Recruitment Communication in Oracle iRecruitment

An Oracle White Paper March 2009

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Table of Contents Recruitment Communication in Oracle iRecruitment ............................. 3

Introduction................................................................................................................ 3 Superior Applicant Experience:................................................................................. 3 Oracle iRecruitment R12.1: ....................................................................................... 4 Online and Integrated:................................................................................................ 5 Personalized Messages: ............................................................................................. 6 Group Messages:........................................................................................................ 7 Attachments: .............................................................................................................. 8 Contact Notes:............................................................................................................ 9 Notifications:............................................................................................................ 10 Configurable: ........................................................................................................... 11 Application Context:................................................................................................ 12 Moderator Access: ................................................................................................... 13

Distinct Advantages of the Communication Feature .............................. 14 Sharing Information:................................................................................................ 14 Social Vs Transactional ........................................................................................... 14 Record Retention ..................................................................................................... 14 Building Relationships............................................................................................. 14 Building Brand Value .............................................................................................. 14

Summary...................................................................................................... 15

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Recruitment Communication in Oracle iRecruitment

Introduction Every employer would like to be the "Employer of Choice" given most of what they could achieve depends on their ability to attract and retain key talent. Employment brand is how the talent pool feels about working with a company or the value the potential employees associate with their future job or workplace. While companies have been focusing on the brand value for their products to increase sales and revenue, the employment brand is essential to provide them the talent to nurture and deliver on their brand promise. In an age when everyone is pursuing the elusive "passive applicant", a companys employment brand is what could attract them into the recruitment process. The brand promise should be reflected in whatever the organization does. Can you imagine an "employer of choice" having a disorganized, mechanical recruitment process? The first place where the potential employee gets a feel of an organization and its employment brand promise is during the recruitment process. During recruitment, companies focus on whether the prospect matches their expectation. The most eligible applicants always are at the pedestal to do a similar evaluation about the employer. This white paper discusses the following:

Applicant experience as a key aspect that impacts the employment brand How Oracle iRecruitment R12.1 Communication feature could be leveraged to

improve the applicant experience.

Superior Applicant Experience: How the applicants are taken care of during the selection and hiring process makes them either join your company or go with the competition. A good applicant experience depends on how well the applicant is treated at the various touch points, some of which are listed below:

The Corporate Site or the Job site experience The application process Follow up on the application Interview process Offer Process On-Boarding Process

While Internet recruiting brought great efficiency to the process, many feel it took away the personal touch. The evolution of WEB 2.0 vindicates the fact that people seek to personalize the web interactions more and more.

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If you do a quick survey of your applicant experience, you will find that most of what was appreciated came from good communication and most of what the applicant disliked was poor or lack of communication. Some of it is also due to the lack of communication within the recruitment team. The applicants biggest complaint is that they did not know what is happening. They seem to be put through a black box.

Oracle iRecruitment R12.1: Recognizing the fact that communication is a key aspect of the recruitment process and absolute necessity to superior applicant engagement and applicant experience, Oracle has introduced the Communications feature in iRecruitment in 12.1 Release.

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Online and Integrated: E-Mail facility was always available in the social networking sites. Using this facility, members are in touch with each other more than they do with normal email. Messaging feature needs to be integrated within the context of recruitment or job relationship. Oracle iRecruitment provides a messaging feature within the application context. Recruiters, hiring managers, interviewers, and applicants can communicate online when they use this recruitment system. Creating a Communication Topic for the Recruiting Team:

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Personalized Messages: A Personalized message or acknowledgement is an absolute necessity in areas such as recruitment and sales. A system notification does not deliver the personal touch that is required to develop and sustain a relationship between the recruitment participants. Creating a Communication Topic for an Applicant:

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Group Messages: You can also send messages to a group of applicants or a group of interviewers. For example: you want to send the recruitment process to all applicants for a vacancy, you can send a message to all applicants of the vacancy. Sending a Communication Message to Multiple Applicants and Recruiting Team:

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Attachments: You can add additional content as attachments. You can also allow applicants to send you attachments. These attachments get scanned for viruses. Adding Attachments to Communication Messages:

