Using employment application software in the real world involves a number of very practical challenges. Having a great CV parser and easy to use CV search software isn't enough to ensure a truly efficient recruitment process. This article looks at some of the typical bottlenecks and obstacles that recruiters have to overcome on a day to day basis – and which have been addressed in DaXtra's suite of employment application software products.
The Real Challenges of Employment Application Software
Processing CV's from multiple sources in a variety of formats, or having to work with legacy databases in multiple locations can be just as much of a challenge for automated employment application software as it is for human recruiters – unless that software has been specially designed to handle these issues. Here we look at some of the typical real world issues faced by many of DaXtra's clients, and how our range of software helps to deal with them.
Duplicate and updated CV's – When resumes are being entered into the system from multiple sources and when applicants can update their online CV's and profiles almost instantly via the internet, this creates significant issues for employment application software. If undetected, duplicates and near-duplicates can cause significant confusion when conducting database searches. DaXtra Capture is able to detect when a new incoming CV is for the same person – either an exact duplicate or an update – and merge records, adding any new data to the existing record.
CV's in different formats and layouts – Having CV's arrive in different formats with similar data in different places from CV to CV can be a challenge even for human readers, slowing down the process of scanning CV's for likely candidates. For many years individual companies would dictate preferred format and required data in an effort to make the task of processing – whether by humans or by computers – easier and quicker. But in the age of social recruiting and CV acquisition from online job boards, this is no longer possible. DaXtra Parser addresses this problem by extracting data from a CV regardless of its position on the CV or how it has been formatted. All resumes are converted into a common format ready for searching.
Data entry errors – Before the advent of reliable CV parsing software, humans were the most accurate way of determining the meaning of data on a CV and data would be entered manually into the recruitment database. But however reliable humans may be at reading and understanding a CV, their ability to input that data accurately into a computer is somewhat less so – often resulting in data entry errors which can then cause problems in terms of the searching and matching process. Using DaXtra Parser eliminates this source of error from the CV processing stage.
High volume of CV's – This is one of the biggest challenges facing recruiters today and arises from a combination of high application rates supplemented by online CV acquisition which can generate hundreds of CV's. The challenge is to accurately but quickly turn all CV's into a common format, ready for automatic job matching or manual searching. DaXtra Parser can parse resumes in just a few seconds with up to 95% accuracy. This capability turns the arrival of hundreds of CV's from an expensive bottleneck into a recruiting advantage, widening the pool of potential candidates at essentially no additional cost.
Searching multiple job boards – While the rise of online job boards has undoubtedly helped both recruiters and applicants to fill or find suitable vacancies, there are now so many that the task of regularly checking them for CV's has become unfeasible for recruitment consultants to carry out manually. DaXtra Search can be set to automatically search a range of job boards or business networking sites (subject to permission) and notify consultants when new matches are found.
Legacy databases – Few established companies or recruitment businesses don't already have some kind of recruitment database, and even fewer relish the idea of having to go through the pain of switching to a completely new database in order to get the benefits of new processing features. DaXtra Parser can turn new CV's into a variety of different formats, or a bespoke format as required, to be compatible with most existing databases.
Multiple office locations – Large companies often have multiple office locations either within a country or even globally, and each office may be responsible for recruiting its own staff. But it is becoming increasingly desirable for these offices to become more interconnected, to improve visibility across the company, to apply consistent recruitment policies and for general efficiency. For instance, if job roles are duplicated in different offices, then it makes sense for all offices to be able to see CV's of all applicants applying for a similar type of role. Using DaXtra Components Suite enables multiple databases to be searched with a single query, allowing CV's acquired by one office to be made available to all.
Skills in freeform language – Extracting skills from a curriculum vitae is perhaps the most important part of assessing candidate suitability, but it is also the data least likely to be presented in a simple or consistent form. While some CV's may list skills in a simple way, they are usually embedded within freeform sentences or paragraphs. This makes picking out skills quickly and reliably a significant challenge, especially when the surrounding language can greatly affect the meaning that should be attached to a skill (e.g. consider "Basic level C programming" versus "10 years experience of C programming"). The industry sector can also greatly change the meaning of some words: for instance, what may have a general meaning in everyday language can have a very specific meaning in a particular industry. DaXtra Parser is able to extract skills taking into account the context of the surrounding language – and we provide skills taxonomies for a wide range of industry sectors to further enhance accuracy.
To find out more about how DaXtra's software can help your recruitment operation please contact us.