Recruiters juggle an enormous number of tasks. One of the most time consuming is a process known as resume harvesting. Employers gain a lot from this process; developing an active Internet recruiting process can help create a robust talent pipeline. As jobs open, companies can look first to this stored pool of candidates and perhaps get a jump start on their time-to-hire numbers.
Here’s how resume harvesting can help your company and how technology can streamline a laborious process.
Understanding Resume Harvesting
Hiring teams, which can include HR and recruiters, typically spend hours every day trolling for candidates. Most are subscribed to job boards where candidates place their resumes, set up profiles, and look for jobs. Searching through these job board candidate profiles is called resume harvesting. Even though many job boards have decent search features, recruiters spend an inordinate amount of time searching for candidates.
The days of only posting an ad are over; historically, low unemployment means that most of the candidates you’re seeking already have a job. That makes resume harvesting a necessary part of the candidate search process.
But from a recruiting perspective, one keyword search can yield hundreds of resumes. Recruiters can narrow down the search by honing it down to particular skills, but it inevitably creates a flood of resumes from people who may or may not still be looking for a job. Once the recruiter has a pile of resumes, they must go through each one and use their best judgment as to whether the candidate is solid enough to contact. As recruiters wade through online pages of resumes, they typically cull out the ones that seem to be the best match for the job. Then they have to contact this secondary pile of candidates by emailing, calling, or texting them to see if they’re interested in the role and have time to chat about it.
If you’ve never done this kind of work, it’s hard to imagine the sheer volume of time it takes to conduct the resume harvesting process. It’s the only way today to find top talent. The best news we can share is that this laborious process is made much simpler with a modern applicant tracking system (ATS). Here’s how technology can improve the resume harvesting process and save you hours every day.
Technology and Resume Harvesting
Modern ATS platforms are more intuitive to use. They have smarter search features enabled by artificial intelligence algorithms that improve the process. The best ATS software programs tie themselves to the leading resume boards, from Monster and Dice to CareerBuilder and Indeed. That way, you don’t have to conduct one search on Indeed, then another search on another site. Instead, look for ATS platforms that allow you to perform one search in your candidate resume harvesting process. Some of the best platforms have a trolling algorithm that can be configured to do these searches when you leave work! Wouldn’t it be great to come into a more accurate list of candidate resumes already laid out for you to review?
Today, resume harvesting is a natural part of the recruiting and hiring process. But a modern ATS platform can help you make your day more efficient and effective. Talk to Exelare about how our ATS can save you time and money.