When it comes to recruiting technology, AI for recruiting is everywhere. In fact, it was the dominant theme at this year’s HR Tech Conference.
AI for recruiting technology – the application of artificial intelligence to recruiting – is designed to automate some part of the recruiting workflow whether it’s screening resumes, testing candidates, and even interviewing.
The current explosion in recruiting technology represents exciting opportunities to help solve some classic recruiting headaches. But trying to make sense of it all can be overwhelming.
Here are 4 tips on picking the right recruiting technology for your recruiting needs.
Tip 1: Define the problem you’re trying to solve with recruiting technology.
There are a lot recruiting technology solutions to solve a variety of recruiting problems. To avoid getting wowed by the bells and whistles, start with defining the specific problem you’re trying to solve. There might several problems you’re trying to solve at once but start with your biggest pain point.
For example, maybe your biggest problem is spending too much time screening unqualified resumes – up to 23 hours per hire!
The recruiting technology solution you want to solve this pain point should automate resume screening in order to free up your time for other priorities.
The AI for recruiting solution you choose may have additional features but its core function should be automated resume screening. This type of recruitment automation needs to be able to replicate the shortlisting decisions you’d make yourself on which candidates to move forward.
Tip 2: Make sure the recruiting technology doesn’t make your job more complicated.
Technology is a great tool – as long as it simplifies, streamlines, or makes your job easier in some meaningful way.
Recruiting technology can be confusing because it’s not always clear how the solution works. This makes it hard to assess if it will make your job easier – or harder.
Matt Charney recommends test driving any recruiting technology you’re interested in by actually using it at your job instead of relying only on a demo and case studies.
Tip 3: Assess how well the recruiting technology integrates with your current software.
Industry experts predict the future of recruiting technology is an integrated software solution: a recruiting stack. The idea is that each software solution in the stack has been designed to efficiently address a specific recruiting problem and integrates easily with each other.
For example, recruitment software which addresses the problem of attracting and engaging candidates integrates with your ATS. Intelligent screening software that addresses the problem of manually screening resumes integrates with your ATS. And so on.
This type of software integration is becoming more common as employers are realizing that the recruiting module in an HCM suite are sometimes an afterthought. This is because it’s not the HCM’s core function, a point brought up by Taylor Sternberg at SmartRecruiters.
The HCM’s recruiting module may not be as effective as recruiting technology that’s specifically designed to solve a particular recruiting problem. Because these newer recruiting solutions recognize recruiters’ desire for quick and easy integration, many of them have been designed to “play nice” with each other. This means you can add a new software solution and keep using the software you already have without asking for IT’s help.
Tip 4: Link the ROI of the recruiting technology with a business outcome.
We hear it over and over again: business leaders don’t care about recruiting KPIs if they don’t translate into business outcomes.
The recruiting technology you’re interested in may do a fantastic job at reducing time-to-fill. But if you can’t link reduced time-to-fill with a business outcome like time-to-productivity or increased revenue, it’s that much harder to prove ROI and get buy-in.
Let’s take the example of automated resume screening. Using this recruiting technology, you no longer have to manually read every resume you receive and decide whether to move the candidates forward because the technology would do it for you, drastically reducing time-to-fill.
You save several hours a day that you would have spent reading resumes which you can use on other priorities such as interviewing candidates. Having time to talk to candidates more in depth means having the ability to better assess the candidate’s personality and company culture fit. As a result, this improves time-to-productivity because the candidates hired are better matches for the role.
The takeaways for recruiting technology
AI for recruiting technology has become a dominant theme in recruiting. Here are 4 tips to help you pick the right recruiting technology for you:
- Tip 1: Define the problem you’re trying to solve.
- Tip 2: Make sure the technology doesn’t make your job more complicated.
- Tip 3: Assess how well the recruiting technology integrates with your current software.
- Tip 4: Link the ROI of the recruiting technology with a business outcome.