The Power of AI & Automation in Revolutionizing Hiring for Small & Mid-Sized Organizations

For organizations with fewer than 5,000 employees, hiring is an ongoing challenge. Contending with limited financial and human resources and growing demand, businesses often struggle to attract, engage, hire, grow, and retain top talent. According to a recent study by Robert Half, over 40% of hiring managers in small and medium-sized organizations face difficulties finding skilled candidates – which is a primary factor in extended hiring cycles that lead to lost talent and increased employee burnout.

The talent market is no longer employer-driven; it’s candidate-driven. Organizations under 5,000 employees must adapt to the demands of today’s workforce to stay competitive. But outdated processes, insufficient resources, and siloed systems create barriers that inhibit success.

What they need is a streamlined process that boosts hiring team efficiency while driving attraction, engagement, and conversion for candidates.

Meeting Candidate Expectations

Today, candidates expect omnichannel engagement that allows them to interact with employers anytime, anywhere, and on their preferred devices. This is a “meeting them where they are” approach – where job seekers can ask a question and not just get an answer, but be guided to the next relevant step. Beyond receiving personalized job recommendations on-demand – they expect a quick, seamless, and transparent application experience that takes them from job discovery to being hired.

Yet, what many organizations provide is a one-size-fits-all career site — one that is static, uninspiring, and fails to capture anyone’s attention. This results in higher bounce rates, fewer applications, and lost opportunities to engage top talent.

Shifting TA from Overwhelming Admin Work to Strategic Matchmaking

The role of recruiters has shifted dramatically over the years. What once was an interactive, relationship-driven process has become bogged down with repetitive, administrative tasks. Instead of focusing on matching the right talent with the right roles, recruiters are spending disproportionate time managing job postings, manually sifting through resumes, coordinating stakeholder schedules, and manually scheduling (and all too often, rescheduling) interviews.

This type of approach not only detracts from the candidate experience, but also prevents recruiters from driving results that are aligned with business goals.

Getting the Most from Managers vs. Pulling Them in Every Direction

Managers face a different set of hurdles. It’s easy to forget that their full-time job is not hiring. With customer-facing day-to-day responsibilities consuming the vast majority of their time and attention, dedicating meaningful time to the hiring process becomes nearly impossible. And that doesn’t mean they don’t need help! Given this balancing act that’s so difficult to strike, managers are often forced to make hiring decisions without full context or data — prioritizing business productivity over hiring team collaboration.

What managers need is a hiring process that works with them, not against them — one that ensures every interaction is productive, every decision is informed, and every tool is accessible, including on mobile.

Transforming the Talent Journey with Automation, AI, and GenAI

Automation helps organizations reclaim time, streamline workflows, and improve the hiring process for every key talent stakeholder:

For candidates, automation simplifies application workflows, creating a faster, more user-friendly experience.
For recruiters, automation can eliminate repetitive tasks like candidate screening and interview scheduling, enabling recruiters to refocus their efforts on building relationships with top talent.
For managers, automation frees up time to concentrate on driving business results rather than getting mired in hiring minutiae.
For IT, reporting and compliance management becomes more efficient, with less manual effort required to meet regulatory standards.

By introducing artificial intelligence (AI), generative AI (GenAI), and hyper-personalization to the hiring process, the benefits of automation are taken a step further.

AI-powered algorithms ensure job seekers see the opportunities that best match their skills, experience, and career aspirations.
Fit Scores help recruiters make faster, better-informed decisions, ensuring the right candidates are shortlisted, engaged, and progressed through the process.
Tailored recommendations delivered through a mobile-optimized experience enable managers to connect with talent in a more convenient, yet meaningful way.
Robust reporting and Talent Analytics tools simplify IT system oversight and provide actionable insights for better HR technology management.

For small and mid-sized organizations, embracing AI and automation isn’t just a competitive advantage, it’s a necessity for thriving in today’s talent market. When brought together, AI and automation create a hiring process with better talent experiences that translate to the best possible business outcomes.

Phenom Hire: One AI-powered Solution Designed for All Talent Stakeholders

Phenom Hire was specifically designed to address the challenges faced by today’s talent stakeholders:

For the candidates who face impersonal and lengthy apply processes.
For recruiters who are reactive, conduct tedious tasks, and need to chase down decision-makers for updates.
For managers who deliver inconsistent evaluations and have limited visibility into hiring.
For IT departments struggling with patchwork integrations, data inconsistencies, and lack of automation.

As businesses compete for talent across industries, the solutions they use must accommodate a variety of role types, including knowledge workers and frontline staff. Phenom Hire was created to meet these diverse needs – with efficiency and personalization.

Organizations need an always-on approach to hiring, automating, and augmenting the mundane to drive productivity and create phenomenal experiences for all talent stakeholders. With Phenom Hire, organizations are doing more without increasing headcount:

Don’t take our word for it, see it for yourself here:

And if you’re ready to talk, let’s schedule a meeting. We’re excited to discuss how Hire can help you meet your organization’s talent acquisition goals.

John Harrington