Let’s face facts. Hiring just doesn't work the way it used to. Reviewing countless applications, trying to schedule interviews, remembering to keep in touch with every candidate, and all the other little tasks bury recruiters in a bottomless to-do list.
And it’s not just recruiters who are negatively impacted. Candidates, hiring managers, and organizational leaders are all yearning for a faster, more efficient hiring process. Everyone has a common goal and that’s to connect great people with the right opportunities—as seamlessly as possible.
Fortunately, the rapid advancement of technology, specifically AI-powered recruiting automation, empowers talent teams to overcome these challenges and optimize their end-to-end hiring process.
Recruiting automation has been a hot topic among talent acquisition professionals over the past few years. In this blog post, we’ll explore exactly what recruiting automation does, the benefits it brings to everyone involved in hiring, and the main recruiting automation platforms available on the market.
Recruiting automation is technology that optimizes, streamlines, and even completely accomplishes common recruiting and hiring-related tasks. It automates tasks such as sourcing candidates, pre-screening applicants, scheduling interviews, connecting with passive talent, and communicating with candidates throughout the hiring process.
Recruiting automation brings numerous benefits to hiring teams, including increasing recruiter productivity, reducing time-to-hire, lowering costs, and improving the candidate experience.
Any talent acquisition professional can intuitively grasp the concept of recruiting automation. As the name aptly implies, it automates many of the tedious—yet critically important tasks—that recruiters need to accomplish during the hiring process. The technology is especially helpful for recruiting teams focused on high-volume hiring or tasks with filling multiple roles at once.
What might not be so obvious is just how powerful recruiting automation can be. AI and general technology are evolving at a rapid pace and new use cases for recruiting automation are emerging all the time.
In this section, we’ll highlight specific ways recruiting automation can be used to resolve the challenges talent acquisition professionals face and drive success at each stage of the hiring process.
Imagine having an always-on recruiter that welcomes every candidate who visits your website and is ready to anwser their questions and guide them to their perfect opportunity. That's the power of an AI chatbot, which acts as your “24/7 automated recruiting assistant.”
It starts by asking the job seeker a few basic questions to understand their skills and interests. It then uses that information to match them with relevant open positions. This saves candidates from having to sort through all your open jobs to uncover the one they're interested in, resulting in more qualified applicants and excited candidates.
From there, the candidate can instantly apply for the role, simply by answering a few basic questions about who they are, and what they can do. The chatbot will automatically generate a candidate profile in your Applicant Tracking System (ATS), so your system of record is always up-to-date.
But it doesn't stop there. The chatbot can also answer their questions about your company culture, benefits, and application process, making them feel informed and compelling them to move forward with applying. Simply upload answers to your most commonly asked questions and the chatbot will be ready to provide candidates with the information they're looking for.
By providing this personalized and interactive experience at the start of the hiring process, you’ll capture the attention of every job seeker who lands on your career site and generate a bigger applicant pool.
Every recruiter has experienced this problem: You attracted too many applicants. All of a sudden, you have dozens or even hundreds of resumes to review, and you want to make sure every candidate gets fair consideration.
What if an automated recruiting assistant could handle that initial screening, giving you back that time and ensuring no hidden gems slip through the cracks? Recruiting automation does just that. Immediately after a candidate applies for a role, the AI chatbot asks them a series of questions to determine if they meet the basic requirements.
Recruiting automation not only handles time-consuming pre-screening work for you. It also reduces bias and ensures every qualified candidate gets noticed. The result? More time for meaningful interviews and a faster path to making the perfect hire.
Gone are the days of endless email chains asking about availability and looking at everyone’s calendars trying to slot in interviews. With recruiting automation, the AI chatbot takes the reins and handles interview scheduling for you.
After pre-screening the applicant, it instantly presents them with available interview days and times pulled from your hiring team's calendars. The candidate can simply choose an interview slot that works for them, without having to wait days or weeks to hear back after applying. The chatbot can even handle complex interview scenarios—like panel and sequential interviews—ensuring every hiring team member gets the opportunity to meet the candidate.
