A Guide To Automation of the Recruitment Process—11 Ways To Streamline Recruitment 

Until recently, employers had no choice but to manually sift through numerous CVs, track the candidates’ progress using Excel sheets, and correspond with them through countless emails or phone calls. Combined, these tasks are overwhelming even for a team of experts, not to mention unscalable.

Manual recruitment is time and cost-ineffective. According to a 2018 report by Entelo, recruitment specialists spend about one-third of the working week (13 hours) sourcing for a single role.

Source: Entelo

All that tedious work makes recruiters more prone to errors, leading to delays that can deter potentially valuable candidates. In a 2021 Robert Half survey, 62% of participants reported losing interest in the job if they didn’t get feedback within two weeks of the initial interview. 

While recruitment can benefit from the human touch, most recruiters’ repetitive tasks can and should be automated. Doing so saves them a lot of time and effort. More importantly, it enables them to focus on the best hiring practices and optimize other aspects of recruitment, such as candidate experience. 

In this article, you’ll learn about all the ways automation of the recruitment process can improve efficiency. We’ll examine how it can be implemented throughout different steps in the workflow. 

We’ll also discuss Workello—a tool developed to solve problems of real-life recruiters, which allows you to craft your own automated hiring funnel. 

1) Recruitment Planning 

Even before recruitment starts, you can utilize automation to plan more effectively. There are numerous tools out there designed to help you optimize your recruitment strategy. For instance, they can be used to:

• Organize data and notes
• Identify areas for improvement
• Facilitate communication between team members
• Manage your budget and time

When your system is optimized from the get-go, all the other aspects fall into place. That creates a smoother experience for both the recruiting team and the candidates.

2) Creating Job Ads

Most recruitment software on the market have this feature. They usually give you access to a library of pre-written assessments or offer suggestions based on the job title. You can usually customize the templates or request job ad writing services if you’re hiring for a specific role.

Job descriptions are important, but writing them is time-consuming. Using ready-made descriptions tested in practice allows you to spend minimal time researching, creating, and proofreading the ad. You can rest assured that it’s grammatically correct and effective. This feature is particularly useful for non-native speakers.

Besides a free comprehensive library of job descriptions written by industry experts, Workello offers pre-written emails, instructions, and assessments.

3) Automatic Job Posting

To automate this step, you’ll need to identify job boards that allow integration with your ATS. All the best job boards on the market provide this feature, including Indeed, Monster, and LinkedIn. 

Once the integration has been implemented, you can create ad posting schedules. Instead of having to log in and fill out the form each time and on each board, you can set up an automation system that can do it for you. 

Even if they don’t support integrations, many boards will let you add a custom link that will redirect applicants from the ad to the destination of your choice. That way, you can collect all applications in one place and easily stay on top of them.

Candidate Matching

Most online job boards have resume databases you can browse or search using various filters. While it’s incredibly useful and allows you to reach both passive and active candidates, this process also takes time and effort. 

Luckily, some boards have smart matching systems in place. You only need to provide the criteria, and you’ll receive suggestions, i.e., candidate resumes that match said criteria. They might also send you notifications once new suitable resumes get uploaded to the database. Some will even calculate scores and create comparison tables to aid your decision-making. 

4) Sourcing CVs/Resume Screening

Candidate resumes usually come in many shapes and sizes. Converting them all into a usable form can be a lot of work. A 2018 eye-tracking study by Ladders, Inc. shows that recruiters spend 7.4 seconds on average during the initial screening of a resume. Mistakes are bound to happen in such a short time, so you might let an unqualified candidate slip through the cracks or exclude a suitable one. 

Automation can spare you the effort. It’s useful when dealing with many applicants simultaneously, especially when sourcing passive candidates from various channels.

Software can fetch resumes or create an entry using the information the candidate provided on, say, LinkedIn. It can also scan resumes for keywords and automatically disqualify those not meeting the requirements. 

