6 Features To Look For In Recruiting Automation Software

In the midst of a tight and uncertain labor market, recruiters report that the costs of bringing on a new employee is at an all-time high. On top of that, completing a search for quality candidates can take recruiters between 32 to 68 days, according to SHRM.

With jobs to urgently fill, hiring teams simply don’t have the luxury of waiting that long.

Here’s where recruiting automation software comes in. Recruiting automation software allows talent acquisition (TA) teams to streamline tasks like candidate sourcing, communication, scheduling, and assessments — which often take up a huge amount of time — ultimately boosting efficiency and helping hiring team members become wildly more productive. Here are six features to look for when considering recruiting automation software for your company:

1. Chatbot

An intelligent chatbot is a game-changer in TA. A chatbot can work 24/7. A recruiter can’t. When you add a chatbot feature to your recruiting automation software, you get an always-on recruiter that can automate manual tasks and free your human recruiters up to add a personalized touch to the candidate experience by building meaningful relationships.

Look for a chatbot that can:

• Answer FAQs or direct candidates to a real person who can help

• Recommend jobs to candidates based on their location, interests, skills, and other preferences

• Conduct initial screening questions or one-way interviews to fast-track them onto the next stage in the hiring process

• Schedule interviews in real time based on screening results

Related reading: It’s All About the Bot: How Stanford Health Care Connects with Candidates

2. Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) Tool

A CRM is a crucial part of recruiting automation software, and it’s a great add-on to an existing ATS. It allows hiring teams to build, engage, and track talent pipelines using AI.

Using fit scoring technology, for example, the CRM can rank candidates based on skill requirements, location, and experience to determine if they’re the best fit for a job — or match them to another job. If a candidate wasn’t the best fit at the time, the CRM keeps them in the talent pool, allowing recruiters to reach out to them later if another job arises. This saves time recruiters otherwise would be spending searching for new candidates.

A CRM can also create candidate segments that update automatically — based on criteria like skills, titles, and hiring status — for campaigns. It then helps recruiters cultivate and maintain relationships with those job seekers for upcoming career opportunities by sending personalized emails or SMS messages.

Using AI, the CRM offers up analytical insights to help hiring teams take full advantage of their recruiting strategy.

Related reading: How Trilogy Health Services Quickly Hired for Hard-to-Fill Roles

3. SMS and Messaging

Adding an SMS and messaging functionality to your recruiting automation software is another way to help your TA teams become wildly more productive. With SMS, members of the hiring team can reach candidates in real-time (or schedule messages) through texts, create keyword campaigns to grow their pipeline, and chat through popular messaging apps like WhatsApp, WeChat, Facebook Messenger, iMessage, and more.

Candidates are also more likely to engage with SMS campaigns. SHRM reported that 86% of Millennials surveyed “feel positively about text messages being used during the interview process,” while Google research has shown that Gen Z prefers texting to all other forms of communication.

Through SMS campaigns, candidates can simply text a keyword and immediately receive information about jobs, FAQs, and upcoming virtual or in-person events. By automating more transactional parts of the candidate journey, recruiters gain more time to focus on building relationships instead.

Related reading: Text Recruiting: Everything You Need to Know

4. One-Way Interviews

Adding one-way interviews to your recruiting automation software is a huge lift off the screening process for hiring teams, but 25% of companies still aren’t using video technology in their screening and interviewing process. Adopting one-way interviews allows team members to:

• Screen more candidates faster, at their convenience

• Empower managers with tools to meet growing hiring demands

• Apply an equitable approach to screening candidates at scale

It also allows candidates to leave a great first impression through a pre-recorded video. In most cases, candidates can re-record the video if they aren't happy with their initial responses, and can even opt for an audio recording only if video makes them uncomfortable. This feature also provides 24/7 support through the portal, so candidates never feel alone in the process.

The hiring team can then log into the portal and assess candidate answers all in one place. Information about the candidate is streamlined, making hiring decisions faster and easier.

Related reading: 4 Ways to Improve the Interview Experience

5. AI Scheduling

Once a candidate has been screened and is a potential good fit for a job, it’s time to get them on the interview schedule. Interview scheduling is a task that can take recruiters weeks to complete depending on the amount of reqs they’re juggling. In fact, according to a recent report between Talent Board and Phenom, approximately 26% of recruiting teams take longer than three days just to schedule an initial interview!

That’s too much time, and an easy way to lose talent to competitors. Instead, companies that have adopted AI scheduling technology can sit back and relax, letting AI and automation schedule interviews with candidates in real time.

How does this feature work? By syncing candidate, recruiter, and hiring manager schedules, the tool automatically finds times that work for everyone and offers them to the candidate. The candidate then selects their preferred time slot and an invitation is automatically sent to everyone’s calendars. It’s that easy! The tool can also reschedule interviews without any need for human interaction.

Related reading: AI Scheduling: A Must-Have For Your TA Teams

6. Interview Intelligence

Interview intelligence is a comprehensive insight that can be presented in a simple dashboard, enabling hiring team members to evaluate candidates, communicate with one another, and gain insights during an interview. This can include how well the candidate is doing, questions the interviewer may be missing, and more.

Interview intelligence technology can:

• Foster collaboration between decision makers by allowing interviews to be instantaneously shared with colleagues for review and feedback

• Help interviewers make more informed decisions, ensuring that the best candidate is ultimately selected for the job

• Eliminate the need to take detailed notes – boosting efficiency, saving valuable time, and ensuring critical details are not overlooked

• Provide interviewers with clear guidance, detail what questions they should ask, and deliver structured interview guides

• Automatically identify biased or discriminating questions, take proactive measurements, and reinforce training with key stakeholders

• Reduce the need for repetitive interview rounds while also improving the process of interview scheduling

With AI and automation like this at your fingertips, recruiters, hiring managers, and candidates alike receive an amazing experience that’s both quick and efficient.

To learn more about boosting hiring efficiency with recruiting automation software, check out our Definitive Guide to Recruitment Marketing or book a personalized demo today.