And if they need to reschedule? No problem! The chatbot will respond instantly to their reschedule request and offer new interview dates and times they can select from.
Using recruiting automation, candidates can apply, be pre-screened, and have an interview scheduled within minutes of learning about your opportunity, fast-tracking the hiring process and delivering an outstanding candidate experience.
Over time, every organization builds a database full of great candidates who were never hired. Some weren’t quite the right fit for the role they initially applied for while many others simply finished runner-up to more qualified candidates.
There are a lot of amazing potential hires buried in your database but finding the right person for the job you need to fill today has always been a challenge. In fact, some Sense customers report that half the candidates they hired were already in their database. Recruiting automation's Search and Match AI scours your ATS/CRM and resurfaces candidates who are excellent fits for your new positions. There’s no more posting a job opening and waiting for a new pool of candidates to apply every time you need to hire.
And with personalized, automated messaging, you can reengage all the past candidates you uncovered. You can reignite their interest, reminding them why your company was a great fit before, and maybe even a better one now. This access to a whole new pool of qualified talent expands your sourcing efforts and helps you get more out of your ATS/CRM.
With over 80 franchise offices across North America and 5,000 clients served each year, PrideStaff is one of the largest and most respected staffing firms. Over the years, they built a massive talent database and needed an effective way to find past candidates who have the skills and experience required for new roles.
They use recruiting automation and Search and Match AI to uncover the right candidates in their database and reconnect with them using automated, personalized messaging. By embracing new technology, they’ve placed 38,000 past candidates in new roles in a single year, all while saving their recruiting team over 3,000 hours. Read the full story here.
Tired of the slow grind of sourcing passive candidates one by one? Recruiting automation's mass texting campaigns let you instantly connect with a vast talent pool. You can pitch your opportunity to countless candidates at once, and every text message will feel as if it was crafted specifically for the individual recipient.
When a candidate responds and says they’re interested in the job, they’ll be put directly in touch with a human recruiter, or the AI chatbot will step in to seamlessly schedule an interview.
You can use mass texting campaigns to rekindle interest in past applicants, reconnect with event attendees, or reach any other group of candidates who have offered you their phone numbers. And given that text messaging is now most people’s preferred mode of communication, it's a smart way to get the attention of talent.
Most organizations attract plenty of candidates but identifying qualified candidates can be a time-consuming challenge. Recruiting automation with advanced AI matching algorithms can be your game-changer. These intelligent systems analyze candidate profiles against your specific job requirements, prioritizing relevant skills, experience, education, and other criteria you define.
And with a customizable approach, you can focus on the most promising applicants. Need a strong educational background in a specific field? The system prioritizes candidates with the right degrees or certifications. A clear scoring system quantifies each candidate's suitability for the role, allowing you to identify top performers quickly. Ranked lists further streamline the process by prioritizing top talent, saving you valuable time and resources when deciding who to proceed with.
By leveraging automated candidate matching, scoring, and ranking, you can significantly improve your hiring efficiency. Qualified candidates receive a faster response, and you can focus on the most promising applicants right from the start. This streamlined approach ensures a smoother experience for both recruiters and candidates, leading to a faster hiring process and a higher chance of finding the ideal candidate.
While chatbots and text messaging are great channels for engaging talent, some candidates are accustomed to speaking with recruiters on the phone. However, recruiters simply do not have the time to call every candidate one after another.
Advancements in recruiting automation now enable recruiting teams to engage candidates in automated voice conversations. This technology will automatically call candidates and ask pre-screening questions, schedule interviews, and answer any questions they might have. It can even reconnect with passive candidates in your database, screen applicants after they apply, and conduct reference checks.
AI-powered voice automation—combined with email, text messaging, and chatbots—empowers recruiting teams to leverage an omnichannel candidate engagement strategy. You can contact candidates through their preferred communication method, elevating their experience and helping you exceed your hiring goals.
