2025 is right around the corner, so there's a good chance you'll be reviewing your process and auditing your hiring funnel. We've often been an advocate for recruitment audits - in fact, it's something our Talent Intelligence team offers our clients! - but if your contract with your current ATS provider is coming to an end, here's some key things to look out for.
Technology is at the heart of modern recruitment, and if you’re still relying on outdated systems, you could be missing out on major efficiencies.
Ask yourself: Does my recruitment system offer a job board marketplace? If not, you may be limiting your ability to reach a wider audience of qualified candidates. A job board marketplace integrates multiple job advertising boards into one system, helping you post vacancies on various platforms without the hassle of managing each one separately. This can reduce your reliance on expensive recruitment agencies by putting you in direct contact with potential candidates.
Consider tools that offer integrations with LinkedIn, Indeed and niche job boards that are relevant to your industry. By using an applicant tracking system (ATS) with this feature, you can simplify and optimise your job postings across multiple platforms, ensuring that your vacancies reach the right candidates efficiently.
If you’re frequently turning to recruitment agencies to fill positions, it’s worth asking whether this reliance is sustainable. Recruitment agencies are often costly and while they offer value in certain situations, an over-reliance can inflate hiring costs significantly. Audit your recent hires - how many were sourced through agencies? Could those roles have been filled directly through a more effective in-house recruitment process?
Reducing your reliance on agencies often starts with building a more efficient internal hiring process. A robust ATS can help manage this by automating candidate sourcing, filtering applicants based on predefined criteria and managing communication - all of which can streamline your recruitment efforts. Tools like Jobtrain provide insights into your talent pipeline, giving you the data needed to assess whether your reliance on agencies can be reduced.
Data-driven recruitment is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity. To prepare for 2025, ensure that your recruitment system provides robust analytics and reporting features.
You should be able to answer key questions such as: How long does it take to fill a position? What is the quality of hire? What is the cost per hire?
The right ATS will provide detailed reports that allow you to track these metrics and adjust your recruitment strategies accordingly. For example, Jobtrain provides real-time analytics, which can help you identify bottlenecks in the recruitment process, track the effectiveness of your job postings and measure the quality of applicants. With this data, you can make informed decisions about where to invest resources, ensuring that you hire the best talent efficiently.
The candidate experience is crucial in today’s job market. Negative experiences can harm your employer brand and make it harder to attract top talent. An audit should include a review of your entire recruitment process from the perspective of the candidate. Are your application forms too long or complex? How quickly do you respond to candidates after they apply? Are interview schedules flexible and clear?
One way to ensure a positive candidate experience is by offering an easy-to-navigate, mobile-friendly application process. Candidates expect a seamless digital experience and an ATS can help by offering a user-friendly platform that streamlines applications, keeps candidates informed and reduces drop-off rates.
Automation is a game-changer in recruitment. It can save you time, reduce human error and ensure consistency in your hiring processes. If you haven’t yet adopted automation in key areas like CV screening, interview scheduling and candidate communication, it’s time to reconsider.
Ask yourself: What aspects of my recruitment process can be automated?
Many repetitive tasks, such as sending emails or scheduling interviews, can be handled by an ATS. Our ATS's automation features allow you to save hours of manual work by automatically screening candidates, sending out invitations and even notifying unsuccessful applicants, freeing up your team to focus on more strategic tasks.
As recruitment becomes increasingly digitised, ensuring compliance with legal and ethical standards is more important than ever. As part of your audit, check whether your recruitment process complies with data protection regulations like GDPR, as well as diversity and inclusion policies. A compliant ATS will help you maintain and manage candidate data securely, while also ensuring that your recruitment promotes diversity and equal opportunity.
If your organisation is growing or planning to expand, your recruitment process needs to scale with it. A thorough audit should assess whether your current system is capable of handling higher volumes of candidates, more complex workflows and multiple hiring managers. An ATS like Jobtrain is designed to scale with your organisation, offering flexible features that can accommodate growth without compromising on efficiency or quality.
The Isle of Man Government has experienced significant benefits from using our Jobtrain ATS to manage their recruitment. The system has allowed them to manage high volumes of applicants efficiently, providing a streamlined, user-friendly platform that simplifies the hiring process. Through the use of our applicant tracking system, the Isle of Man Government has been able to reduce administrative burden and improve communication with candidates. Automated features such as real-time reporting and job posting across multiple platforms have helped them attract the right talent while enhancing the overall candidate experience. Their team particularly values the ability to tailor the system to meet specific organisational needs, ensuring a recruitment process that is both flexible and efficient.
For more details, you can visit Jobtrain's Isle of Man Government client page.