Applicant Tracking Laser Focus

myStaffingPro is focused on applicant tracking.  We recognize that we COULD create our own HRIS or performance management system, but the end solution would be “just ok”.  Frankly, there are already enough “just ok” talent management suites.  So rather than being everything, we are being ourselves, an applicant tracking system vendor.

BUT, that’s not all folks.  Although we don’t have our own HRIS or performance management system, we have partnered with more than 400 background, assessment, WOTC, eVerify, HRIS, learning, performance, etc. vendors.  Our expansive partner list allows companies to pick and build their best-in-class solution.  The result: end-to-end solution that meets all needs rather than settling for “just ok”.

What’s the point of all of this?

Before you jump on the “just ok” bundle bandwagon, start your buying process by defining your needs.  Make sure you go into the selection process knowing what you are looking for and what you don’t need.  For help on evaluating your recruiting needs, check out our applicant tracking evaluation toolkit.

Way To Go myStaffingPro!

Photo courtesy of  furryscalyman on FlickrWoohoo!  The books have been finalized for 2011, and the numbers far exceeded our goals for the year.  In 2011, we welcomed more than 100 new clients from direct sales and partnerships, including of Ventura Foods, Nature’s Products, and Harry & David.

In addition, the myStaffingPro product development team released numerous enhancements including:

  • Expanded candidate portal templates with the addition of the company’s social profiles and LinkedIn’s Company Insider
  • A Facebook app that enables candidates to search and apply to the company’s openings without leaving Facebook
  • Partner integrations with video interviewing, Twitter aggregation, background assessment, and performance management vendors
  • Redesigned candidate application experience to improve usability and increase completion rates
  • Mobile application experience for candidates to search and apply through their mobile devices

So, what’s in store for 2012?  They won’t let me spill too much, but let’s just say myStaffingPro applicant tracking system will be “IN”.

Go Social to Get Hires

According the Ventana Research Study “Social Media in Recruiting: Using New Channels to Source Talent“, more than one-third (38%) of companies are not confident in the effectiveness of their social recruiting processes.

Determined to prove the effectiveness of social media I pulled the sourcing reports for our customer, Midmark Corporation.

Applicants Percentage of total
Facebook 26 < 1%
LinkedIn 178 2.4%
Twitter 1 < 1%

At first glance, these numbers are not overly impressive. Upon closer review,  it is apparent that the traffic from these FREE social media sites brought in more applicants than:

  • Newspapers
  • College/Universities
  • Job/Career Fairs
  • Agencies
  • Community Organizations
  • Radio/TV Ads

In addition, a few candidates from Facebook were hired.  As with the overall traffic, the number of candidates hired from social media exceeded those hired from newspapers, direct mail, career fairs, community organizations, or radio.  Although social media is just a small fraction of their candidate traffic it is still an effective medium to attract hires.  To learn more about social recruiting, please visit http://sourcetalent.mystaffingpro.com.

The Award Goes To….Midmark!

We are not the Academy, and this is not the Oscars, but myStaffingPro is honoring the best!  On Thursday, myStaffingPro will present Midmark Corporation with the 2011 High Touch Job Seeker award.  The award celebrates Midmark’s attention to hiring best practices by treating candidates “like gold”.

Selection Process

  1. Open nominations were accepted from the client services managers
  2. Next, a website and hiring process review was completed by the selection committee using the “10 Essential Strategies for Making your Career Site Usable”.
  3. Then, recommendations were made by certified usability analyst, Jennifer Brogee
  4. Finally, the selection committee presented their findings and rankings to the executive team for the final selection

When the votes were tabulated, Midmark was the clear winner. (Next time, we’ll have to ask our client, PWC, to tally the votes!)

Award Ceremony

To celebrate, myStaffingPro is honoring Midmark at a presentation dinner on January 12thAs an attendee, I’ll be sashaying in something much more traditional than Bjork’s famous swan dress, but the ceremony will still be one to remember.

To learn more about creating a user friendly job seeker experience, please visit http://usability.mystaffingpro.com.

Top 10 Posts of 2011

In case you missed it, I am rerunning our top blog posts of 2011.  Enjoy, and Happy New Year!

  1. Post your Job Openings to Twitter and Facebook
  2. The New Generation of myStaffingPro
  3. 7 Signs that you are a HR Tech Laggard
  4. Guide to LinkedIn
  5. What can you get for $400?
  6. Applicant Tracking Systems: Decipher the Pricing
  7. Tweet Your Jobs Easily with myStaffingPro
  8. HR Term Dictionary for IT Professionals
  9. Top 10 Reasons CIOs Love Web-Based Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)
  10. 10 Reasons SaaS Applicant Tracking System Rock!

myStaffingPro Review by River Valley Bank

We asked River Valley Bank’s HR Specialist, Linda Derocher, what she thought about myStaffingPro applicant tracking system.

What is your experience with using an applicant tracking system?
Using myStaffingPro was the first experience I had with using an applicant tracking system.  I love it!  The electronic application process we formally used was ineffective, cumbersome, and most importantly did not allow us to communicate with applicants as we moved through the interview/hire process.

