For the past few months, it seems like everyone has been talking about artificial intelligence (AI). With the rise of ChatGPT, people are suddenly speculating about how AI will shape how we work and live in the coming years.
But for those who work in talent acquisition, the future is now. AI sourcing and recruiting technology is already here and it’s revolutionizing how talent acquisition professionals accomplish everyday tasks that used to drain productivity, prolong the hiring process, and leave candidates wanting a better experience.
If you’re only now learning about this emerging technology, don’t worry, you’re still early to the game. In this blog post, we’ll teach you exactly how AI candidate sourcing technology will help you connect with top talent, reduce time-to-hire, and boost candidate satisfaction.
Every job seeker values different factors when considering an opportunity, and they want to know if your organization offers what is important to them as an individual before they take the time to apply. However, your recruiting team can’t answer every question from a potential candidate in a timely manner, especially considering most people search for jobs outside of regular business hours when recruiters are offline.
That’s where AI sourcing tools come in. An AI-powered chatbot can play the role of your “24/7 recruiting assistant” — and instantly and intelligently engage 100% of visitors who come to your careers site. With Smart FAQs, you can fill in answers to common questions about your organization, culture, benefits, and more and the chatbot will relay those answers to job seekers, giving them the information they need to move forward with applying. Even more, the chatbot can understand natural language and engage the candidate in a smart, human-like conversation, just like any member of your recruiting team would.
One of the biggest barriers to sourcing talent is getting a candidate to complete an application. For too long, the online application experience was long and clunky, resulting in frustrated candidates abandoning their applications before finishing. In fact, Indeed research found that up to 40% of applications are never completed due to a poor user experience.
AI recruiting and sourcing technology makes the application process a whole lot smoother for job seekers. After the chatbot answers their questions, it will ask them what type of roles they’re interested in and collect their application details by asking a few simple questions about their experience, background, and qualifications. With AI talent sourcing, the job seeker won’t even feel like they’re completing an application but rather participating in a conversation with a helpful recruiter who wants to help them find the right job.
Candidate screening is a huge time suck and prone to human error and unconscious bias. It’s a tedious process that often leads to recruiters bypassing qualified candidates as they work to get through the mass of resumes and applications that have come in. A 2018 study from Ladders found that recruiters spend an average of 7.4 seconds reviewing a candidate's resume, which isn’t nearly enough time to get a sense for what a person can do.
Leveraging AI recruitment sourcing to screen applicants makes the process much faster and more equitable. After a candidate has their questions answered and applies, the chatbot will instantly pre-screen them against role requirements. By taking advantage of AI sourcing tools, you can ensure every qualified applicant who applies gets the opportunity to move forward in the hiring process.
Time-to-hire varies based on the role and industry, but it generally exceeds 40 days (or just under 6 weeks) in most cases. Many recruiters start the hiring process quickly but hit a snag when it comes time to schedule interviews, as they work to collect availability from the hiring team and find a day/time that works best for the candidate.
With the power of AI sourcing, you can schedule interviews in minutes rather than days. If the chatbot determines a candidate is qualified, it will instantly share available days/times for an interview. It can even schedule panel interviews by sharing the entire team’s common availability, send a timely interview confirmation email and instantly reschedule interviews should the candidate’s availability change.
To recap, in mere minutes of a job seeker landing on your careers website, an AI-powered chatbot will:
Leading recruiting teams leverage AI sourcing to decrease time-to-hire by up to 80%
One of the biggest challenges recruiters face today is finding and engaging passive candidates. In fact, a joint survey conducted by Sense and Talent Board found that it’s the #1 challenge recruiting leaders face today.
The good news is you have a goldmine of candidates in your ATS/CRM who have already expressed interest in working with you. And many of those candidates would make great employees but just weren’t quite the right fit for the role they initially applied for.
AI candidate sourcing tools can help you rediscover past candidates who are qualified for new roles. With Search and Match AI, you can instantly find candidates in your database worth reconnecting with and reach out to share new and relevant opportunities with them.
Leading recruiting teams take advantage of AI sourcing to reactive 70% of their talent database
When it comes to the future of the recruiting profession, there is a lot of concern that AI sourcing tools will replace recruiters altogether. But the truth is, recruiting is all about building relationships with candidates, hiring managers, and other stakeholders — and that's something only a talented recruiter can do.
AI is instead here to help recruiting teams work faster and more efficiently, and provide candidates with a better hiring experience. Thanks to technology like AI-powered chatbots and recruiting automation, recruiters don’t have to devote time to answering common questions, screening applicants, scheduling interviews, and finding passive talent. And candidates no longer have to endure a poor application experience or wait weeks or months to land their next job.
This means recruiters can focus on more impactful work like fostering relationships with top candidates, advising hiring managers on how to effectively grow their teams, and developing long-term hiring and diversity strategies. All while building stronger talent pipelines and meeting their hiring goals by better engaging talent with AI sourcing tools.
Want to learn more about the power of AI recruiting automation? Check out our 2023 Recruiting Automation Playbook
