Every company wants to hire the best candidate, but the recruiting process can be tedious, repetitive and time-consuming. Yet, it has to be done.

Hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of candidates need to be sourced, screened, scheduled for interviews, nurtured and engaged. Due to this demanding nature of recruitment, HR personnel sometimes do a shoddy job and end up hiring misfits.

So, how do you execute the hiring process without losing a limb? AI automation is the key. As of 2018, 35% of companies globally have already used AI for their recruitment process. This technology has brought a lot of ease into HR, especially recruitment, and if you’re not leveraging it yet, you’re behind the times.

The good news is you can still catch up and enjoy the benefits of AI automation in your company’s employee hiring process. All you need to know is right here.

6 stages of recruitment

To use automation in recruiting candidates for your company, you need to be clear on the phases of the process. An in-depth understanding of these phases will make it easier to incorporate AI automation. Here are the six stages of recruitment.

1.   Preparation of candidate profile

This is the first step in recruitment. You can’t send out calls for applications without being clear on what you need. Carefully crafting the requirements for the open role will let you attract the right candidates.

At this stage, you must ask yourself what the ideal candidate will look like. What is the ideal candidate profile? This profile should include the skills, knowledge, abilities and attributes necessary to work efficiently in that role. The candidate profile will assist you in writing the perfect job description.

2.   Candidate sourcing/Application

After crafting a brilliant job description, it’s time to send it out through various media like ads, social media, company website, newsletters, recruitment agencies and sites, job boards, and so on.

3.   Application screening

Screening applicants is arguably the most demanding, stressful and time-consuming part of recruitment. This is as a result of the volume of applicants. Every resume and cover letter has to be carefully reviewed. Attention to detail is vital here to select the best candidates.

4.   Selection (preparing and conducting tests and interviews)

The selection process involves running tests and interviews to choose the best candidate. Setting programming interview questions can be especially difficult, considering the technical nature of the role. Using platforms that provide prepared questions helps here. It saves you time and energy you can use for other ventures.

5.   Reference and background check

At the end of the selection process, you’ll have your preferred candidate. However, keep the next best candidates handy as you do a thorough background check on your chosen applicant.

Reference checks are necessary to confirm what the candidate has claimed. It helps to check the character of the applicant also. In case there are irregularities in the information the candidate supplied and the one gathered from background checks, you may have to go for the next best applicant.

6.   Onboarding

This is the final stage of recruitment. After the chosen candidate has been given an offer and accepted, they need to be brought on board. This is the stage when the recruitment unit passes the baton to the administration/operations unit.

Onboarding activities like orientation, training and mentorship ensure the recruitment process is not a waste. This is because if onboarding is not well handled, top talents may leave as they may not feel well received or acclimatized into the system.

5 areas of recruitment where AI automation is most useful

AI is amazing. It’s a great way to streamline workforce management optimization. But before you fold your arms and expect AI to automate all your recruitment tasks, I have news for you. You can’t automate all your hiring processes. Sorry to douse your excitement, but you know you need some human elements to hire the best hands.

On the bright side, you can use AI automation for a whole lot of processes and I have listed 5 of them below.

1.   Sourcing

Talent sourcing is how you search for qualified candidates who have not applied to your company for open roles in your organization. It involves discovering talents that have the requirements for the vacant positions and engaging them.

2.   Screening

Screening in recruitment involves reviewing CVs, profiles and people to select suitable candidates for a job position. This process enables hiring managers and recruiters to know more about the candidates. They evaluate the candidate’s skills, experience and interests in the job.

3.   Nurturing 

Candidate nurturing is when you use social media, email, advertising and so on to attract, build and sustain relationships with passive talents. It also involves building relationships with candidates during each phase of the recruitment process.

Additionally, candidate nurturing has to do with maintaining relationships with people in your talent pool. These are people who may not be fit for the position they applied for but are bright candidates and can fit into future positions.

4.   Scheduling  

AI can help greatly in scheduling candidates for interviews. Candidates can also schedule themselves. Candidate self-scheduling involves sending interview requests to candidates and giving them the flexibility to choose the most suitable time.

5.   Engagement  

Candidate engagement is the continuous communication with the job seeker through the recruitment process via email, text message or physical meetings. Even if the process did not lead to employing the candidate, they should be carried along professionally at each stage and feel well treated at the end.

How to automate the employee hiring process with A

Now that you know the areas AI automation is most suited for in the recruitment process, the next step is to know how to apply it.

Candidate targeting

AI can help you target the relevant applicants. Instead of attracting all sorts of candidates that don’t fit the applicant profile, AI offers a personalized and targeted Employee Value Proposition for every candidate. With this technology, you’re able to customize your recruitment process and target each applicant’s needs.

In addition, AI automation can analyze thousands of profiles in seconds, targeting both active and passive candidates, using criteria like location, experience, skills, job titles, industry and so on.

Resume and application screening

Screening is one process that could be neck-breaking, but AI automation turns it into a piece of cake. It matches applicants’ skills and experiences with the job requirements and sorts and shortlists the best candidates in seconds. This will ensure you get the strongest applicants.

The best part of the AI intervention in this process is that you don’t have to supply the job requirements. The technology can review a similar employee’s skills and experience and use it for the screening.

Candidate engagement

Engaging an applicant all through the recruitment process is a global HR best practice. They must be constantly updated on the developments throughout the recruitment process. With AI technology, this becomes easier.

Chatbots now offer interactions and updates 24/7. Candidates not only receive feedback, they also get the chance to ask questions about requirements and timelines. You can also use chatbots for screening questions like qualifications, experience, skills and legal work status.

Interview digitization

AI saves you the stress of interviewing candidates physically. The technology lets you do your interviews via videos. With the software, you can assess the applicant’s facial expressions, choice of words and speech pattern to determine if they’re the right fit. Soft skills can easily be assessed with AI; their body language lets you know more about a candidate’s personality.

Benefits of automating the employee hiring process with A

You can already figure out the benefits AI automation brings to recruitment, but how about we spell it out clearly?

You get the best candidates

AI streamlines candidates to give you the best. Instead of choosing from a large ocean of mixed candidates, you get to choose from a streamlined pool of choice candidates. This makes the recruitment process more specialized and efficient.

You save time

This is a no-brainer. AI technology achieves in seconds what it will take humans days to achieve. Think of the time you’ll be saving from hours of sourcing, screening, engagement and interviewing. This is one huge advantage of AI automation.

You reduce the element of bias

Bias and discrimination can affect the quality of employees. While AI might not totally eradicate bias in your recruitment process, it will limit it significantly.

You reduce hiring costs

When you automate your hiring process, you save costs. Costs for sourcing, advertising, screening, referral bonus programs and other hiring processes are saved by using AI.

You can effectively hire remotely

Talents are spread across the globe and remote work has come to stay. Companies now look for ways to hire and manage remote employees effectively. So, remote hiring is now a thing and it is made easy with AI automation. You can easily assess and select candidates regardless of their location.

AI automation for the win

The hiring process is too important to leave to chance. This is because the quality of your workforce determines the type of results you get. Therefore, you must handle this process like the life of your company depends on it (and it indeed does).

Automating your hiring process sets you on the winning path. There are AI solutions that help in processes like sourcing, screening, nurturing, scheduling and engagement. When you use AI automation in your recruitment process, you get the best candidates, save time, reduce bias and hiring costs and can effectively hire remotely.

Moyofade Ipadeola is a Content Strategist, UX Writer and Editor. Witty, she loves personal development and helping people grow. Mo, as she’s fondly called, is fascinated by all things tech.