Recruiting staff in a hurry can often prove tricky – especially if various people from across the organizational hierarchy have to get involved. One thing that can help is implementing an ATS system that is able to do a lot of the heavy-lifting for you and line you up with just a few high-quality candidates in a short space of time.
The benefits of using ATS when looking to find temporary staff
Everything is now more connected than ever before and the Coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a huge shift to remote working for many. From the perspective of recruiting temporary staff, geographical restrictions are removed/reduced if you can offer remote working and this means that, theoretically, you could hire anyone from anywhere in the world to help with your short-term needs.
An applicant tracking system (ATS) can be used to advertise your organization and its current vacancies to the world. This also increases the chances of finding someone who has the requisite skills/knowledge and who is available at short notice.
ATS software now routinely utilises AI to help in the shortlisting and testing of candidates. This can significantly reduce your HR/Recruitment involvement in these stages – meaning they only need to step in to interview and select candidates. This saves time and money.
Some of the other main benefits of using an ATS and temporary recruitment software are that it can widen the talent pool, increase brand awareness, and enable you to find suitable candidates and get them into the role quickly. This last element is especially relevant to temporary recruitment.
Recruiting temporary staff
So why do organizations still use temporary staff? Well, there are several reasons.
Firstly, the flexibility that it gives is vital. Being able to hire temporary staff for short periods at short-notice means that organisations are able to deal with a wide range of scenarios including urgent projects, a short-term spike in business activity, illness (short and longer term), maternity leave, holidays, and sudden departure.
Secondly, hiring temporary staff can benefit the existing workforce. Adding new team members to help with the workload can boost spirits, reduce stress, and help prevent burnout.
Thirdly is the aspect of ‘try before you buy’. Hiring candidates on a temporary basis gives you a great chance to see how they work, how they fit in with the culture, and how they get along with colleagues. If they fit in well, it opens up the possibility that you could take them on permanently in the future.
Finally, with temporary staff, depending on the role and the contract, they may be some cost savings in pensions, NI, health benefits etc. This enables the provision of extra short-term capacity without breaking the bank.
Temporary recruitment software
Software that can be used to help you find temporary staff includes applicant tracking system software, e-recruitment software (including CRM systems), and job board software. Temporary recruitment software is specially-designed to make things much easier for recruiters/HR professionals.
