Many companies are opting to use vendor management systems in their hiring process. They are advantageous as they provide a centralized location for HR or TA teams to post job descriptions and receive resumes from recruiters. Likewise, they allow for blind resume screening without giving preferential treatment to one specific agency.
Yet, using a VMS does not ensure that your recruiters will send you the right resumes. Job descriptions provide a foundation to begin the search process, but largely lack critical information that sets up your recruiters for success. Some companies will host ‘standing’ calls every so often to answer questions about the job description. But in reality, they aren’t enough.
Typically, when a staffing agency works directly with a company, there is a client intake call where the staffing agency can ensure that their interpretation of the job description matches what has been written by the company. Additionally, this is the time when recruiters can dive into the job beyond the responsibilities and experience requirements.
This intake call is critical to getting to the end goal – using your staffing partner efficiently to fill the job with the right person first. If you want your VMS providers to be effective, the call process needs to be driven by the recruiters.
What kind of additional information do we need to be more effective?
Location
This needs to be crystal clear. Is the job remote, but candidates who are local will be prioritized? If time is required in the office – who is paying for the travel? What does hybrid mean to your specific organization? Flexible work options have become a top priority for job seekers. Those questions need to be spelled out to your recruiting partner.
How the employee will spend their time
What is the breakdown of the employee’s time? How much of their position will be focused on management, analysis, development, etc.? It can be inferred that a junior or mid-level position is largely hands-on. Yet, as people move into more experienced roles, the proportion of the time they spend on development versus management may shift greatly
Spell out the specific skills that you need this person to have to be successful. We need to know the exact experience needed and within which systems.
Concise Job Description
Making a job description longer does not help your VMS partners. In fact, including every detail will likely reduce your chances of finding a new hire effectively because no one will match the description profile exactly. Keep the description concise, direct, and spell out exactly what you need.
Compensation & Benefits
Many organizations have very little wiggle room in their budgets, particularly as salaries have become more openly transparent to job seekers. Thus, there is a lot of value in the compensation and benefits. What is the 401k match? How much are the bonuses? When are they paid out? How do reviews work? Can you negotiate an early review for additional compensation? How much do base-level health benefits cost to the employee?
There is clearly value in using a VMS system. However, the goal is to use it more efficiently to deliver hiring results more effectively and efficiently.
