What is Recruiting Automation and What Are the Benefits?

According to recruiters, finding a candidate that fits a specific job role can take an average of 32 to 68 days, depending on job level. But what if that time could be cut down to mere minutes?

By automating recruiting processes, it can be.

So what is recruiting automation? In simple terms, it's technology that companies can implement to automate tedious recruiting tasks or workflows, leaving recruiters with more time to spend on more meaningful work, like building relationships with candidates.

And it can do much more than help with sourcing candidates; it can be used to improve screening, scheduling, and more. Here are five benefits of automating recruitment processes, paired with technology you can adopt tomorrow to help you begin.

Five Benefits of Recruiting Automation

1. Fast-forwards Candidate Screening

With companies competing for top talent, who wouldn't want to speed up the screening process and capture quality candidates quicker? One way to do this is by implementing recruiting automation technology. A video interviewing tool is one example, as it helps to create a more consistent, structured, and automated approach to screening.

Phenom One-Way Interviews, for example, is a video interviewing tool that hiring teams can use to boost efficiency and reduce time in their screening process. Every candidate is given the same amount and type of question to answer in a pre-recorded video. Each person on the hiring team then reviews that candidate based on specific criteria and provides a score within a predetermined range.

By automating manual takes, One-Way Interviews allows recruiters to screen more candidates in less time, easily collaborate with hiring managers, and better align on candidate fit and must-haves.

Automating recruitment processes like these helps speed up the screening process because candidates and recruiters alike don’t need to find time for a first — or sometimes second — interview. Candidates submit their responses when convenient for them and hiring teams review on their own time.

2. Boosts Recruiter Efficiency

A top challenge recruiters experience is the back and forth of trying to schedule an interview between a candidate and the hiring team. Whether through email or via phone, the back and forth can take days, days that candidate may be spending considering other job opportunities.

How can recruiting automation technology help? By leaving the entire scheduling process to AI.

With automated interview scheduling tools like Phenom AI Scheduling, recruiters can be hands-off and worry free when it comes to syncing calendars and booking interviews. It works by integrating the calendars of recruiters, hiring managers, and candidates and analyzing individual calendar data. It then produces suggested meeting times based on availability and adds them to all parties’ calendars.

AI Scheduling can even reschedule interviews if a conflict comes up without involving the help of a recruiter — literally solving scheduling conflicts 24/7.

Not only does recruiting automation technology like AI Scheduling solve the headache that is interview scheduling, but because it’s so fast, it also helps decrease time to hire and free up time for recruiters to spend in more meaningful ways.

3. Enhances Hiring Team Communication

We’ve seen how recruiting automation can streamline the screening and interview process, so what’s next? After an interview, the entire hiring team must come together to decide who will be receiving an offer and who will be entering the company talent pool for consideration down the line.

Using automation here can quicken the hiring process. Companies that use a Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) tool equipped with fit score technology and analytics can leave much of the heavy lifting to AI and automation.

A CRM can use fit score technology to rank candidates based on their experience, skills, and location to determine who’s the best fit for the job. It presents top candidates to the team, who can take it from there to move them forward in the hiring process.

If a hiring team chooses not to move forward with a specific candidate, the CRM can move that candidate into a talent pool and automatically recommend them later if their skills and experience match another job.

With recruiting automation like this, hiring teams aren’t spending hours pouring through resumes or reviewing interview notes. Technology collects that information automatically and presents it all in one place, making collaboration a breeze.

4. Improves the Candidate Experience

Every company wants a candidate experience that inspires talent to join their team.

One of the best ways to use recruiting automation to boost the candidate experience is through a conversational chatbot. But not all chatbots are created equal, so it’s important to choose one that works best for your team.

Phenom Chatbot, for example, personalizes each candidate experience and connects candidates with relevant jobs by asking screening questions based on skills, location, and experience. It can also serve up customized content and proactively answer FAQs so candidates aren’t spending time trying to reach customer support or find answers to their questions online. Finally, it can remember individual job seekers and greet them by name the next time they visit your career site, making for a very personalized and streamlined experience on the candidate end.

By automating these recruitment tasks and workflows, candidates find what they’re looking for quicker, while recruiters have insights into best-fit candidates without spending manual effort to source or screen job seekers.

Related customer story: How Sweetwater Sound Rocks the Candidate Experience

5. Nurtures Candidate Engagement

Email and text campaigns have become invaluable recruiting automation tools for teams seeking to enhance candidate engagement. By leveraging email campaigns, recruiters can establish consistent communication with potential candidates, ensuring a steady flow of relevant information tailored to individual preferences and career interests. And with 1:1 or one to many SMS campaigns, you can meet candidates where they are — immediately.

These kinds of campaigns not only foster a more personalized connection but also allow recruiters to strategically nurture relationships over time. Drip campaigns enable the delivery of timely updates about job opportunities, company culture, events, FAQs, and industry insights — keeping candidates informed and engaged throughout their journey.

By personalizing campaigns, recruiters are empowered to boost candidate engagement, increasing the likelihood of successful placements and fostering long-term relationships within the talent pool.

Related reading: The Definitive Guide to AI Recruiting

By replacing repetitive, mundane tasks with AI and automation, recruiters and hiring teams are able to spend time focusing on people and not paperwork. Recruiting automation accelerates the entire hiring process, connects companies with best-fit candidates, and decreases time (and therefore cost) to hire.

See how recruiting automation can work for you — book a personalized demo of the Phenom Intelligent Talent Experience platform here.

Maggie Blehar

Maggie is a writer at Phenom, bringing you information on all things talent experience. In addition to writing, she enjoys traveling, painting, cooking, and spending time with her family and friends.