Every organization’s recruitment process tends to have its own unique spin for attracting, selecting, and hiring candidates.
With hiring volume predicted to increase, but recruiting teams staying the same size or shrinking, investing in recruiting technology that streamlines the recruitment process will be a top priority in 2017.
Here are 4 ways technology can improve every step of the recruitment process.
Step 1: Creating an open req
This first step in a typical recruitment process involves identifying a vacancy in terms of responsibilities, type (e.g., full-time or part-time), and compensation.
This step also includes creating a job description based on the knowledge, experience, and skills required for the job.
How technology can improve creating an open req
Job postings are notorious for being an afterthought in recruiting but more and more employers are realizing a good job description is part of your recruitment marketing.
Software that conducts sentiment analysis on job descriptions can identify potentially biased language and suggest alternatives.
By creating more appealing and inclusive job descriptions, you can increase the diversity of your candidate pool while attracting better fit candidates to your open req.
Step 2: Attracting and sourcing candidates
The next step in the recruitment process involves attracting and sourcing candidates using strategies such as referrals, social recruiting, job fairs, and talent communities.
Sourcing candidates can be conducted internally in the organization or externally in the wider talent marketplace.
How technology can improve sourcing candidates
Recruiting software that uses algorithms to scrape potential candidates’ online profiles and portfolios can help you source passive candidates.
A new function of recruitment tech called talent rediscovery can help you to source both external and internal candidates by screening the existing resumes in your ATS and finding strong matches for your current open req.
A typical ATS wasn’t designed to be able to do this quickly and accurately. It’s only with recent improvements in tech that this type of resume rediscovery is now possible.
Step 3: Screening and shortlisting candidates
The third step in the recruitment process is determining whether candidates are qualified for a role based his or her education, experience, and other qualifications.
The goal of resume screening and shortlisting is to decide whether to move a candidate forward – usually to an interview – or to reject them.
How technology can improve screening candidates
The biggest theme in recruitment tech right now is AI for recruiting.
Experts agree that one of the best applications of AI for recruiting is automating the resume screening process, especially for high-volume roles.
Although recruiters have been using ATSs for decades, intelligent screening software is a relatively new function.
Intelligent screening analyses your existing resume database to learn which candidates moved on to become successful and unsuccessful employees based on their performance, tenure, and turnover rates.
Instead of having to manually screen every resume yourself, the software applies what it learned about existing employees’ experience and skill set to automatically screen, grade, and shortlist candidates for you.
Step 4: Interviewing and hiring candidates
The last step in the recruitment process is interviewing and hiring candidates. This step can also involve the onboarding of new hires.
Most employers conduct multiple interviews, as well as a reference check, before the hiring manager or hiring committee decides to make a job offer.
How technology can improve screening candidates
A variety of recruiting software tools exist to improve this part of the recruitment process.
Automated interview scheduling can save you a lot of time and online interviewing can be conducted in real time or pre-recorded and watched when it’s convenient for you.
One of the newest innovations for hiring are recruiter chatbots that can help answer candidates’ questions and provide feedback on next steps in the recruitment process.
The takeaways for technology improving the recruitment process
In 2017, investing in recruiting technology that streamlines the recruitment process will be a top priority.
Here’s how technology can improve every step of the recruitment process:
- Step 1: Technology can improve your open req through software that analyses your job description and provides suggestions on making it more appealing to diverse candidates.
- Step 2: Technology can improve sourcing candidates through talent rediscovery software that matches the resumes of previous applicants in your ATS to your current open req.
- Step 3: Technology can improve screening candidates through intelligent screening software that learns about existing employees’ experience and skills and automatically screens, grades, and shortlists candidates for you.
- Step 4: Technology can improve interviewing candidates through automated interview scheduling, online interviewing, and recruiter chatbots.