In today’s competitive talent market, contingent workers generally work with multiple staffing agencies have their pick of job opportunities. That’s why making a strong first impression is crucial. A smooth and efficient application and onboarding process can be the difference between attracting top talent and losing them to the competition. Your application and onboarding practices are employees’ first look into what working for you will be like. Let’s dive into key strategies you can implement to help optimize your application and onboarding experience.
Ensure 24/7 accessibility
Your application and onboarding process must be accessible and easy to complete without agency help, 24/7/365. That means offering clear and concise tasks that can be completed on any device, at any time. Ideally, you want a solution that utilizes adaptive design and can recognize the device the applicant is on, providing the ultimate level of accessibility.
Automate credential requirements
The secret to clear and concise is the ability to dynamically build an application and onboarding package that is customized to the type of individual being hired. Nothing is more frustrating for prospective employees than being asked to complete tasks that don’t pertain to them. Doing so puts your agency’s reputation for common sense in jeopardy. A staged, rules-based approach eliminates legacy one-size fits all approach and increases candidate completion.
Rules should allow you to assign in stages, based upon a candidate’s discipline and specialty, the data, and documents you need. For example, at first expression of interest, only require the completion of a quick application that takes no more than 1-2 minutes. If a mutual decision is made to move forward, configuration in your solution should build and assign an application package that gathers only the data you need to make a hiring decision. Once a hiring decision is made, the system should allow you to move the applicant into the onboarding phase and automatically assign them the necessary tasks, tests, and documents to be fully onboarded and employed.
To successfully support this stage approach, your solution must have a credential requirement rules engine that can automate the assignment of:
- Applications with custom credential profiles
- Skills checklists
- Competency tests
- Mandatory in-services
- Electronic documents
An enterprise level solution will have its own clinical skills, competency tests, and mandatory in-service content, as well as allow you to create your own. This level of functionality is useful when a client requires specific tests and in-services to be done using their content.
If your new hire is working per diem, during onboarding, create relationships between them and the clients you intend to staff them with so that your credential requirement engine can identify and assign additional client requirements necessary to fill their shifts. If they are applying for a travel assignment, a booking against that order should trigger your credentialing process to assign additional items not collected prior to submission.
Elevate the candidate experience
Having an integrated staffing system can significantly boost your competitive edge by providing recruiters and staffers with immediate access to crucial data. Enhance your new lead reaction time with automated recruiter alerts that inform you when candidates start or complete significant milestones, and reduce dropout rates with rules-based reminders to reengage absent candidates.
Investing in the right technology can do all this and more to improve your application and onboarding experience. It also demonstrates your commitment to a positive candidate experience, ultimately leading to a more efficient and successful talent acquisition strategy.
