Einstein
in a Box
Improving
Recruiting Performance with Automated Résumé Processing
By
Ken Smith, Director of Business Development, HireAbility.com
This month we are
both please and honored to have a piece from Ken Smith of HireAbility. You may
or may not know that name but HireAbility provides the resume parsing
functionality for many of the Applicant Tracking Systems we all use. His article
tells us all why we should be on the lookout for the best resume parsing
technology in our next ATS selection. Here is his contribution…
Today, many
companies continue to invest a significant amount of money, time, and resources
into the software systems that track their hiring processes.
These Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and Human Resources Information
Management (HRIM) systems are powerful tools, but they can be only as good as
the data that goes into them. Capturing
résumé data and storing it in a way that can be analyzed are overwhelming
problems, as companies receive more and more résumés every day.
These problems
impact employers, staffing firms and job boards, as well as candidates. Employers, staffing companies, and job boards spend large
amounts of money to attract candidates. (The
two largest job boards will spend close to $400 million in advertising in 2005.)
Recruiters and HR departments need to analyze candidate data in order to
fill positions, but much of it never reaches their systems because their current
methods for inputting data are overwhelmed.
Long, tedious application processes on their websites cause candidates to
quit before finishing their data entry. (Who
has 20-30 minutes to spend on each website?)
Outsourcing data entry is costly, and accuracy suffers.
Ultimately, the cost-per-candidate, cost-per-hire, and time-to-hire
increase.
The solution?
A software component called a résumé parser, also known as a résumé
extractor or résumé processor. A résumé parser sits between your source of résumés and
your ATS or HRIS. A good résumé
parser can save time and money by identifying and extracting the relevant
information from résumés and cover letters, creating a tagged data file.
That data can then be imported into the appropriate fields in your
website database, ATS, or HRIS. All
the relevant information becomes available for searching and analysis by
recruiters.
Few
options exist in the market today.
Product features, accuracy, prices, and ease-of-integration vary widely
from one vendor to the next.
Some applications claim to parse, but really do nothing more than put all
of the text in a single field or perhaps parse contact information.
Surprisingly, some of the affordable and lesser-known vendors have the
superior solutions. To
help you evaluate your options, try our list of the top issues to consider in
choosing a parser.
1.
Overall Accuracy — Ever order one thing and get something else?
Exactly.
First
and foremost, the software should identify and extract relevant
information accurately, whether the input file is an email, a document file of
some type, PDF, HTML, or any other format type.
For example, it should perform equally well whether or not the contact
information is in the header of a document, or whether the résumé has section
titles or not. Some companies claim
résumé parsing accuracy ratings of 95 or 100%, but such numbers are irrelevant
unless you are testing performance of multiple products with the same set of
data (résumé files) and the same environment.
HireAbility’s ALEXsm (Automated Linguistic EXpert), for
example, has been shown to be the most accurate parser on the market in
head-to-head tests performed by independent parties.
2.
Specific Local Accuracy — Are you and your parser are throwing darts at
the same board?
HireAbility recognized early
on that a parser must recognize worldwide address formats, place names, phone
number formats, languages, and language syntaxes, in order to place the
information in the proper fields in your application.
If you plan to expand with the global economy, you need to examine a
parser’s “local” accuracy: determine how accurately it can interpret a résumé
in English with Chinese addresses, or a résumé with Indian place names, for
example.
3.
Comprehensiveness — Just reading the “Cliff” notes won’t do.
Creating a complete candidate
profile from a résumé is essential because recruiters can’t find candidates
whose information is incomplete or mis-categorized.
Does the product you are considering parse only contact information?
Does it find skills in just a résumé file or can it find them in a
cover letter, too? Will
it understand that “Ultrix” is a flavor of “UNIX”, or that “case
management” skills could refer to several different industries or professions?
Does it extract
the number of years a particular skill has been used?
4.
Flexibility — Make sure the parser you choose is not a square peg
trying to fit a round hole.
How quickly can the parser be
integrated with your ATS/HRIS software?
Does the application programming interface (API) allow you to create the
solution you need? Is
the product focused on only one industry?
HireAbility offers a unique feature that allows client companies to serve
their individual vertical markets best by building and maintaining their own
proprietary lists of skills and job titles.
What kinds of business
relationships are possible with the parser company?
If you are an end user, do you have the choice of an installed version or
a hosted version of the software?
If you represent an ATS company, do you have the choice to be an OEM, a
VAR, or to purchase it and pass it on as a “private label” product?
5.
Speed & Stability — The tortoise doesn’t win this race.
To
be efficient, the parser must return results in a timely manner, whether the
processing is done in real-time or in a batch mode.
The system architecture must be expandable to handle large volumes of résumés
without any processing bottlenecks.
For a parser that must be installed on your hardware, your IT department
needs to plan for, purchase, install, and maintain enough servers to fill your
needs. For a simple
approach that requires less of an investment and can scale easily to your
businesses peaks and lulls, a hosted solution is often a better approach.
The most flexible solution, ideally, would be designed such that it is
scaleable, so it can handle any volume of throughput.
HireAbility’s
parsing solutions are not only infinitely scaleable, they have a successful
track record in heavy everyday use.
They have been integrated with a career site and an ATS for the past four
years.
6.
Future Roadmap — You and your
parser company should have the same directions to the party. While
you need a parser that will cover your current needs, think about the future, as
well. What
development path is your company taking?
Are you planning to do business in Europe or Asia?
If so, your parsing company should be (at least) moving in the direction
of multiple languages and address formats so that when you need that, you’ll
have it. Are you
opening new offices and expanding your business?