Social Media Sourcing

According to various sources, including Forbes, 92% of companies use social media for hiring. Networks like LinkedIn and Facebook can be excellent sources of suitable candidates who aren’t actively looking for new job opportunities. Still, that entails a lot of research and data, especially in the case of high-volume hiring.

Some systems can single out candidates worth contacting by automatically scanning profiles, posts, and hashtags to detect keywords. Others will even obtain their contact information and connect profiles from various channels, centralizing the data for your convenience.

5) Pre-Screening Automations

Besides scanning CVs, there are other ways you can automate the pre-hire screening stage. With minimal effort, you can:

• Add screening questions to automatically filter out unqualified candidates
• Perform automated background checks
• Conduct automatic interviews

Once you’ve gathered all the necessary information, AI can analyze it and predict the candidate’s job performance.

Automation can not only save you time but also prevent errors and (un)conscious bias, which is more common than you may think. Since it’s modeled by human behavior, AI models can be biased too, but those issues can be curtailed. In general, AI is more consistent and objective than humans. 

Screening Questions

One of the easiest ways you can shortlist candidates is through screening questions. Identify the must-haves for each role, turn them into questions, and include them in the application process. Make this step mandatory for everyone who wants to apply for the job. 

Software can then automatically reject those not meeting the basic criteria, especially due to technical and legal issues. 

Automated Background/Reference Checks

Although small, automated background and reference verification is another step toward complete recruitment process automation.

After gaining the candidate’s consent, the software will gather information from various sources such as criminal and public records and social media. It will then compare said information with that provided by the applicant, detecting any red flags and information discrepancies. 

When it comes to automated reference checks, they typically start with a list of contacts provided by the candidates. The software can automatically contact them, asking them to give feedback on work performance and analyze the information. 

Besides the occasional check-ups to ensure the system is running as intended, you only need to review the final reports and make a decision.

Interviews

Nowadays, recruiters can even hold interviews with the help of technology. There are two main types of automated interviews:

1. One-way interviews
2. Two-way interviews

In one-way interviews, candidates record a video of themselves answering pre-determined questions. The scoring system, which is typically AI-based, analyzes and ranks their answers. I can also interpret their facial expressions, body language, tone of voice, and other indicators of communication skills.

Recently, a new type of one-way interview has emerged—chatbot interviews. They’re typically used in the first stages of the recruitment process to pre-screen the candidate with critical questions.

Two-way interviews are still the standard, but they can be scored automatically.

While they can be helpful, these 3 methods are far from the most effective ways of evaluating candidates.

6) Pre-Hire Assessments

Although meaningful, experience and interviews do not indicate how the candidate will perform on the job. According to SHRM, more and more recruiters are realizing the potential of skills-based hiring. Today, around 56% of recruiters use pre-employment assessments. 

Jobseekers seem to agree. In a study done by LinkedIn, 76% of participants stated they wished there was a way for them to prove their skills and stand out from the rest.

Source: Workello

With the help of automation, you can assess every type of facet imaginable:

• Job-specific skills
• Software-specific skills
• Communication skills
• Cognitive aptitude
• Personality traits
• Motivation

They usually consist of pre-made tests that can often be customized to fit your specific needs. They can entail numerous question types, gamified tests, and even realistic job simulators. Thanks to automatic scoring systems, candidates can be evaluated objectively, based on their skills alone. 

AI can also analyze how the candidates engage with the test. That gives you an insight into the quality of the assessment and how it can be improved. It can even prevent cheating by detecting inconsistencies and plagiarism.

Workello allows you to effectively assess many candidates at once. Use one of the numerous tests created by industry experts, along with pre-written instructions and notifications, and distribute them in a few clicks. With additional features such as spell check, AI use detector, and plagiarism check, you can rest assured that only the top performers will go through to the next stage.

Source: Workello

7) Candidate Communication

Too many people involved in the recruitment process can create a major bottleneck and lead to miscommunication, as reported by Forbes. In turn, that can confuse and deter quality candidates. To avoid this issue, it’s best to automate and simplify candidate communication.

