The interaction begins at the recruitment phase, one of the core functions of the HR department. The recruitment process, which includes many sub-processes, typically entails sourcing and hiring new employees to fill open job positions in a company.

A recruiter spends over 70 per cent of productive time merely screening candidates and answering FAQs. Many tasks involved in this process are often repetitive and tedious, and automating these tasks can help optimise the experience for the recruiter and the candidate. 

Recruiters, today, also need to adapt to the changing landscape of hiring and employees. The current demographic of employees, primarily consisting of Millennials and Gen Z, have a different approach to all processes.

This has resulted in a change in the employment space - what was a client-oriented business five years ago is now highly candidate-oriented, where jobseekers are the customers. There are two major reasons driving this focus shift:

• Quality candidates for specialist/niche roles, especially those who are skilled in new and
• emerging technologies, are scarce in the market
• Candidates now have a plethora of employment options on their fingertips and are now in the driving seat

It is imperative for recruiters to redesign the reach out to talent, and ensure they remain easily accessible to potential employees. Processes need to be simpler, faster, easier to attract and retain talent. 

Automating the recruitment process is a simple and efficient way to achieve this, and ensure that the employee has a high-quality experience from the first step. 

Automation in Application Process

Automation can be implemented from the application process. 

A multi-channel approach is recommended for recruiters to reach a wider pool of candidates. NLP-enabled chatbots that can deal with early interaction with job applicants can simplify the resume-collecting process. These chatbots can collate relevant resumes, screen and share the information in an organised manner with recruiters. 

Automation can help collate the responses from across platforms seamlessly. It can also ensure that recruiters seem accessible to the candidate by automating certain responses. 

Chatbots today are commonly seen on career sites, job boards and advertisements. 

AI-Based Screening

NLP-enabled chatbots are also commonly used in the pre-screening process. These bots request the candidates’ resume, collate information about knowledge of the job or industry, experience and skillsets. They can also help further in following up with qualified candidates and scheduling interviews. 

When it comes to hiring a large number of people, manually calling candidates to check their interest in the job can be tedious. An Interactive Voice Response (IVR) based interest screening tool can be used instead, where automated IVR calls can screen candidates who are no longer interested in the role, cutting down the time and effort spent in shortlisting profiles. 

The screening process can be further enhanced by video interviews that follow the same process. An AI Bot can screen the video interviews, thereby assessing the candidate based on verbal and non-verbal cues. AI-based video screening offers the recruiter richer data to analyse, helping find the right fit for the role. 

Interview Management

Interviews today often span several rounds, testing several aptitudes, skill sets and even personality. Automation helps the recruitment team and the candidate move seamlessly between phases. Recruitment personnel can easily automate tasks like scheduling and reconfirming interviews, post-interview responses, initiating background checks and other routine tasks. 

Automation also ensures that no critical steps are missed due to human error or task fatigue. It also helps keep track of and record every step if one needs to re-evaluate a particular stage.

Offer Process

Interviews and onboarding a candidate involves extensive documentation. Creating the offer letters, tracking the candidate’s acknowledgement can be time-consuming and subject to misses. An integrated offer management module would generate templated offers and release them to candidates with a click of a button. Subsequently, push notifications can be sent to probe the candidate’s acknowledgement. 

The HR team is typically responsible for collecting and maintaining the documents in specified formats. Instead of managing paper file folders or manually scanning and saving forms, an automated recruitment workflow can generate and securely store digitally signed offer letters, contracts, and other hiring documents on the cloud. 

Onboarding Process

The recruitment process does not end when an employee gets hired. The onboarding process is crucial to make the employee feel engaged and welcome. Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) report indicates that 69 per cent of employees are more likely to stay with a company for at least three years if they had a good onboarding experience. The research also states that organizations that use a standard onboarding process see a 50% increase in new-hire productivity. 

Employees will feel like valuable team members from week one if the onboarding process is consistent and streamlined. The daunting first week can be effortless with automation, wherein the new employee can follow procedures and access information quickly. Automated workflows can set up and schedule welcome emails, providing necessary access and relevant contact information. 

These processes also help the HR team reduce the number of routine interactions and allow more time for higher-quality engagements. 

Conclusion

If the hiring process is burdened by manual work and email overload, it leads to fatigue and errors can creep in. Automation across processes allows recruiters and HR teams to use their time more effectively, focusing on quality output instead of tedious, repetitive tasks. 

Automation also leads to considerable savings in terms of revenues for the company, since it reduces the number of people required to do a task, enhances the employee experience and reduces attrition.