The following transcript is from an interview between Brandon Laws and Jan Foster on the podcast episode entitled: “Applicant Tracking Systems – Resume Filters, Job Postings and Employment Branding”
Brandon: I’d like to welcome to the podcast today Jan Foster, she is the account executive at Performance Resources Inc. She specializes in applicant tracking systems and developing employees, as well as specializing in 360 reviews for senior leadership development, and of course other HR tools as well. Welcome, Jan.
Jan: Thank you, Brandon.
Brandon: Today we are going to talk about applicant tracking systems and how they can impact small businesses who are recruiting. How do you think applicant tracking systems can change the way employers are selecting applicants? Obviously there are so many applicants out there, so how does a tool like this help filter and recruit for the best talent?
Jan: I find when I’m implementing applicant systems with clients they really start to think more about what their process should be instead of doing it as it comes. They start thinking about where they want to post their jobs to get as many people to apply as possible because now there are tools that make that easy. They also think about what the steps are in the hiring process. One of the big advantages is the ability to ask some prescreening questions. As you know, resumes don’t include everything we want to know about candidates. We can ask some things beforehand to gather critical information so we start out knowing who is worth pursuing or not.
Brandon: It sounds like with the applicant system you can make it as robust as you want. Would the prescreening questions be something that you can add on to or is it something sort of out of the box that you’ve implemented? Are prescreening questions a mandatory process or is that something that hiring managers can add in on their own and customize?
Jan: Every system is different. Some applicant tracking systems are as simple as uploading a resume, which doesn’t get you much further than where you are now. Prescreening questions are optional and they are available in some systems but not all. When they are available we can find out if candidates are able to work the hours we need them to work. If it’s a manual labor job, we can ask if they can lift the amount of weight needed or stand on their feet as much as is necessary for that position. If it’s a job where some travel is required we can ask them if they are willing to travel 50 percent of the time. We usually ask these questions on a prescreening call and gather that before we have personal contact with them which ultimately saves whoever is doing the recruiting a lot of time.
Brandon: It seems to me like if you had an applicant tracking system where you are able to upload resumes that you’re not utilizing the full system in terms of the filtering capabilities and ability to ask certain questions. I imagine there are a lot of companies out there where culture is such an important factor to their organization, so asking prescreening questions that are going to determine culture fit right off the bat before the interview process would be beneficial. It seems like that’s what people want these days and it seems like you might be able to capture that with the systems we are talking about here.
Jan: I would say that culture is something we look at a little bit later in the process. When we are initially gathering information we are trying to figure out if they have the right experience, the right skills, if they are able to work in the environment we are working in, some of those more basic things. I look at the whole hiring process as a big funnel. We want to get as many applicants as possible and we want to quickly figure out whether or not we have viable candidates and from there we can go deeper and look at things like cultural fit and whether they have the necessary skills or experience in comparison with other candidates.
Brandon: Another question I have for you is about the impact these systems could have on phone screening. I know that is a big process for some people before the interview actually happens. How would a system like this have an impact on phone screening?
Jan: Typically my clients find they are doing a lot less phone screening and it’s more meaningful because, if you’re just looking at a resume or an application, there are a lot of things you don’t know. You want to make that phone call to find out those necessary things. A lot of calls are made and some of them end very quickly because they don’t meet those “drop dead” requirements. If we can get some of that electronically and even have a report that gives us that basic information, we can weed out some of the people who clearly don’t meet those minimum requirements. That way we are spending prescreening call time with people who seem very promising and can determine from there if we want to move ahead with them.
Brandon: In terms of how candidates perceive these applicant tracking systems – do you think they are getting used to the fact that they are filling out applications and submitting resumes online versus just mailing in a resume with a cover letter? How do you think the perception has been overall?
Jan: I’ve been working with applicant tracking systems for over five years now and I’ve seen more and more companies adopt these systems as they become more affordable and more widespread. Most applicants I find now do have access to computers. When you get into some of the English as a second language types of situations, they can typically get help from relatives or the work source office or other resources. I’d say more people are familiar with filling out these applications. The challenge I think is that a lot of companies make it a little more cumbersome than it needs to be.
Brandon: Can you provide an example of a how it could be cumbersome?
