If you have ever worked in the human resource department, or for a recruitment agency, you would understand the frustration of performing daily monotonous tasks. Imagine sitting at your desk every day for hours, copying and pasting, and uploading data from one source to another. Cumbersome, isn’t it? On top of that, you could be missing out on hiring the right candidates due to a lack of time because you spend all those hours performing tasks that are best automated in today’s digital world. 

Perhaps you haven't been given the necessary tools to minimize the time spent on manual recruitment tasks and streamline your hiring process. 

So, as recruiters, how can you be more efficient with your time while preventing valuable minutes from being wasted with the manual recruitment tasks?  

Here is a checklist of manual recruitment tasks you can strike off with the help of modern technology.

Manual Task 1: Sourcing and Uploading Candidate Profiles

The process of actively seeking qualified people is known as talent sourcing. Hiring the right candidate for the job can cut down a company’s costs tremendously. Hence, hiring managers know the value of getting the right person for the job. 

And with employment trends shifting, hiring top talents can have a tremendous positive impact on how well a business performs as a whole. 

Figures released by Indeed last year revealed how manual tasks, including candidate screening and scheduling interviews, account for a whopping 80% of time spent on recruitment. 

The majority of recruiters' spend time scouring through different platforms to find information about candidates, and import it to their profiles. Needless to say, this slows down the candidate sourcing process. 

Automate Candidate sourcing 

Recruiters can automate the process of manually sourcing and shortlisting qualified applicants by utilizing an Applicant Tracking Software or ATS system. Well-designed ATS systems like Manatal offer innovative features that allow recruiters to swiftly import Linkedin data through a Chrome Extension.

You can narrow the candidate pool through filters by connecting, shortlisting, and saving the best-qualified prospects. You can also easily extract their contact information and reach out to them through the all-in-one solution we provide with Manatal ATS.

Manual Task 2: Posting Vacancies on Multiple platforms

Some agencies looking to strengthen the screening process turn to a candidate's social networking profile to better understand a candidate’s personality and aspirations.

Social media can play more than just one role when it comes to recruiting candidates with high potential for the available positions. Apart from being channels for candidate discovery and screening, social media can double up as a recruitment platform, too. In fact, social media has helped 73% of the current global workforce in attaining their current employment. 

Ultimately, it comes down to doing the research on the best platform to find the right candidate pool and  having as many prospects and qualified candidates see your job vacancy posted on multiple platforms. 

But, to post each job ad manually on every platform is surely going to be a monumental task that takes up a bulk of your time and effort. 

Automate Posting Vacancies 

In less than a few minutes, recruiters can post a job vacancy through Manatal, on all social media platforms, online sites, and job boards (including major sites such as Indeed, Monster, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google for Jobs.) 

Aside from the capability to publish job advertisements on multiple channels at once, Manatal has gone the extra mile and enabled our system to help recruiters centralize job board applications. You can link any major job board to our ATS and then converge all your job applications onto a single, unified platform.

Forget about having to switch between different platforms and looking for different candidate applications. Our system organizes all of these tasks into a single platform.

Manual Task 3: Candidate Profile Management (Excel sheets data) 

Uploading candidates' data from a mountain of CVs and managing a talent pipeline is often a tedious manual task. In the past, hiring managers and recruiters would manage applicants' data using tools such as Excel sheets. 

But when compared to automating this task with innovative technologies, this method will take a big chunk of your time, especially if you have to look for specific types of information regarding an applicant, or need to constantly update and track their information. 

And if that isn’t enough to deter from using spreadsheets, one should remember that manual data entry can be prone to simple errors.  

The era of spreadsheets is quickly phasing out thanks to the efficient, fast, and affordable technologies available for applicant tracking and hiring today. 

‍The Ultimate HR & Recruiter Toolbox: Browse our collection of email templates, job descriptions and more.

