Ah, summer! ‘Tis the season when the weather warms and students get a taste of the working world. With school out, teens and college students have time to earn some money, often serving their fellow students who are out in larger numbers, shopping, dining, or just having fun.
Those companies that staff up for the season have quickly learned that securing Gen Z talent requires some adjustments in the recruitment process. The biggest single change should be making sure every part of the process is mobile-friendly. Otherwise, you may fall short of your recruitment goals. This means going beyond simply how content and forms are displayed.
The best way to accomplish that goal is by utilizing an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) designed to work on mobile devices. This will speed up the process for both applicants and hiring managers, simplify administration and documentation, and help energize temporary staff during their time with your company.
An Inviting Mobile Applicant Experience
Since phones are the primary communication form for young people, ads targeting such positions on job boards should link to a mobile-first experience. The application that candidates want to fill out is online software that needs to be easy to use on a phone.
In addition to describing the job, the company, and preferred qualifications, your application will undoubtedly require information from the candidate. The harder this is to complete on a phone, the fewer applications you’ll get. While you may feel this filters out “lazy” applicants, it also can eliminate smart and capable people who don’t want to waste their time with badly designed software.
The more seamless and convenient the application process is, the more candidates you will attract and the better your chances of finding the best people for the job. A modern ATS offers the features to make this happen.
Automation to Find A+ Candidates
Lowering the barriers to generating qualified applicants creates a different challenge: How to sort through them all? This issue has become an early focus of AI development. By standardizing applications in an ATS, you make it easier to compare them. This, in turn, opens the door for automatic and systematic vetting.
AI is the perfect tool for this. By prompting applicant-screening AI with your company’s requirements and preferences, you can automate this initial step to quickly get to a shortlist of prospects. A mobile-first ATS will then enable real-time mobile-friendly communications like SMS texting to move the process ahead.
Coordinating phone interviews with your short list can work the same way, with accelerated scheduling that connects HR and hiring managers to candidates’ calendars (which are probably also on their phones).
Uncomplicated Hiring Compliance
You already know that regulatory compliance presents a special challenge. This is compounded when candidates are engaging with the materials on their phone. Any interaction that requires more than a button click can be a deal-breaker for some candidates. At the same time, the law is the law.
Mobile-first forms – from EEOC questionnaires to permissions to do background checks – gets you the information you need while helping candidates supply it using the one digital tool they have. And, because candidates can handle these forms wherever they are, they can satisfy the requirements as soon as they get them.
On the back end, the ATS is populating the records of the prospective employee in an orderly and easily accessed way. This ensures you have the documentation you may need in the future without having to perform any special filing now or digging through archives later.
Applicant Paperwork Without the Paper
Candidates will ultimately have to fill out employment forms. This is where a mobile-first ATS seals the deal and gets the best candidates excited to work for you. Features like one-click signatures and camera-to-file imaging of documents like IDs meet these students where they live: on their phones.
The efficiency of such capabilities is obvious… and important. These hires may be critical for your business, but they are most likely not life-long commitments. The less time you spend on administrative tasks, the more time you have for your business. Candidates often feel the same way.
As with any other files, the ATS automatically stores them for easy management later. This further guarantees your temporary hires won’t be a recurring administrative headache at tax time, next summer (if they return), or when you need to archive them.
Namely’s Applicant Tracking: Tapping Talent Faster
Everybody knows: Today’s students are tomorrow’s workforce. The same mobile-friendly technology that makes summer hiring both easier and more successful will prepare your company for future waves of employment. The sooner your company’s recruiting process is easy to do on a phone, the sooner you’ll be ready.
Namely’s Applicant Tracking is just one module of a full HCM (Human Capital Management) platform, designed specifically for small and mid-sized businesses. With the guidance of its parent company, Vensure Employer Solutions – one of the largest privately-held HR technology and services companies in the world – Namely brings a unique understanding of real-world usage to the product.
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