How do you make sure you apply this correctly and say the right things? First speak your conversations out loud before you write them down. Have real conversations first, with colleagues for example, and put them on paper verbatim. Also, don't be afraid to make the occasional tongue-in-cheek comment, even if it seems off-topic. In real conversations, you also occasionally digress. No one goes through a conversation completely humorless. Or, at least, almost no one.
Tip 3: Don't hesitate to put words in the candidate's mouth
Whereas our psychologist might teach us not to fill in for someone else, I advise you to do the exact opposite for the chatbot. You want to know exactly what a user is going to say so you can anticipate it. When you think all possible scenarios through as far ahead as possible, you also have an appropriate answer ready for all possible questions.
One way to make sure you stay in control of a conversation is to ask lots of questions. This way you can steer the conversation. Using simple action buttons, you give the candidate control, but within the framework you set.
It can happen that a conversation does not go well. That the bot does not understand a question. Again, prepare appropriate and varied responses so you can get the conversation back on track. Does it still not work? Then you can always have a "real person" take over the conversation.
Tip 4: Get experts on chatbots and Conversational Copywriting to contribute ideas
We all think we know how to have a conversation. I mean, we do nothing else all day long. Right?
However, nothing could be further from the truth. At least, that's my (not so) humble opinion. After all, it pays to admit when something is not your field of expertise. That is also the reason why OTYS focuses on the core of recruitment software, and links with all kinds of expert partners for a complete package. We don't say Jack of all trades, but master of none for nothing.
We believe in the power of chatbots and therefore we link with various specialists in the field of chatbots. That's why we partner with companies such as Joboti and NIXZ. The most recent addition to our impressive list of partners: Dora from Happy Recruiter.
The recruitment robot Dora was developed by Happy Recruiter to connect with candidates as well as maintain contact with them. Create an almost instantaneous bond of trust with the use of an AI-driven chatbot.
And as a final tip: keep improving your bot
The last game is not fought at the facility. Stay critical. Let other people walk through the chatbot. Keep expanding and honing the bot's vocabulary.
Is there still a hitch? Does a conversation unexpectedly go less smoothly despite all efforts? Does the bot have to endure answers to which it has no answer? Learn your lesson and write better, smarter and wittier answers.
Don't have a chatbot yet, but are you interested in it? Please contact us and we will help you build the perfect recruitment solution for you. You can do this by sending us an email, filling in the contact form or by giving us a call.
At OTYS we are continuously optimizing the user experiences for our customers. For this we consider your feedback to be very important.
Based on your feedback, we have decided to change the Key User Training.
Why are we making changes?
Within OTYS we have had two roles for years: Users and Key Users. As a Key User you have more rights within OTYS and you can adjust the layout of the system, submit tickets and create new users.
We have always covered all options for the Key User in one afternoon training. As you may understand this is a lot of information for half a day. We also received this feedback from the participants of the training. For those who really want to get started with managing their own system, it was actually too much information in a short time. What we also noticed more and more is that a large part of the participants do not really want to make adjustments to the system themselves, but mainly want to become Key Users in order to be able to send out tickets and create accounts for new colleagues.
New roles and training types
With the feedback received in mind, we have adapted both the roles and the types of training. We now use three roles: User, Super User and Key User. We explain the differences to you.
User
As a User you have the usual rights for daily work. We give a User Training twice a month via Teams, in which we discuss the most used modules and functionalities. You can register for this training via our website.
Super User
The Super User has the rights of a User and additionally the rights to create tickets and new users. So for this you no longer need to become a Key User! A Super User does not have the rights to make changes to the layout, but can submit a change request via Support.
We expect this to be a godsend for many of our customers; this way you can ensure that the system remains up-to-date with your working method, without having to delve into settings and extra modules yourself.
Are you interested? You can request the rights via Support. The maximum number of Super Users depends on the size of the organization. There is no separate training for the Super User role; we have made informative videos that explain step by step how to create Tickets and Users within OTYS.
Key User
In our previous training courses, we made the assumption that someone who became a 'Key User' would be responsible for all changes to the interior. Statuses, workflows, mail templates, rights for your colleagues, everything was in one training. In practice, it turned out that participants often came to a training for one specific component, for example reports.
In our new training courses we have divided the topics. This way you can choose training courses that suit your interests and the role you have within your own organization. Because of this division we also take plenty of time per subject. This also gives you more time to deepen your knowledge and to practice on your own. These training courses are given on location in Houten and include a catered lunch.
