When technology is used for recruitment...

Technology is not to be outdone in meeting the key challenges of successful recruitment. In 20 years, it has already considerably changed the landscape of recruitment practices and customs. With the gradual arrival of ATS - for Application Tracking System - the digitalisation of HR processes has reached a new level...

Cédric Robin, recruitment specialist and ATS promoter, Partner & VP Sales at Beetween explains in detail what we are talking about today.

Of course!

Twenty years ago, the widespread adoption of mobile phones and the Internet had already created new ways of engaging with candidates, making them reachable anywhere, anytime. The subsequent rise of social networks (like LinkedIn) provided the first pools of online candidates, easily accessible, with information updated in real-time. Then, the widespread use of phone screening practices, as well as the adoption of video conferencing tools—further accelerated by COVID—simplified outreach and meetings even more. And now, the use of intelligent recruitment platforms, primarily ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems), is set to take things even further…

The ATS enables the sharing of applications on common platforms, but also automates their management and refines the selection process. It responds to a need for performance through digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence with obvious impacts in terms of sourcing, as well as in terms of efficiency of recruitment processes in general, with a view to simplification and time saving.

For the candidate, it is very simple: the ATS optimises the application "experience". The tool facilitates a one-click response, and in certain contexts offers the circulation of applications within networks of the same company, or even within professional or territorial clusters in the public sector, thus providing opportunities for new meetings. Whereas in the past candidates were obliged to apply each time in a specific way, they can now simply express their intention to change and see what happens. This of course helps to give him visibility and targeted choice, a fortiori in penurious contexts...

For the recruiter, the tool must firstly enable an increase in efficiency, allowing him to process large volumes of CVs more quickly and easily, in a more objective manner, with the benefit of clear control and reporting data. At the same time, it offers an alternative sourcing channel for candidates that is both accurate and powerful. This is all the more true when it operates in specific job sectors or employment areas, but also when it manages large volumes of course.

Yes, absolutely, ATS offers the recruiter the possibility of having a complete pool of candidates at his disposal at all times, created, fed and analysed in an "industrial" way. What a headhunter practices in a selective and "surgical" way, at the cost of a consequent work, the ATS generalizes it in a simplified way. And it helps to move away from a short-term logic made up of successive one-shots (a need / an offer / applications / a specific sorting), to enter into a dynamic management of continuous flows...

No, no, you can't replace the recruiter! The recruiter must see technology as an ally, not as an enemy. All the current tools - social networks, videoconferencing, TTYs, assessment platform - only help them to be more efficient, by allowing them to benefit from more data more quickly. The tool must not replace the individual, it cannot decide for him, it must instead allow him to be more accurate in terms of decisions. The more the tedious work of collecting and selecting information upstream is automated, the more time and energy it has available to develop its own added value, where it is most useful, in a fine-tuned understanding of individuals and their potential suitability for the context.

It contributes indirectly by creating the conditions for!

Firstly, by multiplying the number of targeted applications, and therefore the potential choice for the recruiter, by developing the attractiveness of job offers via the implementation of an engaging career site and multi-posting on a wide range of sites. It's much easier not to make a mistake if I can have a wide choice. Whereas - for jobs or areas where there is a shortage of candidates - there is a great risk of taking the first application that comes along...

Secondly, by allowing him to save time on the upstream phases... so that he can devote more time to the downstream phases: in short, by putting the human element back at the heart of the process! If, in order to limit the risk of error at the end of the process, I have to increase the number of interviews, tests and role-playing exercises, it will be all the easier to implement as I will have spent less time upstream detecting potential candidates and managing the associated volumes of applications...