Regardless of the business sector or industry, recruitment is an integral part of a company's growth strategy. Yet, it can be challenging to attract quality talent that will contribute to its growth and achieve its goals.
That's why you need to optimize processes and tools for attracting talent, conducting recruitment campaigns, onboarding and managing the employee journey.
COMPLEX RECRUITMENT ISSUES
Pandemic or not, the lack of staffing is a reality in many industries in Canada.
Beyond the health crisis and the province's or the country's economy, businesses may also have some responsibility for these recruitment issues.
Some of them include:
- Procedures that are too complex or time-consuming, which can scare off candidates
- An increase in the number of channels through which to apply, and therefore to recruit
- Misunderstood and misaligned team needs
- Changes in jobs and skills not sufficiently taken into account
Indeed, if the recruitment strategy is inadequate or inconsistent, it is difficult (if not impossible) to optimize or automate hiring processes.
Bad practices can be costly to a company. A lack of staff can impact the daily operation of the company and limit its performance.
That is why the company must, above all, have a clear strategy and precise objectives for future recruitment in the short, medium and long term.
Otherwise, the optimization possibilities offered by the HRIS will have little or no effect on the organization's performance.
1. ENHANCING YOUR EMPLOYER BRAND TO ATTRACT NEW TALENT
Once your strategy in place, a centralized information system will bring significant benefits to your recruitment processes.
- Externally
An HRIS will help you convey a consistent and attractive corporate image to candidates.
Employer branding is an aspect that is still too often neglected by organizations.
Yet, as BANG MARKETING reminds us, candidates pay particular attention to it:
- 84% of candidates say an employer's reputation influences their decision
- 55% of people abandon the application process if they see negative comments
- Companies with strong employer brands receive twice as many resumes
To make your employer brand more attractive, you can start by offering a Careers page on your website.
This page could, for example, group all your job offers, present your philosophy, your objectives, even your workplace.
This page is often considered as the gateway to the candidates. It is therefore essential to make it attractive and engaging. It represents the company as a whole and will show candidates that you are an active and involved organization.
The same goes for your job offers: use your organization's colours, add photos and videos and above all, be clear and consistent.
Candidates must understand what is offered in the position, the company's expectations and even have an idea of your corporate culture.
In addition, the actions to be taken to send their application must be simple and straightforward. Otherwise, candidates will abandon the process and not apply elsewhere instead.
An HRIS can help you create a relevant job posting template that can be reused and customized for each new position.
You can even add questionnaires or special requests. Useful if your company regularly recruits new talents.
Then, use the ATS functions of your HRIS to publish your offers on the websites of your choice (including your Careers page). Having a presence on multiple platforms will increase your company's visibility and help you attract the maximum number of qualified candidates to your pool.
You can also post your jobs only on certain specialized recruitment platforms to target specific candidates for your positions.
- Internally
Companies' talent acquisition specialists usually publish companies' job postings on different platforms and manually retrieve the candidates' data from each of them.
It can pose several issues and difficulties. First, it requires time and constant monitoring on the part of recruiters.
Managers have to export files and upload them into the company's internal system. It can lead to duplication, omissions or loss of information.
The ATS features of an HRIS allow you to publish in different places at the same time. They also allow you to centralize candidate files.
This means that all applications and other relevant information are available on a single page, directly in your HRIS.
Processing candidate data is simplified and much less time-consuming.
You can now easilty filter and contact the candidates whose profiles meet the requirements for your positions, especially if the volume of applications is high!
You can also create message templates (invitation to an interview, refusal of application, etc.) to keep candidates informed of the progress of their application.
Precise, fast and effective communication (between your team and candidates or, communication internally) is another significant aspect of employer branding.
With the talent management module of your HRIS, managers can also access recruitment campaigns. They can add their assessments, personal notes and access candidates' files, among other things. Follow-ups are precise and centralized. Communication and knowledge sharing is encouraged.
It is important to note that all applications received in your HRIS, whether they come from spontaneous applications or specific hiring campaigns, are stored in a candidate library accessible at all times.
It is easy for managers to find former candidates and contact them directly via this pool.
This feature is essential for companies with high turnover rates, such as in the restaurant or tourism industries, which may require intense recruitment campaigns during peak periods.
You can keep track of former candidates who might have applied in the past but were put aside due to a lack of experience, for example.
2. HIRING AND ONBOARDING WITH A HRIS
You have found your ideal candidate and can now hire and integrate them into your team.
An HRIS will automate a large part of this integration process, whether by generating certain documents or by gathering the personal and professional information of the new employee (employee number, SIN, resume, new missions, address, contact information, etc.).
In addition, a centralized system will ensure the maintenance of this new file and the security of the personal data contained in it.
Indeed, unlike management with multiple systems and Excel files, an HRIS protects the data of the company's employees.
It allows, among other things, a granularity of data access.
Thus, only certain authorized individuals can access and process the most sensitive information, which avoids incidents and data leaks, whether voluntary or not.
Depending on the region in which the company is located, some legislation may require additional documentation for a new employee—a headache for companies that operate in several countries.
An HRIS can take into account the regional specificities of each entity. It can also allow for the automatic completion and transmission of the required documents, thus ensuring the branches' and the company's compliance.
Finally, as with the customizable and reusable job offer templates, you can create onboarding plans in your HRIS and track the progress of activities.
These can include training on arrival, meetings with specific people, documents to be consulted or signed, requests for business cards, or the provision of a directory or internal organization chart.
Managers build personalized integration plans for new employees and reuse all or part of the content each time they join the company.
3. EMPLOYEE LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT
In addition, HRIS software keeps the new employee's file up to date and evolves with him/her throughout his/her career within the company.
For example, suppose a marketer starts a new position with three years of social media experience behind him/her. In that case, the system will add an extra year to that skill after one year with the company, another year the following year, etc.
The elements making up the employee's "history" in the company are documented and centralized in his or her file.
Among this information, several are essential for the annual evaluations but also for potential internal evolutions.
With your HRIS, you can identify employees who have the skills required for a position and thus enable you to offer this new position within your teams before opening it up externally.
Providing your employees with growth opportunities will foster their commitment and sense of belonging to your organization.
The HRIS will provide you with a complete picture of their already acquired skills and evolution and facilitate their career development.
TAKE-AWAYS
An HRIS will not solve your company's strategic and/or structural problems and will not promise you effortless hiring.
However, it will promote communication and knowledge sharing, optimize your recruitment processes, anticipate and analyze your needs and save precious time in future hires.
If you are facing recruitment and turnover challenges, contact our experts for a free consultation.