Overcoming Challenges of Hybrid Work with an ATS

When the pandemic arrived in late 2019, the whole world experienced a sudden disruption. Businesses around the globe were forced to deal with many challenges. One of them is the fact that their workforce could not operate in the office. 

Working around the lockdown restrictions to keep the business alive, organizations chose hybrid as the alternative solution that allows workers to continue their tasks safe and sound from home. 

However, one could not say that the hybrid work mode is the ultimate solution that drives companies through the pandemic phase without any issues. Although it helps businesses maintain momentum, working remotely poses a challenge on relationship management and performance management, especially in the recruitment industry.  

As the world recovers from the pandemic, let’s take a look at the trend of hybrid work, how it has evolved as a regular work mode, and how you can leverage it with the help of an efficient digital tool like the Applicant Tracking System or ATS.  

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Hybrid Work: The Current Trend 

Hybrid work is a flexible work model that combines office-based, remote, and on-site work approaches to allow employees to continue their tasks from wherever they are and however is most productive. As companies across the globe are continuing their businesses in the post-pandemic world, hybrid work has become more than just a benefit of the job and has turned into a regular work mode. 

According to a survey conducted by the Chartered Institute of Management (CMI), over 80% of companies adopted hybrid work for the survival of their businesses and the safety of their employees during the COVID-19 outbreak. 

In the United States of America, the hybrid work model has brought growth to businesses across the country. Companies in the U.S. that adopted the hybrid work mode during the pandemic and did not ask their employees to immediately go back to being fully office-based found that the mixed work model has accelerated their production. At the same time, companies also used hybrid work in their recruitment strategies to attract candidates.

Crossing over to the U.K., hybrid work has proven to be a solution that accelerates productivity. Based on the study from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, over 41% of workers in the region revealed that the hybrid work had driven them to become more productive.

More organizations are providing their employees with the flexibility to work from wherever they prefer, as the majority of the workforce in the U.K. would prefer to continue a mixed work mode between office-based and work from home. 

The trend of hybrid work is expected to remain for a while, as it is very popular amongst the future of the workforce like Millennials and Gen Z. According to NBER’s Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, young workers, especially individuals in their 20s are most likely to look out for a new job if their current workplaces do not embrace hybrid work. 

As good as it may sound, there are issues and challenges that come with hybrid work, especially for professionals in the recruitment industry. Let’s take a look at the effects of hybrid work for recruiters and see how you can take your business through it with an ATS. 

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Challenges of Hybrid Work 

Communication & Collaboration 

By having each team member working apart from each other, inconsistent, disconnected, and interrupted communication becomes impediments to performance. Continuing the project without efficient and effective communication makes it difficult to keep everyone on the same page. 

At the same time, collaborating with customers and keeping them at the same pace as recruiters are making progress with candidates can be quite difficult. 

When it comes to selecting the best talents, having inconsistent communication could end up in a weak candidate list. Your team members and your customers might fail to spot inherent qualities that make a certain applicant  the perfect candidate for the job. 

Without a communication portal that allows all team members to correspond remotely, by the time your co-worker's comments reach you, a certain candidate might be cut out from the list. 

This is where an ATS comes in like a knight in shining armor. Loaded with an efficient communication portal that favors real-time and consistent communication, an ATS allows users to connect and communicate with all stakeholders in the hiring process as if they were working in the same room. 

Top ATS systems on the market like Manatal’s come with a messaging feature that enables you to discuss with your teammates and keep customers up to date in real-time. At the same time, your team members and customers are able to leave notes and feedback on candidates at any moment.  Moreover, the easy-to-read dashboard that consolidates every process into a single screen allows everyone to keep track of the progress and get on the same page. 

Relationship Management Between Recruiters and Candidates 

This is a big issue for recruiters whose job relies on the effectiveness of relationships. Imagine a scenario where a candidate is scheduled for an interview, and all they have to do is wake up, put on a nice shirt, and meet recruiters virtually from their cozy bedrooms. Virtual recruitment requires less commitment from candidates as they don’t have to make an effort to dress up and travel to meet recruiters.  

At the same time, it creates a distance and an invisible wall between candidates and recruiters. Compared to face-to-face communication, remote interaction limits the ability of recruiters to build lasting relationships with them. 

The same goes for relationship establishment with potential customers. Remote communication, while commonplace with those working in global organizations, can limit the possibility of developing relationships at a deeper level, and knowing what they are looking for in candidates.  

To make things worse, dealing with daunting tasks like back locking and documentation at the same time also pulls recruiters from paying full attention to nurturing relationships with candidates and keeping the connection with customers alive. 

An ATS is able to ease recruiters’ redundant tasks by automating them while allowing recruiters to get to know candidates on a deeper level and manage customers throughout the funnel without breaking a sweat.

A well-designed ATS system is equipped with a feature that browses publicly available information on candidates from their social media accounts into a single database. This allows recruiters to get to know candidates’ from different angles from the CVs without having to physically meet them.  

READ MORE: Learn how social media enrichment works. 

Work Through the Challenges with Manatal

Manatal is the digital recruitment tool perfect for the hybrid work era. The fact that Manatal is a cloud-based platform allows recruiters to access it 24/7 from anywhere, even on mobile devices.

Manatal ensures the success of collaboration and trust-building with customers via recruitment CRM (Customer Relationship Management), which provides transparency throughout the pipeline. Your customers will have the ability to view the progress of the recruitment, review candidates, and make comments. Further, with an easy-to-use interface, recruiters can manage leads and customers from the first process to the last by simply dragging and dropping files into the system.  

At the same time, Manatal’s easy-to-read dashboard consolidates every process into a single display, enabling every team member to keep track of the progress and make comments at all times. Communication can be done in real-time with the 24/7 messaging feature. 

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Bring It All Together

The pandemic forced companies around the world to adapt and find ways to keep their businesses alive and hybrid work arose as a solution that allows workers to safely continue their tasks and drive businesses forward from home. Many large corporations around the globe have embraced this flexible work arrangement and discovered that not only is it able to keep business going, but it also brings growth and more productivity.

In the post-pandemic world, the hybrid work mode plants its feet firmly as a regular work method that attracts Millennial and Gen Z candidates. However, adapting to the semi-remote work model also comes with some challenges that might cause inefficiencies, especially for professionals in the recruitment industry, where the main key to success comes down to relationship establishment.   

To leverage the hybrid work and maintain the efficiency of your recruitment, it is necessary to start to look for a recruitment technology like ATS and embed it into your system. 

Manatal is an ATS specifically tuned to help companies and recruitment agencies optimize their recruitment with many innovative features. Communicating with all team members remotely can be done smoothly 24/7 via a messaging feature. 

You can easily manage leads and customers through the use of recruitment CRM. Bonding and getting to know candidates on a deeper level can also be accomplished through social media enrichment. All of this can be done within a few clicks! 

Start your 14-day Free Trial now to explore Manatal’s additional features and find out how our innovative platform can help you leverage the hybrid work and drive towards your goal with ease.