5 Tips to Drive Recruiter Adoption

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5 Tips to Drive Recruiter Adoption

Transcript of 5 Tips to Drive Recruiter Adoption

5 Tips to Drive Recruiter Adoption

If you’ve recently purchased a new recruitment tool or software, the next step is to create

a plan for user adoption. According to CareerBuilder’s recent Insights Survey, nearly half

of talent acquisition professionals (46 percent) say HR is responsible for driving software

adoption within the internal recruitment team. Fortunately, we’ve got some tried-and-true

tips to help you get started.

Some tactics that have been found to be the most successful in driving adoption, according to

talent acquisition professionals include:

• Ongoing communication (55 percent)

• Ongoing training (50 percent)

• Good vendor partnership (40 percent)

• Time and experience of rollout (33 percent)

• Dedicated support from software vendor (32 percent)

• On-demand training (31 percent)

• Getting recruiter buy-in before software purchase (17 percent)

You will notice each of these reflected in the following tips to get recruiters engaged with the

tool so it becomes a natural part of their jobs.

1Get recruiters involved in choosing the tool. The key to getting recruiters to use any new

tool is to involve them in the selection process as early as possible. (Think: initial sales

meetings.) Not only will you get critical insight and feedback that will help you make the best

purchase, but you will also have the added benefit of early buy-in if they feel like they were

directly involved in choosing the tool.

Get executive buy-in. The real key to driving adoption of any new system or tool is to get

executive buy-in or a key stakeholder with authority to help support your goals. Getting them

in your corner prior to adoption is a huge win.

Define what success will look like. One of the first steps is to clearly define what adoption

will look like with your recruiters as well as the vendor. What will success look like? What

objectives are you looking to achieve? Once everyone is on the same page and is held

accountable to a set of metrics, you will have the clarity you need on what will make this a

success after implementation.

Involve your team long before you sign a contract.

2Keep key stakeholders in the loop. Bring together key stakeholders and create an internal

communication plan that spans throughout implementation and launch. This allows

recruiters and other relevant teams to feel like they are in the loop and not surprised by any

major changes down the road.

Communicate milestones. Aim to communicate regularly about milestones and progress at

the interval that makes the most sense; every two weeks or monthly are usually

good intervals.

Collect success stories. Gather recruiter success stories and hiring manager testimonials.

Share these stories when you’re ready to launch to prove the value of using the new tool.

Communicate throughout the implementation.

3Put deadlines in place. This one seems obvious, but if you don’t create a sense of urgency

around deadlines, adoption of the tool will lag — something you can’t afford. That’s why it’s

important to set clear deadlines in terms of when you expect your team to begin using the

tool. Put yourself in their shoes for a minute — if given a choice, you will probably stick to

using an old tool you’re familiar with for as long as possible, even if it isn’t the best decision

for the company overall.

Have a “launch party.” Once you’re ready to roll out the tool, consider scheduling an official

launch meeting. (P.S. – If you can buy lunch or treats for the team, even better!) Having the

first meeting in person is ideal so there is a greater participation in and engagement with the

tool; follow-up trainings can be virtual. During the meeting, start by telling the story of why

you selected the tool you did and how it will impact the recruiters’ process and success.

Set clear deadlines and expectations when you’re ready to launch.

4Cater to different user groups. Different groups — recruiters, hiring managers, etc. — will

use the tool a little differently, so a one-size-fits-all training is not ideal. The good news is you

don’t have to do it alone — work with your vendor to create a training plan that targets each

group of users. It will be important to set expectations for how each group should use the

tool with that in mind.

Think about change management. Will implementing this new tool be a big change for

your recruiters? Will it impact their day-to-day activities? If so, make sure you are providing

a commensurate amount of communication and training to ensure a smooth transition.

Remember: Change can be hard, so offer recruiters the support they need to get them up

and running as soon as possible. Consider scheduling chair-side meetings to understand your

team’s current process — that will help you identify training opportunities.

Take steps to make the transition as smooth as possible.

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Make the training content easily accessible. Create a central place for training content —

such as the company intranet or shared folders — so recruiters can easily reference tips and

tricks as they continue to learn how best to use the tool.

Empower ambassadors to work on your behalf. Identify and reward early adopters who are

using the tool well. It will be a huge win if you can rally that group of advocates to help drive

adoption among their peers.

Consider gamification. Gamification can be a great way to drive change — not to mention,

have some fun in what can otherwise be a stressful process. Create a leaderboard and fuel

some inter-team competition to keep everyone engaged throughout the

full-transition phase.

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5Hold your team accountable. Accountability is critical to implementing any tool or process

change. Hold your team to clear and actionable goals.

Have a plan to onboard new members. Make sure you outline a process that can easily be

replicated to train and onboard new team members. Take pieces of your overall training plan

that would get new users ramped up in little to no time.

Communicate the ongoing value of the tool. How can the tool continue to add more value to

recruiters? What additional parts of the recruitment process can the tool help to simplify or

automate? Recruiters will be attracted to and use the tool for the long term if it helps them

do their jobs faster and more efficiently.

Put a plan in place to achieve long-term success.

About CareerBuilderAs the global leader in human capital solutions, CareerBuilder specializes in cutting-edge

HR software as a service to help companies with every step of the recruitment process from

acquire to hire. CareerBuilder works with top employers across industries, providing job

distribution, sourcing, workflow, CRM, data and analytics in one pre-hire

platform. It also operates leading job sites around the world. Owned by TEGNA Inc

(NYSE:TGNA), Tribune Media (NYSE:TRCO) and The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI),

CareerBuilder and its subsidiaries operate in the United States, Europe, South America,

Canada and Asia.

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