The second installment of our Feature Spotlights from our Fall Product Release is here. Today we unpack our Slack App integration which allows Hiring Managers and Recruiters to engage all departments in the hiring process by bringing important information to them on the platform where they already work – in this case, Slack.

One complaint that is common among Recruiters and Hiring Managers is that it’s hard to get departments outside HR to engage in the hiring process. One reason for the poor adoption rate of hiring practices in other departments is because other departments aren’t using the same platforms as the Recruiters and Hiring Managers.

It makes sense that a Hiring Manager or a Recruiter would be on the SmartRecruiters Talent Acquisition Suite all day fielding Candidates but a Software Developer probably isn’t doing most of their work or communication within the SmartRecruiters platform. But, if they’re on Slack they’re already in the SmartRecruiters Ecosystem.

Now team members don’t have to be on our platform specifically, to be part of our Ecosystem. That means the full power of SmartRecruiters can be delivered to the platform where you already work and communicate – and for most work teams that platform is Slack.

We believe hiring is a team sport and our Slack App helps get the right people on your team.

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Now you can go to the SmartRecruiters platform and enable Slack (slide 1). Once Slack is enabled, it’s easy to export candidate information to coworkers. Just create a channel by clicking ‘open hiring team channel in Slack’ (slide2). And you’ll see the channel appear in your Slack (slide 3). Then simply export the Candidate’s information (slide 4). Once the channel is set up you can invite your colleagues to contribute (slide 5).   

Once the information is in Slack, it will be easy to locate. SmartRecruiters’ links will automatically ‘unfurl’ so no one is scrolling up and down trying to guess which link is which. Unfurling is a Slack term which essentially means a link will appear with a basic preview instead of a long string of letters and numbers which clutter a conversation and make it hard to locate information.

Think of the difference as if you were going to post a photo of yourself winning a 5k  online but instead of your photo showing up on your feed there was only an HTML script. Would anyone click on that script to see the photo? Probably not. So when you showed up to work the next day, you would wonder why no one congratulated you on your victory. The reason, of course, would be is that no one would have made sense of the random link you posted.

If you want to communicate important information you need to make it accessible.

You don’t want to show up to an interview and realize that your Hiring Team didn’t receive the relevant information about the Candidates because either they aren’t monitoring the platforms to which your posting or the links you shared have ended up in a jumble.

Let’s say I’m a Hiring Manager who is deciding on 6 candidates to interview for a Junior PR position from 20 Applicants. I know that whomever I hire will end working closely with my VP of Marketing and also with the Product Manager so I want to make sure I get them involved in the process at an early stage. I’m looking at their schedules for the coming week and both are jam packed so instead of delaying the hiring process by trying to meet in person, I can create a Slack channel with all the relevant information. My super busy marketing VP and Product Manager can review updates on their phone between tasks and I can fill the position sooner.

A week passes I have an initial phone interview with 6 applicants and then my VP of Marketing and my Product manager have video interviews with 3 that I’ve narrowed down. From Those 3 we bring in 2 for a final face to face interview. Before the meeting, I’m able to quickly review again all the notes from our Slack channel and find the final 2 resumes quickly through the unfurled links that are already on the channel so I come to the meeting with their individual profiles fresh in my mind.

We as a hiring team are torn because both candidates are so great! So we add the VP of Global Operations to our channel to weigh in. They are able to locate the links to the candidate’s profile and Resume without a problem and even though they’re en route to a conference they’re able to give us their input right away because Slack sent them notifications and we send an offer!

With everyone involved, we know we’ve made a good hire and me, as the Hiring Manager, can rest easy knowing that I’m not onboarding someone unsure of whether they’ll be a good fit with their team.

When we look at it from the Candidate side it’s better as well. They are joining a team with which they’re already familiar. Imagine walking to a new job not knowing anyone – that’s scary and stressful! Now imagine starting a new job where you’ve met with the team and gotten to know the work culture – that’s exciting!

SmartRecruiters believes that hiring success can be a matter of form when you engage all the resources at your disposal, namely the colleagues who have a stake in the new Hire. Bring the information to them and make it easy for everyone to engage. They’re already in the ecosystem with Slack – they just don’t know it yet.

