Human Resources Department (HRD) can be seen as the base part of a company. It may stand alone as department or have integrated function with other departments. HR has functions in training and development, organizational development and career development where each of them is related to the people. And it is not as simple as it seems as there are three main challenges faced by HRD, i.e. minimizing turnover, maximizing employee performance and developing career plans.

Technology has been developed much and the way people think has changed. This condition forces everyone, not only the individuals but also business professionals, to make improvement following current trends. Using the same tools and techniques is not only an old fashion. It won’t make a company grow and even get it left behind by the others. Therefore, utilizing the more advanced technology in all departments, including HR is important. Fortunately, finding tools or applications specially designed for human resources’ tasks is so much easier now as the help of the technology itself.

There are many HR tools to find out there. As time efficiency and affectivity are the main purposes of using those tools, they are usually provided in web-based form. It allows the human resource managers to make quick access to the applications at their fingertips. Here are some of them:

• Application Tracking Systems (ATS) – They have been used since 1990s. Now, they have been more advanced and are able to help bring many recruitment functions into a central place, further streamlining practices.’
• Mobile recruiting tools – More and more people are on mobile. It is a beneficial condition to find the professionals. Companies and jobseekers today are able to get easily connect each other by using mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.  It cut distance, time and cost.
• Gamification – It can create talent pool where candidates are sorted by their own expertise and skills. It helps HR managers find the people with the correct skills for a particular role. Candidates are also able to communicate and build relationships each other. They will do their best to show their skills and talents in order to be the winner and seen by the recruiters.
• Collaborative tools – Companies can share information, but few organizations are willing to use them. For some companies, this idea may be useful because they will the same access to current market of jobseekers.
• Location technology – There are three main points searched by the jobseekers, i.e. job, salary and location. This matter should be considered by HR managers in order to find the most suitable candidates at the targeted locations.

Video interviewing – It replaces the old fashion of face-to-face meeting. Jobseekers and interviewers do not need to meet personally at one place. They can simply be connected through a video call which will show the candidates in close-up, together with something of the personality, in the early stages of the recruitment process.

• Internet sourcing – It is today’s most powerful technology which can widen the candidates sourcing. Recruiters can use the internet to find the highly-skilled individuals that they need to occupy a position. Sending vacancy offer to emails is one of the common ways in using this technology, but the faster responds can be gained by utilizing the social media. Take for example Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn which have been more than just social networking platforms.

Recruiting new employees is one of HR tasks. It looks so easy. The HRD staff advertises the available vacancies and wait for jobseeker’s respond. When the offer is closed, it is time to screen the candidates. Many applications received means time consuming work. Therefore, the comprehensive HR tools are needed to effectively and efficiently do the screening task for finding the most suitable freshmen for the offered jobs.

The HR tools are available in different types. Some are made in forms with the basic templates. Others are more advanced, created for web-based activity. It allows both jobseekers and recruiters to connect online. HR managers are also helped in finding the most vital information about each candidate much simpler using the right tools. Those are customized, letting each company own the most suitable HR tools to use for optimizing their whole tasks.

One of essential assets owned by a company is the people who work there. It is the human resources. HRD has responsibility to look for the most competent professionals to occupy each position in the company. They have this essential key to determine the growing prospect of the organization. The failure in screening the candidates may lead to domino effect like affecting the whole business growth.

Besides having the responsibility in recruitment process, Human Resource Departments are also given task to handle the employees’ development and training. Everything needs to be managed well then. Using the right and advanced HR tools is a necessary need to do.

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