Automate Managing Candidate Profiles

The automation features found in hiring and recruitment tools - such as an Applicant Tracking System - are able to create candidates’ profiles for you based on the information provided in the CVs. You can then simply bulk upload your resumes and save your time in the process. 

By taking advantage of the mass import features you can swiftly move a large number of candidates, jobs, clients/departments, and contacts using CSV or JSON files.

Manual Task 4: Screening Candidates 

Pre-screening usually starts with a study of a candidate's applications and resumes, followed by an interview. 

In today’s dynamic corporate world, hiring the best talent is consequential to saving companies millions of dollars.

A bad hire, even for low-level roles, can cost corporations one-third of the employee’s annual salary. Jörgen Sundberg, CEO of Link Humans, estimates that the cost of recruiting, hiring, and onboarding a new employee can reach as much as $240,000.

Many HR professionals and recruiters still manually screen each resume or application, despite the fact that technology has drastically modified this phase for those who use applicant tracking systems.

Automate The Screening Process 

Manatal examines job descriptions and extracts the fundamental skills and requirements that candidates must possess in order to succeed in the role. The software then compares the results to your talent pool to find the people that are the best fit for the job. Jobs and talent are automatically matched by our AI-based recommendation system.

The Referral Management System is one of Manatal's key features that assists and structures your referral program. You can manage your candidate referral data, view, add, and tag recommended applicants, preserve referrers' contact information, and combine essential data from your career page into one user-friendly ATS.

Moreover, the recommendation algorithm evaluates candidates' talents, geography, jobs, education, and other factors to the job requirements and ranks them according to the criteria you choose. The higher the candidate's score, the more suited the candidate is for the job.

Manual Task 5: Scheduling interviews 

Flipping between several calendars and displays, coordinating schedules, and arranging meeting places to satisfy the need for multiple interviews can be time-consuming if you are doing it manually.

Particularly with people having to make last-minute changes around busy schedules. All of the back-and-forth and scheduling conflicts might result in the failing to respond to emails. This is only leading them to being at risk of missing out on good prospects who are prone to be scooped up rapidly. 

One of the most time-consuming duties for a recruiter is scheduling interviews and trying to find a good time when both clients and candidates are free.

Even the tiniest scheduling blunder can have a significant impact on your hiring staff as well as your interviewees. You've got some damage control work to do with your candidate experience, in addition to time spent rescheduling and communicating changes to all participants.

And it's understandable to overlook the overlapping time slot or missing agenda when you're pressed for time and juggling ten other things. All of these are capable of becoming major distractions for recruiters and cause you to lose potential talent.

POPULAR: The Ultimate Guide To Applicant Tracking Systems

POPULAR: 10 Signs You Need An Applicant Tracking System

Automate Managing Dates and Deadlines

You can simply solve this issue and optimize your time management with Manatal’s Activity Calendar. You will be able to add activities, tasks, and events (meetings, calls, tasks, emails) to your UI with ease. To reduce your effort and keep track of your goals, manage and set a variety of parameters. You may also use the platform to sync your activities and preferred calendar with other cloud systems (Gmail, Outlook, etc).

Manatal's Home Dashboard highlights the day's events so your most important tasks do not fall through. It's a simple and effective method for reminding staff of important tasks and scheduled activities for the next several days.

The To-Do List function aids in organizing and managing your tasks. You can assign activities to other users, keep track of completed assignments and keep an eye on the development of your team. Each candidate's or job's profile has an active task connected to the hiring process, allowing authorized users to see where productivity could be improved. 

Manual Task 6: Communicating with Candidates quickly

According to LinkedIn’s analysis from just last year, the hiring period on its platform could span from 33 days to 48 days.

However, the COVID-19 outbreak has brought changes to the recruitment process. Companies’ around the world adapted to the ‘New Normal’ and carried the hiring process remotely. One of the new processes is virtual interview which promotes a faster hiring process. Yet, the average time it takes to get a response from employers in 2021 still comes down to 24 business days. Adding all that up together and the result is a considerable amount of time just to fill up a position.

