How Recruitment Agencies Work: The Pros And Cons Of Using Them

By ITRIS Recruitment Software

Share on: 

Finding work in any field nowadays is a lot about convincing résumé-screening programs that you have the necessary skills and are worthy enough be granted a personal interview. When a resume is submitted online it goes into a database where it is recruiting software and not a person that is the first screening-point. Getting past that sentry is about being smart enough in tailoring your pitch to match the keywords that have been listed in the online job description.

 

Easy Recruitment Functions

There are several talent management software companies that develop software that can be used for a range of functions such as recruiting and ongoing employee training and career development. The recruitment applications are generally offered as a software-as-a-service model. These provide recruiters as well as hiring managers with tools that will help in easy and quick recruitment procedures. These generally comprise of a candidate-facing Web function. It allows candidates to look for listings, submit their résumés and also learn something new about a company.


The recruiting capabilities that these tools provide, help companies sift through thousands of résumés simply with the use of intelligent algorithms or keywords. Proponents are of the opinion that by taking away the manual labour quotient of sorting résumés, these software programs improve the actual recruiting process for potential employees and more importantly for employers.


The Benefits

Today, most recruitment agencies make use of tools such as these in their recruitment processes and are especially a boon in phases when there is a flood of applicants. The automated recruitment process allows hiring managers to focus on candidates who are best-suited or most-qualified. Sans the automation, the experience for all candidates is diluted as it is not possible for the computerized element to pay attention to or keep up with those who are best suited for the position.
 

The Downsides For Candidates

Inexperienced as well as experienced job seekers argue that the recruitment software, irrespective of how intelligent it is, can be easily manipulated by tech-savvy applicants. This opens up the in-person interview process for less qualified candidates while the possibly worthy ones just languish in the system. Many well qualified job seekers complain that companies that use talent management software rarely respond to their applications.


The Downsides For Recruiters

Many experienced recruiters and managers feel that a lot of the questions that used to be asked in traditional interviews couldn’t really be found in books. The candidates’ responses indicated how effectively they could think on their feet. However, with the current day scanning apps, even if a particular candidate has just 7/10 of the skills that have been listed, he/she may not even be considered and the résumé gets discarded. However, those who get wise to the system and manage to list all keywords might just get through to that interview. This means that a particular candidate benefits but a company might just lose out on bringing a more deserving candidate on board.


When Skill Is Not Enough To Make The Kill

Skills are not always inherent and many work-related ones can be acquired and developed. This is what sets humans apart and when you get a computer to do a job that a human would otherwise have done, you rule out the possibility of judging whether a candidate is good or not. The suspicion about résumé-scanning software is not really exclusive just to job-seekers. Many recruiters opt out of résumé-scanning as they fear overlooking potential candidates. They feel that it is too limiting and in some cases, the recruitment firms don’t even get to look at the resumes.

Resume padding is rampant and recruitment agencies may, in some cases end up wasting time weeding out experienced and skilled candidates from those who have merely answered the questions accurately. And so, the debate will continue and so will the quandary about whether recruitment agencies should stick to traditional recruitment methods or opt for computer driven ones.


About the Author

Recruitment Software from ITRIS is used all over the world by global leaders in permanent, contract, temporary, executive search and high volume staffing. For details see: http://www.itris.co.uk/

 

About the company

We won't just do social media management. Social Hire will work with you to ensure your business sees great value from the service and that your team gets the most out of the service. Our social media experts are driven by the desire to make a enhancements to your social media marketing and reaching targets in a way that realistically makes a difference to your business goals.

Our digital marketing managers are the wizards that can give you the insight you need to grow your business. Have you had enough of making difficult personnel choices that don't work well for your online marketing?

We're an organisation that helps our clients boost their social media marketing by providing social media marketing on a monthly basis.

You might like these blog posts Determining Your Best Source of New Client Leads, Marketing Your Side Gig as a Digital Nomad, Navigating Photoshop and Design Trends in an Age of Social Media Marketing, and How Should Human Resource Department Handle Working In High-Risk Environments.

  Back to Candidate blogs