A staggering 88% of recruiters say employee referrals are their top source of new candidates. But even more, a candidate referred by one of your current employees is likely to accept your offer and stay with your organization for a long time. After all, someone they trust is letting them know that you provide an outstanding organizational culture and employee experience.
The problem with employee referrals has always been the manual process. Tracking candidates in spreadsheets is messy and anxious applicants and employees are often left wondering if their referral got lost in the void. While the intent of an employee referral program is positive, the actual experience isn’t so great for everyone involved.
The good news is recruiting automation streamlines the entire referral process, from outreach to rewards. You can ask your employees to connect you with great candidates through automated messages and anyone they refer will flow seamlessly into your ATS—just like the candidates you attract from any other source. From there, both the referrer and referee will receive frequent updates throughout the hiring process. Even reward payouts are automated, including generating the necessary tax forms for the employee.
Recruiting automation removes all the hurdles traditionally associated with employee referrals and makes it easy for your happy employees to connect you with the talented people they know.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that job seekers want regular updates throughout the hiring process. Recruiters too often fall out of touch, causing candidates to lose interest in the job and shift their attention to other opportunities with more attentive hiring teams. By the time the recruiter gets around to following up, the candidate is often getting ready to start a new role with another organization.
Adding to this challenge is the fact that recruiters have multiple candidates under consideration (each at different stages in the hiring process) for an array of different roles. Trying to keep in touch with everyone is a juggling act and some candidates unfortunately fall through the cracks.
Recruiting automation handles candidate communication, sending personalized updates and reminders to each person throughout their journey. Whether it's a simple check-in, a convenient interview reminder, a warm welcome to new hires, or even a “happy birthday” message, every candidate gets the regular communication they want and deserve.
Recruiting automation also enables you to have an omnichannel engagement strategy, so you connect with different candidates on their preferred communication channel (e.g., text message, email, or WhatsApp). No more radio silence, just clear communication that keeps candidates interested and reduces drop-off.
Be The Match had a simple yet ambitious goal—to be a best-in-class talent acquisition organization. And to do that, they knew they needed to communicate with candidates frequently throughout the hiring process. “Early in my career, I learned that candidates just want to hear back from recruiters,” said Senior Talent Acquisition Manager Kari Elias.
They use automated text messaging to send updates and reminders, schedule interviews, and streamline the onboarding process. Since embracing recruiting automation and text messaging, they’ve sped up their hiring process, increased response rates, and now reach more candidates than ever before. Read the full story here
Recruiters today encounter challenges at every turn. Hiring is a long process and there are various pitfalls to overcome when sourcing talent, arranging interviews, onboarding new hires, and navigating all the other stages in the journey. When you consider that most recruiting teams are trying to fill multiple roles at once, each day consists of some sort of problem-solving.
Recruiting automation drives efficiency throughout the hiring process and prevents common recruiting challenges from ever occurring in the first place. The result is a hiring strategy that runs like a well-oiled machine and meets the expectations of recruiters, candidates, hiring managers, and senior leaders.
Now that we know exactly what recruiting automation can do, let’s go through the common challenges it resolves and the specific benefits it brings to the talent acquisition teams that embrace this technology.
Recruiters face increasing demands both internally (from hiring managers and organizational leadership) and externally (from the candidates they hope to hire). They’re expected to meet ambitious recruiting goals by hiring top talent—and that talent is demanding a better experience.
Recruiting automation helps meet those expectations by meticulously handling the time-consuming administrative tasks that weigh heavily on recruiters' workloads. These newfound time-savings empower them to shift their focus toward high-impact, strategic areas and, in many ways, are redefining the role of the modern recruiter. Recruiters can focus on cultivating relationships with top talent, proactively building long-term hiring plans, collaborating with hiring managers on role requirements, and spearheading diversity initiatives that make for a more inclusive workplace.
Recruiting automation doesn't merely enable recruiters to achieve ambitious hiring goals. It elevates their role within the organization from task manager to strategic talent advisor.
