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If you're a recruiter seeking to enhance your hiring procedures and optimise productivity, your search ends here! In this article, we'll explore the power of automation and how it can revolutionise your recruiting efforts. By implementing various automated strategies, you can save time, reduce manual tasks, and ultimately find the perfect candidates for your organisation.
Importance of recruitment process automation
The use of automated tools for recruitment is gaining popularity due to the numerous benefits they offer in terms of time and cost savings. These tools can help recruiters with tasks like resume and candidate screening, scheduling interviews, and sending follow-up emails in a streamlined manner. Automation saves recruiters from increasing their workload or hiring additional resources to handle the increased volume of applicants.
Benefits of saving time and increasing efficiency for recruiters
With this increased efficiency and productivity, recruiters can focus on more strategic and value-added activities such as building relationships with candidates, conducting interviews, and evaluating potential hires. Automation can also enhance the candidate experience through prompt and customised communication, such as automated updates on application status or interview reminders.
We’ve listed some of the best ways to help streamline recruitment.
1. Streamlining job postings across multiple platforms
94% of job applicants begin their job search on online job boards and platforms, so having openings on various job sites at one time makes sense. However, a major challenge when posting jobs on multiple platforms is customising the job postings to fit each platform's unique requirements and format. This includes accommodating different character limits, formatting options, and specific sections that must be completed. As a result, recruiters often spend significant time modifying job postings to align with each platform.
Thankfully, platforms like GoHire allow users to post job listings to multiple job boards with one click, increasing job advert exposure and simplifying the hiring process. The platform integrates with popular job sites like Indeed, Glassdoor, and ZipRecruiter and recruiters can target their job advertisements to specific job boards and applicants most relevant to their business. Other platforms that help streamline this process include Propellum and Freshworks.
2. Automating resume screening with AI tools
With the rise of AI, recruiters and hiring managers are also taking advantage to help streamline and enhance the recruitment process. One of the key benefits of AI in recruiting is its ability to automate repetitive tasks, such as reviewing resumes. AI-powered applicant tracking systems can quickly scan and analyse hundreds or even thousands of resumes, saving recruiters valuable time and effort.
These systems, also known as applicant tracking systems (ATS), can also identify keywords, skills, and qualifications that match the job description, helping recruiters identify the most suitable candidates so they can focus on more strategic activities, ultimately leading to more effective hiring decisions.
These systems undertake several steps to evaluate and assess candidate profiles efficiently.
- Resume Parsing
The initial step for AI screening tools is to parse resumes submitted by candidates. This process entails extracting relevant information from the resumes, including contact details, education history, work experience, skills, certifications, and other qualifications.
Some of these systems can be programmed to perform other actions based on specific criteria, such as rejecting applications with spelling mistakes, missing information, or other specific requirements. Some systems can automatically send rejection emails or take other pre-defined actions based on the set criteria.
- Job Matching
Once the resume is parsed, the AI system compares the information in it with the specific job requirements that the employer has given. It analyses how well the candidate's profile matches the job description by looking at keywords, skills, experience, and other criteria.
- Qualification Assessment
Candidates are then evaluated based on predefined criteria considering their qualifications and experience. This assessment process can consider factors such as educational background, degrees or certifications, relevant work experience, proficiency in specific skills or software, and any other requirements specified by the employer.
- Candidate Ranking
AI algorithms then rank candidates based on qualifications, experience, skills, and relevance to the job description. Those who match the desired criteria closely and have higher scores are considered stronger candidates.
Platforms such as Greenhouse, HireVue and Cegid offer AI resume parsing and other features and benefits for recruitment process automation.
3. Pre-screening tools for efficient candidate selection
Firstly, what are pre-screening tools? In short, they’re tools employers or recruiters use to assess and filter out potential candidates.
These tools help employers narrow the pool of applicants by quickly evaluating their qualifications, skills, and suitability for the job. These tools allow employers to identify candidates who meet the job's basic requirements and have the potential to succeed in the role, saving time and effort in the overall recruitment process.
