Common Sense

Making Your ATS Work For You

Introduction

In the blink of an eye we went from a candidate driven market to an employer driven market. Many staffing firms feel the pressure of being forced to "do more with less" - whether it's reduced headcount from furloughs, strapped budgets, and increased demand from candidates. Plus a labor market in flux, shifting demand from industries -- it's a lot to take in. Firms need to keep costs low, drive placements, maintain productivity, invest in new client development, maintain business agility, and still keep that high quality engagement across the candidate lifecycle.

We’re living in unprecedented times. While many industries are trying to adapt and succeed in the middle of a pandemic, others are seeing unprecedented demand and significant growth.

Those “essential” industries, including home care, healthcare, grocery, retail and construction, among others, are scrambling to keep up with demand by attracting and hiring talent (and onboarding them quickly). Talent is eager to find jobs in a difficult economy, yet similarly feels overwhelmed. Worrying about their health, their families and landing a job is a LOT to have on your plate.

It can be difficult to know where to start, or what to do. But, while each situation is unique, there is one critical theme that essential industries should keep in mind:

Communication is key!

During a time where it feels like there’s so little you can control, communication is one element that you most definitely can control. And your ability to effectively communicate during a difficult time will have a dramatic impact not only on your ability to land talent now, but to retain and attract more talent in the future.

As many teams are working with fewer recruiters and reduced headcount from furloughs and increased demand from candidates, teams are under immense pressure to "do-more with less" it seems. Is it even possible to prioritize things like communication and engagement when it seems like just getting through the key tasks are arduous? The answer is you can - and you must!

To help you prioritize communication and best leverage your communication strategy to better meet today’s changing talent needs, here are some critical pieces of communication advice:

The talent-centric staffing model

Candidate-centric experiences have been at PrideStaff’s core since its inception in 1978. With over 80 franchise offices across North America, local offices set out to deliver tailored experiences to every candidate they work with. Consistently recognized as one of staffing’s top firms, ranking in the top 1% of staffing firms and serving over 5,000 clients a year, PrideStaff has been laser-focused on building a strong brand across their network. And it didn’t just happen overnight - careful planning and a commitment to excellence are integral to PrideStaff’s success. The PrideStaff team knows that to build a lasting culture and brand, it takes the combination of processes, technology, behaviors, and beliefs.

PrideStaff saw the need and importance of staying in touch with candidates and contractors early on to distinguish itself from the market. “There’s real importance in customer experience, and to become a memorable brand it's all about the experience and about the culture,” says Tammi Heaton, Co-CEO of PrideStaff. “It really is, and it's a foundation of a lot of different things - you have to have open conversations, a lot of support, and highly responsive, engaging teams.”

(June 15, 2020) Today, WorkN, the mobile-first on-demand staffing platform, formalized a partnership with Sense, the industry-leading automated communication and engagement platform for staffing firms. The partnership will streamline timely communication to candidates and contractors on a critical channel throughout the talent lifecycle - increasing recruiter productivity, driving increased fill rates, and maximizing talent engagement.

There’s certainly no shortage of candidate engagement content here on the Sense blog (44 posts tagged “candidate engagement,” in fact). As the recruiting industry moved into a more candidate-centric model (🙌), seeing the impact on recruiting, retention, productivity and more from simply creating more positive candidate experiences, tips, tools and technologies to help facilitate engagement became a priority. 

The decision to furlough employees was, no doubt, one of the most difficult you’ve had to make as a business leader. No one builds and grows a company with plans to furlough. Just like no one expected the world to essentially stand still while we battled this virus. But here we are, and we’re all trying to make the best of it and come out on the other side.

I’m typically not a big fan of getting into jargon in order to make a point. The fact is, you’re busy running your staffing firm, and you want to understand our platform, and how it can help you grow your business.

New technology. It is often a sense of excitement and opportunity for staffing firms. Yet, it can also be expensive, time consuming and overwhelming. Implementing new technology can be disastrous at worst and stressful at best for many staffing firms.