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Wondering how to improve recruitment? A good recruiting process isn’t a luxury but a necessity for your organization’s growth. And, the first stage of the recruitment process, the application stage, determines the outcomes of the rest of the stages. This stage involves writing the job description and job posting. And posting it on relevant job boards.
So in this article, we’ll share steps on how to improve recruitment with JD software by ensuring a good job description management process.
The Foundation of Effective Recruitment Process: Writing Good Job Descriptions
To boost your recruitment process, you need to understand the basic elements. And depending on how you structure your recruitment cycle, you’ll have the application stage as your first step.
The application stage includes building the job description and job ad. And this makes effective job descriptions the foundation of a good hiring cycle.
So, ensure your job description has some of these important elements:
- Clearly outlined responsibilities
- A well-formatted JD that’s easy to read
- Inclusive JD
- SEO optimized JD
- Details on the type of potential candidates you’re looking for. Including the skills and qualifications.
And this is where job description software comes in to simplify your work. Read on to understand the basics of a job description tool.
What is job description management software?
Job description software helps businesses of any size build, manage, and store job descriptions.
These platforms create a place where all recruitment team members can work together on writing job descriptions. This enhances a simplified collaboration and job description workflow process.
Typically a good job description tool should have key features such as:
- Automation of writing job descriptions
- A job description library
- Text analysis for boosting job descriptions
- Custom job description templates
- ATS integration
- Collaborative creation, editing, revision, and updating of job descriptions
- SEO optimization
- Analytics and Reporting
Writing Consistent Job Descriptions
Writing job descriptions is time-consuming. But it’s an important step in the recruitment process. A good job description is inclusive, consistent, and easy to understand.
So a good job description software improves your recruitment process by speeding up your job description creation process this way:
- The job description management software leverages AI automation to guide you through the JD building, updating, modifying, and approval steps.
- Provision of pre-populated content: This way, you don’t start building your job description from scratch because the job description tool leverages content libraries and pre-existing templates to auto-populate certain job description areas.
- It leverages advanced intelligent AI suggestions: The job description tool can highlight the right job title name, keywords to use, and job title length and check any essential JD fields you’ve forgotten to add.
- A cloud-based JD library: A space for building your job descriptions. This way you increase your JD creation speed because you don’t waste time scrolling through different documents.
For instance, Ongig’s Text Analyzer speeds up your JD creation process this way:
- Guided AI-Assisted Job Description Creation: With Ongig’s job description Text Analyzer, building JDs from scratch is simple. Input your job title and the tool leverages AI to finish writing the draft.
- Personalized Templates Builder — Use easy templates to build your job descriptions quickly.
- Efficient User Management — The job description software lets you have as many users as you want with different user privileges for building your JDs (such as Editor, Administrator, Auditor, and Editor+).
Job Description Content Optimization:
- Bias Minimization: Ongig’s Job Description Text Analyzer’s “Optimize Content” feature reduces gender bias to ensure your job descriptions are inclusive.
- JD Score Improvement: You’ll see your JD score improve as Ongig’s Text Analyzer’s AI perfects your JD draft.
- Exclusionary Term Deletion: The software suggests any exclusionary and discriminative language by removing any identified “exclusionary phrases and words.”
Centralized Job Description Storage
Every recruiter hates having scattered JDs.
JD software simplifies this process by offering a centralized location to store your job descriptions. This ensures the JDs are kept in a single space. And it’s easier to check that they all follow standardized content guidelines, formats, language, and best practices.
The HR team can access, update, and maintain all the job descriptions in one location. Plus this process enhances collaboration among recruitment team members and other stakeholders involved in writing and updating job descriptions. Multiple users can access and edit these JDs as needed.
For instance, at Ongig, we provide a centralized cloud-based job library. This solution saves your hiring team time when creating new job postings and streamlines your job description workflow.
Customized JD Templates
Job description tools provide personalized templates for building job descriptions during recruitment.
By using the templates, the recruitment team can easily create content guidelines, terminology, and standardized language for job descriptions.
For instance, you can adjust the job title, responsibilities, qualifications, and position type to fit your business requirements. And, if your organization is growing, restructuring, or changing your talent pipeline, you can immediately create or update your JDs to address the changes.
Plus with the pre-defined structure and format nature of the templates for creating standard job descriptions, you’ll manage to save energy and time for other important recruitment tasks such as the interview process. So instead of starting from scratch each time you have open roles, you can quickly use a relevant template from your job description software and adjust it to fit the job opening requirements.
Ongig’s software scans your job ads for these problems and helps build automated templates for different job openings so you can build consistent content across your open roles.
