When the average job posting receives 250 resumes with 88% of them unqualified, effective resume screening tools are a recruiter’s dream come true.
In 2017, the demand for resume screening tools that reduce the hours spent manually reading resumes will only grow as 56% of talent acquisition leaders predict hiring volume will increase but 66% of recruiting teams will stay the same size or even shrink.
The best way for recruiters who are already time-strapped to do more with less is to decide which of your tasks can be effectively automated.
Here are 3 resume screening tools that will boost your recruiting productivity by saving you time.
1. Resume parsers that use a search function
Many ATSs have built-in resume screening tools like a keyword or Boolean search function. An ATS conducts shortlisting of candidates by using semantic matching on the search terms used and the resumes in its database.
A recruiter can manually search for candidates using their own keywords or a Boolean search term for qualifications related to education, skills, or work experience.
Some ATSs also have resume screening tools that automatically extract relevant keywords from your job description and then finds matching resumes among the applicants.
ATS search functions are considered the basic, traditional resume screening tools. Initially, they were invaluable for recruiters because they automated some of the manual screening. However, they’ve been less useful over the years as candidates have learned to game the system through keyword stuffing.
Keyword stuffing creates the problem that you’re not truly finding the most qualified candidates from the applicant pool.
2. Resume enrichers that use public data
A new generation of resume screening tools leverage public data sources to enrich resumes.
Using natural language processing, a resume enricher can add more information about candidate’s previous employers and their qualifications through their public digital footprint, that is, information about them that’s available online.
For example, a resume enricher can understand that Apple is a large tech company or that Java is a computer programming language. It can scrape candidates’ public social media profiles or online portfolios to create preliminary analyses of his or her skill set and personality traits.
Resume enrichers represent an innovation in resume screening tools because candidates can’t easily fake their public digital footprint. This means they have the potential to quickly identify the most qualified candidates in your pipeline more accurately than traditional resume parsers.
3. Resume screeners that use artificial intelligence
Resume screeners powered by artificial intelligence are part of an emerging category of recruitment technology called AI for recruiting.
An intelligent resume screener applies the knowledge it learns about employees’ experience, skills, and other qualifications to automatically screen, shortlist, and grade new candidates (e.g., A to C or Red, Yellow, and Green).
Intelligent resume screeners represent the future of resume screening tools because not only do they save you the time it takes to manually screen resumes, they help you predict quality of hire by learning which candidates moved on to become successful and unsuccessful employees based on their performance and tenure.
The takeaways for resume screening tools
In 2017, recruiters will face increasing pressure to boost their efficiency by doing more with less. Our most valuable resource is time so resume screening tools that reduce the time spent on manually reading resumes will become essential.
- Resume parsers represent the first generation of resume screening tools through their search functions.
- Resume enrichers represent a new innovation in resume screening by adding information and context to candidates’ resumes using public data sources.
- Resume screeners that use artificial intelligence represent the next generation of resume screening tools by learning from your historical hiring decisions to predict quality of hire.
Keep in mind that these three resume screening tools can be used together to save you a lot of time and boost your productivity.
Which tool will be the most useful for you really depends on your recruitment needs – for example, intelligent resume screeners make the most sense for high-volume hiring – and which KPIs you want to prioritize.