How long have you been using myStaffingPro?
Since March of 2010

How has myStaffingPro affected your processes (i.e. cost effectiveness, time to fill, etc.)
We are just now starting to use HR Metrics to measure how MSP has affected our processes.  I do believe that the use of this software has had a positive impact on how we communicate with applicants.

What is your favorite myStaffingPro feature?
The HM feature.  I love forwarding application documents to hiring managers knowing the system will prompt them to review application documents if they fail to do so within the allotted time.

What would you say to other HR professionals about myStaffingPro?
Set up and customization of this software to mirror your present process is easy and simple!  If you are hesitant to adopt myStaffingPro because you don’t have time to learn another new software system don’t worry about that happening with MSP!

With all the time you have saved since using MSP, what do you do with your extra time?
Due to the effectiveness and efficiencies created by using this system I am doing the job of two HR employees.  A co-worker who was performing the same recruiting duties as me resigned and we made a decision not to replace her.  So, I can’t say that I have more extra time because we adopted MSP.  I can say I am able to meet the hiring needs of our company as a single recruiter because we are using MSP.

We would like to thank Linda for taking the time to tell us about her experience with myStaffingPro applicant tracking system.

Social Media in Recruiting

The message is clear: social media is here to stay. 

According to Ventana Research’s Social Media in Recruiting study:

By mid-2012, companies expect to be using social media to source more than four-fifths (82 %) of the kinds of jobs inquired about, including finance and administration roles, the front office, IT, line-of-business operations and education or learning functions.  That will be an increase of 14 percent from current levels of sourcing.  The study also found that although social recruiting is an emerging trend, only 15 percent of respondents are satisfied with their current efforts in social recruiting.

Want more statistics?   Request the executive summary of “Social Media in Recruiting: Using New Channels to Source Talent” at: http://sourcetalent.mystaffingpro.com

Interested in going social with your job openings?  myStaffingPro can help!  Contact us about our applicant tracking functionality and social media tools.

Posting your Jobs on WordPress

Congratulations, if you are reading this post it means that you are one of the few that have an employment blog! The next step is to pull your job openings into your blog so that applicants can apply.

Items you will need:

How to Setup an Automatic Feed to Post Job Openings to WordPress

  1. Log in to WordPress
  2. From the navigation menu, select Appearance and then Widgets
  3. Drag the RSS widget from the available list into a sidebar so that it displays on your page
  4. In the RSS Widget, add the following:
    • RSS feed URL  into the field “Enter the RSS feed URL here:”.  In this example, we are using the demo client RSS feed of http://client.hrservicesinc.com/downloads/rss/clients/569.xml
    • Give the feed a title.  In this case, we used “Apply to Our Openings”.
    • Select how many jobs to display
    • If desired, you can also select the “Display item content?” and/or “Display item date?” checkboxes to display more information about the job opening.  (If you do not select these checkboxes, only the job title and location will be displayed.)
    • When finished, Select the Save button
  5. Next, view your blog to verify the layout and the content
  6. If any changes are necessary, return to WordPress’ Appearance Widgets to make the modifications.

10 Ways to Source your Applicant Tracking System

Sometimes the answer is right under your nose.  (Hats off to those that made Movemeber a success!) by princess red, on Flickr

In recruiting we can’t all grow mustaches, but we can look at the applicant pool “just under our noses”.  I pulled statistics on our myStaffingPro applicant tracking client base, and I found that our 500 plus clients have more than 13 million applicants.  That is 24,904 applicants each.

24,904!

Instead of treating your applicant tracking system like a black hole, utilize the plethora of information you already have to fill your new job opening!

10 Ways to Source your Applicant Tracking System:

  1. Run a skill-based keyword search on your resumes
  2. Explore applicants that advanced through the hiring process for a similar position but didn’t make the final cut
  3. Search for applicants that applied to a higher level position that they were under qualified for
  4. Conversely, search for applicants that applied to a position that they were overqualified for
  5. Review applicants that applied to the same opening at another location
  6. Research the applicants’ responses to previous prescreening questions
  7. Explore your job notification subscription list
  8. Review hiring manager feedback from previous interviews
  9. Check the credentials of your priority or “star” applicants
  10. Reach out to previous employees (those that left on good terms, of course)

Once you’ve sourced your applicant tracking system, simply send your selected applicants an email invitation to apply for the new opening!

Next on the list: Plan a trip to the 2012 National Beard and Moustache Championships in Las Vegas

Increase Application Completion Rates by 20%

Applicant tracking system provider, myStaffingPro, found that a tiered application process increases the applicant completion rate by 20%.

In addition to a tiered application process, Certified Usability Analyst, Jennifer Brogee, has found nine other strategies to increasing the usability of the online application process to improve applicant completion rates.  In her webinar, “10 Essential Strategies for Making a Career Site Usable, Not Confusable”, Brogee outlines her 10 strategies, which include:

  1. Being accommodating
  2. Showing your true colors
  3. Making it easy to apply now
  4. Delivering clear and relevant job information
  5. Outlining expectations
  6. Collecting only what you need at each step
  7. Keeping forms small
  8. Giving progress updates
  9. Following up often
  10. Building a relationship

To learn more, please go to http://usability.mystaffingpro.com to access her recorded presentation and PowerPoint slides.

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