Dive Brief:

• Lever announced that it built a native integration with Microsoft 365 in order to harness the email and scheduling capabilities in one seamless tool, according to a company statement. The firm says this will create a more efficient system for communicating and tracking progress during recruitment activities. 
• The integration will enable faster communication as well as faster responses when dealing with candidates — all improving the candidate experience, according to Lever. 
• Native integrations are becoming more common across the board, especially as recruiters turn to specific tools (and not pen/paper or other traditional methods) to complete their tasks.

Dive Insight:

Being able to work within one recruitment system, rather than continually having to use multiple systems to get the job done, creates a much more efficient process that helps both employers and potential candidates. The more efficiently recruiters can work together, the more they can focus on making the candidate experience that much more pleasant.

Moving people through the application and interview phase of recruitment using a product that is already proven to work well is less threatening to candidates, too. Lever has long been a proponent of collaborative hiring methods, so choosing Microsoft to integrate with is not a surprise.

A number of HR tech innovations have been integrating or otherwise becoming more inter-operable, reflecting the growing swath of options in the space for recruiters. Bells and whistles aren't necessary, but any programs that improve the candidate and recruiter experience will improve retention and candidate quality in the long-run.