How Cloud Computing and Mobility Are Changing The Hiring Process

Cloud computing might be commonplace now, but it is still revolutionizing many traditional industries. One of those sectors is the hiring and recruiting space, where cloud computing has made it easier for your company to connect with candidates.

With your recruitment management system in the cloud, you can add and view candidate profiles at any time and from anywhere with an Internet connection. This allows team members to participate in the hiring workflow from anywhere and even recruit on the go using a mobile device. Cloud computing makes finding and organizing information for making critical recruitment decisions easier and faster than ever.

Getting the most from your recruitment process now often means leveraging the cloud. Here are a few ways cloud computing can enhance your hiring:

A Remote Worker Recruitment Solution

Virtual workforces are gaining steam, and seem to be in the news everywhere you look. The outcry over Marissa Mayer’s curtailing work-from-home privileges for Yahoo employees shows the increasing importance of the virtual workforce in our professional lives.

Clearly, many experts see telecommuting as an important element of the evolving workplace. Whether your company uses telecommute days as a carrot to lure in talented candidates or your organization is completely virtual, cloud computing can present a hiring solution.

For these virtual companies, a next-gen recruitment system built for the cloud can be a good way to collaborate with the whole team, even if this team is scattered across several geographical regions. Now your workers do not have to remain in one static location to collaborate. Thanks to the cloud, your team can work together whether everyone works remotely or just on different floors of the same building.

Going Mobile

Mobile is the future and you only need to look at the numbers to see why. According to the Pew Center for Research, 87 percent of Americans own a cell phone — with 45 percent now in proud possession of a smartphone. Meanwhile, 68 percent of smartphone users visit social networks from their device. This shows how cloud computing and social recruiting can go hand-in-hand.

Thanks to cloud-based applicant tracking systems, you can now recruit from a smartphone or tablet, meaning even the busiest employer can evaluate candidates on the move. Open positions can be pushed out on the same social media channels your smartphone-obsessed candidates are checking. Plus, you can store relevant candidate profiles and notes in the cloud, making it a snap for everyone on your team to collaborate remotely.

Keeping Control

If virtual offices are trending, than social media proliferation has also turned ‘privacy’ into a buzzword. Perhaps one of the biggest concerns about cloud technology is the perceived lack of security. If your whole team can collaborate around a hire, what’s to stop someone else from seeing your proprietary information? This is why it is vitally important to keep control of your cloud-based ATS system.

Access controls work to keep your team on task, while ensuring team members only see the information they have clearance to view. For instance, someone with administrator access might be able to post a job description, while someone with an interviewer status might only be able to view candidate profiles. Whether your team is made up of internal workers or outside recruiters, strict access controls are necessary to maintain privacy and keep everyone on schedule.

Simpler Employee Referrals

It is likely only about 23 percent of your current workforce is referring talented members of their network. However, studies have found up to 60 percent of your employees would be willing to make referrals if it was made easier to do so. Obviously companies need to improve their employee referral processes, especially since a 2012 survey found referrals to be the number-one source of external hires.

By putting employee referrals in the cloud, you are making it much easier for great employees to share open positions with their networks. Social media sharing is a great way for smart employees to give your open positions a signal boost across their various social media circles.

Thanks to cloud computing, employees can now share an open job with a talented member of their network from wherever life takes them. Since referrals are now portable, employees are more likely to refer a connection from their network as soon as they can think of a talented member who might be a good fit for the position.

There’s a war for talent raging and growing companies are eager to adopt newer capabilities that help them solve critical problems while giving them an edge over the competition. Cloud computing is a great way to revamp and streamline your entire recruitment process and brings agility and efficiency to the recruitment workflow in an environment where mobility plays an increasingly important role.

What are some ways you use cloud computing in your recruiting process? Share in the comments!