Are You Taking Too Long To Make the Final Offer To Top Candidates?
AI tools can improve the speed and efficiency of hiring, but only some recruiters use them in their hiring process.
- Organizations face a tight job market where finding candidates with the right skills is a significant challenge. Simultaneously, many recruiters take a long to screen and hire candidates.
- Adopting recruitment, automation, and AI-based tools can help them significantly.
- Phenom and Talent Board recently conducted a study to understand the adoption of these technologies in organizations.
Hiring managers and recruiters often handle candidate screening and interviewing deliberately but inconsistently. This leads to long durations of making hiring decisions. This approach is no longer viable as it hurts the candidate’s experience. Further, given today’s fast-paced environment, the delay often causes recruiters to lose promising candidates to competitors.
In light of increasing talent shortages and downsized recruitment teams, a few forward-thinking organizations are adopting artificial intelligence (AI) and recruitment and automation technologies to improve the screening and interviewing speed.
Phenom and Talent Board recently conducted a study to understand the use of (or the lack thereof) these technologies among talent acquisition (TA) teams. What tools and technologies are they using, how often do they use them, and do these tools actually facilitate efficient hiring? What are their biggest challenges? These are some of the questions the study tried to answer. Here are a few insights.
Most TA Professionals Give Their Screening and Hiring Efficiency an Average Rating
According to the study, about 37% of the respondents rated their experience of screening, scheduling, and interviewing candidates in terms of efficiency and speed an average of 3 out of 5 stars. Only 22% rated their experience 5 out of 5, while 27% rated it 4 out of 5. This shows that there is still room for improvement.
When we look at the experience by job title, VPs and C-suite executives rated it an average of 3.7, while managers and directors rated it 3.6. Recruiters rated their experience an average of 3.4 stars. This means the more the respondents are candidate-facing, the more dissatisfied they are regarding hiring efficiency.
Further, from the screening and scheduling time perspective, ratings drop to 2.9 when screening candidates after application submission takes over a week.
See more: Using VR to Recruit and Retain New Generation Employees
Ratings Improve When Recruiting Technologies Are Used
How does using recruiting technologies affect ratings? According to the study, using these technologies led to marked improvements in respondents’ satisfaction regarding recruiting speed and efficiency. For example, ratings increased to 3.8 stars when video technology was used. When respondents had access to tools and systems of record that provide real-time feedback on candidates, the ratings improved to 3.8. Similarly, when chatbots were used to schedule interviews, ratings went up to 4.1 stars.
Several Factors Make Achieving Hiring Goals Challenging
About 41% of the study’s respondents said they hit some of their hiring goals, while 32% said they are on track for their hiring goals. About 27% said they were behind on their goals. There are several factors making progress complex. Some of them are:
- Unrealistic or overly aggressive goals
- Broken application, evaluation, or interviewing processes
- Lack of recruiting technologies that automate repetitive manual tasks, and
- Disjointed point solutions that impede efficient collaboration between different talent stakeholders
To make progress, TA professionals should carefully monitor critical components of their hiring process, track their progress, and adjust strategies and tactics as required.
Regarding the most time-consuming tasks related to candidate screening, scheduling, and interviewing, the most time-consuming tasks were coordinating or reviewing candidate pools with hiring managers (50%) and coordinating interview schedules (50%).
Most time-consuming tasks related to candidate screening, scheduling, and interviewing
Source: The State of Automated Interview Management: 2023 Survey Report
Fortunately, the industry is responding, and a growing number of AI technologies are available to streamline these time-consuming tasks. That said, looking at the numbers, many organizations are yet to take advantage of these tools or can’t access them.
Many TA Teams Personally Call Candidates After Application Submission
Regarding communicating with candidates after application submission, 52% use automated or templated emails. Interestingly, 49% made personal calls, though this may be due to having lower applicant volumes in some cases. Nonetheless, it is encouraging to see many TA professionals using this personal touch, a best practice in delivering a superior candidate experience.
About 30% said they communicate with candidates only if the latter were selected for the next round. However, this creates an “application black hole” that candidates find disrespectful. Candidates would prefer at least an automated email acknowledging their submission and outlining the possible further steps. Without communication, candidates rate their experience as poor.
Finding Quality Candidates Quickly Is a Top Challenge
According to the study, the top challenge when screening candidates is finding quality candidates quickly (57%). This is followed by sorting through a large volume of candidates 48%). Another major challenge is that no standard criteria are available to assess candidates consistently (24%). This means instinct, emotions, and potential bias may creep into the hiring decisions. Fortunately, according to Talent Board’s latest 2022 benchmark research, about 80% of TA teams plan to buy AI-based technology this year to identify the best candidates.
TA Teams Are Not Leveraging Video Screening
While most screening is done through phone calls and emails, video screening started gaining popularity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, over 50% of companies are not leveraging these tools despite their rise. That said, when we cross-analyze these statistics, it is seen that TA teams using at least one recruiting technology tend to use others as well. For example, among those using chatbots during screening, the use of both pre-recorded and live video as screening tools jumped from 27% to 46%.
Companies Take Significant Time To Move Candidates Through Different Stages
Given the challenge of talent shortage in the market, companies must move candidates through the hiring process quickly and efficiently. However, it was found that TA teams are taking significant time to hire candidates once applications are submitted. For example, while 62% take three days or less to screen applicants post-application submission, 38% of respondents take longer. Similarly, 26% take more than three working days to schedule an interview post-screening.
AI-powered tools are currently on the rise due to various advantages. For example, AI-powered screening tools speed up the process and help TA teams better engage the right candidates and prioritize them. They can also give an unprecedented view of candidates beyond their skill sets and backgrounds.
Similarly, AI scheduling tools eliminate or reduce manual tasks and allow TA teams to oversee the scheduling process, getting involved only when necessary. AI-powered tools also work on screening and scheduling throughout the day, a huge advantage in a competitive labor market. According to the study, only 31% of respondents use AI scheduling tools, while 65% schedule interviews manually.
See more: Four Ways to Transform the Hiring Processes with AI
Most Companies Take Over a Week To Make a Final Offer
After going through the screening and interview process, 65% of respondents said it takes over a week for candidates to get to the offer stage.
Companies that deliver top-rated candidate experiences typically make a job offer within a week of the final interview. This keeps great talent from being poached by another company and increases the candidate’s willingness to refer others to the organization. In fact, according to the study, the eagerness to refer others increased to 76%.
Adopt AI Tools To Achieve Your Hiring Goals
Taking weeks or months to screen and interview candidates doesn’t work anymore in today’s competitive talent market. Speed and efficiency are imperative, as are quality and accuracy of hire. To achieve them, recruiters should have intelligent recruiting tools and technologies, and AI tools are well-poised to help TA professionals achieve them. Hence, result-oriented business leaders should empower their teams to implement more AI-based solutions to enhance their performance and better achieve their recruitment goals.
Have you adopted AI tools for recruiting candidates? How have they impacted your recruitment goals? Share with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook. We’d love to hear from you!
Image source: Shutterstock
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