What Would You Do with the Time Recruitment Automation Saves You?

September 2, 2020

 

iCIMS Staff

5 min read

How badly do you wish you could predict the future right about now?

The truth is, even the most meticulous planners and strategists are struggling to predict what hiring in 2021 will look like. For those used to structure and a fast-paced work environment, it’s challenging to adjust to a new virtual hiring process.

Change can be a good thing though. One of the silver linings of virtual hiring is it’s forced us all to find ways to streamline and automate where we can. With automation comes time savings; and often a lot of it.

Read on to dig into:

• Technologies employers can lean on to automate their hiring process
• Examples of how much time automation saves their business
• 3 forward-looking priorities to put to invest in as we approach a new year of unknowns

What exactly can you automate?

Current automation capabilities within hiring software are accelerating recruiters’ potential for productivity.

While the list of automated functions is endless and custom to each employer’s unique hiring operations, here are a few buckets most teams take advantage of:

• Candidate communication
• Sourcing new talent
• Matching candidates to open roles
• The application process
• Tracking and reporting
• Building proactive talent pipelines

The business impact of recruitment automation

While your team’s potential time savings will vary, here’s an idea of how much time we’re talking from employers using an automated applicant tracking system.

• Isagenix International cut onboarding time by 95% and turned a 3-week background screening process into just 3 days by reducing manual tasks
• Jefferson Center for Mental Health cut its time-to-fill by 60 days
• Room & Board saw the impact of automation as their application time was cut in half
• eFinancial reduced 75% of the steps their hiring process takes

So you’re likely already planning what to do with the hours and days you’ll save. I’ve gathered some inspiration for you to think on.

What you could do with the time recruitment automation saves you

1. Give your diversity of talent a good look: Of course, I don’t need to tell you how important diversity and inclusion recruiting initiatives are. The work to achieve a workplace of belonging, with people from a variety of backgrounds, views, and experiences is never done. Instead, I’m sharing some ways to impact that work by focusing on where most D&I progress is made — talent acquisition. While you know the value recruitment offers your C-Suite’s goals around D&I, SHRM found that falsely perceiving one’s workforce as sufficiently diverse is the top barrier to increase diversity in North America. You finally have the time to really look at your hiring process and see where bias exists today. Bias is human. It’s ok to be honest about areas for improvement. Consider this:
   • Are there potential barriers that specific talent groups could face on their way to your open roles?
   • How does your application process accommodate those with disabilities?
   • How are the structure and decision makers involved in your interview keeping bias away?There’s a lot that tech can offer to support you as you pivot, which you can read more about here.
2. Build even stronger relationships: There is comfort in connection. Candidates want to feel in touch with employers as they navigate looking for a job in this strange time.Even if you don’t have openings today for talent, it’s a great time to start the conversation with high-performers in your talent pools. Your next great hire for a role with highly-specific requirements may be working for you right now. Many employers are leaning on internal mobility to fill critical positions quickly while reducing recruitment marketing costs and improving retention in times of transition.It’s a perfect time to develop a strong (and modern) outreach strategy that pulls in a good combination of email campaigns, less formal texts, and virtual meet-and-greet events to create the relationships all high-quality hires are built on. We recently touched on the entirely redefined importance employer brand has on these connections.Just this year, we’ve seen our customers interact with candidates they previously may not have been able to reach through 600+ virtually-hosted hiring events, and provide applications as short as 7 minutes through a text-to-apply option.
3. Get ahead of wish list tech: There’s nothing like a global slowdown to revive sidelined IT projects . As your organization works through new priorities and remote work support needs, IT is likely open to new tools that are quick to implement and offer even more ROI today.As you look at your recruitment software, it’s a great time to not only continue identifying automation opportunities, but to also identify functionality gaps that new tools may solve for. While it won’t happen overnight, the pandemic may have just handed your business case the fuel it needs to get in front of IT again.For detailed tips on how to approach your IT counterparts, this is a great next read.

Even if all you do is gain the ability to focus on those smaller organizational tasks you’ve had to push to the bottom of your list a dozen times, automation will continue to impact your role positively.

Tap into one of the easiest ways automation can simplify your day. Download your copy of the Definitive Guide to Creating a Chatbot Candidates and Recruiters Will Love.