7 Valuable Recruiter Tools by Function

Key takeaways

Recruiter tools are software platforms that help talent acquisition professionals source top candidates, manage talent pipelines, conduct interviews, and make hiring decisions more efficiently.

• Recruiters often work with a tech stack that includes an applicant tracking system (ATS), sourcing platform, and recruiting CRMs, among other key tools.

• In fact, modern recruiters often use multiple integrated tools to manage high candidate volumes, track engagement, and improve hiring speed and quality.

• You can evaluate recruiter tools based on your hiring volume, team size, and recruiting goals to build a tech stack that supports efficient and data-informed hiring.

Learn more about the most critical tools recruiters use daily and how they work together in a modern hiring workflow. Afterward, develop a clear understanding of the key concepts, processes, and best practices used by recruiters to support organizational hiring needs with the ADP AIRS® Entry-Level Recruiter Professional Certificate.

What do recruiters use tools for?

Hiring the right candidates is a crucial piece to any company's success. Recruiters are responsible for identifying and interviewing applicants, among many other responsibilities, and they use numerous tools to support their work.

Recruiters often use tools to:

• Source candidates: Making sure job postings get seen by the best talent means identifying the ideal platforms to share a posting on, and even reaching out to prospective candidates who haven't thought to apply.

• Manage applications: High-volume applications have become the standard and recruiters need a way to manage the amount of submissions they receive.

• Schedule interviews: Recruiters often navigate multiple vacancies, and typically speak with more applicants than the hiring manager will eventually interview.

• Assess skills: It's important to have ways to evaluate and validate a candidate's technical skills.

Valuable recruiter tools by function

We've broken down the most crucial aspects of a recruiter's work to outline what tools are available to support those efforts.

1. Applicant tracking system (ATS)

Given the high number of applications that most postings now get, an applicant tracking system (ATS) is a critical recruiting tool. It's used to manage job postings, resumes, interview stages, and hiring workflows.

With applicants, an ATS can help you identify top candidates based on prior work experience and skills. It can also help you address unconscious bias by filtering out demographic information. 

Examples:

• Greenhouse

• Lever

• iCIMS

• Ashby

2. Sourcing

Even when you post a really compelling job listing, the right candidates might not discover it—or feel like applying. Sourcing tools can help you find and engage passive candidates.

Examples:

• LinkedIn Recruiter

• SeekOut

• HireEZ

• Gem

• Entelo

3. Recruiting CRM

With recruitment CRM, you can develop and sustain talent pools. At its core, CRM helps you maintain long-term, positive relationships with current and potential candidates and those you've previously engaged. It sends customized messages to your talent pool, collects survey feedback, and generates HR analytics reports.

Examples:

• Jobvite

• Yellow

• Beamery

• Avature

• Gem

• Greenhouse CRM

4. Interview scheduling

When you're responsible for filling multiple roles and screening numerous candidates per role, having an interview scheduling tool can reduce the back-and-forth that might arise during initial communication and automate coordination.

Examples:

• Calendly

• GoodTime

• Paradox

• Microsoft Bookings

5. Video interviewing

There may be instances where conducting an initial phone screen with all potential candidates isn't a feasible use of your time. Video interviewing software allows for asynchronous interviewing and can help you gather enough information to determine whether to move a candidate on to the next step in the process. What's more, many video interviewing tools integrate seamlessly with ATS to make hiring more efficient.

Examples:

• Spark Hire

• Willo

• TestGorilla

6. Candidate assessment

Candidate assessment tools enable you to make strategic hiring decisions by offering reliable data about a candidate's skill set and culture fit. You can often customize the assessment to match the role you’re trying to fill. For example, a sales position might require simulations of customer interactions, while a content writer role requires a test article.

Examples:

• HackerRank

• Codility

• Criteria Corp

• HireVue

7. Recruitment marketing

Recruitment marketing encompasses the strategies recruiters use to attract and engage potential candidates before they apply for a job. It combines employer branding, targeted outreach, content marketing, and candidate relationship management to build awareness and interest among both active and passive job seekers.

You can use recruitment marketing platforms to promote job opportunities, showcase company culture, nurture talent pipelines, and improve the overall candidate experience, ultimately helping organizations compete for top talent in a crowded hiring market.

Examples:

• Phenom

• SmashFly

• Yello

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming HR by expanding the functionality and features of many key tools. Learn more about how AI is being used across all HR areas.

What does an ideal recruiter tech stack look like?

The tools you use as a recruiter will depend on the size of the company. A typical mid-sized recruiting team might use:

• Core ATS with reporting functionality

• Sourcing platform

• CRM

• Scheduling tool

• Assessment tool

Recruiter tools vs. HR tools

Recruiter tools are a unique subset of the larger category of HR tools. Let's look at how they compare.

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