During this time, candidates might get snatched up by other recruiters or companies. This means that you could miss out on great talent that fits your description of the best candidate.

Don’t get this wrong, the hiring process shouldn’t be rushed for any reason. But, having prompt and open communication with your candidates is necessary to set a good impression, especially if you are a company always looking to acquire the best talent. This makes the candidate feel important and protects your company’s reputation as a credible employer.

Automate Mass Emailing & Email Integration

99% of Fortune 500 companies use Applicant Tracking Systems to get rid of the manual tasks in the process and optimize communication with candidates. With a digital solution that offers ATS like Manatal, your communication with candidates will be seamless and efficient. 

Manatal allows you to send out messages to hundreds of candidates and clients while managing your entire email marketing process. At the same time, you can track responses, gauge campaign efficacy, and analyze results as well. 

Manatal’s all-in-one software seeks to increase communication by allowing customers to contact candidates and manage their recruiting from one central location.

‍Manual Task 7: Creating a Talent Pipeline

Recruiters are constantly on the lookout for high-value candidates, and this is especially urgent when a company is at a high-growth phase. When a company is scaling fast, it has new goals and demands which require increasingly niche or cross-functional skills.

One cannot, however, simply wait to begin looking for new employment candidates. Modern recruiters must establish a proactive approach to cultivating a group of potential candidates, given the fast-paced and increasingly competitive hiring landscape.

This is also known as the talent pipeline. Recruiters must create a structure to cultivate and foster long-term connections with potential candidates, thus building a pipeline needs a proactive strategy.

Automate Talent Pipeline

By adding CVs, resumes, and candidate information to the application, you can quickly browse and track all of your application profiles in real-time, create a daily database, and retrieve all applicant-related information months or years later.

Throughout the recruitment process, you can compile information, messages, and comments for each candidate or job opening. Past data is archived for examination and future use.

You can also access previous conversations and engagements with individual prospects to identify the greatest roles for your talent pool and the top candidates for the positions you're hiring for.

Manual Task 8: Tracking Onboarding Process

The candidate onboarding process is a crucial, but often overlooked step in the employee's experience. It is considered to be the first impression of your company for the new hires and can directly influence  their decision on whether to stay with you in the long run or not.  

The onboarding process starts days or weeks before an employees' first day on the job. It  includes orientation programs and activities that take place during the first few days or weeks of employment. The process is considered complete when the new employees become productive and comfortable in their new roles.

Candidates can be brought up to speed quickly and thus play an important role early on, especially when there is a clear onboarding strategy implemented. Manually keeping track of placements, and having to customize onboarding milestones for each different employee can all be sped up with the addition of automation. 

Automate Onboarding 

Introducing automation to your onboarding tracking and placement management will help you secure the best placement. Manatal’s tracking and onboarding feature allows users to keep track of employees by adding starting dates, probation period, and their last day of work to their profiles. You can automate the tracking for new hires and placements throughout their employment experience.  

The ATS’s interactive onboarding can be mastered in less than 15 minutes. When it comes to helping you get the hang of our product, you can simply go to our in-app training. While you’re at it, you can change the onboarding milestones to reflect your unique process. 

The Takeaway

The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Recruitment Technology and its introduction to the workplace are helping many companies eliminate time-consuming, repetitive tasks and carry out their recruitment more strategically in less time.. 

Organizations all around the world have already incorporated AI technologies into their HR processes in some form, and the majority of recruiters in the market believe that AI has positively changed their recruitment approach. 

With the Manatal’s Applicant Tracking System, you can be assured that your recruitment strategy will be optimized. Our innovative features are able to help you analyze and benchmark your various sourcing and application channels from job boards to social media, your career page, and more!

To discover how Manatal can automate your manual recruitment tasks, start your 14-day Free Trial today!