Recruiting process automation is helping businesses find the best possible job candidates -and fast.
By Tierney McAfee
In response to trying to improve the candidate experience, applying for jobs today can sometimes be as easy as pushing a button on an app. But in order to keep up with quick apply solutions and candidate expectations, businesses must also establish scalable, efficient processes to review a high volume of applications.
According to a survey of talent acquisition leaders, 52 percent say the hardest part of recruitment is identifying the best candidates from a large applicant pool.
Recruitment automation could be the perfect solution for their needs, says Adam Godson, senior vice president of global technology solutions for Cielo, a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) partner.
“Companies are facing a challenge from multiple directions -historically low unemployment and increasing business demand for workers,” Godson explains. “As those intersect, companies need to have highly efficient solutions to get the best workers possible for their businesses. As it gets easier to apply to jobs through quick apply solutions, we also have to have easy ways to automate how we review them and work the process.”
Godson notes that artificial intelligence (AI) is a key tool in recruitment automation.
Companies are increasingly leveraging AI to fast-track the hiring process and reduce -or remove entirely -the need for time-consuming tasks like manually screening resumes. In fact, nearly all Fortune 500 companies use automation to help with hiring processes, according to CNBC, which called the process the “future of employment.” And a 2017 survey conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder found that more than half of HR managers believe artificial intelligence will become a regular part of human resources by 2022.
According to another survey by Kronos Incorporated, two-thirds of hiring managers believe HR automation could save them up to a day and a half of work every week, while 32 percent thought automation would save more than two hours every day.
Parts of the process that companies are now automating include job posting, resume/application review, interview scheduling, and candidate assessment, Godson says.
“Many of the subprocesses that can be automated rely on AI techniques like machine learning and natural language processing,” he says. “For example, intelligent resume matching using AI can be a useful way to quickly review a large volume of applicants or quickly search through a large database for relevant matches.”
Automating such tasks frees up hiring managers to spend more time engaging directly with employees and to focus on more complex, strategic tasks that are not suited to HR automation, such as providing a more personalized interview experience and establishing training and mentoring programs.
To ease the transition to recruitment automation and keep the human in human resources, Godson recommends that organizations segment job candidates based on categories such as current employment status, skills, career goals, and salary expectations.
In today’s candidate-driven job market, segmentation enables recruiters to personalize the hiring process, better connect with candidates, and ultimately find the right one for the job.
“While it can be tempting to automate things for efficiency, the best way to approach is actually by designing experiences from a candidate lens,” Godson says, noting that one way organizations can do this is to use journey mapping.
Journey mapping involves creating a visual representation of a candidate’s journey, or all of the different interactions that a job seeker has with a brand throughout the hiring process. Journey mapping can help employers better understand candidates’ needs, improve candidate experience, and persuade job applicants to say yes to their offers.
Godson says recruiting process automation initiatives are perfectly suited to organizations that are hiring the “same profile over and over again.”
“But process automation can increasingly be applied to varied positions as well,” he says. “Automation also tends to suit jobs with fewer qualifications rather than niche jobs with complex requirements that may be difficult to discern.”
“However,” Godson adds, “nearly every recruitment process can benefit from automation in transactional parts such as interview scheduling and hiring logistics.”