What do time, money, and quality candidates have in common?

You never have as much as you’d like.

In a business environment that is defined by talent crunch, sourcing and screening the right candidate for the right job and at the right time has become a business imperative. So much so that a number of measures track the effectiveness of the recruitment process – right from the source of hire, time to fill a job, candidate satisfaction, cost per hire and new hire turnover rate and so on.

Recruiting managers are heading straight to professional networking sites, job boards, and social media tools to find potential candidates. What’s startling is that recruiters prioritize external databases first, and don’t always make the best use of their ATS.

ATS’ can be an effective way of finding the right candidates – it is a ready repository of past applicants, who may be the ‘best-fit’ for current vacancies. According to a study, 99 percent of companies believe re-engaging candidates will help them build their talent community and protect their employer brand. Still, only fewer than half of employers re-engage past applicants..

Companies spend substantially on attracting and engaging candidates. However, they don’t leverage their ATS optimally. This is because of the limitations within most ATS’, which do not allow for active searching and discovery of past applicants for new job roles. 

Some of the obstructions that the recruiters face with their ATS’ are:

• Outdated candidate data
• Insufficient search capabilities
• Inadequate engagement
• Inefficient processes

Among recent innovations challenging the traditional recruitment tools is Artificial intelligence, which is helping reduce mundane tasks in the hiring and recruiting process. According to a LinkedIn report on Global Trends in Recruiting, recruiters and hiring managers, globally, shared that AI is a bold disrupter, and is helping them save time (67%),  sourcing candidates (58%), remove human bias (43%) and deliver the best candidate matches (31%).

An ATS powered by AI can considerably reduce the time and cost of candidate sourcing and screening by:

Generating Instant Talent Pipeline for a New Job:

Current and past applicant data in the ATS can instantly generate talent pipelines for newly opened jobs as soon as they are created. While cold-calling and emailing prospects have a lower rate of conversion, contacting past applicants has a much higher rate of conversion since they were once interested in your company and identify with your employer brand.  Hence it is relatively easier and much faster to convert them to active candidates.

 Stack ranking prospects:

AI does a lot more than simple keyword matching, it can automate your resume screening process. It can stack-rank candidates and give the recruiter a top list of candidates that fit the job role. Ranking can be based on criteria like work experience, skills, past performance, etc. based on the job description. This saves hours of recruiters’ time which can then be used to engage with the prospects, making recommendations to the hiring manager and take part in value-added activities like employer branding and enhancing candidate experience.

Retargeting candidates effectively: 

Integrating AI in your ATS will engage applicants and prospects through the platform instead of emails and inboxes of multiple users across various networking sites. This will allow team members to track all communication history with the candidate in one location and help them collaborate easily. Using AI tools one can recommend ‘jobs to candidates’ and ‘candidates to jobs’ thereby optimizing candidate data within the platform.

Using AI-based tools to power your ATS can help align sourcing efforts in a single location. The optimization of a ready pool of candidates and ranking ensures that recruiters narrow down their search, thereby saving time and effort. This increase in productivity coupled with a direct impact on the bottom line and budget will be a key differentiator for companies navigating a competitive pool of talent.