There won’t be many recruitment agencies set to launch online in 2021—the vast majority will already have their own websites serving their individual niches or appealing to the general job market.

Which is a good thing, as more than half the job-seeking population look for their next positions online, with 35% finding and applying for roles on their mobile phones.

Technology is integral to the recruitment process, but could your technology serve you better?

As recruitment website designers—as specialists within the industry—the team at Fast Recruitment Websites know a thing or two about tools, techniques and technologies that can help agencies reach candidates and clients of calibre.

First, however, the basics.

Remote working is now commonplace, especially given that we’re working through our nation’s third lockdown. Most probably, your team is working from home. Can they still access your server and the information stored in your database? Is there a back-office function on your website that allows them to update information remotely? Given that it may be many months before we are all ‘back to normal’ and working from the same physical space, such technological requirements are crucial for your business’s operations.

How much does your website help you, your clients and valued candidates during the recruitment process?

For instance, does your site house an application tracking system that helps you manage candidates’ activity and positions applied for? Does your site have a chat-bot or intelligent response system that can help answer and filter candidate/client enquiries around the clock? Do your employees understand how to use any technological additions/applications you have installed? Is the site and all its facets secure from cyber-attacks—because such risk increases with a remote team and when multiple users log in to your site.

We know that video recording is not just convenient but a must in these times, when we can’t see people face to face. You can enrich your video capability by forwarding pre-recorded interview questions to jobseekers, that they can respond to any time of day or night. This is such a time-saver in the early stages of the process, and it reduces the risk that top talent may defect to another agency. It also helps sift out the more suitable candidates in a jobseeker-heavy market. Technology can also be applied to make applications anonymous, so that there is no suggestion of bias whatsoever, and only those suitable for the role because of their skills and experience move further along the recruitment process.

Other technologies include variants of facial recognition software, which can evaluate the expressions and physical responses of candidates during video interviews and help filter applicants; however, experts have made it clear that the application should not foster bias in any way, i.e., be used to judge a person’s looks or fuel a rejection based on the age or gender of an applicant.

Some agencies have even incorporated virtual reality into their suite of applications—to give top talent a tour of a proposed workplace, saving the costs associated with a physical visit, particularly if they live overseas. Taking the chatbot application a little further, the future of VR in recruitment could see candidates being interviewed by avatars.

Technology aside, your website needs to say something about you and your agency. There’s no point advertising a slick, all-singing, all-dancing position with one of the country’s most sought after employers if, when candidates click through to your website, it looks like it was created when the dinosaurs ruled the Earth. If it’s unresponsive, clunky, confusing or slow, the candidate will give up.

Does your site suggest to both clients and candidates that you understand the industry you’re recruiting within?

Get your ducks in a row before you go forth and advertise. Curate the perfect website design, hone your site’s capabilities, and introduce technologies that will make everyone’s life easier.

Have a chat with us at Fast Recruitment Web Design; call 01302 288591. As the vaccine programme is rolled out and we move to contain the spread of the virus, there’s likely to be an uptick in the number of positions to be filled as time marches on. 2021/2022 will be busy, busy, busy for recruiters, and if technology exists that is safe, effective and affordable, why wouldn’t you incorporate it?