‘Greasing’ the Way for Recruiters

One day I was working in the Crelate Inc. West Coast office and CEO, Aaron Elder came into my office and proclaimed, “We want to help recruiters ‘Be the Grease’”! I was immediately intrigued by the metaphor and asked for a little more clarification. Aaron indicated he had been thinking about the relationship between recruiters and their two constituents: customers and candidates. My interest was piqued so I said, “Tell me more!”

Aaron then said that an effective Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and Talent Relationship Management System (TRMS) should do everything possible to ensure that recruiters and talent relationship managers have as much time as possible to be a conduit (aka “grease”) between their customers (employers) and clients (candidates) – with the ultimate goal being connecting the right people with the right opportunities in the most efficient way possible. Technology should edify the process and not ‘get in the way’ of recruiting professionals. I thought this was a great way to think about recruiting and I immediately thought of the gears (i.e., wheel bearings) and wheel axle on a bicycle and the role that grease plays to help keep the bike running in tip top condition. 

The grease reduces friction between all the key components and allows the system to function. Some experts indicate that the axle bearings need to be cleaned and repacked with grease every 500 miles. Perhaps like bicycles, that need a tune up ever so often, professional recruiters also need a technological ‘tune up’ in order to further their placement/business goals.   

Wouldn’t it be nice to have an ATS that fosters ‘greasing’ the way for recruiters to make connections between those that have open jobs and those that are looking to make moves to new opportunities? What are a few specific ways that a solution can help recruiting professionals ‘be the grease’?

There are several ways we think the right technology can help recruiters, here are just a two small examples of how Crelate strives to help reduce friction and save you time as we humbly strive to help you “be the grease”!

Paste Parser

When creating a new contact, simply paste an address, signature block or bit of contact information into the “Paste Parser” and we will fill out several fields for you! Then hit “OK” and you will be taken to the contact record where other key items can be added to the record. 

Chrome Parser Tool

While browsing the web, or viewing a candidates profile on your favorite sites or their profile pages, Crelate’s Chrome Extension makes it easy to grab key candidate/contact information.  Simply click the Crelate button in your browser and watch as Crelate automatically parses the candidates information, including profile pictures. Then it’s simple for you to edit and import all of the demographic info into Crelate. Similar to the paste parser the Chrome Extension will create a new candidate and populate the information from the candidate record from the profile page. 

These are just a couple of the ways that an ATS/TRMS should ‘be the grease’ between customers and candidates and, therefore, allow recruiting professionals to have all the time they need to build relationships in their communities. The key take-away is your ATS/TRMS should be useful for quickly importing candidates from a contact record. This will, no doubt, aid in fostering long-term relationships with customers and candidates and help make both customers and candidates successful.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jason S. Capps is a Content Marketer at Crelate, Inc. Crelate provides professional recruiters amazing talent relationship management software solutions. Jason has a Ph.D. in sociology and blogs about recruiting and HR technology (crelate.com). You can also follow on Twitter @CRELATE.