Recruiting new talent can be a long and arduous process. You might even have spent months just to fill one job position. This not only robs your company of valuable time and resources, but it also keeps you from finding prospective talent along the way.
Fortunately, candidate management software (CMS) streamlines this process by having everything your HR department needs in one place. By cutting down on time spent sifting through paperwork, job requisitions can be filled quicker, and promising new talent can be kept engaged and excited to start working for your company.
What is Candidate Management Software?
Software for candidate management is a recruitment tool used by HR departments to streamline the hiring process. It is similar to application tracking software, and some brands may even combine the two, but CMS focuses on job candidates. The program follows potential new personnel from selection all the way through to becoming full employees.
How Can CMS Help?
Every candidate management software program may offer something slightly different, so it is important to figure out what features will best meet your company’s needs. That said, there are certain features that nearly all CMS will offer, one of which is a candidate database. This is an excellent tool for creating and refining a talent pool, as it stores candidate information in one place (qualifications, background checks and even previous interactions with the company). This feature ensures that candidate information is easily accessible to all who must access it. Best of all, most programs also have easy-to-use search functions, so you will not have to sort through endless data.
Most candidate management software is also equipped with messaging capabilities; that way businesses can easily keep in touch with prospective employees. Keeping candidates up to date with the hiring process keeps them engaged and focused on your company. Some programs allow you to automate messages for different stages of the hiring process, alleviating the workload of manual communication. This is especially helpful when you are onboarding several new employees at a time.
Even during the interview process, candidate management software can help. Some programs offer sample questions and even allow you to rank candidates’ answers based on your own criteria. Some offer capabilities for scheduling interviews and platforms for conducting those interviews via video calls.
Finally, the right candidate management software can guide new employees through the entire onboarding process. Such software will ensure that all new hire paperwork is kept in one secure place and is easy to access. Company training materials can be shared easily so that new hires can read up on the company’s mission and what to expect as an employee before they even start their first full day of work. Some software even allows for training videos to be shared and for paperwork to be exported directly to a new employee’s department.
As a whole, candidate management software can cut down on both time and error by creating a single platform for almost every step in the recruitment process.
