A streamlined hiring process results in faster job placements, lower cost-per-hire, and higher satisfaction for both candidates and recruiters.

On the other hand, if your hiring process is slow and riddled with delays, you may lose top candidates as their patience wears thin. As your company grows, these bottlenecks and roadblocks become more prevalent and problematic.

Let's dive deeper and discuss how recruiting and sourcing technology can remove common bottlenecks throughout your recruiting process.

1. Remove the disconnect between candidates and recruiters 🤝

As numerous surveys have established, there's a discrepancy in how an employer perceives they manage recruitment versus how candidates feel about their experience. In the past few years, we've learned how important the candidate experience is to securing the best talent and improving employee retention. Monitoring how candidates navigate to your career page and how they perceive their experience is essential if you want to improve your process and thus improve the quality of candidates.

Website analytic tools like Google Analytics allow you to see how candidates find your career page, how many job seekers complete applications compared to how many start them, and which keywords in external links drive the most talent to your site. They also help you determine which keywords are bringing in unqualified traffic.

If your career page is seeing an increase in traffic without a corresponding increase in applications, your career page might not be painting your company in an attractive light. Similarly, your job descriptions might be unclear or unintentionally exclusive, or the application process needs streamlining. If you need guidance on how to make your job listings more inclusive, we’ve got you covered.

Candidate feedback is necessary at every stage of the funnel for recruiters and hiring managers to pinpoint where the recruiting process is falling short. You can use surveys, chatbots, and specific candidate feedback software to help you gather this information.

2. Find more qualified candidates 💎

Finding passive candidates can consume a lot of your time and money. Usually, recruiters spend one-third of their time manually sourcing candidates. Fortunately, sourcing tools can substantially lessen the burden of searching and contacting potential candidates.

Candidate databases pull candidates' profiles from an established pool based on your selected boolean search. While results are often immediate, these databases must be updated regularly, which means you could be looking at old information or missing out on candidates that still need to be added. Additionally, these databases often require manual filtering, which consumes valuable time and is prone to human error. If going the database route, be sure to find a solution that is frequently updated and enriches its dataset over time.

Referral tools allow you to crowdsource candidates from other team members, which is an easy way to add more quality candidates to your pipeline. Employees get reminders and incentives to make recommendations for open roles. Additionally, these platforms track employees' referrals and distribute rewards based on your criteria.

A Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) service can help handle many crucial yet time-consuming tasks in sourcing passive talent. Outsourcing these tasks allows you to free up internal resources and have more time to focus on other mission-critical tasks. While RPOs offer many conveniences and advantages, it's not a one-size-fits-all solution. For instance, companies with specialized or niche roles might find that RPO services aren't as attuned to their specific needs as an in-house team could be. There's also the question of control; handing over the reins means you might have less immediate influence over the speed and direction of your hiring process. This could be especially concerning if the RPO service isn't fully aligned with your company's culture and values, potentially leading to hiring candidates who aren't an ideal fit. Additionally, while RPO can be cost-effective in the long run, the upfront investment can be substantial. Be sure to weigh the pros and cons to ensure an RPO service is the right fit for your team.

Fetcher stands out from other sourcing platforms as we surface batches of qualified candidates from the web that match your specific criteria. Because our sourcing team complements our algorithm, you can implement more detailed, nuanced searches than a database or traditional AI-driven platform can handle. We deliver top talent to your inbox for you to review and provide feedback on so we can continue learning to source the way you do.

3. Weed out unqualified candidates 🥸

Exciting roles come with a flood of excited candidates. While this is great, weeding through candidates to find who will move on to the next stage slows down the entire process.

Resume keyword scanners help recruiters organize and prioritize candidates based on their resumes. They're beneficial when roles receive a large number of applications. Scanners look for keywords and phrases that indicate candidates will meet the role's requirements. If you use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), you may already have a keyword scanner available there.

4. Reduce manual data entry & mundane workflows 👌

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and Candidate Relationship Management software (CRM) are management tools that help recruiters work faster and more efficiently.

An **ATS ** allows recruiters to centralize all applicants' information. If you're currently balancing multiple lists of candidates or trying to track where each person is in the recruiting process manually, an ATS will be a huge time saver. When researching the right system for your team, select an ATS that integrates with other tools in your tech stack.

CRMs organize candidates and all their relevant information in a searchable database, send automated emails, and measure the success rates of various recruitment strategies. If you manually send outreach and follow-up emails, look into CRM platforms to speed up your candidate communications.

Fetcher includes CRM features like automated personalized outreach campaigns and the ability to sync your calendar for seamless scheduling.

5. Streamline your interviewing process 🔥

The dreaded candidate "no show," back-and-forths with scheduling, and unconscious bias are all pain points during the interview phase. Pre-employment assessments and video interview platforms give recruiters standardized, streamlined ways to gauge candidates' skills and interest in your company. They also make the hiring experience more equitable for candidates.

Pre-employment assessments include skill-based tests, personality tests, and work samples. They help recruiters assess which candidates should move on to the interview stage (or on to the next interview) without having to analyze a candidate's capabilities on their own. Time savings is essential for recruiters, but more importantly, these tools help reduce bias in the hiring process as they allow recruiters to evaluate candidates uniformly and objectively.

Video interview platforms also save recruiters and hiring managers time. With video interviews, recruiters can save time if a candidate no-shows. They allow for flexibility and accessibility to more candidates as they can be conducted anywhere and anytime.

6. Take the hassle out of reference checks 🧘

Traditionally, hiring managers have had to email or cold call candidates' past employers for reference checks. Emails get lost in inboxes, and phone tags are played for days. While they can provide critical information about a candidate, many recruiters skip this crucial step because it's time-consuming.

There are many tools now that aim to speed up the process as well as add analytics to reference checks. Reference software enables references to provide a 360-degree review of the candidate, which is more thorough than they could offer over the phone. Recruiters then receive a comprehensive report on the reference's input. The process is seamless. Applicants are emailed a link that prompts them to enter their reference's contact information. Then, an automated email goes out to their references with a link to the survey. Upon competition, recruiters receive a detailed summary of the reference's answers.

7. Set up new hires for success 🙌

An effective onboarding process is the best way to set a new hire up for success and improve employee retention. Onboarding software saves your HR team time and energy on processes that can be automated. The best tools store valuable company information for new hires to review, handle contracts and signatures, training modules, and access the company's benefits.

In Closing

Revamping your recruitment process is more than just a logistical necessity; it's an investment in your company's future. Every touchpoint matters from the moment candidates discover your brand to the time they step into their new roles.

By leveraging innovative technology, you can remove bottlenecks and make your hiring process more efficient and candidate-friendly. Features like automated personalized outreach, skill-based assessments, and streamlined reference checks don't just save time—they improve the quality of your hires and contribute to a more satisfying and equitable candidate experience. Remember, you're not just filling a role; you're welcoming a new member to your team and culture.

So go ahead and give your recruitment process the upgrade it deserves. You'll be rewarded with not just talent but a vibrant, engaged community ready to grow with you.