Automating the most tedious parts of a recruiter’s job isn’t just about efficiency – it’s also about improving candidate experience. Put simply, when recruiters aren’t bogged down with tasks like scheduling interviews, they have more time to do the work that makes an impact: having one-on-one conversations with candidates. In this article, you’ll learn about:
- Key challenges recruiters face in their work
- Which parts of a recruiter’s job could be effectively automated
- How recruiting automation benefits both candidates and companies
“Automation” it’s one of those words that can conjure up very different images for different people. For some, automation means streamlining, efficiency, and processes that work. For others, it can sound like a robot taking over our jobs.
What we often don’t think of when it comes to automation is people. In the case of automation tools for recruiting, it’s people that are top of mind for Will Laufer, Founder of Prelude (formerly Interview Schedule). Prelude is a recruiting automation tool that simplifies the most manual parts of scheduling interviews, freeing up resources to focus on top priorities.
In a recent episode of Data-Driven Recruiting, Laufer spoke with CodeSignal Co-Founder Sophia Baik about how recruiting automation can empower recruiters to do their best work and improve the candidate experience for job seekers.
What to Automate – and Why
Several years ago, when Laufer met with the recruiting team at the small company where he worked as a hiring manager, he was shocked by what they told him. By their own reporting, these recruiters were spending over 50 percent of their time on scheduling and the logistics of interviews. And, Laufer adds, “none of the recruiters on the team were excited about those many, many hours that were spent on manual scheduling.”
These recruiters are not alone. A recent survey identified setting up video interviews as the number one task recruiters wish were more automated at their job, with 49 percent of survey respondents asking for this capacity. And an additional 40 percent of recruiters asked for automated tools for scheduling. Recruiters want automation to handle the most tedious parts of their job.
This revelation ultimately led Laufer to strike out on his own and found Interview Schedule. He discovered that in the recruiting world, “some of the biggest bottlenecks are some of the least sexy problems you can imagine” – like scheduling. Recruiters would much rather spend their time doing what they do best and what they love to do: have meaningful conversations and build relationships with candidates.
Recruiting Automation and Candidate Experience
What impact do recruiting automation tools – some of which the candidate won’t ever see – have on candidate experience? A significant one, it turns out. In another survey of recruiting professionals, respondents identified “communication with candidates throughout the hiring process” and “interview scheduling and rescheduling” as their team’s biggest challenges when it comes to candidate experience. In other words: they have challenges around candidate experience that could be addressed through automation.
For Laufer, streamlining recruiting processes with automation ultimately comes down to optimizing candidate experience. “When I think about what’s so powerful about finding efficiencies in recruiting and talent,” he says, “it’s giving time and resources back to the most human part of this function – which is helping folks have an incredible experience in making this really important decision in their lives.”
Just as automation can free up recruiters’ time to create an excellent candidate experience, it can also prevent common slip-ups that make for a negative experience. Automation tools can prevent mistakes – like never getting back to a candidate after they submit an application – or failing to schedule a phone screen (automated follow-ups can handle these). Mistakes like these can be frustrating for candidates, and they reflect poorly on your company.
Recruiting automation, at the end of the day, benefits all parties involved: recruiters, companies, and candidates. When recruiters are freed up to do their best work, they are able to focus on the questions that matter most in the hiring process. These come down to: is this job the best fit for this candidate, and is this candidate the best fit for this job?
Learn More
Want to learn more about how you can build a winning organization through data-driven recruiting? Visit CodeSignal to find out how you can measure technical skills effectively and objectively with its automated assessment and live interview solutions.