Examples of popular pre-screening tools and their features
Considering the wide range of roles and industries, there are various types of tests and multiple software options for conducting them. Here are a few examples:
- Job skills testing
The idea behind skills-based hiring is to focus on a candidate's job-related skills rather than their academic qualifications or work experience. Platforms like Vervoe simplify this process by offering skill tests and tools for creating assessments, integrating workflows, and providing personalised grading.
- Technical assessments
Assessing technical abilities is crucial in roles that require IT expertise. A common practice is to conduct technical assessments, such as those offered by Codility. This platform claims it can help hire the right engineers 2.5x faster. Recruiters can use such platforms to create and manage developer assessments, eliminating bias and simplifying recruitment.
- Psychometric tests
These tests measure mental performance and are helpful for job roles requiring handling large amounts of numerical information daily, like in finance or accounting. Platforms like Alva Labs are designed to aid HR and talent acquisition teams in making informed hiring decisions quickly. It specialises in assessing candidates and providing science-backed methodologies for the hiring process. These platforms allow HR teams to evaluate candidates accurately and efficiently.
- Personality tests
These tests assess different aspects of a candidate's character and abilities, including communication, social skills, and stress management. For example, Hogan Assessments is a company that uses personality assessment to improve workplace performance and help organisations hire the right employees, develop talented individuals, and build better leaders. Their assessments provide insight into understanding employee values, which is important for creating an engaged and motivated workforce.
- Soft Skills tests
When finding the right person for a job, soft skills are just as important as technical skills. Adaptability, problem-solving, critical thinking, communication, teamwork, and leadership are all qualities that can make someone a great fit for a particular role. Softfactors is a cloud-based recruiting tool that evaluates resumes and soft skills to help organisations find the best candidates. With the ability to measure and compare soft skills, hiring managers can make more informed decisions and improve their recruitment processes.
4. Creative recruitment automation techniques for enhanced efficiency
When it comes to improving productivity, the saying "work smarter, not harder" comes to mind. Fortunately, numerous platforms and systems are available to assist with this goal. Below are some innovative strategies recruiters can use to streamline their processes.
- Leveraging platforms like Zapier for automated workflows
Zapier is a user-friendly platform that allows users to simplify their workflows by connecting various apps and sites and automating tasks. This platform offers a range of valuable features, including triggers that start automated workflows and actions that perform specific tasks.
- Chatbots for initial candidate interaction
Implementing chatbots on career websites or job portals can automate initial candidate interactions. Chatbots can answer frequently asked questions, provide information about the company and job requirements, and even conduct preliminary assessments, freeing up recruiters' time.
- Automated interview scheduling
Tools that integrate with recruiters' calendars and the candidates' availability can automate the process of scheduling interviews. This reduces back-and-forth communication and eliminates the need for manual coordination, enhancing efficiency.
- Video interviewing platforms
Utilising video interviewing platforms enables recruiters to conduct remote interviews efficiently. These platforms often have features like recording interviews, sharing them with other team members for feedback, and allowing asynchronous interviews, saving time and increasing collaboration.
- Automated reference checks
The reference check process can be automated through tools that send reference requests, collect responses, and analyse feedback. This technique eliminates manual follow-ups and speeds up the reference-checking process.
These creative recruitment automation techniques can enhance efficiency by reducing manual tasks, improving candidate screening, and streamlining communication throughout the recruitment process.
Want to speed up the process even more?
You can accelerate the recruiting process by utilising a service such as WeAreDevelopers. You won't have to do all the outreach or rejection, as it can all be done through one platform.
WeAreDevelopers is a prominent job platform for IT professionals in Europe. It assists employers in finding the ideal software developers, DevOps engineers, and engineering leaders. The platform offers solutions for tech recruiting, employer branding, and product marketing.
