Organizing candidates in the recruitment process
HR professionals encounter different problems when using software tools to manage their recruitment process. One of my recent design challenge is how a hiring team can easily manage their candidates that would satisfy a list of requirements such as easily share this group of candidates to multiple reviewers, easily find candidates to the talent pool for future use, easily search these candidates at any stage during the recruitment process or just easily categorize these candidates according to specific skillsets.
Before I share some solutions currently used, let me share the evolution of these HR Technology tools.
The Evolution of Technology in the Recruitment Industry
Technology has influenced all segments of industries and the recruitment space is a prime example where technology can solve a lot of recruiting problems.
- In 1940s, recruitment agencies were opened to fill in the need to recruit more workforce while most has gone to war.
- In 1950s, CVs became a standard practice for applicants to list their qualifications and skills.
- In 1970s, the first job advertisements appeared on newspapers and recruitment agencies learned how to archive CVs in order for them to improve the way they find suitable candidates.
- In 1980s, Microsoft Word was launched and became the standard tool for format CV. It is also during this time that applicant tracking systems (ATS) and electronic candidate databases were introduced.
- In 1989, the internet was born and paved a new way to advertise and find jobs.
- In 1990s, the first online job boards were launched making the whole experience of looking for a job and finding candidates easier. Monster, Hotmail, Google were launched in 1990s.
- In 2000s, more HR technology tools where launched like LinkedIn and Indeed.
- In 2010s, social recruitment became a common practice by businesses to source candidates.
- In 2018 and onwards, more companies would make use of software tools to handle their recruitment workflows. More applicants will access the internet and will be able to use software tools to find jobs to jumpstart the hiring process.
Based from this overview of the history, most manual practices commonly tackled by recruiters can now be solved using technology. Sourcing candidates can be done through social media recruitment. Tracking candidate status can be solved by applicant tracking systems. Interviewing candidates can be handled using video technology. However, one of the common problem that hiring teams encounter is when they receive hundreds or thousands of applications during their recruitment campaigns. The challenge is to find a solution how to easily group these candidates according to the group they are part of that shows what these candidates represent. This is where tags, labels and lists can be useful.
What is a tag, label or list?
A tag is used to represent a category or a label of an object which is commonly used to find related objects. A label is used to emphasized a characteristic of an object. A list is used to group a collection of items. These components solve specific user problems. However, it is also important to understand that solutions we think of is not limited to just one option. For example, a tag can be the solution to show which category a candidate belongs, where in a label can offer the same solution too. As designers, it is our responsibility to provide novel ways to solve the problem of our users.
How some software tools manage its candidate database
Some Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) uses tags to organize candidates. Breezy, for example, refer to it as “Tag Manager”. They use it to assign certain tags to specific candidates that belong to a group.
Other recruitment tools like Hirevue call it as “Tag Management” which uses tags to identify candidates that can be searched across all positions and manage a talent pool for future use or to identify by key skill sets.
Sparkhire uses tags and call it as “Interview Tags” to organize interview stages into categories.
Greenhouse use tags specific for interviewers’ use that is different from candidates tags.
Hire by Google uses the term “Candidate Collection” which is like a list to organize candidates that can be shared to the recruitment team to get their feedback on a group of candidates.
These are just a few examples how software tools uses a tag, label and list with some variation on how it functions. They use similar terms but use it differently that satisfy their specific user problems. My other blog outlines some useful guidelines to help you learn how to understand problems in design.
Growth and Innovation in the recruitment space
The recruitment industry still has many room for growth and innovation. The current state of candidate sourcing and job hunting activity has now become global activity. HR professionals would continue to adjust to the changing landscape of recruitment and designers play a huge role in helping find better ways to organize the candidates sourced.
