Introducing Our Career Hub and Job Board
The Springfield Chamber has partnered with Performance Resources, to provide members with access to ApplicantPool, an HR Suite of services including our new board service which helps connect employers and job seekers!
You can easily attract & manage more qualified applicants by posting your jobs on the chamber job board. Your jobs will be posted to the Springfield area job board and directed to up to 20 additional job boards and social media sites. For more information on ApplicantPool and this project we spoke with Jim Howard of Performance Resources to find out more.
What is ApplicantPool and how does it work?
ApplicantPool provides an easy and efficient way for an organization to find, qualify, track, and hire the good people that they need to be successful. It automatically posts your jobs to over 20 free job boards including Indeed, Zip Recruiter, and Facebook Jobs, as well as Social Media, along with posting them on the Springfield Chamber’s Career Hub. ApplicantPool is very user friendly, does not require hours of training, and allows you to ask job-specific qualifying questions. It also offers easy tracking and communication with applicants. Applicants can easily apply for your jobs on their smart phone, tablet, or computer.
Why was ApplicantPool developed and how did Performance Resources get involved with the project?
ApplicantPool was developed in 2004 in a partnership that included Dr. John Howard, the Founder and President of Performance Resources, Inc. They took a very unique approach to creation of this system: Rather than bringing in a bunch of programmers to create ApplicantPool, they reached out to small to medium sized businesses to ask them what they wanted and needed in an applicant tracking system for their company. That process, repeated through continuous cycles, has guided the constant improvement in power and ease of use that is ApplicantPool today. It’s why ApplicantPool is so easy to learn and to use, and is such a powerful tool for finding great employees in today’s markets.
What are the benefits to a business owner of using ApplicantPool, instead of posting on other job boards?
Number one benefit is the ease of creating a single posting, and having the system automatically post to over 20 free job boards as well as social media, their own web site, and the Chamber’s Career Hub for less that the cost of posting on any of the paid job boards. ApplicantPool has the ability to post to these paid job boards as well, but most of our clients are pleased with the number and quality of candidates they get without this added expense. With ApplicantPool you have all your candidates in one easy to use website that can be accessed from anywhere., and which allows tracking and communicating with candidates from that single site. It allows on-site prequalification of candidates with screening questions; and allows you to easily share candidate information with specific hiring managers. We did a time and motion study for a group of insurance businesses, ranging from 3 to 20 employees; we discovered that, with their usual business practices, the owner or manager averaged 32 hours of time spent to hire a receptionist. With ApplicantPool, the time spent dropped to just over two hours. Calculate the real value of the owner or manager’s time spent elsewhere, and you can see why ApplicantPool has become their system of choice for hiring.
How does a business owner go about getting set up with ApplicantPool and posting open positions?
With the partnership between the Springfield Chamber of Commerce and Performance Resource, Inc. this is very simple. A Chamber Member simply needs to login to the Springfield Chamber’s website at www.springfield-chamber.org and then click on “Workforce & Talent”, “Career Hub”, and then “List an Opening”. Complete the short form and hit submit. Either Jim Howard or Michele Howard from Performance Resources with contact you to explore what level of ApplicantPool will best meet your needs depending on how many jobs you need to post. If it is only one or two per year, there is a very affordable option to simply pay as little as $60 per posting. If you post more than that there are unlimited posting options that are also very affordable. No pressure. We will simply try to discover the option that makes the most sense for you and the rest will be totally up to you.
A big thank you to Jim Howard of Performance Resources for filling us in on ApplicantPool. We hope that you share our belief that a skilled, educated, and qualified workforce is fundamental to a strong economy and in that spirit we hope you choose to use the Career Hub, next time you have an open position to fill.
