The Art of Candidate Sourcing Part 5: Automation

Join us in this installment of our comprehensive blog series to explore the unparalleled power and benefits of automated tools, reshaping the landscape of candidate sourcing.  Let’s delve into ‘The Art of Candidate Sourcing Part 5: Automation,’ where we unravel the intricacies of optimizing your talent acquisition strategy through cutting-edge automation techniques.

The current job market is entirely candidate-driven, says SHRM.

70% of the global workforce is passive talent, according to LinkedIn Hiring Statistics.

By 2030, more than 85 million jobs could go unfilled, according to an extensive new report by management consultancy firm Korn Ferry.

And stats shared by OfficeVibe show that top candidates are only available for ten days before being hired!

These four stats alone show just how frighteningly challenging the recruitment landscape is. More people are switching jobs (the Great Reshuffle), and the race for talent is more competitive than ever. Throw in the fact that recruiting teams and budgets are getting leaner, and it’s easy to see how stressful the life of a recruiter must be!

Recruiters have zero time to waste and must constantly be on their candidate-sourcing A-game despite facing heavier workloads, increased stress, and talent scarcity. It’s no wonder hiring fatigue is setting in.

Wellness in the workplace is, of course, critical. But it’s not just about good culture, fruit bowls, meditation classes and breakout rooms. The practical tools a recruiter uses must be in the fixing mix. Recruitment automation is the light at the end of the tunnel recruiters need to see.

Part 5 of our Art of Candidate Sourcing series shows how recruitment automation tools are critical for ramping up a recruiter’s hiring game and combatting hiring fatigue.

First, here’s a quick recap of today’s recruiting challenges.

What Are the Most Common Blockers in Talent Acquisition Today?

Modern hiring blockers include:

• Skills shortage
• Competition
• Ambiguous job descriptions
• Extended hiring process
• Slow decision making
• Candidate ghosting
• Evolving candidate expectations
• A lack of recruitment metrics and insightful data
• Time wasted on tedious admin

We’ll return to some of these later in the discussion on how recruitment automation works to reduce busy workloads and help recruiters source candidates more effectively and efficiently – first, a bit more about recruitment automation tools.

What Are Recruitment Automation Tools?

Recruitment automation tools refer to software and technology solutions that streamline and optimize aspects of the recruitment process. These tools leverage AI and automation to help recruiters attract, source, and manage candidates more efficiently.

Technologies like Applicant Tracking Systems (ATSs) establish automatic workflows usually carried out manually by recruiters. Examples can be found throughout the recruiting funnel, in things like candidate screening and resume parsing, job board searching and posting, email and text communication, candidate matching, interview scheduling, and client nurturing.

Why Use Recruitment Automation Tools?

Staffing Hub’s 2023 State of Staffing survey revealed technology and automation as one of this year’s most significant opportunities in recruitment (read the insights here).

Staffing agencies are, according to the report, working towards automating their processes – seven in 10 respondents report their company has at least one automation in place, while nearly one-quarter have automated six or more functions. Fast-growth agencies are ahead in the automation game and say that tech provides a competitive advantage for their businesses.

There is a significant appetite for automation in the recruitment sphere, but still, 20 per cent of agencies say they don’t use any marketing and recruitment automation tools. That said, agencies are adopting tech at a rapid pace, with 80 per cent reporting they are already using some form of marketing and recruiting automation.

So, why should you use recruitment automation tools, and if you are already using some, should you consider updating them?

Recruitment automation streamlines processes increases productivity, improves hiring accuracy, and enables better use of data to drive intelligent decision-making and matching of candidates, all of which help find the best talent. Automation is a no-brainer in a tight job market because it can get you to talent faster and refine processes to improve hiring matches. Essentially, it leads to sharper, better, faster hiring.

It’s not hard to see why. Better talent decisions can be made when menial tasks are automated, and recruiters have more time to focus on a higher level of engagement. Ultimately, automating processes results in better-matched placements, delighting candidates and clients and achieving more margin for you! And with better data, the overall experience for recruiters, clients, and candidates can be constantly enhanced.

But be aware that not all recruitment software is made equal. Tech innovation moves fast, so be sure to choose a software provider, like Tracker, that moves with the times.

