Chris Bogh |
The sixth annual National Apprentice Week takes place this month, and Eploy, following the launch of their new mobile-enhanced web platform - Eploy Connect - has made it even easier for companies to take advantage of the government funded scheme.
Eploy Connect gives companies looking to manage an apprenticeship recruitment drive a flexible and fully integrated mobile and social solution that is in tune with the communication needs of the younger generation.
Unlike more traditional recruitment practices, the selection of individuals for apprenticeships is a little different and no less challenging. For the number of opportunities on offer, there is likely to be a high number of applicants which need to be dealt with efficiently and fairly within a short time - often within defined dates - so setup time and effective execution is paramount.
Therefore the main challenges for any business looking to recruit apprentices are setting up a flexible system that can co-ordinate online and offline activities when arranging appointments or coordinating assessment centre openings, so flexibility is very important in the software you are using.
Plus recruiters now have to factor in that the vast majority of apprenticeship candidates will now be accessing career websites via their mobile devices, and using social media sites, SMS and emails to communicate and share information.
Statistics show that 2.8 million job seekers access job listings via mobile technology every month; so to attract the best talent, companies need to embrace mobile within their recruitment strategy.
With Eploy Connect, candidates are offered a more advanced level of technical sophistication and social integration from a company's career website, as well as enhanced accessibility to all of the features in Eploy's applicant tracking and talent management software from their mobile and tablet devices.
With this new technology, we wanted to give our customers more than just a 'mobile friendly' site. It's not just about being able to register and search for jobs, its about being 'mobile enhanced', giving all users of the system - recruiters, hiring managers and candidates - a full desktop experience while on the move.
The new web platform opens up the system to be even more flexible and intuitive. This includes fully mobile career portals enabling candidates to not only register but manage their entire application and career, from registration to interview booking and even compliance and on boarding activities, via smartphone or tablet devices.
Candidates using the fully mobile career portals can not only register their details, but manage their entire application and career, from registration to interview booking and even compliance and on boarding activities, via smartphone or tablet devices.
The additional advantage is that Eploy Connect seamlessly integrates with any existing corporate website, creating a consistent corporate image and a more unified and fluid experience for candidates.
The system also features advanced automated SMS / email / social communication tools and interactive social and referral links, which are all integrated into the core system and managed and tracked at source within the software.
Also new is a mobile intelligent mapping and postcode location service that links to a company's career portal / website via Eploy and Google Maps.These search and interactive map facilities help a candidate search for jobs by location and find their nearest apprenticeship scheme / assessment centre.
Specifically for apprenticeship clients, we have also linked psychometric tests directly into the system for ease of assessment, added online interview scheduling, and created customised registration forms and custom screens using prompts, with the results converted into a professional PDF summary for printing or emailing. The system also has a multitude of standard reporting features to monitor equal opportunities policies such as ethnic diversity, or to evaluate the success of advertising channels.
These time-saving features and enhanced system capabilities allow the management of the selection process to be carried out efficiently in a collaborative, transparent environment. The system centrally links recruitment portals, social media, and communication via email and SMS into a single automated system.