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Contact Notes: Participants might call, send a fax, or meet personally and discuss. The hiring manager and recruiter can record these as contact notes. Such messages do not list any of the recipients and only the moderator can view these messages. Creating Contact Notes:

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Notifications: Youve got a message notifications are sent to grab the users attention. iRecruitment sends a system notification for every message. Users can access these notifications from their iRecruitment home page. Communication Message Notification:

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Configurable: The communication feature provides configurable options that allow recruiters and hiring managers to control the communication process and to avoid spamming. Defining Communications Properties for a Vacancy:

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Application Context: The messages are in the context of the job application. The Application Details page provides the 360o view of all the activity for an application. This page lists all the messages exchanged for that application. Candidate Communication Details Page:

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Moderator Access: Moderating communications forms an important function in the recruiting process and calls for immediate action. Providing access to view and reply to the entire log of messages, and the ability to delete messages that are confidental or contain inappropriate content is important. The person designated as the moderator gets a complete 360o view of the communication exchanges taking place with any of the applicants and can keep a close watch on the topics or messages. Moderator View of the Communication Messages:

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Distinct Advantages of the Communication Feature

Sharing Information: There is always a need for additional information. It is not enough if they are hosted on the corporate site and recruiters and hiring managers assume that their potential employees would have read through all of them. Your audience needs pointers with the context. You need to clearly articulate your value proposition. Applicants have questions regarding the recruitment process, the vacancy, and the nature of the job, clarifications and so on.

Social Vs Transactional Communicating through the recruitment system gives your applicants the experience of a social engagement similar to their social networking sites. They feel they are engaged through the web rather than transacting through the web in the recruitment process. This is very important given it is not practical for recruiters and hiring managers to do face-to-face meetings or telephonic conversations often in the global workforce scenario.

Record Retention In most of the legal issues, the communication history is what gets summoned up. It is very important to retain records of key message exchanges that happened in the recruitment process. For example, clarifications made around the job posting, clarifications made around the eligibility criteria, clarifications made around the job offer etc.

Building Relationships Your talent pool is not unlimited. It is imperative to maintain the applicant relationship irrespective of whether they meet your expectations on the given vacancy at the given point in time. It is important to maintain the positive vibes with applicants both qualified and unqualified, in an increasingly networked world. This ensures that applicants are good reference points about your company for someone in their network who may be your potential qualified candidate.

Building Brand Value Once you have a clear picture of your employment value proposition, you need to develop strong, consistent visual/verbal way of communicating the employment brand. From advertisements to internal communications and your website every component of the communication process must be consistent with your employment brand.

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Summary

Employment Brand is a key factor for success in Talent Acquisition. The employment brand should be reiterated in every stage of the employees work life and should start with the recruitment process. It is essential to leave a positive impression on those who do not meet the organizations current talent requirements. The quality of Communication in the recruitment process has a major influence on the overall applicant experience. Oracle iRecruitment customers can leverage the Communication feature in Oracle iRecruitment R12.1 to provide a social engagement experience to their applicants and create a positive impression about their companys recruitment process.

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Recruitment Communication in Oracle iRecruitment March 2009 Authors: Prem Arumugam and Balantrapu Sarma Oracle Corporation World Headquarters 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood Shores, CA 94065 U.S.A. Worldwide Inquiries: Phone: +1.650.506.7000 Fax: +1.650.506.7200 oracle.com Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved. This document is provided for information purposes only and the contents hereof are subject to change without notice. This document is not warranted to be error-free, nor subject to any other warranties or conditions, whether expressed orally or implied in law, including implied warranties and conditions of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. We specifically disclaim any liability with respect to this document and no contractual obligations are formed either directly or indirectly by this document. This document may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without our prior written permission. Oracle, JD Edwards, and PeopleSoft, are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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Recruitment Communication in Oracle iRecruitmentIntroductionSuperior Applicant Experience:Oracle iRecruitment R12.1: Online and Integrated:Personalized Messages: Group Messages: Attachments:Contact Notes:Notifications:Configurable: Application Context: Moderator Access:

Distinct Advantages of the Communication FeatureSharing Information:Social Vs TransactionalRecord RetentionBuilding RelationshipsBuilding Brand Value

Summary