HRMS for recruitment: everything you need to know

Recruitment has always been in the vanguard of HR technology, and remains the proving ground for new features (gamification, anyone?).

Unsurprisingly, there are many dedicated recruitment solutions out there on the market. But there’s also value to having your recruitment software integrated as part of an HRMS package, working with other HR functions as well as alongside them. If you’re looking at purchasing a new recruitment module, the following information looks at the key issues, including:

• Integrated or standalone recruitment software: the pros and cons
• What recruiting requirements can an HRMS with recruitment address?
• Which features should you look for in an HRMS recruitment module?
• Which HRMS solutions have strong recruitment features?

Integrated or standalone recruitment software: the pros and cons

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Covering the key issues faced by businesses selecting and implementing HRMS.

What recruiting requirements can an HRMS with recruitment address?

The chances are that most organizations will be looking for a core function set of posting vacancies, managing applications and applicant tracking. The key is to decide what your priority requirements are in order not to be dazzled by shiny new features – e.g. building talent pools, CV parsing, automated assessments – simply because they are, well, shiny and new and subject to big talk from the vendors.

Here are a few things to think about; the question is, do you need them?

Social media usage

These days, almost everyone is on social media and the biggest platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, are talent pools waiting to be trawled. Even before you have a vacancy, recruitment software can be searching for your next hires, using online referral systems or your existing employees’ networks. The advantage is that you can then ‘sell’ your organization to identified groups of potential employees, building your employer brand in advance.

Use this step-by-step selection checklist to gather and prioritize your recruitment requirements for new software

At the very least, you want your recruitment module to be able to receive LinkedIn profiles from interested candidates – after all, sending a resume is so last year!

Analytics – predictive or otherwise

As well as reviewing past recruitment results for future improvements, some systems will analyze your existing employees to identify the features of your best performers and then apply that data to a pool of candidates – technological application of the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ principle perhaps.

Which is not to forget the metrics and measures that can help you improve your recruitment processes over time, including:

• Source of hire – where do your best recruits come from? 
• Time to hire – the average amount of time it takes to fill an open position. 
• The time per stage – how long candidates spend in each stage of your hiring process.
• Turnover – which departments or teams are ‘loss hot spots’ and also what are the features of employees most likely to leave.

Compliance

Whichever territory you’re in, the legislation likely requires you to store and report on particular information connected to the hiring process. Look for software that makes that easier. For example, in the US, consider:

• Several federal laws (for example, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Civil Rights Act) require job descriptions and advertising to refrain from discrimination against persons on the basis of race, color, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy, national origin, or individuals with disabilities. 
• For past employees, the law prevents you from giving negative or false employment references (or refusing to give a reference) based on similar grounds.
• You are also required to avoid discriminatory language when communicating job offers – some software provides lawyer-checked templates.
• Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act you need written authorization a new hire before carrying out employment background checks.

Which features should you look for in an HRMS recruitment module?

You may not need to ‘get fancy’ with gamification, but if you want to streamline your recruitment processes, the following is a list of the core basics:

Customizable processes

Every organization has unique processes and hiring is no exception. Also, depending on the roles you’re recruiting for, the scale and type of your business, and your hiring budget, that process may change. The more varied your needs, the more adaptable your recruitment module needs to be, providing functionality from screening candidates and applications, to managing specific pre-interview checks and the stages of assessment and even full-blown assessment centers. Look for automation that is as flexible as your business needs.

Get more feature ideas with this guide to 52 features to look for in your next HRMS

A direct link to your recruitment page

You probably have a business website, and you may have a page dedicated to careers and vacant posts – your hiring ‘store window’. This is where you want advertised jobs to appear first and automatic updates will save you hours of administration time.

Auto-publication to jobs sites

To reach out more widely, you almost certainly post vacant positions on job-related sites and job search engines (think SimplyHired, Glassdoor, etc.)

Applicant tracking

As a well-established and widely-used feature, automatic applicant tracking is still likely to be your biggest potential time saver, updating you with a click on the progress of each recruitment campaign. Look for automatic push notifications, action prompts and process monitoring as standard.

Resume parsing

Whether you have vacancy in the pipeline or not, the chances are you receive resumes from would-be employees – in the World of Paper, yet another administrative task to sort, file and track these documents. In the Digital Age, software can review resumes received electronically, looking for details that match the kind of people you want to employ, and retrieving those that match any new vacancies in the system.

Process management

In each job campaign, basic scheduling of appointments and interviews will keep the process on track, even to the extent of liaising with the calendars of key recruiting personnel.

Collaborative recruiting

Increasingly, organizations are moving toward a more ‘360o’ recruitment model in which other stakeholders – including a new recruit’s peers and fellow team members – are involved in the assessment of candidates. Your recruitment software can ensure that the right people have the right information at the right time.

Getting a little fancier, features-wise, more and more modules are including functionality such as gamification, with exercises and games that are more attractive to today’s employee hopefuls, giving you a deeper talent pool to draw upon. Likewise, some will manage alternative interview options (such as video) to manage the costs of the more traditional (and still useful) face to face activities.

Which HRMS solutions have strong recruitment features?

Though your requirements will, of course, vary, the following is a short list of well-established vendors of recruitment software.

Compare more recruitment software using our free online software comparison tool

• Zoho Recruit – the recruitment component of Zoho’s HR suite.
• BambooHR – the core recruiting features catering to small to medium businesses.
• UltiPro – American-based HRMS with integrated recruitment functionality.
• Cezanne HR – online recruitment and applicant tracking as part of a wider HRMS.
• ADP – one of the biggest names in HR software, includes applicant tracking and management of recruitment processes.