Via Harvard Business Publishing …

A recession might seem like good news for employers looking to hire: with unemployment rates up, you’ve got more people to choose from and the opportunity to hire at a lower price.

While the current economic situation might make this a great time for you to expand your team, it can actually make hiring more expensive. Post a job ad and you’re likely to be swamped with potential applicants; and if budget is tight on your end, you’ve probably got limited capacity to screen a large pool.

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Today’s job market has created a conundrum for growing companies. The landscape is rich with qualified candidates. But issue a want ad, and some statistics note that 200 applications are likely to respond.

How can any employer reasonably cope with that flood of candidates?

Those corporations, healthcare organizations and government departments using an applicant tracking system find they have a powerful, enterprise-wide job acquisition and talent management solution ideal for businesses in hiring mode – or even those that are fully staffed.

Today’s ATS provides web-based applicant tracking and candidate management systems that empower businesses with easy-to-acquire and easy-to-use tools to reduce costs and streamline business operations. They automate candidate application and resume management – and create an invaluable competitive advantage.

The solution starts at the beginning of the job requisition life cycle. Job requests entered into the system automatically are distributed to Indeed.com, SimplyHired.com and GoogleBase, expanding the reach of the company’s corporate career center and saving thousands of dollars in premium job board costs. Some ATS providers even leverage social media sites for locating applicants.

Once applicants begin responding, that’s where the magic occurs. Employers with an ATS solution in place make quick work of managing inbound resumes and pre-qualifying candidates. Even unsolicited resumes are handled easily and quickly. Every required form or document, from resumes to supporting documentation, is submitted online and stored on the host server. No more paper resumes and faxed applications, thereby simplifying handling, review and storage needs. Once reviewed, the candidate immediately can be entered into the prospect pool, or saved for future consideration.

The solution manages applications by categories, enables cross-department searches, facilitates job requisition approval chains, and allows for feedback on specific candidates from anyone in the organization– even if those submitting feedback aren’t paid users on the system.

What about the list of qualified applicants who weren’t hired? Companies used to delete or toss those applications. No longer. An ATS enables companies to retain documentation of pre-qualified applicants for when job openings arise. Just search – by geography, criteria, skills or other fields – from among the pool of highly skilled candidates who already have been vetted and met company criteria. Having this storehouse of candidates close at hand makes filling openings fast and easy.

An ATS also enables a company to be less reliant upon its human resources staff for such processes as forwarding applicants to appropriate departments or managers for review. The system collects and organizes information in a centralized database accessible not only to a particular HR staffer’s computer, but to anyone with account access.

A well-designed ATS also is highly scalable to meet the needs of a growing organization. Like many software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions, the modern ATS is an evolving tool. New features and functionality that help users gain efficiency and streamline the candidate management process are added seamlessly. More recent additions include background check, onboarding and payroll functions. This makes today’s ATS an end-to-end solution for the entire candidate-to-employee life cycle.

Moreover, the best solutions feature a short learning curve. They’re staffed by experienced advisors with a wealth of knowledge about candidate management, and customer service representatives are standard as part of the service.

Simply put, a right-priced ATS application delivers leading-edge solutions and compelling return on investment. Starting at $100 a month, an ATS can be a cost-effective solution at a reasonable expense – regardless of whether your company is hiring today or tomorrow.

Via CollegeRecruiter.com …

There’s been an interesting discussion in the NACE JobPlace discussion list about the perception by many employers that students who do a more effective job of searching for employment opportunities will have a better chance of being hired.

I agree but caution those who believe that the best candidates are those who try the hardest to be hired.

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From US News & World Report …

A flurry of conditionals has couched their “flickers of hope” and “green shoots,” but government officials may finally have their chance to speak with unobscured optimism.

The Labor Department reported Friday that employers cut 345,000 jobs from their payrolls last month, a bad sign in nearly any economy but this one, where average job losses have been twice that for the past six months. The losses reported are a full third less than economists had expected. Even job losses for the past two months were revised down by a total of 82,000 jobs. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, skipped higher to hit 9.4 percent for the month.

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Human resources research and information site Staffing.org has published an excellent report titled, “Internet Best Practices,” which details how candidates are finding and applying to job opportunities.

It is packed with interesting stats that most recruiters will find useful and informative, for example, “While the Internet is it not yet a universal tool, it approaches that in certain demographic groups. And as it continues to mature, usage patterns are continually changing. Three years ago, major job boards were all the rage. Then niche job boards started gaining ground. Now it’s all about Twitter, Facebook and social media.”

Here is a link to the report: http://staffing.org/library_ViewArticle.asp?ArticleID=450

Via MercuryNews.com …

A recruiter who left Google last year says that the company had maintained a “do not touch” list of companies including Genentech and Yahoo, whose employees were not to be wooed to the Internet search giant.

That revelation could be significant in light of this week’s disclosure that the U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether Google, Yahoo, Apple, Genentech and other tech companies conspired to keep others from stealing their top talent.

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Via NY Times …

IN an environment of rapidly rising unemployment, scores of managers and executives have had doctor-as-patient, “aha” moments, as they find themselves among the millions of American workers looking for new jobs.

Now on the other side of the hiring table, these people are seeing for themselves how job candidates are often treated during the recruiting process. And it’s not a pretty picture.

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Via Knowledge@Wharton …

Failing to manage your company’s talent needs, says Wharton management professor Peter Cappelli, “is the equivalent of failing to manage your supply chain.” And yet the majority of employers have abysmal track records when it comes to the age-old problem of finding and retaining talent.

Supply chain managers “ask questions like, ‘Do we have the right parts in stock?’ ‘Do we know where to get these parts when we need them?’ and ‘Does it cost a lot of money to carry inventory?’ These questions are just as relevant to companies that are trying to manage their talent needs,” he says. In other words, the principles of supply chain management, with its emphasis on just-in-time manufacturing, can be applied to talent management.

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Via Human Resources Leader …

The economic downturn is putting significant pressure on many organisations. In such times, CEOs usually turn to finance and operations to assist them in adapting to the times. However, HR can also make a valuable contribution at the executive table.

HR needs to play a pragmatic role in these times. However, this role may not necessarily fall under the banner of strategy, according to Justyn Sturrock, human capital management service line leader, A/NZ, IBM Global Business Services. “HR must have the skill set to drive operational efficiency and effectiveness. This is about creating an adaptable work force that can rapidly respond to changes in the market,” he says.

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Via WSJ Digits …

While Twitter can be about the mundane details of people’s lives, for the most part, it’s about people connecting with others who have similar interests. Since I tend to follow people who are also interested in marketing and social media, it is a great way to share information on topics relevant to us.

It has also allowed me to make more meaningful connections.

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