Feature Spotlight: Slack App

The second installment of our Feature Spotlights from our Fall Product Release is here. Today we unpack our Slack App integration which allows Hiring Managers and Recruiters to engage all departments in the hiring process by bringing important information to them on the platform where they already work – in this case, Slack.

One complaint that is common among Recruiters and Hiring Managers is that it’s hard to get departments outside HR to engage in the hiring process. One reason for the poor adoption rate of hiring practices in other departments is because other departments aren’t using the same platforms as the Recruiters and Hiring Managers.

It makes sense that a Hiring Manager or a Recruiter would be on the SmartRecruiters Talent Acquisition Suite all day fielding Candidates but a Software Developer probably isn’t doing most of their work or communication within the SmartRecruiters platform. But, if they’re on Slack they’re already in the SmartRecruiters Ecosystem.

Now team members don’t have to be on our platform specifically, to be part of our Ecosystem. That means the full power of SmartRecruiters can be delivered to the platform where you already work and communicate – and for most work teams that platform is Slack.

We believe hiring is a team sport and our Slack App helps get the right people on your team.

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Now you can go to the SmartRecruiters platform and enable Slack (slide 1). Once Slack is enabled, it’s easy to export candidate information to coworkers. Just create a channel by clicking ‘open hiring team channel in Slack’ (slide2). And you’ll see the channel appear in your Slack (slide 3). Then simply export the Candidate’s information (slide 4). Once the channel is set up you can invite your colleagues to contribute (slide 5).   

Once the information is in Slack, it will be easy to locate. SmartRecruiters’ links will automatically ‘unfurl’ so no one is scrolling up and down trying to guess which link is which. Unfurling is a Slack term which essentially means a link will appear with a basic preview instead of a long string of letters and numbers which clutter a conversation and make it hard to locate information.

Think of the difference as if you were going to post a photo of yourself winning a 5k  online but instead of your photo showing up on your feed there was only an HTML script. Would anyone click on that script to see the photo? Probably not. So when you showed up to work the next day, you would wonder why no one congratulated you on your victory. The reason, of course, would be is that no one would have made sense of the random link you posted.

If you want to communicate important information you need to make it accessible.

You don’t want to show up to an interview and realize that your Hiring Team didn’t receive the relevant information about the Candidates because either they aren’t monitoring the platforms to which your posting or the links you shared have ended up in a jumble.

Let’s say I’m a Hiring Manager who is deciding on 6 candidates to interview for a Junior PR position from 20 Applicants. I know that whomever I hire will end working closely with my VP of Marketing and also with the Product Manager so I want to make sure I get them involved in the process at an early stage. I’m looking at their schedules for the coming week and both are jam packed so instead of delaying the hiring process by trying to meet in person, I can create a Slack channel with all the relevant information. My super busy marketing VP and Product Manager can review updates on their phone between tasks and I can fill the position sooner.

A week passes I have an initial phone interview with 6 applicants and then my VP of Marketing and my Product manager have video interviews with 3 that I’ve narrowed down. From Those 3 we bring in 2 for a final face to face interview. Before the meeting, I’m able to quickly review again all the notes from our Slack channel and find the final 2 resumes quickly through the unfurled links that are already on the channel so I come to the meeting with their individual profiles fresh in my mind.

We as a hiring team are torn because both candidates are so great! So we add the VP of Global Operations to our channel to weigh in. They are able to locate the links to the candidate’s profile and Resume without a problem and even though they’re en route to a conference they’re able to give us their input right away because Slack sent them notifications and we send an offer!

With everyone involved, we know we’ve made a good hire and me, as the Hiring Manager, can rest easy knowing that I’m not onboarding someone unsure of whether they’ll be a good fit with their team.

When we look at it from the Candidate side it’s better as well. They are joining a team with which they’re already familiar. Imagine walking to a new job not knowing anyone – that’s scary and stressful! Now imagine starting a new job where you’ve met with the team and gotten to know the work culture – that’s exciting!

SmartRecruiters believes that hiring success can be a matter of form when you engage all the resources at your disposal, namely the colleagues who have a stake in the new Hire. Bring the information to them and make it easy for everyone to engage. They’re already in the ecosystem with Slack – they just don’t know it yet.