Recruiting Uncloaked – The ATS, Keywords, and Knockout Questions

My profession has a lot of moving pieces/parts, and what we do impacts almost everyone at some point in their lives who is part of the workforce. I am going to try and explain a few basics today to help job seekers understand how we work.

The first thing I want to tackle involves the two basic processes recruiting uses to identify talent.

The first is incoming – this is going to be direct applicants, referrals of any kind, and agency search. What these all have in common is a resume or profile is coming TO an internal/in house recruiter FROM somewhere, usually in the form of a resume or a LinkedIn profile. In general, we can see what we need to identify what that person is doing, has done, and usually we have some indication what they are interested in or looking for.

The second method we use for candidate generation is called SOURCING. This is where a recruiter (or sometimes a vendor or agency) goes out and FINDS candidates based on specific types of experience such as titles, skill sets, companies, industries, etc. The way we generally start our search is with keywords . We are looking at a variety of sources (thus the title “Sourcing”) such as LinkedIn, job board resume databases (like Indeed, Monster, CareerBuilder, ZipRecruiter etc – these are tools employers pay for), speaker lists from industry conferences, authors on publications relevant to a particular subject, etc. Sourcing is both a full time specialty occupation within recruiting as well as something almost every recruiter (including in house, agency, RPO, and executive search) does as a regular part of their job.

So why do I call this out? There is a lot of confusion about how keywords are used in correlation to job seeker credentials from a process perspective. To boil it down, we rarely use keywords on incoming applications via the ATS. We DO use them when we are SEARCHING the ATS when a new role opens. There is a term for this called “talent rediscovery ”, and there are several types of technology that can be used to help automate this; but it is still searching for passive candidates – not active applicants. It can also be done manually in most Applicant Tracking Systems. The value of this method is that you are searching “warm leads” – professionals that have already expressed an interest in your organization and hopefully know who you are at the very least.

I also want to cover “knockout questions”, because this is where a LOT of confusion come into play, and the misunderstanding of the somewhat mythical “bots” that many coaches and resume writers discuss - without an actual recruiting background - to drum up business (whether through misinformation or “selling snake oil ”).

When a recruiter opens a new role in the ATS, there are generally two types of automation we can enable – the first is an email confirming receipt of your resume and application for a specific job. The second is a set of queries, colloquially known (and referred to) as “knockout questions.” These are usually yes/no or short answer questions. The most common one is “are you authorized to work in this country?” in conjunction with “will you require sponsorship” (these questions apply specifically to immigration visa status.) Some other examples might look like:

-Are you currently a resident in ABC country?

-Do you have 5 years of experience in people management?

-Are you able to provide proof of certification/credentialing/authorization for XYZ? (ie food handler’s card, plumber’s license number, fork life operator, CDL, PMP, CPA)

-Do you possess a valid driver’s license and an insured vehicle?

-Do you have 3 years of experience using X software?

These are very specific questions, and they generally speak to the qualifications required for the job. (Something to keep in mind: the more complex the job, the fewer knockout questions there will probably be that are relevant to the specific role.)

There are two basic interfaces for these questions. The first is generally a radio button that is part of the application process. The second is a more interactive form and is generally used for high volume roles (often hourly positions like bank teller, retail sales associate, food delivery driver, etc.) and it is an automated IM instant message or possibly text SMS chat feature…called a CHATBOT (and it is still relatively rare). ?

It is super important for job seekers to understand that knockout questions do NOT – and this is a LEGAL requirement – “hide” your resume from the job you have applied to or shunt you out of the process; that is illegal in most countries (definitely in the US). Your resume/application are 100% visible on any job you have applied to. Think of the ATS as a complex Excel spreadsheet with pivot tables that have filters on them. I can apply the filters at any time, but I can also remove them to see every other cell in the workbook. An ATS uses the same basic functionality as a spreadsheet – both are databases holding information that can be accessed in multiple ways and views.

Hopefully this will help dispel some of the basics of the recruiting profession and unshroud the “mysteries” behind the proverbial curtain.?