Jan: I’ve seen some companies that ask these really long essay questions that candidates need to spend a lot of time thinking through and working on. I feel like that sort of activity is more productive after you’ve narrowed the field to people who look interesting. I’ve also seen some companies that have extraordinarily long applications. For instance maybe you don’t need to ask for the resume when they apply – maybe that’s something that can be asked for later in the process, particularly if it’s going to be a multiple interview process.
Brandon: What do you think the overarching goal should be for an applicant tracking system from an employer’s perspective?
Jan: Applicant tracking systems should be one place where all the records are kept about all of your applicants. Everybody can access it from anywhere if it’s a web-based system and it allows you to keep track of who is at what step of the hiring process and to keep notes about them so it’s all in one place that is very central. This ultimately speeds up the process because we aren’t creating excel spreadsheet or opening multiple file folders or sorting through piles of resumes.
Brandon: That’s a really good point. It’s really about the efficiency and saving time on the recruiting side. If you are able to really save that time and spend it on more useful activities then I’d imagine that’s probably the goal for most people.
Jan: Another benefit is that it can help to reflect the company’s image back to the marketplace. A really nice application site where you are telling about how great it is to work for this company and what the culture is and benefits are is a really nice way to project how great the company is and while looking very professional. In addition, a lot of employers get so many applications that they can’t respond to every applicant. An applicant tracking system automates emails, so even when applicant is not accepted they still get a response. It doesn’t go into the big black hole where the applicant doesn’t know if their application has even been received. It can be a real benefit from a marketing standpoint as well as an efficiency standpoint.
Brandon: I love it, you are speaking my language on the marketing side. When you talk about the user experience and really branding yourself as an employer of choice – it seems like this tool can actually help you do that. Within the system itself, can it be branded to seem like it is part of the company website? Whether it’s the skin of the design or the language – is that all customizable?
Jan: Through the system that I represent, absolutely. You just click on the careers link on the company website or the jobs link and that takes you over to the application site. We carry through the color scheme, the logo, and the look and feel of the site, match the font and so forth. The applicant doesn’t necessarily know that they have left your site. It looks very seamless to them and very professional.
We can have additional pages on that portion of the site that talks about benefits, the culture and what the interview or hiring process is so applicants are more aware of what it is like to work there.
Brandon: You mentioned that you can do some kind of “Thank You” message on the backend if a candidate is not selected for a certain position. What sort of messaging will it send? I imagine it’s prompted by whoever the recruiting manager is, but it sounds like the system has capabilities for that.
Jan: Our systems have an automatic thank you so when somebody finishes their application and hits submit they will get a “Thank You for Applying” email. We allow our clients to customize that message and store any number of templates. Messages might include:
- Don’t call us, we’ll call you – thank you for applying
- You can expect to hear from someone in such and such time.
- We are experiencing a delay in the hiring process, thank you for applying.
- We have found another applicant who is more suitable
- Schedule a phone screen
We can automate that communication and without having to create more file folders on our computer systems.
Brandon Laws
Brandon: This is just one person’s opinion, but I think it’s such a beautiful touch. If you are trying to brand yourself as an employer of choice, those touch points are so important. Sending a nice message to a candidate who is not being selected that thanks them for applying with some contact information is such a nice touch, versus someone feeling like they submitted an application that went into the abyss since they didn’t hear back. That can leave someone with a bad taste in their mouth.
Jan: Absolutely. Early on, one of my clients had such a nice “Thanks but, No Thanks” email. She said: “Thank you for applying. We’ve had other candidates who are more suited. We wish you the best in your search. By the way here are some resources you may like to look into for other job opportunities.” She actually got “Thank you’s” back from people who had been rejected, if you will, thanking her for how nice the message was. First of all for even getting a response and second for providing resources and doing it in such a nice way. You have to believe that they felt really good about the company that sent that note.
Brandon: It’s funny because it was an automated process, it wasn’t just a one-off email. It was a very scaled process within the hiring and recruiting process.
Jan: The whole trick is to make it look personal.
Brandon: Absolutely. In the world of SEO, where you are optimizing content to get hirer rankings in the Google, how does a system like this help increase the visibility for job postings that are on an applicant tracking system?