Top talent is selective. They have choices in where they work, and before investing even a small amount of time in completing an application (let alone moving forward with an interview), they want to ensure your organization is the right fit.
Recruiting automation helps you capture their attention right away. An AI Chatbot learns about their skills, experience, and interests and directs them to relevant roles. They don’t have to comb through endless listings to see if you happen to be hiring for a role they’d be interested in. Plus, the chatbot answers any questions about the job and your organization, so they know if you offer everything they’re looking for in their next opportunity.
And that’s just the initial stages of the hiring process. Automated messaging keeps them engaged and updated throughout their journey, maintaining their excitement about the role.
Attracting top talent isn't just about having open positions. It also requires showcasing your commitment to a candidate-centric hiring experience. Recruiting automation makes your organization stand out as a desirable destination for the best and brightest, helping you build a strong employer brand and ultimately hire great people who fuel your organization’s success.
Sense recently surveyed more than 130 recruiting professionals and uncovered a shocking trend. Candidates are demanding more from recruiters. More than half of respondents (61%) said candidate expectations have increased in the past year.
Even in a job market that favors employers, candidates will not endure a multi-step application and months-long hiring processes with infrequent communication. As we’ve mentioned, they’ll simply move on in their job search and explore other opportunities. In fact, 51% of our survey respondents reported that their candidate drop-off rate is on the rise.
Check out the full survey here
Recruiting automation elevates the candidate experience. It streamlines the entire hiring process and ensures candidates receive the right message at the right time. These automated reminders and timely updates keep candidates informed and invested in the opportunity. Through transparency and personalization, you can create a positive impression of your organization, setting you apart as an employer who values job seekers’ time and effort.
Modern recruiting transcends its traditional role as a support function. It's increasingly recognized as a key driver of revenue. Filling critical front-line positions with qualified talent keeps the organization fully staffed and progressing toward its growth goals.
This urgency to fill open roles underscores the need for speed. Organizations simply cannot afford prolonged hiring cycles that stretch on for weeks or even months.
And it's not just hiring companies wanting roles to be filled quickly. Today's candidates—who are considering multiple opportunities—are prioritizing prompt hiring experiences.
Recruiting automation satisfies everyone’s demand for a fast hiring process. An AI Chatbot collects application details, pre-screens candidates, and schedules interviews—all within minutes. Recruiting tasks that previously consumed days or weeks are now accomplished instantly, saving valuable time and resources.
This helps organizations gain faster access to the talent they need, driving growth and efficiency. And candidates, in turn, experience a responsive and respectful journey, boosting their perception of your employer brand.
With nearly 6,000 employees across 200 locations in 30 states, Compassus had ambitious recruiting goals that required speed and efficiency.
As engaging the right talent at scale became increasingly challenging, they turned to recruiting automation to help them accelerate their hiring efforts. Today, the hiring team saves 18-20 hours each week, time-to-offer has decreased from 7 to 1.5 days, and they engage over 500 candidates each month. Check out the webinar to hear their full story
Inefficient recruiting not only prolongs the hiring process and frustrates candidates. It also causes your organization to incur unnecessary costs. Half of the respondents in our survey of recruiting professionals said their cost-per-hire has increased in the past year. And this comes as many organizations are reducing budgets and asking their teams to do more with less.
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Think of each candidate you engage as an investment. Every time one drops out of the hiring process, you fail to recognize a return on that investment and have to spend more money starting fresh with new candidates.
Even more, traditional sourcing methods like job boards are becoming more expensive, making it costly to bring candidates into your hiring funnel.
Fortunately, recruiting automation decreases costs by attracting candidates from a variety of sources and keeping them engaged throughout the hiring process. Using chatbots, automated referrals, and database reactivation, recruiters can reduce their reliance on job boards. This opens up new, cost-effective talent pools while saving your team valuable time and resources. And automated messaging keeps candidates engaged and reduces drop-off, preventing unnecessary costs from incurring.
