January 19, 2012

New online hub eases hiring process at VU

New online hub eases hiring process at VU

There’s a one-stop shop now for hiring at Vanderbilt University, an online hub that improves the way hiring managers and recruiters find the right candidate for the job.

TalentCentral, part of Vanderbilt’s new approach to recruiting, features a sophisticated software system designed to help hiring managers collaborate with recruiters to find the most qualified candidate for a job.

“Talent Central is a vast improvement over Vanderbilt’s former applicant tracking system,” said Candy Lindsay, Vanderbilt’s new director of talent acquisition with Human Resources. “The old system was not very user-friendly. There wasn’t much functionality and it was hard for both recruiters and users to navigate.”

The new system makes the hiring process more efficient. “Now a hiring manager can enter a requisition online and the position can be approved and open very quickly,” Lindsay said.

TalentCentral is also another green move by Human Resources, a paperless system replacing the former paper-heavy process where those hiring had to walk or send the requisition from location to location for approval.

Among other things, TalentCentral helps managers submit job requisitions, track each step of the requisition process, review resumes and view qualified candidates any time from off-site or by a mobile device.

There is an experienced and trained recruiting team that can work with the hiring manager to develop the best hiring recruitment strategy.

“Our team can host a strategy session that will allow us to target exactly the skill set that the hiring manager is looking for,” Lindsay said.

Candidates are screened on the phone or in person by the recruiting team for each job.

“Our team asks targeted, behavioral questions,” said Lindsay. “They’re responsible for bringing key talent into this organization. Sometimes finding the right candidate for a job is like finding a needle in a haystack, but finding the right people is critical.”

Since it launched in November, TalentCentral has had almost 10,000 unique visits and accepted more than 23,000 job applications.

While the new system is invisible to job seekers, they experience a more advanced, user-friendly process because of the new approach and software. Their searches begin at the newly enhanced Work at Vu page, which was updated as part of TalentCentral’s launch.

Lindsay, formerly director of talent acquisition at Humana, also oversees Vanderbilt Temporary Services and the Employee Services Center.

To get started in TalentCentral or to learn about upcoming trainings, visit http://hr.vanderbilt.edu/talentcentral/.

For help, contact the Employee Service center 343-7000 or email human.resources@vanderbilt.edu.