It’s the candidate’s market which means you have to distinguish yourself from competitors. The top-tier talent will seek positions that fulfill their every request, wish, and need, so apart from trying to tap into those and do your best to attract the right talent, one way of distinguishing yourself is by offering a fast process since doing so results in a better candidate experience.
From job ad to hire — where do you spend time and why? Which are your stressors and pain points? What do your candidates say about your process? A fast process plays a huge part in the feeling of having had a great candidate experience.
By viewing your hiring process objectively and in totality, without taking its flaws personally, you’ll have an easier time defining which parts of the process can be altered and sped up. Are you still doing many tasks manually? Such as screening and sourcing? If so, start by measuring how time-consuming every step is. Every second spent on tasks that could be automated results in both a more costly and time-consuming process.
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”
Stephen Cove
In order to complete tasks quickly, you have to know exactly why, how, and when you do them, and it all begins in the preparation stage. Start by creating an elaborate candidate profile that you and the stakeholders can agree on. By doing so, you’ll able to target and attract preferred candidates more easily because you’ll know how to formulate a job ad that speaks to those types of personalities. Another perk is that you’ll manage expectations, avoid second-guessing and stakeholders that change their minds mid-process,
You can begin by asking these questions:
- What is the preferred education of the candidate/do they need to have an education?
- What have they done before that will benefit them in this position? (Specify background)
- What type of extracurricular activities will benefit them in this position? (Volunteering, team leadership, sports, etc.)
- Specify preferred character traits, such as; strong leadership abilities, analytical, and high EQ.
As previously mentioned, every manual task you can avoid is beneficial to you, seen from a cost- and time-efficiency perspective. Sourcing and screening are the most common time thieves in a high-volume hiring process.
Sourcing with AI
One of the big advantages of AI sourcing is the ability to refer to hundreds of databases in a short amount of time. The AI can unearth top talent in a matter of seconds, and it does so by quickly scanning connected databases based on the criteria you’ve added as input, such as; education, city, background, etc. When the scanning is completed, you’ll receive a list of the most eligible candidates. As you can hear, what would take you hours upon hours to conclude, the AI can perform with precision, at speed. Using targeted social media advertising to attract the right talent is another smart way of quickly reaching a much broader audience. For example, there’s software available that enables you to push ad campaigns straight from your ATS and uses machine learning to continuously optimize your ad. Another example is an outreach tool that sends you, based on your criteria, batches of candidates straight to your inbox.
Screening with AI
The multitude of CVs you receive will be screened by an AI. The computer scans and screens resume based on the input (criteria) you’ve given it. It will screen every resume in a matter of minutes and give you a neat shortlist of the top candidates. Another way of conducting a quick screen is by using text-based AI-driven interviews that act as an initial screening. Such interviews take place in a chat window and are conducted by the AI. Based on the responses, the AI will decide which talents you should move forward with. We do this at Hubert, so if you want to know more about the inner workings, reach out to us!
Apart from screening and sourcing, there are more tasks on your to-do list that have the tendency to chew away at your precious time. You’re lucky to live during the era of digitalization because within recruitment; there’s almost not a single task that, as of today, is not automated. Take charge of your own time management and invest in the digital tools that will help you eliminate time-consuming tasks and swap them for automation.
Reference checking
Save an hour per candidate by using a reference-checking tool. Instead of reaching out to references yourself, the candidate invites the references to a platform in which they give their perspective of a person.
Digital contract signing
Avoid stalling your process by not daring to lean on digital contract signing. Save both your and the candidate’s time by not having to meet to sign the employment agreement.
Automated meeting booking system
Avoid hours of back-and-forth communication by giving the candidates access to allotted time slots in your calendar and having the candidates schedule their own interviews.
Communicating back and forth with candidates is one of the most time-consuming tasks a recruiter has. If you want to deliver a world-class candidate experience, the candidate should be updated on every step of the process. This involves sending an email confirmation when you’ve received their resume; after you’ve booked an interview; after the interview, etc. Doing this manually means you’re chipping away at precious energy that could’ve been directed to other tasks, such as ensuring you’re present in every interview. The automated email feature is an integrated function in most ATSs, so set it up and start sending! You can also provide candidates with a hiring process interface that shows them where in the process they’re at; that way, you never risk making them feel as if they’re forgotten. Trust us on this one; it’s greatly appreciated by our candidates.