Compliance with Legal Requirements
There are instances when an organization can be sued for breaking employment law. And, these problems sometimes start with the recruitment process of writing a job description that doesn’t adhere to labor laws.
This is where job description management software comes in. Some job description tools adhere to industry and legal standards to prevent legal risks. And maintain transparency in your recruitment process.
Image Source: Wesley Tingey on Unsplash
Compliance for storing and managing job descriptions is important for different reasons:
- Fair Labor Standards (FLSA): Job descriptions must correctly reflect the responsibilities and classification (exempt, non-exempt status) of the job opening defined by the FLSA Act. Failure to comply can lead to legal consequences, such as wage violations.
- Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Compliance: Job descriptions must adhere to EEO regulations to ensure they aren’t discriminating against candidates because of protected characteristics such as gender, age, religion, disability, and race. Failure to comply can lead to lawsuits and damaged reputation for your organization.
- Americans with Disabilities (ADA): A job description should not exempt candidates living with disabilities from applying to a job opening. The job description should specify the important elements of the job and write any accommodations required. Non-compliance leads to discrimination claims and legal lawsuits.
- Data Protection and Privacy Laws: Job descriptions sometimes may contain sensitive applicant information such as skills, work history, and educational background. Compliance is important to ensure the information is not shared with any third party.
- Immigration Laws: Job description requirements related to work authorization should comply with immigration regulations. Non-compliance results in difficulties recruiting and retaining foreign employees, legal challenges, and penalties.
- Trade Secrets and Confidential Information: Job descriptions may include proprietary confidential details about the organization’s services, operations, and products. Compliance with confidentiality agreements and trade secret laws is important to protect these details from misuse.
- Record-keeping requirements: Legal employment laws may dictate the timeline for storing job descriptions, the storage manner, the format storage, and any other recordkeeping obligations. Compliance ensures your organization can provide correct documentation during a legal dispute or audit.
Quick Talent Acquisition
If during your recruitment process, you find that your job descriptions are:
- Full of jargon and technical language
- Too long, poorly formatted, and inconsistent
- Missing crucial details such as salary and benefits
Then, you need job description software to guide you on how to improve recruitment by writing consistent job descriptions.
Unreadable job descriptions prevent any ideal candidate from applying to your job postings. So, your recruitment team needs to write a readable job description. And contains all important sections, such as job responsibilities, salary, and location.
Image Source: Amy Hirschi on Unsplash
This is how job description management software helps:
- Suggesting the right length of your JDs
Most job descriptions use longer sentences than necessary. Good job description software will suggest you use fewer sentences to improve readability. For instance, 1 to 2 sentences work well.
- Finding complex words in your job descriptions
Some job descriptions are full of complex language that makes it difficult for candidates to finish reading.
For instance, “in order to” is an overused adverb in JDs that doesn’t provide any value.
So a good job description software will highlight the complex terms. And provide words for replacement.
Read also: 15 Easy Ways to Have More Consistent Job Descriptions
Time Saving Tools
If you want to know how to improve recruitment by automating the repetitive tasks of JD writing, here’s how job description software can save your time as a hiring manager:
- Improved Collaboration: Job description tools provide easy collaboration between all the recruitment team members and key organization stakeholders.
- Integration with different recruitment tools: Different job description software integrates with your organization’s other hiring tools. For instance, after writing the job description, it easily publishes the JD to your preferred job boards and social media platforms.
- Automation: The software automates all JD repetitive tasks such as building job descriptions from scratch, editing, and updating JDs.
This way, you can focus on other important aspects such as building relationships with qualified candidates. And sourcing the best candidates for your critical roles.
Consistent Employer Branding
75% of candidates consider an employer’s brand before applying for any open positions. However, building an employer brand is a complex process that requires efforts from different departments in the organization.
Image Source: Brooke Cagle on Unsplash
So here’s how to improve recruitment using a job description platform that helps you build a good employer brand:
- Good storytelling: The software can help write a job description describing your organization’s mission, values, and company culture. This way, different applicants can relate to your company and look forward to a job offer to work there.
- Build a good candidate experience: A well-written job description ensures that your candidates don’t encounter any challenges during the application stage. And this ensures they spread the word to other job seekers on how you have an easy application process.
- Consistent formatting and messaging: Job description tools ensure the consistency of your brand across all the job descriptions. And also ensures there are no grammatical errors.
With an improved employer brand, you can easily hire top talent. Hence, describe your employee value proposition well to any new hire.
Enhanced Candidate Targeting
Job description software uses advanced technology to improve your matching with the right candidates in these ways:
- SEO optimization: Job description platforms help you incorporate phrases and terms that job seekers use during the job application process to find the specific jobs they’re looking for. This way, the right candidates can easily find your job description.
