May 8, 2023

Why Staffing Firms Should Offer Self-Service Solutions to Their Candidates

Jan Jedlinski

Co-Founder & CEO, Candidate.ly

Finding jobs and recruiting staff has become more complex than ever. There are serious staffing shortages in many parts of the world. More people than ever before are re-evaluating their work needs and choosing to look for something new. At the same time, we’re all still trying to navigate a pandemic and some serious changes to how we live and work. 

It’s no wonder staffing companies are struggling to keep up! 

Maybe it’s time you took a leaf out of the retail industry’s playbook and created a candidate portal that offers self-service for candidates. Here’s what you should know about self-service staffing. 

We All Want to Do More Online

If you’re of a certain age, you might still remember looking for jobs in a newspaper or using a phone book. However, it’s been decades since most of us did either of those things. 

These days, whether it’s buying products, hiring a contractor or finding a new job, we want to do it all online. We want to be able to browse for information whenever we want to, and we want to have control over the process. Self-service for candidates makes it easy for people who are looking for a new job to take control of the process. 

Candidates “Interview” Companies Too

The interview and hiring process used to be very one-sided and employer centric. However, these days, candidates spend as much time as their potential employers investigating a company’s reputation, what they do, what their financial situation looks like, and even when they’ve been in the news. 

A self-service staffing candidate portal allows potential hires to find the roles that interest them and then do their research about the employer before they apply. 

If job ads on a candidate portal also includes the salary or wage range for the position, it can help to ensure that neither the company who is hiring nor any potential candidates waste their time. There’s nothing less productive than completing an extensive interview process only to find you’re way too far apart on remuneration. 

Less Hands-On Work Required

Maybe the most important reason staffing companies should be using a candidate portal for self-service for candidates is that it reduces the work your own team needs to put in. 

A well-designed and well-run candidate portal will automatically filter and refine results based on applications received. It can do the early shortlisting for your team before they ever have to look through all the unsuitable resumes to find the gems. 

If you can reduce the number of applications you need to review manually, you will be able to assist more clients and candidates at the same time, with the same staffing you have right now. That just makes good business sense. 

A Win-Win Situation

The simple fact is that many job seekers these days prefer to use candidate portals. They don’t want to email (or worse, fax) their resume to individual jobs. They want to have easy access to a portal where they can find their ideal jobs and apply quickly. 

Staffing companies who offer tools that allow self-service for candidates can get more done in the same amount of time, so they can offer better service to their clients and be more profitable. 

Finally, companies that hire staffing service providers will get a better, more targeted pool of applications thanks to advanced filtering and candidate algorithms. 

This means that when you use a candidate portal, everyone wins. 

Want to learn more?

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