As part of our Fall Product Release, we go in-depth on individual features to explore the full power of each function. First off we bring you our integration with Google Job Search. Since the launch of this new search capability at the end of June 2017 we’re already seeing a 20% bump in completed applications for SmartRecruiters’ customers and with Phase 2 hitting the stage in late August 2017 you can only expect those numbers to go up.

Google figured out something that most of us already know. Searching for a job online is a dusty cluttered attic of duplicated and out of date posts that leave both Recruiters and Candidates shaking their heads.

For Candidates, it’s frustrating because it’s hard to locate real, and up to date job postings but it’s not good for Recruiters either. Recruiters have a hard time pinpointing where their click traffic is coming from because Candidates are being redirected to third-party job boards. Hiring managers lose out too as Candidates are less likely to complete a job application when the process is delayed by redirecting.

“So, amidst a great deal of buzz, Google launched a job search function in June 2017 where Candidates will be presented with a curated job board based on their search.”

So, amidst a great deal of buzz, Google launched a job search function in June 2017 where Candidates will be presented with a curated job board based on their search. The job board cues automatically when your search involves keywords like ‘job’, ‘work’ or ‘career’. The job board will collate all the results to include different titles used for the same job for instance ‘Sales Manager’ might also be called ‘Client Supervisor’.

Google Job Search has already begun to change the way Candidates connect with jobs. Cutting into the market share of third-party job boards by directing Candidates straight to company websites.

“Phase 2, launched in the US at the end of August 2017, is allowing Candidates to search for jobs by commute time.”

Phase 2, launched in the US at the end of August 2017, is allowing Candidates to search for jobs by commute time. Let’s say a designer wants a job within a 20-minute bike ride of their house – they can include these criteria in their search to narrow down their results.  Parents could use this tool as well if they want to find a job close to their children’s school.

So what do these new parameters mean to a Recruiter? Spoiler: more visible job posts, greater source tracking abilities, and a higher number of completed applications. Here’s why.

Let’s say I’m a Recruiter for Mr Woofs Dog Walking Inc. and I’m looking for Dog Walkers. When I  post a job in SmartRecruiters I have the option to put in an exact street address for the job. When I take the time to enter this extra info in my job posting, my jobs are more likely to come up in the search because Google is going to give preference to the job posting with the most information.

“My SmartRecruiters job post will also include an embedded Google Map for the Candidate’s convenience which is just one more way we are considering the experience of the applicant.”

My SmartRecruiters job post will also include an embedded Google Map for the Candidate’s convenience which is just one more way we are considering the experience of the applicant.

Let’s say that some potential Dog Walker Candidates searched ‘Dog Companion’ or ‘Canine Whisperer’. That’s not a problem! My job would still surface in the search because, thanks to the AI Google is implementing in their Job Search Function, they know that these Candidates are probably also interested in my Dog Walker post.

So my jobs are coming up higher on Google Job Search, I’m getting clicks, and I can see where those clicks are coming from because Candidates aren’t being redirected to different websites to actually find the post – which then, in turn, allows me to use the full force of Google sourcing analytics. 

Next step is getting more of those clicks to turn into completed applications. The number of completed applications has increased by 20% since Google Job Search launched at the end of June and this is without the implementation of phase 2 which includes commuting search parameters. When the job search is smooth and intuitive it only makes sense that applications increase.

“Expect more integrations as Google Job Search develops as we are currently 1 of only 3 companies able to offer the added job posting criteria which enable all these posting perks.”

The only downside is that Google Job Search isn’t fully up and running outside the US so for our customers outside the States this is something to look forward to in the near future. In the meantime, customers outside the US can still use street addresses and embedded Google Maps, and when Google Job Search launches in other countries, the feature will be enabled automatically as we are currently 1 of only 3 companies able to offer the added job posting criteria which enable all these posting perks.

The Google Job Search integration is all a part of the larger ecosystem we are creating this Fall where you can work where you work best while still enjoying the advanced power of the SmartRecruiters Talent Acquisition Software.