The old system of vetting paper rsums and meeting candidates in person is still largely adopted by recruiters. (Rawpixel pic)

For too many years, recruiting and hiring have followed the same tedious process: source candidates, review rsums, screen candidates on the phone, conduct in-person interviews and then, hopefully, hire the best person.

Hiring has not seen huge shifts in the process as with other industries despite an overwhelming number of new technologies becoming available.

But change is here. More people are working remotely, collaborating with multiple companies simultaneously in the gig economy and starting companies themselves. Fewer people work for one company under one roof for decades as they used to.

Expectations for hiring have also changed. Candidates do not want to submit rsums and cover letters, wait for weeks to hear back and then go through a series of face-to-face interviews.

In the race for talent, hiring teams must be nimble, responsive and put the candidate experience front and centre.

Automated recruiting tools now make it possible for employers and candidates to interact in a way that is much smoother and faster, while still maintaining a human touch.

What recruiting automation is

Recruiting automation uses the same recruiting process: a hiring team posts an opening, looks for referrals and attracts a pool of top candidates.

Different automated recruiting tools can then be used at different stages of the process to:

Instead of going through the painstaking process of screening individual rsums, emailing a pool of candidates and manually processing each individual through the hiring process, automated tools offer a faster way to provide a great candidate experience.

How AI is used in recruiting automation

Recruiting is now the biggest artificial intelligence market in human resources, with AI-based sourcing, assessment, screening, interviewing and candidate experience management now available, said Josh Bersin in HR Technology 2020: Disruption ahead.

There is a common misconception that AI and recruiting automation are the same things. In fact, there are some key differences with implications for how recruiters use and understand each of these tools.

Using AI in the hiring process

Automation is basically making a hardware or software that is capable of doing things automatically, without human intervention. AI, however, is a science, and engineering of making intelligent machines, writes one expert.

AI is all about trying to make machines or software mimic and, eventually, supersede human behaviour and intelligence.

When a recruiter uses an automated tool, they set up the platform to follow certain rules.

For instance, an applicant tracking system (ATS) may send a candidate a reminder 24 hours in advance of their video interview.

A job posting automation may take down the listing after a certain number of days or a certain number of applications have been received.

These automated tools decrease the amount of manual labour involved with hiring the best candidates.

AI technology, on the other hand, can overcome the intrinsic bias found in human behaviour.

For instance, when recruiters use AI to screen candidates in rather than out, hiring becomes more democratic and merit-based, instead of about who an applicant knows.

Companies that switched to one AI tool saw a 62% increase in women candidates. Nepotism and selective hiring practices get eliminated when an AI tool is correctly utilised.

This article first appeared in Vervoe. At Vervoe, their mission is to fundamentally transform the hiring process from mediocracy to meritocracy.

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Recruitment automation, the new tools in hiring - Free Malaysia Today