eBOOK
How to Automate Your
Recruitment Process
(and Keep the Human Element)
Contents
3 Introduction
4 How automation makes recruitment more human
5 Current AI recruitment trends
6 What tasks can be automated?
9 What are the challenges of automation?
10 How automation supports a healthy pipeline
11 Looking ahead
12 Conclusion
2 | How to Automate Your Recruitment Process (and Keep the Human Element)
Introduction
HR professionals who do not automate processes lose an average of 14 hours per
week manually completing tasks that could be done programmatically.
Though some recruiters worry that automation will make their employer brand feel
sterile or robotic, the opposite is true. Automation frees hiring stakeholders from
the necessary yet tedious tasks that take their attention away from candidates.
Automated workflows enhance recruiters’ effectiveness in several ways:
y Accelerate time to hire.
y Increase the amount of resources available for candidate engagement efforts.
y Improve process visibility across hiring teams.
y Reduce unconscious bias in hiring decisions.
Forget about images of faceless robots replacing recruiters. Automation enhances
the human element of recruiting and ultimately leads to better quality hires.
3 | How to Automate Your Recruitment Process (and Keep the Human Element)
How automation makes recruitment
more human
One of the most common misconceptions about automation is that artificial
intelligence will replace human workers. However, recruitment automation actually
helps recruiters by removing time-consuming tasks from their workloads.
Recruiter responsibilities fall into two categories:
1. Low-value: Necessary tasks that move processes forward, but don’t contribute
much value to the organization’s long-term mission. Examples include posting to
multiple job boards and scheduling interviews.
2. High-value: Important tasks that add value by increasing quality of hire or
controlling costs by reducing turnover. Examples include conducting phone
interviews and developing skills gap assessments.
Automation allows recruiters to replace low-value tasks with high-value human
interactions that drive results with both internal stakeholders and candidates.
4 | How to Automate Your Recruitment Process (and Keep the Human Element)
Current AI recruitment trends
Artificial intelligence solutions designed to reduce time-consuming tasks generate
new benefits for hiring teams. An automated applicant tracking system (ATS) can
bring many advantages to an organization.
Workflow automation
An ATS empowers hiring stakeholders to save time and resources with automated
recruiting workflows. As candidates move through the pipeline, for example, hiring
teams can trigger automatic responses to notify candidates that their applications
have been received, they’ve moved onto the next round of interviews or that they’re
no longer being considered for the role.
Candidate rediscovery
Organizations often have high-quality candidates that get lost in their pipelines.
Recruiting technology allows teams to identify and re-engage these candidates within
their databases who might be a good fit for newly available positions.
Hiring diversity
Automated candidate screening reduces unconscious bias by highlighting candidate
skills and experiences exclusively. This allows recruiters to spend more time
developing genuine human connections with job seekers.
5 | How to Automate Your Recruitment Process (and Keep the Human Element)
What tasks can be automated?
Automating tasks saves time and maximizes resources at every stage of the
hiring process.
One-click job posts
The average candidate looks at seven job sites when searching for a new position.
Posting open roles to a variety of job boards ensures maximum visibility, but doing
so requires time and resources that most hiring teams can’t afford to lose.
An ATS gives recruiters the ability to write just one listing and post it everywhere
with a single click.
Resume screening
Reading and reviewing candidate resumes is an essential yet time-consuming
part of the recruitment workflow. Automated systems make it easier to review
documents, capture feedback from multiple stakeholders at once and vote to
reject or approve the candidate.
6 | How to Automate Your Recruitment Process (and Keep the Human Element)
What tasks can be automated?
(continued)
Interview scheduling
Scheduling interviews requires recruiters to coordinate with both candidate and
internal stakeholders. This manual process can reduce candidate interest and even
cause him/her to disengage in the recruiting process as a whole.
Automated scheduling eliminates the tedious back and forth of checking calendars,
sending invites and modifying interviews. Recruiting software allows teams to
suggest times, confirm availability and even have candidates self-schedule.
Hiring team collaboration
Gathering hiring-team feedback is critical to successful collaborative recruiting,
but also takes valuable time and manual effort. Recruiters are forced to chase down
stakeholders for input rather than focusing on more high-value tasks like branding
or sourcing.
