Before making your first online recruiting software purchase, be aware that there are different types of recruiting software. You might read reviews and discover people recommend a particular software, but that doesn’t mean it will actually accomplish what you are hoping it would for your business. You might pay for more than you really need. You might also miss out on game-changing software just because you don’t know it exists, thinking recruiting software only comes in one type. Read on to learn more about your options for paid and the best free recruiting software.
Types of Recruiting Software
First, let’s discuss recruiting software in general. This is a broad term referring to any software intended to solve problems recruiters face. That is why there are so many types. You might hear about an applicant tracking system (ats) for example, and think that is what recruiting software means. Yes, an ats is recruiting software, but so are several other things with vastly different purposes.
Read more: Why staffing agencies should use recruitment software and Recruitment automation software
Social Media Aggregators
Social media aggregators search social media platforms for potential candidates. They’ll find and collect people with the skills, job titles, education, and location you are looking for so you can go through them at your convenience. This saves a lot of manual sourcing time and is a great way to find passive candidates or ones who haven’t thought to seek out your business yet.
Select this recruitment software if your goal is to enhance your sourcing efforts, including finding passive candidates. Use it alone, if that’s all you need right now, or use it in addition to other recruiting software.
Be sure not to confuse these with job aggregators. That is a similar-sounding term for an opposite function. Social media aggregators help recruiters and hiring managers find potential candidates while job aggregators help candidates find jobs.
Read more: The ultimate guide for social recruiting [UPDATED]
Resume Spiders
Resume spiders search the web for resumes, another sourcing tool that can save a recruiter or hiring manager a lot of time. Some resume spiders just search job sites like Indeed, while others search job sites, personal websites, your current candidate database, and more.
This type of software shares a similar purpose to social media aggregators, but it goes about it in a very different way. Social media aggregators focus on, as would be implied, social media accounts. Resume spiders are only about resumes. Both find active and passive candidates for your business.
The fact that some resume spiders also search your current database is a powerful tool for not wasting the talent that has already shown an interest in your company. They may not have been the optimal fit last year, but they may be now, or maybe they were fine but you simply didn’t have enough openings. Many businesses forget about these candidates and a resume spider can put them back in your focus. Just be sure that you are getting a resume spider that includes that function.
Use a resume spider to improve your sourcing efforts, alone or in conjunction with other software.
Read more: Benefits of resume formatting software
Recruitment CRMs
A candidate relationship management system, or recruitment CRM, is what a resume spider will search to find candidates who have already applied to work at your business.
It is a database that stores candidate information and helps you:
- quickly find current and past candidates
- nurture relationships with both current and past candidates
- measure and improve hiring metrics
- improve candidate experience
- save time
Another CRM, the customer relationship management system, sometimes includes recruiting functions. It is the height of employer branding and effective hiring to merge the customer experience and candidate experience, both types of relationships need to be nurtured and customers can often be your best employees.
Usually, a CRM doesn’t take in new applications for you, you have to enter them into the system.
Candidate management is crucial. You can’t really keep your candidate information organized and therefore build effective relationships with either current or past candidates without software that performs this function.
Read more: ATS vs CRM
ATSs
Applicant tracking systems, or ATS, are actually the most common recruitment software and therefore the one most people are probably talking about when they mention the term. Like a recruitment CRM, they manage candidate relationships, but they typically have a greater focus on acquiring new talent and optimizing the hiring process.
An ATS:
- helps you build a career portal
- posts job openings
- takes in new resumes
- often, formats resumes for optimal reading
- some of them appoint the resumes to certain jobs and certain managers
An ATS is crucial. The time you save not having to perform recruiting tasks that could be automated is game-changing for your business.
Read more: Recruitment database software and How ATS enables efficient and optimized recruitment metrics tracking
Interviewing Software
There is also software out there that allows you to interview candidates through video.
By utilizing video interview software, businesses can:
- reduce the cost and stress candidates experience going to in-person interviews
- improve candidate selection when hiring remote workers
- save themselves money if they pay for interview costs