3 Ways AI Will Help You Save Time and Convert More Candidates

Spend some time researching upcoming recruiting trends and technologies and you’ll quickly realize Artificial Intelligence (AI) is widely regarded as the future of hiring. More than half of HR managers anticipate their hiring process will involve AI within the next five years. They’re already behind the times.

AI is here and the 63% of recruiters who’ve invested in it say it’s changed how they do things. Here are three ways you can use AI to start saving time while converting more candidates today.

Whether you receive dozens or hundreds of resumes for each role you advertise, the general consensus is that fewer than half the resumes you see are suitable. This forces you to spend a lot of time simply ruling out unqualified applicants.

AI-powered applicant tracking systems can quickly scan resumes for relevant keywords and job titles to filter your incoming applications faster, while also reviewing your database of previous job candidates for any good matches.

An AI chatbot can contact candidates to clarify important details like if they’re eligible to work in the US or where they are located and instantly answer any questions they have at any time of day. Some tech companies are using chatbots to generate and send coding challenges to candidates for technical roles.

Once you have settled on your shortlist, AI scheduling tools help with the tiresome task of finding interview times that work for everyone. They access the calendars of each interviewer to create a number of possible schedules then ask the candidate to select their preferred option. They can even book the meeting room. Recruiters say that they save an average of 50 minutes per candidate with automated scheduling.

Background checks are essential for ensuring that your business is hiring someone it can trust. But these checks often take a lot of time, increase your compliance risk, and potentially reduce your talent pool by ruling out great candidates for minor infractions.

New AI-powered platforms are making the traditional cumbersome background check process more efficient and flexible. Reducing how long it takes to perform a check from weeks to days means there’s less chance that your preferred candidate will receive a competitive offer in the meantime.

If a background check reveals a criminal record, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) requires your business to demonstrate that a candidate’s specific offense was relevant to a decision to not hire them. Every time a background check discovers a potential red flag, you must deal with it correctly, including giving the candidate a right-to-reply.

New platforms make it easy to filter out old or irrelevant criminal records like traffic citations and minor drug charges. Removing certain records not only allows you to tap into a wider pool of talent, you also spend less time having to comply with EEOC guidelines. Plus, AI can help with the right-to-reply process by automatically contacting a flagged candidate for more information.

Finding the right new hire is only half the battle. Now you need to retain them and research shows that half of newly-filled senior roles are advertised again within 18 months, while junior hires often only last just four months. The lost productivity and additional recruitment and training of unwanted employee turnover accounts for as much as 50% of a company’s total labor costs.

The primary cause of low retention is poor employee engagement, especially in those critical first weeks of a new job. While 92% of low employee turnover businesses have a well thought-through onboarding, most HR teams are just too busy to extend the process beyond a day.

AI services can start engaging with new hires as you offer them the job. They can automatically personalize an offer letter, start the paperwork process of contracts, and share relevant company and culture-related content before they start.

Maintaining communication with a candidate during this time keeps them engaged and excited. And with AI taking care of the routine tasks, your hiring team can prepare a more human welcome, including taking the new hire out for coffee and catching up with them at the end of the day.

27% of recruiters who use AI in the hiring process say it frees up their time so they can focus on more important, strategic tasks. By automating many time-consuming processes, you’ll have more time to be creative about finding new talent, getting more from existing individuals and teams, and ultimately driving better results for your business.