You can only get the maximum out of your recruiting with tools if your team can work with them. This is also the case when working with AI: tech can’t succeed if underlying issues with talent acquisition practices go unchecked.
Autonomous talent delivery
Chris Cella, Vice President of Product at GR8 People, shares his tips on how to get your recruiting team AI ready in his blog at HRTechnologist. ‘Given our current environment, autonomous talent delivery (ATD) holds tremendous potential for organizations struggling to identify new sources of talent for their pipelines. More specifically, ATD leverages AI to automate the sourcing and matching of candidates by processing incredible amounts of profile data both internally and publicly across the web.’
Fix
Although ATD can quickly address many pipeline struggles, it’s important to understand that these technologies can’t do miracles. When you fix the issues, it can help ensure that organizations realize the full potential and benefits of the available AI-driven automation. Cella describes that organizations can prepare by examining the following aspects of their hiring process:
Job requisitions
Because ATD automatically pulls relevant search criteria from job requisitions to launch searches, the quality of the requisitions in the ATS will ultimately drive the quality of the candidate matches that are delivered. From overuse of acronyms and internal jargon to gendered language, poorly written requisitions will result in sub-par ATD results. The same goes for requisitions that are overly detailed and riddled with a laundry list of qualifications that few humans are likely to possess and, therefore, to be found.
Search skills
The best ATD tools will allow recruiters access to edit search criteria as they evaluate the quality and relevance of candidates being delivered, making human modifications that will continually improve their results. While a major selling point of many HR innovations is the ability to take over a recruiter’s most time-consuming tasks, applications like ATD should not be viewed as “set it and forget it.” Recruiting teams with a solid understanding of effective search practices will help their organizations realize greater value from ATD, so if your team is deficient start building those skills today.
Candidate communications
As noted earlier, many of these tools also take on the time-consuming task of reaching out to passive candidates when matches are made, usually with a prompt to apply. Because it’s likely that many of the people identified through these means may not be familiar with the respective organization, these messages must be meaningful, relevant and compelling. Simply setting up generic email templates that fail to speak to candidate needs and wants will result in a low response, so assess your current messaging to determine what’s worked in the past and whether any messages require fine-tuning to meet the needs of various audience segments.
Time to fill
If there’s one thing today’s job seekers are clear about it’s that a lengthy hiring process is a big turnoff. According to the 2018 Talent Board North American Candidate Experience (CandE) Benchmark Research Report, 29% of candidates indicate they withdrew from a recruiting process because the “process took too long.” It makes little sense to implement a technology designed to fill your talent pipelines with new candidates fast if that momentum stalls due to your hiring process. Plus, a lengthy process is likely to be even more frustrating to passive candidates who were approached directly by your organization and informed they were a good match.
Talent networks
With ATD, there’s an opportunity to attract talent not just for current needs against specific requisitions but for future opportunities, too. You’ll get far more out of the technology if you have a system in place that allows you to move extremely talented individuals identified through ATD — but who may decide they’re not quite ready for a change — into a talent network for ongoing candidate nurturing until the right opportunity arises at the right time.