Workello has a library of pre-written but customizable email templates:

• Assessment invitations and instructions
• Thank you emails
• Acceptance and rejection letters
• Job offers

You only have to update the candidate’s status in the system, and it will trigger the pre-set response. 

Also, candidates get access to personalized live status pages. Those allow them to track the progress of their application and find all the info they need. You can avoid the unnecessary back-and-forth, as candidates know precisely where they stand at all times. This simple but powerful feature can significantly improve candidate experience.

Source: Workello

Translation and Accessibility

For large international employers, the language barrier can pose a significant issue. Thanks to today’s technology, that can be a thing of the past. Automatic translation can be implemented throughout every step of the process, from application to final interviews. 

Automation can also benefit candidates with disabilities, as it can adjust the process to allow equal opportunities for everyone. 

8) Interview Scheduling

Once the candidate’s passed all the stages of your automated hiring process, it’s time to schedule the final interview and meet them online or in person. When you’re dealing with hundreds of candidates, manually scheduling each interview is an impossible feat. 

You can easily get lost in all the emails and accidentally create scheduling conflicts. That can make you appear unprofessional in the candidates’ eyes.

To avoid the issue, use one of many scheduling tools out there. The process usually goes like this:

1. The candidate receives an automatic email asking them to provide their availability or select one of the available date and time slots
2. In the former case, the software compares the schedules and identifies when both parties are available
3. After the time slot has been selected, both participants receive a confirmation
4. Sometime before the interview, they will also receive reminders
5. Cancellations and rescheduling can be automated as well

Workello’s interview scheduling feature works similarly—the recruiter’s calendar link is included in the automatic acceptance email. The applicant then chooses the slot that works for them, which triggers the confirmation email.

9) Collecting Feedback

Analytics can be an excellent way to recognize which parts of the hiring process need to be revised. Still, directly asking candidates for feedback can sometimes be even more beneficial. You can include a feedback form in one of the final automatic emails and ask the candidate to evaluate their experience. 

Besides providing valuable insight, that can help build trust and make the candidate feel heard and appreciated. 

10) Tracking Applicants in the Funnel

Applicant tracking systems tie everything together. Without a proper ATS, staying on top of all the candidate data can be a nightmare. Excel sheets may be convenient when you’re starting out, but as the company grows, the datasets also grow. 

Besides laying out all the information clearly and uniformly, ATSs enable you to manage all the moving parts of the recruitment funnel in one place.

Workello’s ATS is straightforward and requires minimal setup. With a centralized dashboard, you can view and control the status of every candidate and fetch any information you need in seconds. Filter them by status, job ad, location, application date, and more, and sort them to your liking. There’s also an insights dashboard with visual metrics that allows you to keep up with the performance of your job ad, pipeline, and many other functions.

11) Onboarding

The final step needed to complete your automated hiring system is onboarding. Instead of exchanging dozens of emails and messages and forcing the candidates to sift through a pile of disorganized documents, you can set up an automated system to facilitate a smooth transition. 

Doing so is especially important when it comes to paperwork, payroll, taxes, and benefits, which don’t allow any room for error. It can also be helpful for e-learning, orientation, and performance tracking.

Conclusion

To sum up, here are all the benefits of recruitment process automation:

• Time and resource saving—You can invest your resources elsewhere without being burdened by repetitive tasks and focus on more pressing matters
• Peace of mind—You can let the software handle the high-stakes tasks that require precision and punctuality
• Error and bias prevention—Software is more objective and consistent, and it’s more immune to prejudice and other unwanted errors
• Superior candidate experience—Candidates appreciate the simplicity of the application and hiring process, saving them time as well

Still, the most critical part of automation is having a reliable system, which most often comes in the form of a software tool.

Using Workello, you can rest assured that your recruitment system will run like clockwork. It’s a cost-effective but comprehensive solution to all the common recruitment issues, regardless of the industry. Sign up for the free trial today and find out how Workello’s automation features can streamline your recruitment practices once and for all.