Your parser will need to be scaleable to accommodate the extra volume of
résumés.
Résumé
parsing software offers many benefits to companies facing the data management
problems of the résumé flood, as well as to recruiters and candidates.
It should be a core component of any systems that accepts résumés, and
the overall ROI will be recognized quickly.
The software extracts all the pertinent information from each résumé
file quickly and accurately, and places it in a consistent format that can be
mapped to your database or ATS. This
sounds simple, but in reality it is far from it, and few companies have parsers
that are thorough and accurate enough to give enough of a benefit to the system
overall.
Résumé
processing products have different strengths and use different technologies to
accomplish the parsing, and you will need to see how they stack up against each
other in tests that you run with the same set of data.
Learning about the issues involved in choosing such software is
essential. We’ve
given you a head start with the information in this article.
If you are shopping for an ATS, be sure to ask your list of possible
vendors about résumé processing.
If you already have an ATS or an HRIS, request résumé processing
options with your vendor.
I
want to thank Ken once more for taking his valuable time to teach us all about
resume parsing. Ken has more than 15 years of Business Development, Marketing,
Public Relations and Operations Management experience in Enterprise, OSS, CRM,
Telecom and Human Resource Software industries. He has a unique operational
understanding of the software industry and customer requirements that he uses to
identify customer needs and prioritize solutions. Anyone with a need for further
information about this technology can visit their website at www.hireability.com
or you can reach Ken directly via email at ksmith@hireability.com.
ICCI
Global
Your
Human Resources Solution
I
have the pleasure this month of writing about an outstanding research service
offering a contact database, ICCI Global. Any HR
Professional, Executive Recruiter and/or Marketing professional could make use
of this service.I
have written about several of these services over the last six months (Eliyon
and TechNames to name a couple) but this one is a bit different in that the
database of candidates is installed on your local computer. Rather than having a
web-based interface, as the competition, your database is instantly available,
Internet connection or not. Another twist to their service is that you only need
to purchase the industry of interest to you, rather than the entire database of
over 1,000,000 contacts, most of which you will never need or use.
This
product comes as a CD or download and as I said, is installed locally, meaning
you get your results FAST. Their industry-specific list of products is
impressive. You can purchase a database of contacts for the Executive Search,
Medical, Consumer Products, Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology,
Consulting Services, Financial Services, Hi-Tech, Engineering, Human Resources,
Manufacturing, Big Four and Insurance industries. Again, no need to pay for
information you don’t need.
Anyone
that knows me or has read these columns over the years know that to me, simpler
is better and I am happy to report their Windows-compatible search interface is
extremely user friendly and easy to use. They claim 80% accuracy, which would be
quite high for this type of product. All the contact
info contains name, company, direct dial, department, title, address, and in
most cases fax, email, SIC & NAICS Codes and you can search or basically any
of those fields. Once you have your search results, you can print lists,
profiles and labels for a direct mail campaign, send unlimited personalized
email messages immediately to the contacts, and import the data into your
contact management system. Another important item to mention is that they only
accept a maximum of 100 memberships (orders) for each industry product so as not
to cause everyone to be using the same intelligence data.
Pricing
for this service is very reasonable by industry standards, especially since you
can pick and choose the right one for your needs. The main database of all the
1,000,000 plus contacts goes for a bit over $5,000.00. The individual industry
databases mentioned above are just under $2,400.00 each and all the plans are
payable on a monthly basis. Each database is updated every six months.
I
want to thank Chris LaVoie,
a partner with ICCI Global for his kind assistance in preparing this article.
Anyone with any interest in this type of product / service can visit the ICCI
Global website at www.icciglobal.info
for a free demo trial or you can contact Chris direct via voice at 866-438-4224
or via email at chrislavoie@iccidirect.com.
FYI
– Nursetown.com
A
recently received email offers to “Solve your Nurse recruiting puzzle” by
visiting www.nursetown.com.
I have not spoken with them or visited their website but the email claims to let
you reach 50,000 RN’s and LPN’s per month and an additional 12,000 more via
their monthly newsletter. They
offer Banner Ads, Travel Banners, Job Postings and Newsletter Sponsorships via
the email I saw. Any nursing recruiting looking for a new service can visit
their website or contact them via email at ads@nursetown.com.
FYI
– ExecutiveTalent.Net
Another
email crossed my desk recently I wanted to share. ExecutiveTalent.Net has an
Internet database of 100k+ executives. They have always allowed free job
postings for positions with 100K+ salaries on their site but now, per their
email, they are willing to offer anyone free access to the screened resume
database as long as you have at least one job posted on their site. I
have not spoken with them or visited their website but anyone that has 100k+ job
orders or is recruiting 100k+ executives should visit their website at www.executivetalent.net.
The name on the email was a Chris Miller, who can be reached via voice at
678-455-3267.
Tip
Searching
Communities for Resumes
Anyone
that normally searches for resumes on the Internet and doesn’t include
searching the Internet communities as part of their process is missing literally
thousands and thousands of potential candidates. Everyone knows of AOL but there
are many other communities out there to search including Angelfire, Geocities
and many others. Try this one.
Go
to Google – www.google.com
and type in the following:
resume
java site:members.aol.com
Hit
the search button and you will find over 450 resumes of java folks just waiting
for your call. You can substitute the word java for the keyword (s) of your
choice, depending on your recruiting specialty. Also, you can substitute aol.com
with the community of your choice. Another (leave out the word members).
resume
java site:angelfire.com
This
search brought me over 6000 hits. I’ll leave it to you to go through them all.
You can also use this same string to search any ISP, especially the larger ones
like charter.net and earthlink.net.