Recruitment Software: Pitching the HR Spend

by Riia O’Donnell

You’ve done it a million times – pitched an idea for a product or service that would make HR’s life easier, and the answer is always the same: no room in the budget. You’ve messed with the numbers, squeezed out a few dollars here or there to fit it in, but the word from above is always the same: a big fat NO. A great resource for HR  is recruitment software. But many HR professionals have never been trained to pitch an idea to management. It’s an important skill to cultivate: find out how.

First, is the spend worth it? How will it make you more productive, work better, or benefit the department or company? If there’s a value in it, then there’s a value that can be calculated. Here’s just one example of recruitment software that returns on its investment immediately:

Unfettered Applicant Screening

Some estimate the average recruiter spends 4 to 5 minutes reading individual resumes: others put that time as low as 6 seconds. But good recruiters actually do read resumes to find good candidates: at a low estimate, 1 minute per resume. The average opening gets 250 applicants. Recruiters are now spending 4 hours just looking for candidates. Next, hiring managers read those resumes you pass on. At each of your rates of hourly pay, this what it costs just to screen.

You haven’t scheduled a single interview, but you’ve invested unrecoverable resources. Factor in that up to 58% of resumes have some type of lie in them. The odds are, better than half the applicants you select to interview will be disqualified. So you start the process all over again. More unrecoverable resources. This is the cost of unfettered applicant flow: easily measurable against available hiring tools and services.

Using Rankdone Seamlessly with Recruitment Software

If you found a tool to eliminate screening and take you directly to only the most qualified candidates, you’d use it immediately. You’d save time and resources, and  move on to value-added HR functions.  Enter Rankdone. Rankdone allows you to skirt the screening process almost entirely. Applicants are not directed  to your inbox, but to a test that quantifies their skills before you read a single resume. They are rated by their scores: you choose the cream of the crop to interview. The costly, time-wasting screening process is eliminated. Go directly to qualified candidates before you lift a finger (or a briefcase full of resumes you’re taking home to read). The cost/benefit ratio is clear: you save money screening using Rankdone. The bonus: only qualified applicants score interviews – saving you even more time and money. Rankdone works on its own, or integrates seamlessly with almost any recruitment software you use – job boards, applicant tracking systems, and more.

Present Solutions, Not Problems

When it comes time to pitch an HR purchase, have your data ready. Be prepared to list the all the costs involved in the current way of doing things. Then show the reduced costs or savings that could be gained using a new process. Rankdone is an excellent example, but the model works with any justifiable HR spend. Don’t just ask for a new product or service: present the relevant data when you make your pitch. Showing the solution benefits the bottom line gives you a better chance of success.

While you’re pitching a purchase that could save time, remember that time could be used on more productive HR tasks, like staff development. Successfully pitching an HR spend isn’t difficult when you’re ready with the facts. And a successful pitch could benefit HR as well as the entire company.