- Job ad and job description distribution: Job description tools help to distribute your job ads and job descriptions to your preferred job boards. For instance, if you want your job description distributed to more women applicants, the platforms can easily do this.
- Effective skill matching: The tools use advanced AI technology to match you with quality candidates possessing the skills you’re looking for in your job description.
So you get to save costs on all your recruitment processes.
4 Best Practices to Consider When Selecting a Job Description Software
We briefly mentioned the key features to look for in a job description software. But it’s essential to consider other general factors such as:
- Ease of use
When choosing a job description tool, consider the user interface. How easy is it for any team member to use? User-friendly software will help users build, edit, and approve job descriptions without any difficulties.
- Flexibility and Customization
Look for a job description software with customizable options that suit your growing organization and departments. This will ensure you don’t search for new software once you start scaling your JDs.
- Customer Support
Look for a vendor offering good support such as a responsive customer team, user guides, and tutorials.
- Price
Consider the cost of any job description tool. Ensure the cost is within your budget but still provides value.
Read also: 10 Tips for Choosing the Best Job Description Management Software
How to Improve Recruitment: Integrating Job Description Software with Existing HR Tools
Integrating job description software with your existing HR tools is a great example of how to improve recruitment. As such, it can go a long way toward creating an efficient, smooth recruitment process. Therefore, by connecting your applicant tracking system (ATS), HRIS, and other tools, you’ll be set up to find the right people for each role faster and with less effort. Here are some best ways to make this integration seamless, helping you attract great talent and streamline your recruiting efforts.
How to Improve Recruitment: Connect with Your Applicant Tracking System
One of the best ways to start is by connecting your job description software directly to your applicant tracking system. So, this connection allows your hiring managers and talent acquisition team to create and post job adverts instantly. Thus, making it easier for potential employees to find your openings on your company website and social media sites. An integrated ATS can also help you track the average time a job stays open and identify ways to improve employee turnover rates.
How to Improve Recruitment: Enhance the Screening Process
An integration between job description software and HR tools helps you filter out job candidates who might not be the right fit for the role. It can assess both soft skills and specific qualifications, giving hiring managers confidence that they’re moving suitable candidates forward. So, this integrated screening process helps save time, especially during the phone interview and interview stage, since you’ll be focusing on top candidates right from the start. Therefore, it’s a great way to create a positive candidate experience while also improving your hiring processes.
How to Improve Recruitment: Support the Hiring and Decision-Making Stages
When all your HR tools communicate, you can streamline your recruitment strategy and ensure a smooth journey from job applicant to final decision. In addition, with insights from your job description software and ATS, hiring managers can quickly move potential hires to the next stage, whether it’s to schedule interviews or initiate background checks. So, this integration enhances effective recruitment strategies and the ability to make informed hiring decisions.
How to Improve Recruitment: Foster a Positive Experience for Current and Prospective Employees
When your HR tools work together, you’re better equipped to foster a strong employer brand. Your recruitment plan and recruitment process improvement plan will benefit from automation and the seamless sharing of data. So, this helps create positive reviews from both current employees and job candidates alike. Such a streamlined approach also supports an employee referral program, which can bring great people to your team through employee referrals.
How to Improve Recruitment: Set Your Business Up as a Great Place to Work
Integrated job description software can make your business stand out as a great place to work. It shows that you’re invested in finding the right fit for each role and in supporting work-life balance. So, in the long run, these tools will contribute to employee retention. They will also encourage new talent to view your company as a forward-thinking workplace that values recruitment process improvement.
FAQs
1. What is the Best Software for Recruitment?
The best recruiting software will allow you to solve specific challenges at different stages of your recruitment and selection process. For instance, if you want to know how to improve recruitment through writing consistent good job descriptions, look for a product specializing in the JD field. For example, Ongig’s Text Analyzer can help you with your entire job description management process.
2. Free Job Description Software for Recruitment
You won’t find a great free job description tool for recruitment. Even if you do, it’ll have some limitations. The best option is to identify your goals. After that, search for different job description software with free plans, and try it. This will help you make a good decision whether to invest.
WHY I WROTE THIS
Bad planning at any stage in your recruitment process will lead you to hire unqualified new employees. If you want to know how to improve recruitment at the first stage, then look for an efficient job description platform.
Our focus at Ongig is to help you achieve your different hiring goals by writing good job descriptions. Book a demo today to simplify your entire job description writing process.
SHOUT-OUTS:
- The Ultimate List of Employer Brand Statistics (by Linkedin)
- The Recruitment Process in 7 Steps (Plus Tips and FAQ) (by Indeed)
- 6 Stats That Will Change the Way You Write Job Posts (by Linkedin)
