6 Tips to Speed Up the Candidate Process

As a recruitment agency, you know that the candidate process, from application to contract, takes a lot of time and manual work. There's a lot of back-and-forth calling and emailing between the recruiter and the candidate to arrange everything. How do you make the intake process for new candidates faster and more efficient? Six examples from practice.

1. Micro-conversion from registration and job fairs

Registration forms are a handy tool for converting a lot of new talent in a short time at an event, such as a job fair or an afterwork. It's advisable to link your registration form to your ATS, so candidates go straight into the ATS and you avoid manual data entry.

2. Automatically complete the profile

This tip solves two problems at once: filling in missing information about the candidate and eliminating unsuitable applicants. Immediately after applying, send an automatic email with a link to a form with targeted questions to complete the candidate's profile.

3. Record preferences

Collect information about the candidate's preferences, such as maximum travel distance and availability for different shifts, via an automatic email right after applying. This helps make the right match and prevents unnecessary communication about unsuitable vacancies.

4. Efficiently requesting documents

At many agencies, the recruiter asks for documents such as diplomas, ID, or certificates by email or during the interview, and then manually adds them to the ATS. That's not GDPR-compliant and creates a lot of administrative work.

Recruitment agency Synergie does it differently: the agency automatically sends the candidate an email asking them to upload missing documents via a link — using their phone's camera if needed.

"The great thing is that the candidate only needs to open the camera on their phone and scan the documents. This data is linked directly to the right profile and the recruiter receives a notification." — Didier De Winne, Synergie

5. Requesting availability

The Groningen-based staffing agency Immens has, through this approach, a correct and up-to-date availability date for 96% of candidates in the ATS — with a simple approach: automatically sending a message to the temp worker saying "We have this date listed as your availability date. Is this no longer correct? Click here to update it."

6. Scheduling the interview

Give candidates the option to schedule their own interview via a link to an online calendar system, for example sent automatically after the candidate completes an assessment or uploads a document.