By taking advantage of recruiting automation, you can provide an outstanding candidate experience and, in turn, elevate your employer brand. Your employer brand is your reputation as an employer among the talent market you hope to hire from, so positive word-of-mouth from past candidates helps you attract new ones.
Much of your employer brand hinges on Glassdoor reviews and the other firsthand experiences candidates post online. If you’re able to personalize the hiring process, send frequent updates and reminders, and move quickly, candidates will be inclined to share that they had those positive interactions with your organization, whether they’re hired or not.
And by using recruiting automation to accomplish everyday tasks, your team will have more time to focus on the work that results in a respected employer brand, like creating employee-focused content, designing a beautiful career site, and defining your messaging.
Recruiting automation not only powers the standard recruiting process. It can also drive your recruitment marketing strategy.
Recruitment marketing is the process of proactively connecting with passive talent and sharing your open roles. You can use recruiting automation to source passive talent through text messaging, continuously nurture past candidates until they’re ready to apply, generate applicants at hiring events, collect employee referrals, and more.
By harnessing the power of recruiting automation, you can source both inbound and outbound candidates. This helps you expand your talent pool so you have multiple qualified candidates to consider for every role.
At this point, you’re likely ready to implement recruiting automation in your organization. But you’re also likely wondering where to start. There are numerous recruiting automation platforms on the market and each one is a bit different from the next.
We compiled a list of the top recruiting automation platforms so you can start the process of evaluating vendors.
The Sense AI-powered Talent Engagement Platform is consistently recognized as the leader in recruiting automation by G2. We offer a wide range of innovative features including AI Chatbot, automated pre-screening and interview scheduling, 1:1 and mass texting, personalized talent journeys, database reactivation, referrals, and much more.
Sense integrates with leading ATS providers and other HR tech vendors to drive automation and ensure data consistency across the recruiting tech stack. Sense helps leading enterprises make 3X more hires, reduce cost-to-hire by 30%, and achieve a 55% faster hire rate. Want to learn more? Request a demo.
Phenom provides a talent experience platform for hiring, employee development, and retention. Their features include career sites, skills-based talent matching, and automated workflows.
Paradox leverages chatbots and text messaging to automate various elements of the recruiting process. Key features include automated applicant screening, interview scheduling, and real-time communication between candidates and recruiters.
Bullhorn offers recruiting automation software for staffing firms and recruiting agencies. Core features include applicant tracking, candidate relationship management, job order management, onboarding, and time and expense tracking.
Entelo focuses on talent sourcing. Their platform searches a vast database to find candidates matching job requirements and offers tools for automated outreach. They also provide filters to identify diverse candidates and insights aimed at mitigating hiring biases.
HireEZ provides a CRM for recruiters. Their functionality includes AI-powered candidate sourcing, applicant tracking, skills analysis, automated email outreach, and collaboration and project management tools.
HireVue offers talent assessment through pre-recorded or live video interviews, gamified skills assessments, and automated interview scheduling. They also help recruiting teams evaluate candidates using AI.
Gem provides a recruiting automation platform that combines sourcing, candidate relationship management, and analytics. Their primary features include candidate research tools, automated outreach capabilities, and diversity recruiting functionality.
SeekOut provides automated sourcing with a focus on diversity and in-demand talent. They offer filters recruiters can use to search a vast talent database to identify candidates from different backgrounds who match role requirements.
Eightfold focuses on recruiting and internal mobility. Their key features include talent matching based on skills and potential, automated workflows, and comprehensive candidate and employee insights.
Fountain serves organizations focused on high-volume hiring and hourly worker recruiting. They offer features for managing applications, screening candidates,
scheduling interviews, personalizing communication, and automating onboarding.
Hireology offers a recruiting and employee management platform for small and medium-sized businesses. They offer applicant tracking, onboarding, payroll, and performance management features.
Are you ready to connect with the Sense team and learn how you can use recruiting automation in your organization? If so, get in touch.
If you’re still eager to learn more, we have even more information on the topic. Feel free to dive into these resources and share them with your team.
