Automation is affecting a number of industries, and recruitment is no different. Find out how new technology could make finding top talent easier.
Technology is changing our lives at an increasing frequency, and the near future is looking more and more like science fiction as time goes on. The latest development in the world of recruitment is automation. Hirers and agencies are able to find the right candidates with much less effort and time being expended, enabling them to be more effective. Here’s how automation can help your recruitment business.
Saving recruiters time
Let’s look at a single aspect of recruitment: screening CVs. According to research from Ideal, it takes an average of 23 hours to go through CVs and applications, with just 22 percent of applicants having the right qualifications. This is clearly a huge time-sink; however, it’s also one of the most easily automated processes in the industry.
Using AI in conjunction with machine learning, a system can review each CV and filter out applicants who do not match the required criteria. The system can even send each rejected applicant a nice communication to let them know why they are not a fit for the role they applied for.
Applicants who pass the above stage can then be invited to fill out a set of smart screening questions. The answers to these can then be used by the recruiter to ascertain how well the candidate fits, using details such as current salary, notice period or visa status (to name a few).
We’ve used this technology to improve the way we recruit internationally, enabling us to assess a large number of candidates from all over the world. Thanks to automation, time zones are a problem of the past; our system can contact candidates no matter what the time difference, even when our recruiters are fast asleep.
We’ve also automated how we contact candidates; another common time-sink. Recruiters rarely have time to get in touch with candidates more than once or twice, which might not be enough to attract top talent. By automating this process, we’re able to contact candidates in a non-intrusive manner up to ten times (if they have not responded yet) over the course of a week, saving time and greatly increasing our chance of finding the best candidates.
We start by asking if the candidate is interested in moving jobs. If there is no response, we then move onto asking if they are interested in this particular job, supplying them with the job title, and if they still don’t respond we ask if they are interested in working for this company in this location.
You would be amazed how many talented professionals come back to the last question saying: “I don’t want that job, but I do want to work for that company in a different position.” This is gold; we now have a passive candidate that no-one else has, who wants to work for our client, and we know what type of job they want. All that without ever picking up the phone!
Another aspect we have automated is scheduling calls to happen when both the recruiter and candidate are available; something we’ve found is a complete game-changer. What often happens in recruitment is a recruiter calls a candidate and they are not available; then, the candidate calls the recruiter back, but the recruiter is now not available as they are leaving a voicemail for the next candidate on the list. This goes on until everyone gives up and it goes no further; an opportunity is missed with potentially the best candidate for the job.
This doesn’t happen with us. In all communications we include a link to our diaries and the candidates book an available slot whenever it best suits them to talk. This has freed our recruiters up to mostly talk to candidates who are interested in moving jobs and who want to talk to us, which makes our lives a lot easier, with very few voicemails and missed candidate opportunities!
Improving candidate experience
One of the most underrated aspects of recruitment is candidate experience. In the long-term, you don’t just want candidates to apply once; you want them to keep coming back to you. If their experience is positive, 95 percent of candidates will do exactly this. However, a bad experience – such as an overly-complex recruitment process or recruiters who don’t have time to get back to candidates – can prevent candidates from finishing their application.
So how can automation help the recruitment process? Simple; by freeing up recruiters’ time. This means they can focus more on building a professional relationship with candidates, as they aren’t having to leave 50 voicemails a day or screen hundreds of CVs to find that purple squirrel or chase up multiple contacts.
Increasing diversity
A diverse workforce is a real asset to your company, but it can be hard to come by. One major issue is unconscious bias, which multiple studies have shown can prevent diverse hiring. Essentially, recruiters are more likely to take on people who are similar in ethnicity, gender and background to themselves, even if they’re consciously trying to be objective.
This is a huge issue at a time when many companies are increasingly needing to recruit internationally. However, in theory an AI is completely objective, sorting candidates purely by qualifications and not paying any attention to demographics. This can help you source the best people from all over the world.
At Allen Recruitment, we’ve been using automation and data driven recruitment techniques for a very long time, and our techniques have enabled us to make huge breakthroughs in finding international candidates for a range of positions. We are an international recruitment consultancy with offices in Ireland, the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Sweden, Belgium and Poland, providing recruitment solutions and job opportunities all over Europe. We have a great experience in placing candidates in the right roles for some of Europe’s largest brands, especially in executive search and with our new Embedded Recruitment solution as an RPO service.
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