Welcome on board! If you’re reading this post it’s likely that you’ve just signed up with Ally as an employer – and you’ve taken your first step towards managing your recruitment with a fresh new approach. You’ll be delighted to hear that getting started on Ally is simple, but don’t just take our word for it. Read on for lots of handy tips on how to complete and get the most out of your employer profile.
Step one: Once you’ve accepted your verification email and set a password, the first step is to click ’profile’ from the menu bar and check that your full name and company name is entered correctly from the sign up process.
Step two: On the right hand side of the profile page, you have the option to add in a profile photo to identify yourself as the person responsible for hiring at your organisation.
Click ‘save’ to save any changes made in these top sections.
Step three: Further down the page is where you’ll enter in information about your company. This includes a short snippet on the culture at your organisation (crucial for attracting lots of applications – job seekers are always keen to learn about an employer’s culture before deciding whether to submit their CV!), a bio of your company, the company’s address (either your headquarters or a list of regional offices is fine!) and your company registration and VAT numbers.
For your company description, we’d really recommend taking the time to write a brief customised piece – don’t just copy and paste your company’s entire history from their website! Consider what job seekers might want to know, such as the industry you operate in, when you were founded, where you operate/have offices, how big the company is, who some of your standout clients are and if you’ve got any great award wins to show off about.
Job seekers also love to hear about anything that sets you apart from your competitors, so if you’ve got a fantastic benefits package or are championing efforts for a particular cause, let them know in your profile.
After this, you have the option to upload a short profile video. This is completely optional, but we would highly recommend adding one in order to give potential candidates a way to see what it’s like to work for your company.
Now, the video doesn’t need to be anything fancy or professionally edited, but should just be a short introduction to the company itself; what you do, why you’re great at what you do and what it’s like to work there. You may also wish to include elements such as employee testimonials, key company facts or why job seekers should want to work for you. Overall, your video output will depend on what you may already have available to you or any footage or video skills that you can access, but even if you’re a small start up or just stuck for ideas, if you can get hold of a camera, introduce yourself as the hiring manager, mention why it’s great to work at your organisation and say that you’d love to connect with any job seekers that may be interested in roles with you.
Ultimately, this step is excellent for selling yourself to potential job seekers, giving off a great first impression and setting yourself apart from the competition!
Finally, remember to hit ‘save’ after you’ve finished.
This is how your company listing will appear to job seekers within the employer database:
Creating a job listing:
You might have started to enter in details for a role during the sign up process, however this will not be published until you have purchased sufficient credits for your account.
Step one: From the top menu bar, select ‘Job listings > Create job listings’. Now enter the title of the role that you’re recruiting for, a job description, the sector it is linked to, the type of role it is and the salary. Underneath this, you’ll also have the option to choose if the job is based at a particular location, or whether it is remote.
Step two: Scrolling further down the page, you’ll be presented with the options of uploading any supporting documents, as well as entering up to three screening questions that all applicants will be asked. Both of these steps are optional, but recommended.
After this, hit ‘save’ and then ‘publish’ to make your job viewable to job seekers.
Please note that once you publish a job, any further edits cannot be made.
Viewing your jobs:
To view all of the jobs that you have submitted to Ally, both saved and published, select ‘Job listings > All job listings’ from the top menu bar.
On this page, you’ll see an overview of all jobs associated with your profile, along with their current status. From here, you can choose to either view the job’s page or view any applications that you have received.
Viewing your applications:
When viewing applications, you can choose to toggle between seeing all applicants or only new applicants. Next to each applicant’s name, you have the option to rank them in order of preference and either view their application or to send them a message.
If you select ‘message’, this will take you to a contact page, which allows you to exchange private direct messages with individual applicants, ideal for either obtaining further information relating to their application, arranging interviews or sending a note to say they have been unsuccessful.
Closing a job:
Once you’ve found your perfect hire, or if your situation’s changed and you’re no longer recruiting, removing your job listing is easy.
When viewing a job’s page, scroll down underneath ‘further job information’ and click ‘close job’. You’ll then see a message to confirm this action, and will be prompted to provide a brief indication of why you’re removing the job.
Further tips to help find that perfect hire:
Your dashboard: When you first log in to Ally, you’ll see your own personal dashboard.
On this page, you’ll see a welcome message and any tips that we’re suggesting in order to improve your profile. There’s also a run down of the number of job applications you’ve received, any messages that need to be responded to, how many you have live and how many job seekers have searched your profile.
On the right hand side, you can see the Ally plan that you’re currently signed up to. Also listed is the number of connections and job listings that you have available to you at that point, along with how many days are remaining on your current plan. Ally offers a number of great value for money plans for employers depending on how many positions you need to fill and how long you need your listings active for. Further details on our pricing structure, along with indisputable evidence of the savings you can make by signing up to Ally, can be found here.
Browsing the CV library: Have you ever been recruiting for a role and thought to yourself ‘I wish I could have direct access to the people who are actually actively looking for a new job right now?’ With Ally’s CV database you’ve found what you’re looking for, and we pride ourselves on putting active job seekers right in front of employers who are hiring.
Selecting ‘CV database’ from the main menu bar, you’ll be asked to input the skills that you’re searching for in a candidate, a location and the job title that you’d like them to have or be looking for. Leave one or all of these fields blank to view all job seekers that are currently registered with Ally.
Next to each person’s name, you’ll see their current job title, their location, their desired job title and their highest level of education. Click ‘view’ to see a pop up of their personal profile, including their personal statement, key skills and the role they’re looking for.
If you have a plan that allows you to make connections, you’ll see the option to connect with a job seeker. Think of this as like sending a friend request and it’s a great way to expand your professional network ahead of any job openings that you may have coming up – imagine how easy it would be if every time a role needed filling you thought ‘I’ve got the perfect candidate sitting in my connections on Ally – I’ll see if they’re interested!’ Once you click ‘connect to this seeker’, you’ll be asked to enter in a short message as to why you’d like to connect. Be concise here – something along the lines of ‘Hi X, I’m currently recruiting for an Account Manager role and have seen that your profile shows you would be an ideal match. You can view the full job description on our company page, but in the meantime it would be great to connect. Best wishes, Joe.
Once a job seeker has accepted your connection request, you’ll see a small ‘+1’ next to the friends icon at the top right of your screen, and you can view all of your connections by clicking this icon and selecting ‘current connections’. From here, you also have the option to directly message and start a conversation with a seeker.
So, there you have it, our rundown of how to get started with your profile on Ally as an employer! We wish you the very best of luck with your recruitment challenge and if you have any questions that haven’t been answered here, you can contact us via our webform or chatbot.
You can also watch our short video on getting started on Ally here.