You've heard of applicant tracking systems. But what about recruitment chatbots? Or de-biasing software? As the hiring process becomes increasingly digitized, companies are scrambling to provide a whole new array of tools for hiring managers and recruiters hoping to streamline hiring. 75 percent of large companies already use an applicant tracking system, according to Capterra, and that number is only growing. Companies like Google, which receive an average of three million job applications yearly, or Amazon, which once received 20,000 applications in a single day, use a whole suite of tools, including AI and advanced recruiting softwares, to narrow down their applicant pool and sift out top talent.
AI and chatbots aren't out to replace recruiters - rather, recruiters and hiring managers can use them to do their jobs better. "It's really in the context of how does it help the recruiter do his or her job - more efficiently, more productively, more satisfyingly," says Gerry Crispin, recruiting expert and co-founder of CareerXroads, a peer-to-peer community of talent acquisition leaders. "It's only in that context that efforts to digitize become important," he points out.
If you want to uplevel your recruiting efforts through technology, consider the following four options, which each serve as important tools in helping recruiters and hiring managers attract and retain top talent.
1. Recruiting Chatbots
According to a study by talent solutions company Allegis, more than half of candidates are comfortable interacting with AI for initial questions in the application process. Moreover, it was found that 66 percent of candidates are comfortable interacting with chatbots and AI to schedule and prepare for interviews. Chatbots are now being used for scheduling, preliminary questioning and more, and can provide a level of transparency that sometimes surpasses even hiring managers.
"It's starting to add value to the experience of the candidate in terms of their ability to make better decisions in the future," says Crispin. But Crispin also points out that chatbots must be used in the right way, so as not to supplant all human contact during the hiring process. "It's going to have to satisfy the candidate, as well as the recruiter, as well as the employer, as well as the hiring manager," he says.
Usage of chatbots, Crispin stresses, should be weighed against the question: "Does it help the candidate make better decisions?"
A few examples of recruiting chatbots include ARI, Arya and Olivia.
2. Video Interviewing
With a large volume of candidates sending in applications from distant locations, video interviewing is a helpful way to get a preliminary, but personal, feel for what candidates have to offer. This isn't always as simple as setting up a two-way video call, though. Many software programs record candidates' answers to certain questions, giving them one shot and a limited amount of time so that hiring managers can easily sift through responses and determine who they're ready to talk to in person. Some companies even offer more, like HireVue, which integrates industrial-organizational psychology into its assessments and interview analyses, or ConveyIQ, which also offers email, text messaging and interview scheduling, among other features.
3. Glassdoor
Glassdoor provides a unique suite of employer branding tools that help employers hire truly informed candidates at scale. Glassdoor's employer branding products, empower companies to shape the perception of their employer brand with meaningful stories told through images and video while targeting highly relevant job seekers. Even a free employer account gives you access to powerful analytics into your traffic and rating as well as a presence where job seekers are researching.
4. De-biasing Software
As companies increasingly come to terms with the benefits and necessity of cultivating a diverse workforce, the obvious place to turn is the hiring process. A number of software companies are recognizing this as well, and as a result are pioneering "de-biasing softwares" that make the hiring process as objective as possible. "You can't easily put job candidates behind a curtain, but you can do a version of that with software", writes Gardinier More, a senior editor at Harvard Business Review. "The software allows hiring managers to strip age, gender, educational and socioeconomic background, and other information out of résumés so they can focus on talent only."
