Once relegated to the domain of Recruitment Industry Applicant Tracking Systems, resume parsing is worth consideration for any enterprise where hiring process efficiencies can be gained through candidate data standardization enhanced by emerging artificial intelligence.
As the world’s leading CRM, Salesforce is frequently evaluated to incorporate recruiting and hiring process support for in-house recruiting and staffing industry clients.
This article addresses key considerations for the value of resume parsing integrated within the Salesforce Platform.
What is Resume Parsing?
Resume parsing refers to the use of algorithms to extract data – such as contact information, skills, work experience, and education – from unstructured resumes obtained in any non-image file format (e.g., txt; docx; pdf; rtf; html) submitted by job applicants or extracted from job boards.
Resume parsers standardize and store resume data to support automation for matching applicants to specific job requirements and to reduce human bias in the applicant assessment process. Resume Parsing is rarely a standalone solution but rather is typically an integral part of hiring process technology solutions.
Salesforce as an Applicant Tracking System
For years, Salesforce has been the gold standard CRM. Its evolution into other “clouds,” including Service, Marketing, Order Management, Revenue, and Partner/Customer engagement (Digital Experience), provides a fully integrated yet simple-to-customize end-to-end platform for every imaginable business function. What doesn’t exist natively in Salesforce can usually be found within a rich partner ecosystem of apps and customized in-house without the need for complex software development – termed “clicks-not-code.”
The simplicity of extending Salesforce to include HR and recruiting process functionality can reduce cost and simplify your IT architecture by rescuing HR and hiring process functionality from Excel spreadsheets or external, non-integrated technology islands such as may exist with standalone Recruiting Industry solutions. Recruiting companies and internal Recruiters alike have recognized the efficiencies of on-platform Salesforce solutions, resulting in the evaluation of Salesforce as a potential Applicant Tracking System, including resume parsing functionality.
Five Considerations for Salesforce Resume Parsing
1. Buy vs. Build: Don’t Try This at Home
Due to its simplicity for client-specific customizations, most Salesforce designs include buy vs. build decisions where a “buy” solution quickly and seamlessly integrates with Salesforce. A “buy” decision is the way to go for Resume parsing software. Mature, cost-effective parsing technology such as Sovren integrates with Salesforce through an open API to provide accurate multilingual functionality supported by many years of machine learning experience. Parsing tools often return a standardized json or xml output that can then be used to populate contact, work, and skills data associated with a candidate. The pricing ROI of a simple-to-integrate resume parser makes the “buy” decision obvious.
2. Artificial Intelligence: Beyond Contact Information
The best resume parsers provide more than basic contact information, phone numbers, and work history. They can associate resume keywords with a functional but customizable “skills taxonomy” based on data science and natural language processing. For example, a parsing tool’s artificial intelligence can discern that an applicant with Skills A, B, C, and Certification D is also likely to have Skill E.
Additionally, Skills A, B and C may represent a grouping of skills that your company might reference under a unique, internal phrase. A company’s internal skills semantics would rarely be consistently found in candidates’ resumes. Yet it is likely present in Job Titles and/or Job Descriptions. Thus the functionality provided in an automated skills taxonomy or synonym dictionary can significantly improve the correlation consistency of resumes and your Recruiters’ ability to search and match candidates to job postings.
3. Reduce Recruiter & Hiring Manager Bias
We have all seen statistics regarding how human-based resume screening by busy Recruiters and Hiring Managers is shockingly brief. Aside from being unfair to potentially qualified candidates, such cursory review can lead to inconsistency and bias across different Recruiters and Hiring Managers. Companies using resume parsers to extract information consistently can reduce bias and error. Performing the parsing function on Salesforce provides the added benefit of automated business-specific workflow customizations that can auto-match the best candidates to job postings and then alert all interested users via notifications.
4. Consistent Output
Often resume parsing is simply a means to get candidate information into an internal candidate database. But don’t overlook the value of getting candidate data out in a consistent format. Whenever Hiring Managers need to compare multiple Candidates, having that information in consistently formatted documents is going to be far simpler for comparison than sending a Hiring Manager a myriad of candidate-formatted resumes. Consistent, branded, auto-generated documents based upon client-specific submission templates is another feature well-supported within the ecosystem of Salesforce applications.
5. Improved Applicant/Candidate Experience
Using a resume parser can improve the job applicant experience by providing a simple, efficient way for applicants to express interest in a job posting. Rather than filling out a tedious, multi-page online form, applicants can upload their resumes and let the parser do the work. Applicants can perform a final review & update through an applicant portal. This lowers the barrier to application and results in a far more complete applicant record. It is a win-win for you and the applicant.
ExecATS as Your Salesforce Recruiting Solution
Resume parsing through a mature and innovative parsing provider can yield significant efficiencies and business value at a very attractive price point. The benefits of resume parsing are not limited to the traditional use case as a component in recruiting industry software packages. As many companies consider cost and operational efficiencies resulting from business process consolidation onto Salesforce, resume parsing can be an integrated function of HR and recruiting functionality for in-house and recruiting-industry candidate sourcing.
The vast capabilities of Salesforce and its no-code simplicity of business process customization offer a unique value proposition for client and candidate recruitment engagement compared to less-customizable, less-comprehensive industry-focused software packages.
As a certified Salesforce implementation partner, The CRM Firm has developed a fast-start recruiting template application, “ExecATS,” to accelerate the velocity of deploying Salesforce-hosted solutions for recruiting requirements. Based on Sovren’s resume parser and Kona’s innovative Search and Match engine, ExecATS is a deployable, simple-to-customize template that helps clients build and manage their recruiting application tailored to their unique industry value proposition.
If you would like a demonstration of how Salesforce can support resume parsing or are interested in evaluating Salesforce more broadly as an ATS platform via ExecATS, please fill out the contact form HERE and someone will be in touch soon.
