There was a post on ASA Central (American Staffing Association discussion group) recently about how to make productive use of recruiter down time. Many staffing firms have cyclical business, when you are busy and when you are not. There were some excellent ideas posted, like using the time for candidate engagement, client relationship building, and planning. This is also an excellent time to train your internal staff and coach your team on initiatives to improve productivity. One prime productivity improvement is making the case for data entry.
"Do you want me to recruit, or do you want me to do data entry?"
Ah, the old refrain of recruiters when asked to record their activities and notes in the applicant tracking system. As if the two are mutually exclusive and fingers are just too busy to be able to type a quick note in the candidate’s record. And, by the way, the record is likely open already because the recruiter needs the phone number to call the candidate in the first place.
There is a misconception by many recruiters, sourcers, account managers, sales reps, and others that entering activities in the system is only for the company to keep track of what they’re doing—that it’s micromanagement, pointless administrative work that keeps them from doing their "real work." But this thinking is missing a much bigger point. The little bit of extra time it takes now to enter a note in the ATS yields so many long-term benefits for everyone in the organization. Here are just a few reasons why the more information you have in the system, the better.
...continue reading this article in Staffing Success magazine published by the American Staffing Association. I'm a contributor to the Recruiting Today series.
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