An ATS allows stakeholders to enter their feedback, store it in a central location
and make it visible to the rest of the hiring team. Functionalities like this increase
visibility and make next steps clear.
7 | How to Automate Your Recruitment Process (and Keep the Human Element)
What tasks can be automated?
(continued)
Rejection letters
The average job opening receives at least 36 applications. Crafting personalized
rejection letters for each candidate who isn’t the right fit takes away time and
resources from other recruiting responsibilities.
An ATS allows recruiters to send personalized rejection letters automatically once a
candidate moves into a rejection phase. An auto-populated template with relevant
information instantly triggers when a hiring manager removes candidates from
consideration.
Social media posts
Almost all recruiters (94%) use social media to source talent, with many using more
than one platform. Crafting a unique post for each platform takes unnecessary time
and effort.
An ATS empowers recruiters to manage their social media campaigns from a central
dashboard. In a few clicks, recruiters can post jobs and related recruiting content to
multiple platforms.
8 | How to Automate Your Recruitment Process (and Keep the Human Element)
What are the challenges of
automation?
Organizations get the most out of recruitment software when the
whole hiring team uses the technology. Getting the initial buy-in from
stakeholders can be challenging, but it’s worth the effort.
Gaining stakeholder adoption
Training an entire team on new technology takes a significant amount of
time. Instead, start by identifying employees who have already voiced their
support for automation and help them to champion the system.
Once they’ve mastered the system, these experts can also spread the word
about the benefits of automation cross-functionally.
Battling unfounded fears of automation
Employees who are unfamiliar with automation may be initially wary of new
technology. Team members are more likely to use a system if it:
y Helps them advance their careers.
y Offers better efficiency and collaboration.
y Makes their work easier
9 | How to Automate Your Recruitment Process (and Keep the Human Element)
How automation supports a
healthy pipeline
Pipeline recruitment helps recruiters to identify qualified talent quickly for
existing openings. A robust pipeline reduces time to hire without sacrificing
the quality of chosen candidates.
Automation keeps candidates moving through the pipeline by re-engaging
those who weren’t the right fit for a previous opening, but may be for a new
position. Candidate rediscovery tools, for example, can uncover qualified
candidates who have already been through the initial screening phase.
In addition, automation reduces stagnation by providing pipelines with a
fresh flow of candidates. When candidates don’t hear back from recruiters
in a timely manner, they may become disengaged. Auto-generated drip
emails and newsletters keep these individuals active in the hiring process.
10 | How to Automate Your Recruitment Process (and Keep the Human Element)
Looking ahead
Automation and artificial intelligence improve recruitment by streamlining
processes, increasing candidate engagement and reducing friction.
Potential uses for automated technologies are far-ranging.
Blockchain
Though most commonly associated with cryptocurrencies, blockchain
technology stores information in a way that cannot be altered and can be
applied to recruiting for storing resumes. During the verification period, for
example, blockchain can ensure information isn’t faked or exaggerated.
Chatbots
Intelligent chat programs can make it easier to transmit and receive
information between job seekers and organizations. Chatbots can replace
FAQ pages, for example, and ask for basic screening information from site
visitors.
Gamification
Applying game-like elements to the recruitment process can improve
candidate engagement and speed up hiring workflows. Already, some
companies have developed web-based games that can test a candidate’s
time-management capabilities.
11 | How to Automate Your Recruitment Process (and Keep the Human Element)
Conclusion
Recruitment automation saves time and generates more opportunities to
create human connections between hiring stakeholders and job seekers.
Automation augments human capabilities, benefiting the entire organization.
By automating recruitment processes, hiring stakeholders gain:
y More time to spend with individual candidates.
y Greater visibility into processes and pending tasks.
y A healthier recruitment pipeline.
y Improved quality of hire. Sign up for a free demo of
y Reduced time to hire.
JazzHR to learn more about
At its core, recruitment is about making deep connections that add value to an how to gain the benefits of
organization. By reducing or eliminating tedious tasks, recruiters can focus on recruitment automation at
high-value activities.
your company.
12 | How to Automate Your Recruitment Process (and Keep the Human Element)