Jan: Our system can automatically post to a bunch of different job boards by checking off the boxes of which ones you want to send to. We also have the ability to put in keywords, so if you think about an accounting job, we can put in keywords like finance, accounting, accounts payable, accounts receivable, etc. If somebody is searching for a finance job in Portland, those keywords will help them find your job posting and a lot of companies aren’t doing that or aren’t able to do that so it does get more eyes on your posting. In addition, we can post to a company’s Facebook page, LinkedIn page, or other social networking types of sites and communication methods. We are getting more exposure for jobs and of course people forward those on so it’s a great way to increase the number of qualified applicants that a company receives.
Brandon: I want to give our listeners a sense of what the implementation would look like for a system like this. Talking through all of the customization that you can build within the system, it sounds like it would be quite an undertaking and either one person or a whole team would have to be dedicated to the implementation process. If listeners want to implement something like this, what questions should they be asking vendors?
Jan: Implementation does not have to be super complex. It depends on where they are today. Do they have emails that they send out – “thanks but no thanks” and some of those things. Do they already have a website that conveys what they want? All of that can be done over time; it doesn’t have to be done at the beginning. If I were looking for an applicant tracking system, I’d want to know from a vendor:
- What do I have to do to get this set up?
- Do I need to get my IT department involved?
- Who sets it up?
- Are there any fees associated with getting the site set up?
- How long can I expect this to take?
- What are the steps I need to complete in order to make this go live?
Brandon: In terms of how long it takes to set up, what is your experience? Let’s say I want the most customized system possible where I’m building prescreening questions, thank you emails that are automated on the backend, fully designed skin of the postings and applicant system – what’s your sense on how long it would take to set up?
Jan: If we are doing a really simple one it can take a day to one week. If we are doing something more complicated like a fully built-out site, what I find is that sometimes HR wants to involve their marketing department, which I think is a great idea to get across the brand and come up with nice photos and wording. Some companies need to get buy-in from their president or from other stakeholders in the company so that takes time and is dependent on that company’s process and the availability of people in the company. Once we have that information it needs to get inputted into the system and for us that takes a day or two, it’s not a complicated thing
Brandon: With the data that’s collected within the system, I can hear IT professionals saying, “That’s not our data, that’s not on our server.” Can you give us some insight as to where our data is going? If someone is submitting an application, who owns that data in terms of contact information and the actual resume and files that are being uploaded?
Jan: Our systems are all stored on servers that are very high quality, very secure servers and redundant servers so they are in different locations and so forth. So it’s a very secure system. Other systems may not be nearly as protective. Applicant data belongs to the company that is licensing use of our software, we don’t send emails to anybody independently. The company that has the system is doing all of the communication and accessing all of that information.
Brandon: When applicants submit a resume, and they don’t get the job, what if they come back and want to submit an application for another job in the future? What does that experience look like? Is the data they’ve already submitted stored somewhere where they can call upon a resume they have already submitted? Or do they have to restart the process from the beginning?
Jan: That, again, is going to depend on the system. Some you just have to reapply from the beginning and fill out all of the education background and work experience and all of that. We have two systems. Our new system allows you to create a login and if they come back to apply for a second job later, they enter their email and password and are able to pull up everything they have ever entered before and make modifications if they want to customize their resume for a different type of job. Then they will be presented any additional prescreening questions there are for that second job. It makes it a lot easier for the candidate if they are applying for several different jobs within an organization and gives them the freedom to customize the information for each of those jobs.
Brandon: Maybe you can summarize for listeners who are not already engaged with an applicant tracking system why they would want to make this jump.
Jan: It depends on a lot of different factors. If they are doing quite a bit of recruiting or if they only post periodically but get lots of applicants, applicant tracking systems can keep everything in one place. It can create a really nice experience for the candidate because they are now receiving notifications that their application has been received and it feels like the company is communicating with them. On the backend it gives hiring managers access to information independent of HR, if HR wants to gives them those permissions, and allows the whole process of hiring somebody and going through all of the steps to be done in a more methodical, organized and tracked fashion.
Brandon: Jan, I want to thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. How can listeners get a hold of you if they have questions or want to learn more about you and what Performance Resources does?
Jan: My email is: jan@prol.ws and my phone number is 503-297-1814. I’d be happy to answer additional questions.
Brandon: Our guest has been Jan Foster of Performance Resources. Thank you so much for joining us, I appreciate it!
Jan: Thanks Brandon!
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