In principle, recruitment automation sounds excellent, right? So, let’s get onto the bit you’ve been itching to read – the nitty gritty of recruitment automation and how it can help optimize your candidate sourcing and get you more leads.

How Do Recruitment Automation Tools Help Candidate Sourcing?

As a recruiter, you’ll know that candidate sourcing has several critical steps and that getting the best hires means nailing every part of the sourcing process. Essential stages of candidate sourcing are:

• Job posting
• Searching for active job seekers and passive candidates
• Identifying potential candidates
• Contacting potential candidates

Then, once candidates have been found, the following stages of the recruitment process involve:

• Screening
• Evaluating
• Interviewing
• Communicating and keeping candidates engaged throughout the hiring process

And we can hear you screaming, “Don’t forget the piles of admin going on in between!”

Here’s how recruitment automation can help you.

Job Posting

Think how long your team takes to create, optimize, and post open jobs across your network. It’s a lot of hours.

What if we told you that recruitment automation software, like Tracker, allows you to quickly publish jobs to your website, social media, and over 1,000 job boards with one click? There’s the first big tick on your list of why you should automate.

Job Board Sourcing

On the flip side of job board posting is sourcing. Tracker’s automated Watchdogs feature can help you automatically source, match, and engage candidates from job boards. With Tracker, your open Jobs can crawl the job boards overnight to find new candidates, process them and automatically send them a personalized email requesting a call back first thing in the morning.

Build Candidate Profiles

Putting together candidate profiles can be one of the most time-consuming tasks in recruitment. With an ATS, like Tracker, you can quickly create accurate candidate profiles pulled directly from sources like LinkedIn, email, and more. Automatic updates ensure you are never moving forward with inaccurate data again.

Auto-Matching

As a recruiter, your database is extensive. You have many candidates at your fingertips, but how effective are your systems and searching skills at rooting people out?

Recruitment automation enables the matching of job openings with talent in your database to be carried out automatically. Auto Matching is a game-changer! Think of all the candidates who applied for a job but did not get it. With an auto-matching feature, you can bring them alternative vacancies.

Automatically screening candidates and finding the best matches makes candidates and clients happy and saves recruiters a lot of time.

Ranking Candidates

Shuffling through resumes and papers to create a list of all the best potential candidates based on their skills, qualifications, and other job requirements takes ages. Lots of recruitment software incorporates AI to automate this task. Tracker takes ranking a step further using AI Ranking to account for a candidate’s skills and qualifications and their history within the system, giving you a more rounded applicant picture.

Communications

Communication during the hiring process can make or break the candidate experience and, when optimized, can go a long way to prevent dropouts. If you recall the opening stats, top candidates are only available for ten days before being hired! If you don’t act fast, your top choice could be off the market before you know it.

Sending emails and making phone calls may seem relatively easy, but with a high volume of communications in play, it adds up to many hours, and things can easily slip through the net or get delayed.

Automating communications keeps everything on track and saves recruiters vast amounts of time. Importantly, every missed communication could be detrimental to recruiting outcomes. Everything from scheduling reminders to gaining feedback can be managed by tech. Communications can also be personalized to make candidates feel like they are engaging with a person, so you don’t lose the essence of the human touch.

Stay Ahead of the Crowd With Tracker

Automation is essential if you want to stay ahead of the crowd. 

With Tracker’s innovative recruitment automation, you can engage, hire, and grow talent faster with less effort. Our intelligent automation supercharges candidate matching, mitigates bias, provides a stand-out candidate experience, and radically improves hiring quality. Above all, it saves recruiters stacks of time.

Optimizing your recruitment efforts, you’ll have more time to understand the candidate’s experience and what matters, enabling you to find the secret sauce that sets you apart from your competitors.

Tracker enables you to hire better, faster and achieve optimal results. But don’t just take our word for it. Check out our automation playbook to see how Tracker can boost your staffing and recruiting firm’s productivity – it includes real examples and use cases! And see how easy it is to implement and use Tracker in our recent case study.

Stamp out hiring inefficiencies today: Book a Demo Now or contact our fantastic people, who can answer any questions.