Keeping candidate profiles secure with recruitment tech

If you’ve been actively recruiting in the past decade, you would know very well how the waves of disruption to labor markets over the past two years have shrunken the number of jobs that were previously thought to be necessary. 

Newer types of jobs - many of them interdisciplinary or cross-functional - have risen fast and pushed the current workforce, and employers alike, to upskill in order to stay relevant.

Industries, such as retail, hospitality, and manufacturing, that required people to work in close proximity with colleagues and interact with a large number of customers, have reduced their on-site staff. In offices, the adoption of digital tools and capabilities have accelerated, with some functions becoming fully automated in order to support a sustainable, digitized business. 

Business leaders have definitely taken note of how the winds are changing. Many are shifting their operating models to address how consumer demands have changed - as well as to fortify their businesses in a new risk landscape. 

The many changes that have happened during the past two years - such as remote and hybrid work arrangements - are becoming permanent features, as employers try to stand out to job seekers in a “buyer’s market”. Workers are also making new career plans that are more stable. According to McKinsey, up to 25% of workers will need to transition to higher-skilled and wage occupations such as healthcare, tech, corporate and legal by 2030. 

This shake-up of talent is fueling intense competition among employers who have already been contending with labor shortages in high-skilled jobs. Finding and hiring the right talent with the skills to use new technologies and adapt to new models that can drive business growth is a top concern among company leaders. 

While passive candidates - or people who are not looking for a new job - account for nearly two-thirds of the global workforce, 87% of all professionals are open to new opportunities. Enticing passive candidates away from their current jobs might be more challenging but it can mean the difference between success and failure in today’s economic environment. 

As a result, developing candidate databases, and - most importantly - cultivating quality relationships with them, can provide a huge benefit in the long run. For recruitment agencies, the strength of their database is a leg up over competitors and smaller, in-house recruitment teams. 

Building valuable databases requires recruitment teams to spend tremendous amounts of time sourcing candidates and developing relationships. So, it is only prudent that their efforts aren’t wasted by an inadequate or obsolete database. Traditional tools, such as Excel spreadsheets, were rapidly adopted by recruitment teams due to the customization options and relative ease-of-use for sourcing candidates and storing their information. 

Over time, however, maintaining spreadsheets became a time-consuming task that threatened to slow down the overall hiring process. For job functions like engineering that took an average of 49 days to hire in 2021, outdated systems may exacerbate the problem. With the rise of remote recruiting teams, virtual collaboration, and growing data volumes, cloud-based solutions are gaining popularity. 

Newer, more powerful hiring tools, such as AI-powered applicant tracking systems (ATS) like Manatal, are enhancing collaboration between recruitment teams, hiring managers, and third parties. Teams using an ATS eliminate inaccuracies from human error, making it faster and simpler to find that A-player candidate in a massive database. 

Missing out on the right candidate can create a real ripple effect throughout an organization. Poor hires might be less productive or ineffective in driving the business forward or stay at the company for a shorter period of time. When companies consistently make poor hires, it can start to negatively impact employee morale if existing employees spend more time covering multiple responsibilities or training new people. 

Achieving top talent regularly with outdated technology is akin to placing a missed connections ad in the newspaper, in the hopes that the person you randomly encountered sees it and responds. Just as missed connections gave way to digital versions on Craigslist and then algorithm-driven apps, recruiting tactics must also evolve to remain relevant. 

LEARN MORE: Pros and cons of traditional recruitment tools versus the latest recruitment SaaS solutions.

How candidate profiles are lost 

As important as candidates are to successful talent acquisition efforts, it seems hard to believe that any organization would let a good one slip between their fingers. 

Yet, candidates have been dropping out of hiring processes for the last few years in greater numbers. The Washington Post reported that before the pandemic’s labor disruptions increased the gap between job vacancies and unemployed workers, the number of candidates dropping out of the hiring process had increased by 20%.

For employers, the fierce competition to hire skilled candidates makes losing out on potential high-performers unacceptable. It is not just a loss that affects one day, and therefore, business leaders are committed to increasing the effectiveness of their efforts. To ensure greater success, companies are enlisting the help of recruitment agencies in greater numbers. This has increased the pressure on agencies to deliver high-quality candidates. 

