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By Matt Alder

 

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATSs) are now almost universally used by any employer who needs to regularly recruit at any kind of scale.

Having the technology to manage the administrative part of the recruitment process is essential. Unfortunately, over their twenty-year history, ATSs haven’t always facilitated an excellent candidate experience.

This has led to a number of unhelpful urban myths being regularly shared about job seekers having their applications automatically filtering out based on keywords or mysterious algorithms. These myths have, in turn, birthed a cottage industry of job hunting “experts” sharing hacks that job seekers can use to bypass these recruiting robot overlords.

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The reality is much more mundane, and recruiting continues to be a very manual and human-driven process. However, the latest evolution of recruitment technology is set to change this.

Coming out of the pandemic, we are seeing a new wave of automation software. Video and chatbot driven tools are revolutionising the way employers recruit and, at the same time, significantly improving the recruitment experience for everyone.

Several innovative employers are already leading the way and showing what is possible. Automated recruiting can be particularly useful in volume hiring sectors like the retail industry and hospitality settings where high turnover means continual recruitment is a headache for hiring managers and owners.

Chatbots allow initial screening to be an efficient and user-friendly experience. At the same time, automation software makes the scheduling of interviews and providing feedback seamless and incredibly efficient.

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The great news is that this is a revolution open to everyone. A recent explosion in the number of companies developing recruiting technology means that recruiting automation is not just the preserve of larger companies. There is software available for all sizes of employers and budgets. Some of the smallest employers are actually leading the way in adopting these new tools.

There will understandably be concerns from job seekers that greater use of automation will make the process feel less human. But so far the reality has been very different.

Automating repetitive recruitment tasks is actually massively improving the candidate experience by offering more control, better communication, and greater levels of feedback. It also enhances the hiring manager experience by allowing people to spend less time on admin and more time talking to candidates.

Perhaps most importantly, automation is driving better outcomes for everyone by getting the right people into the right jobs at the right time.

Matt Alder is host of the Recruiting Future podcast.