This is how automation can improve your recruitment processes

Technology advances are revolutionising the way business gets done within the global community but talent and recruitment agencies are experiencing more disruption than most, with recruitment processes struggling to keep up.

Consider how digital has breathed life into mobile working culture and the impact this has had on candidate sourcing. The ability to log on and operate from almost any location has expanded the talent pool to planetary proportions. Worker expectations have altered in kind, with 85% of millennials now preferring flexible working on a full-time basis.

Recruiting methods have also diversified, with searches now delving into professional and social network sites in a bid to find the right person for the job.

Keeping up with the data

Unprecedented levels of data and increased ways to share and analyse information have conspired to create organisational inefficiencies that many talent recruitment executives will recognise.

Scanning applicant CVs is integral to recruitment. No doubt your HR team is under pressure to optimise its methods in the search for applicants who have the right balance of qualification, experience and professionality to be a success.

Fraught with inefficiency, the process is considered the trickiest part of recruitment by more than half of talent acquisition leaders. This is understandable, given an incredible 88% of applications to any one job are deemed as inadequately qualified, leading executives to spend an average of 23 hours of reading through CVs in a bid to fill a single position.

With hiring volumes only set to increase in 2018 and most recruiting teams staying the same size, the need to streamline the screening process has never been more urgent.

Finding the right insights

Does the way you analyse data give you the insight you need? It’s a regular complaint for many recruiters, for whom progress is frustrated by disconnected corporate knowledge spread across various departments and locked inside different applications.

If you want to regain control, you need to get on top of the numbers. If you can understand and manipulate key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure results so more effective recruitment strategies can be built, based on facts, you can start to make progress.

Essentially, you’ll be able to obtain clarity over what’s gone right, what’s gone wrong and how those experiences can inform a productive, more efficient pathway forwards.

Recruitment metrics can help to increase corporate intelligence but many bosses are not able to use these to best effect and become bogged down in complexities as a result. But as companies grow, so too do their metrics requirements – time is then lost in efforts to collate and analyse critical data needed for any occasion.

How automation can help your recruitment processes

The good news is that there’s plenty of help at hand if you’re prepared to embrace digital transformation. The pathway to increased efficiency begins at automation – and it’s a game changer.

First and foremost, automation takes care of many tasks that can be replicated, but this goes one step further with intelligent software that can soak up employee performance data to learn ideal candidate profiles for specific roles.

Automation software can also be calibrated to remove subconscious bias, allowing you to optimise the candidate search without discrimination and in the fairest way possible. This is useful for transparently addressing issues such as gender or cultural diversity within your business.

Take a look at your current processes and assess which ones are ripe for automation. Here are three things worth trying:

1. Try intelligent screening for your applications

One of the most time-consuming tasks for recruiters is the screening of CVs. Rather than continue with this process manually, you can use technology to automate the task.

Try using intelligent screening software that takes the job requirements and uses employment data to filter candidates and rank who might be a good fit for the role that’s being filled.

2. Use a smart assistant to answer queries

A smart assistant or AI-powered chatbot can be used to respond to general questions that candidates have about a role. By providing updates in real time to candidates, recruiters can save time on manually answering the same questions on repeat.

3. Opt for automated replies to candidates

One area of contention for candidates is when recruiters don’t reply. Of course there are reasons behind this, notably that your recruiters are snowed under and don’t always have a chance to get back to people.

But by using technology to set up automated responses, your team won’t put off potential candidates – especially if you find later down the road they are a perfect fit for another role that crops up.

And make sure the responses have a human element to them – if they sound like they’ve been written by a robot, they will put candidates off engaging with your team in the future.

Get up to speed with cloud tech

Recruiters can add even more speed and agility to their processes by relying on cloud technology. Centralising disparate data sources on a single online hub allows critical processes to be integrated, simplifying operations and driving corporate insight.

Cloud platforms allow employees to access and share knowledge at any time, meaning collaboration and productivity levels escalate. Removing silo walls is a key issue here – using cloud solutions put an end to duplicate documents being worked on in multiple departments and promotes clarity of communication.

In place of confusion grows a culture that produces current data that can be channelled through personalised dashboards and easily analysed. Therefore, you can say goodbye to time-consuming manual searches and cross-checking the facts; your business operations will be streamlined, while employees can gain the purpose-specific business intelligence they need, whether in the office or operating remotely.

In real terms, recruiters are given control and visibility, and teams can source the best candidates for any given role. It’s a process that builds its own momentum, continually improving over time so that business owners are freed up to scale and respond to market challenges with greater wisdom and intuition.

Say goodbye to silos

By using cloud technology and automating your recruitment processes, your teams will be able to move away from the issues that stem from silo working and be more efficient and effective in finding the right people to join your business.

What are your experiences of improving your recruitment processes? Let us know in the comments below.