Casting a wide net to draw in candidates and spending more time ensuring that an applicant is a good cultural fit might be having the opposite effect of what recruiters intend without modern technology. The recruitment process has outgrown traditional systems that in-house recruiters and recruitment agencies built to store candidate information. Once the digitization trend caught up to the recruitment industry, static spreadsheets became more of a hindrance than a help. 

For recruiting professionals, their databases are only as relevant as the last time it was updated. With multiple spreadsheets and thousands of rows in traditional databases, updates take time that many recruitment pros just don’t have anymore.

For recruitment agencies, this is a huge issue since the size and integrity of their database is a crucial selling point to companies seeking their services. Even the most disciplined recruitment teams may fall behind in updating candidate information. When updates are made, the probability of human error is also present. Errors make it harder to find specific profiles in searches and duplicate profiles create confusion for recruiting teams.  

These inefficiencies add more time to the important step of sourcing candidates and impact the quality of selected candidates. It also contributes to a longer time-to-fill for job vacancies, which measures the time it takes to fill a position from the moment a job listing is posted. If recruiters make the interview process too long while looking for the right fit, applicants may “ghost you” (i.e. end communication abruptly without an explanation) or accept another offer.

On the other hand, a massive traditional candidate database can make regular email campaigns and consistent communications during the hiring process more difficult. This weakens the relationship between recruitment teams and candidates - and increases the chances of declined offers. Candidates who have a negative experience may also be deterred from applying to other jobs with the company in the future and may even share their experiences online.

Job listings are also accessible to more applicants than in the past with the emergence of online recruiting. Recruiters can post optimized listings on more channels to source candidates from a larger pool of applicants. In addition to company career portals, job seekers are using social media and online job boards to find a new position. This gives small businesses the ability to compete with larger organizations for top talent. Younger generations are also looking more to sites like LinkedIn and Indeed when applying to new jobs. 

Despite these new sources, employee referrals remain a strong source of new hires that can’t be ignored. Read about the attributes of each channel here. 

Keeping track of applicants from these various sources increases the chances that they could be lost in your database. If recruiters are not finding the best fit for an organization on a consistent basis, their productivity and KPIs suffer over time. With modern hiring tools, recruiters can worry less about missing out on a great hire and gain more control over the speed and efficiency of hiring processes. 

How recruitment technology protects candidate profiles

To avoid these unwelcome outcomes, recruiters should consider how modern hiring tools can offer a powerful alternative to traditional solutions. Let’s take a look at how Manatal helps recruiters better manage their candidates via three key elements of new technologies: the cloud, automation, and data security. 

The Cloud

Cloud computing has noticeably revolutionized how companies operate, store information, collaborate, and scale their businesses. Delivery of services over the internet, as opposed to on-premise systems, has freed up businesses to innovate and grow faster as well as complete tasks and allocate resources more efficiently. 

SaaS solutions have had a quick impact on companies, due to the easy implementation and lower total cost of ownership. This has driven multi-year growth of the market. Although the pandemic disrupted many industries, it has accelerated the growth of all cloud services over the past two years. Gartner estimates that the public cloud will account for 45% of all enterprise IT spending by 2026 compared to just 17% in 2021.

From the time that a candidate profile is created in an applicant tracking system or ATS, it is there to stay until you remove it. Manatal users can import data from any file type or existing software. Recruiters can easily upload resumes to the system to grow your database. Duplicates are also managed allowing teams to manually or automatically merge profiles without losing any candidates information. 

With Manatal, a candidate profile can be summoned in minutes using quick or advanced searches. A candidate’s profile is also available to the entire team simultaneously. Candidates sourced from multiple channels are organized in one place, which prevents a profile from getting buried in an old spreadsheet. 

Automation

Artificial intelligence is also leaving a mark on enterprises, as leaders learn about its potential to optimize business processes and offer data-driven insights for growth. Over half of companies accelerated their AI adoption plans in 2020 according to a survey of companies in the United States. In the recruitment industry, these benefits make a clear difference in the hiring process. 

