Holidays are when everyone, including the hiring team, is in a jolly relaxed mood. But Oh no! Brian, the company’s star, has decided to move on to another company.
Now what? Well! The hiring team has to step up and find a replacement before the holidays. The whole team is in chaos. Between not wanting to work and having this huge mountain to climb, they are clueless and skeptical about whether they can fulfill this impossible task.
All the challenges they have faced while hiring for different roles flash in front of their eyes. But wait, Alex, the AI warrior of the hiring team, is looking relaxed. Looks like he has a solution to all of his team’s problems.
Let’s find out what he is proposing to each of the hiring challenges feared by his HR team:
Challenge 1 – Inability to find the right candidate
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that 83% of HR professionals had difficulty recruiting candidates over the past 12 months. This shortage is often attributed to gaps in necessary skills, further compounded by fast-evolving technological and job-specific requirements.
Try finding the top 3 candidates for a job profile in a pool of unqualified talent and you will realise that you have limited options. Out of sheer desperation, you will choose the best person (may or may not be the right one) you can find at the time.
The golden trick in finding the right talent is not a larger pool. With a smaller pool of more qualified candidates, you can find the right fit for your company in terms of skill set and company values.
How can AI help you streamline your hiring and find the right candidate?
By simplifying the talent acquisition process, AI enables computer programs to think and learn in a human sense.
- It analyzes resumes by extracting essential information eliminating manual fatigue and unconscious bias.
- Using AI for resume screening helps you quickly identify the most relevant candidates thus helping you focus on the top talent.
- AI processes vast amounts of data identifying the right candidate faster and efficiently.
- AI helps the hiring team focus on the more human aspects of the hiring process thus streamlining the whole process and making it more effective for everyone involved.
Challenge 2 – Maintaining a stable communication with qualified candidates
According to LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends Report, 2023 edition, 81% of candidates admit that consistent and transparent communication from recruiters improves their experience. The report further highlighted that 52% of job seekers felt that a lack of response was the most frustrating part of the hiring process.
Good candidates, especially those with hard-to-find skills, are often considering several job offers at the same time. But maintaining stable communication can often get very difficult as there are a lot of people involved in the hiring efforts and there is always a lot to do.
How can AI help you maintain communication throughout the hiring process?
By automating follow-ups and maintaining engagement with the candidates, the hiring teams can ensure that candidates feel valued throughout the hiring process. This further helps companies build a talent pool for future openings and fosters a positive brand image of the company.
- AI sends automated communication to candidates and informs them about the next steps, reducing applicants’ waiting time and uncertainty.
- Chatbots can answer common questions, provide timely updates, and assist with scheduling interviews.
- AI can use data to tailor communication, ensuring that messages are relevant to the individual candidate’s experience.
- AI tools can help coordinate interview schedules sending reminders to both candidates and interviewers.
Challenge 3 – Slow Hiring Process
“Time is money.” In the case of hiring, this phrase could not be more apt. There is always pressure to hire the perfect candidate as fast as possible. Companies are struggling to bring down the average days to hire in every department.
A study from Glassdoor found that the average time-to-hire in the U.S. could be as high as 50 days depending on the job function.
- Government jobs: up to 53.8 days
- Finance: around 46.5 days
- IT roles: average of 35 days
- Restaurant & Bar: about 10.2 days
A long time to hire may happen because of a shortage of qualified candidates actively looking for a job creating a challenge for the hiring teams to explore alternative channels. Also, the hiring process may be too complicated, leading to unnecessary to and fro between the teams.
How can an ATS speed up the hiring process?
An ATS can speed up the hiring process in many ways:
- By automating time-consuming tasks that are prone to manual fatigue and errors.
- By screening resumes and identifying fit candidates in terms of skill and company culture.
- Building a talent pool that can be tapped in later to find the right candidate quickly.
- By streamlining communication – internal (within the team) as well as external (with the candidate).
- By coordinating and scheduling interviews for quicker decision-making and hiring.
Challenge 4 – Not able to process past candidates’ data for future hiring
This is one of the gold mines that companies have been unable to dig in for the longest. The age-old way of creating spreadsheets to maintain candidates’ data is a big hassle as it requires manual work. Also finding relevant candidates from piles of spreadsheets is a real task, one that is prone to a lot of errors making it hard to track data and trends accurately.
Leveraging data for hiring can increase your chances of finding the right candidate both in terms of skill set and company culture. It can also help align your recruitment strategies with your long-term business goals, improving overall hiring efficiency and candidate satisfaction.
How can an ATS help maintain streamlined data for hiring?
ATS centralizes candidates’ data including skill sets, cover letters, communications, and interview notes on a single platform. The hiring teams can easily sort and filter this data using relevant keywords.
This helps the hiring team quickly find the relevant candidate for future openings without having to waste time on past emails and spreadsheets.
Challenge 5 – Not able to build or maintain a strong employer brand
A survey conducted by TalentNow revealed that 84% of job seekers considered an employer’s reputation before they accepted the job offers.
A good employer brand can help you onboard the top talent for your company. But it is easier said than done. It is a long-drawn team effort that consists of various steps:
- Maintaining a constant positive image of your company on social media.
- Maintaining a constant relationship with the candidates both passive and active so that when the time comes, you can leverage this branding and find and close the top talent in no time.
- Ensuring a positive candidate experience.
How can AI help you maintain a positive employer brand?
There are many ways AI can help you maintain a positive employer brand.
- By maintaining regular communication with the candidates, AI enhances the overall candidate experience. These candidates are more likely to join the company if extended with an offer or refer others to the company if there is any job opening in the future.
- AI helps eliminate unconscious bias from the hiring process making it transparent and fair. This helps candidates have good faith in company values thus enhancing the overall employer brand.
- AI also helps generate relevant content that resonates with the employer’s image and effectively displays company values and culture thus creating a positive work image for the future candidates.
Challenge 6 – Not able to ensure a good candidate experience
The way a company treats candidates during the hiring process mirrors how it will treat them in the future. According to a study by Deloitte, approximately 80% of candidates admitted that a positive or negative hiring experience could impact their decision to accept a job offer from the company.
When asked, what challenges they have faced in the hiring process, the candidates came up with a few major pointers:
- Complex or time-consuming application processes make it difficult for candidates to apply in the first place.
- Poor or delayed updates on the progress of the application create ambiguity in the minds of the candidates,
- Prolonged processes signal inefficiency and can lead candidates to lose interest.
- Unprofessional or irrelevant interviews reflect poorly on company values and culture.
Maintaining a positive experience with the candidate can be difficult if handled manually as it requires a lot of team effort and also has a scope of human error.
How can an ATS help you coordinate with candidates better?
With AI-powered chatbots, scheduling tools, and coordinating interview schedules, an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) can help companies coordinate better with candidates thus enhancing the overall experience.
The job descriptions created with the help of AI align better with the company’s expectations and give the candidates a clear picture of whether the role is a correct fit for them saving time for the candidates and also creating a lasting expression of the company for future considerations.
Challenge 7 – Inability to overcome unconscious bias
Unconscious bias is costing companies hefty. Hiring managers are struggling to ensure objectivity in hiring because of this. Hiring objectively can be good for business and is also compliant with the law. It helps you find the person who is right for the job. It helps you eliminate the stereotypes that interfere without you knowing in the first place.
How ATS can help you eliminate unconscious bias?
AI helps companies filter applications objectively eliminating the overall human factor. AI further offers blind screening features which remove certain information that can cause unconscious bias thus helping companies choose candidates without any bias in mind.
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