Recruitment technology with AI-powered features speeds up the sourcing of candidates by matching profiles in the database with relevant job listings. Matches are based on defined parameters such as work experience or education - rather than human biases - so that the most qualified individuals are selected. 

When there are thousands of profiles to review, humans are no match for an AI engine that doesn’t get tired. What would typically take a person several hours or days to complete is done with automation in a small fraction of the time.

Imagine how useful this can be with past candidates. As a new job search begins, recruiters can start the process by sourcing strong candidates for new openings before applications start coming in. The AI provides candidate recommendations and a score based on their compatibility with a job opening. 

Before an application comes in, recruitment teams will already have a list of qualified matches who were screened before. This reduction in time simplifies the hiring process making it easier to identify the strongest candidates for job listings. 

Manatal’s pipeline can be customized to meet the recruiting team’s needs and makes it easy to manage a candidate’s progress. The ATS also helps recruiting teams manage activities to ensure that important events, communications, or deadlines are not overlooked. 

This means that recruiters can maintain more frequent communication with candidates about their status during the hiring process and update them promptly. Templates for the communications that candidates should receive at each stage of the process can be saved for recruiting teams to ensure that communication with each applicant is prompt and consistent. 

Take a look at some HR email templates that you can adapt to your team’s process.

Data Security

Another essential feature of new technologies is its data security capabilities. With more companies migrating their data to web-based systems, IT departments are spending more time and money protecting valuable information from data breaches. 

In 2021, global data breach costs rose to an average cost of USD 4.24 million - the most in 17 years. The problem has grown to record levels because of more professionals working from home with weaker security than enterprise networks. Cybersecurity efforts by companies in every industry are for good reason as there were 68% more data breaches in 2021 than the previous year, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. This growing interest in data is perhaps why it has been called the new oil. 

In addition to the cost, companies must also contend with potential reputational damage. Customers and clients may lose trust in a company or recruitment agency that suffers a breach if significant data is compromised or they aren’t notified in a timely fashion. News of a data breach may also deter job seekers from applying to open positions. 

The problem has become so big that recruiters need to be careful about opening resumes or cover letters that could be a ruse for phishing or ransomware attacks. Recruitment technology also needs to be kept up-to-date to eliminate security vulnerabilities. This is especially important with recruitment teams continuing to work remotely.

Manatal has consistently prioritized security so that recruiters can focus on daily activities with the confidence that their data is protected. Our team ensures that only authorized users can access information and that everything in the ATS is handled securely. Manatal has also gained SOC 2 Type I and Type II certification, a top security certification for SaaS companies, which has been verified by an independent auditor. 

Candidate databases are encrypted and the software is backed up daily to ensure that client data is not only protected but can also be retrieved in case of a cybersecurity issue. Other features that support compliance with international and national regulations include the ability to:

• Publish your organization’s privacy policy and compliance terms on the career page,
• Obtain consent for data processing when candidates apply, 
• Modify and track candidate consent status,
• Check the consent status of all candidates,
• Modify, extract and delete data when requested by candidates.

Read Manatal’s full security and compliance statement here.

As these elements of new technologies continue to mature, the recruitment industry can introduce more sophisticated ways to safeguard candidate profiles and databases throughout the hiring process.

Applicant tracking systems are an essential hiring tool

Modern hiring requires powerful tools to support talent acquisition efforts. Successful hires are made when recruiters are organized and the hiring process moves faster. With Manatal, users store massive volumes of data that can be retrieved in an instant. As hiring activities increase, or recruitment agencies scale operations, the cloud-based SaaS solution grows and updates with it seamlessly. Regular back-ups to secure servers also help recruiters protect valuable candidate data from cybersecurity breaches and attacks.

If your organization isn’t using an ATS for recruitment and candidate management, you may as well be taking out missed connection ads to find the right candidate.

Sign up for a 14-day free trial to see how an ATS can optimize hiring processes and safeguard candidate profiles.