What is Recruiting Automation and What Are the Benefits?

According to recruiters, finding a candidate that fits a specific job role can take an average of 32 to 68 days, depending on job level. But what if that time could be cut down to mere minutes?

By automating recruitment processes, it can be.

So what is recruiting automation? In simple terms, it's technology that companies can implement to automate tedious recruiting tasks or processes, leaving recruiters with more time to spend on more meaningful work, like building relationships with candidates.

This automation doesn't just benefit companies — it also creates a smoother, faster experience for job seekers, who can receive timely updates and feedback throughout their hiring process.

And it can do much more, like improving screening, scheduling, and more. Here are six benefits of automating recruitment processes, paired with technology you can adopt tomorrow to help you hire quality candidates faster.

Six Benefits of Recruiting Automation

1. Fast-forwards Candidate Screening

With companies competing for top talent, who wouldn't want to speed up the screening process and hire quality candidates quicker? One way to do this is by implementing recruiting automation technology. A video interviewing tool is one example, as it helps to create a more consistent, structured, and automated approach to screening.

Phenom X+ Screening, for example, features flexible screening options including audio, text, and video that hiring teams can use to boost hiring efficiency and reduce time in their screening process. For example, with video screening candidates can prerecord their responses, with or without timers, ensuring they have the opportunity to craft their answers just right and showcase their personality. Each person on the hiring team then evaluates the responses and provides a score based on specific criteria allowing them to hone in on the best-fit candidates.

By automating manual hiring tasks, X+ Screening allows recruiters to screen more candidates in less time, easily collaborate with hiring managers, and better align on candidate fit and must-haves.

Automating recruitment processes like these helps speed up the hiring process because candidates and recruiters alike don’t need to find time for a first — or sometimes second — interview. Candidates submit their responses when convenient for them and hiring teams review on their own time.

Related Customer Story: 1000+ Hires, 6 Weeks: Alight's High-Volume Automation Story

2. Boosts Recruiter Efficiency

A top challenge recruiters experience is the back and forth of trying to schedule an interview between a candidate and the hiring team. Whether through email or via phone, the back and forth can take days, days that candidate may be spending considering other job opportunities.

How can recruiting automation technology help? By leaving the entire scheduling process to automation and AI.

With scheduling tools like Phenom Automated Interview Scheduling, recruiters can be hands-off and worry-free when it comes to syncing calendars and booking interviews. It works by integrating the calendars of recruiters, hiring managers, and candidates and analyzing individual calendar data. It then produces suggested meeting times based on availability and adds them to all parties’ calendars. This self-service scheduling empowers candidates to set times based on their availability, reducing delays and increasing candidate satisfaction.

Automated Interview Scheduling can even reschedule interviews if a conflict comes up without involving the help of a recruiter — literally solving scheduling conflicts 24/7.

Not only does recruiting automation technology like Automated Interview Scheduling solve the headache that is interview scheduling, but because it’s so fast, it also streamlines hiring processes, eliminating repetitive tasks and reducing time-to-hire so HR teams can focus on high-impact activities.

Related reading: What is an Automated Interview Scheduling Tool and What are the Benefits?

3. Creates Transparency

By using AI-assisted interview technology, companies can revolutionize recruitment by consistently and objectively assessing candidates to easily identify top talent while significantly reducing bias. This innovative approach creates standardized evaluations that level the playing field for all applicants — ensuring every candidate is assessed using identical criteria — leading to more transparent hiring decisions.

Phenom Structured Interviews, for example, allow companies to:

• Equip their hiring teams with structured guides to evaluate candidates based on key skills and behaviors.

• Leverage a vast interview question library, enhanced with generative AI to create personalized and impactful interviews.

• Use interview scorecards to standardize evaluations, ensuring fair and objective assessments of candidates' skills and fit.

• Receive interview guidance with streamlined access to process tracking, candidate profiles, and documents.

• Capture and review interview notes with ease, enabling seamless collaboration and shared insights among hiring teams.

• Enable hiring team collaboration by sharing scorecards and evaluations for streamlined decision-making.

• Understand interviewer performance and question effectiveness to refine and improve your interview process over time.

By creating a more open, consistent, and intelligent recruitment workflow, AI-assisted interview technology not only streamlines hiring but also creates transparency between employers and potential employees. The result is a more equitable, efficient, and strategic approach to identifying and securing top talent.

Related resource: Interview Intelligence Guide

4. Enhances Hiring Team Communication

We’ve seen how recruiting automation can streamline the screening and interview process, so what’s next? After an interview, the entire hiring team must come together to decide who will be receiving an offer and who will be entering the company talent pool for consideration down the line.

Using recruiting automation here can quicken the hiring process. Companies that use a Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) tool equipped with fit score technology and analytics can leave much of the heavy lifting to AI and automation.

A CRM can rank candidates based on their experience, skills, and location to determine who’s the best fit for the job. It presents top candidates to the team, who can take it from there to move them forward in the hiring process.

If a hiring team chooses not to move forward with a specific candidate, the CRM can move that candidate into a talent pool and automatically recommend them later if their skills and experience match another job.

With recruiting automation like this, hiring teams aren’t spending hours pouring through resumes or reviewing interview notes. Technology collects that information automatically and presents it all in one place, making collaboration a breeze.

Phenom's Intelligent Automation solution does all this while empowering hiring managers with on-demand access, allowing them to efficiently engage with candidates at their convenience and supporting location-based needs.

Related customer story: How DHL Delivers an Irresistible Employer Brand that Drives Results 

5. Improves the Candidate Experience

Every company wants a candidate experience that inspires talent to join their team.

One of the best ways to use recruiting automation to boost the candidate experience is through a conversational chatbot. But not all chatbots are created equal, so it’s important to choose one that works best for your team.

Phenom Chatbot, for example, personalizes each candidate's experience and connects candidates with relevant jobs by asking screening questions based on skills, location, and experience. It can also serve up customized content and proactively answer FAQs so candidates aren’t spending time trying to reach customer support or find answers to their questions online. Finally, it can remember individual job seekers and greet them by name the next time they visit your career site, making for a very personalized and streamlined experience on the candidate's end.

By automating these recruitment tasks and workflows, candidates find what they’re looking for quicker, while recruiters have insights into best-fit candidates without the need for time-consuming manual processes like sourcing or screening.

Phenom Intelligent Automation ensures candidates move seamlessly from engagement to offer, maintaining a consistent experience that builds brand loyalty. The frictionless, streamlined application process eliminates bottlenecks, allowing candidates to apply and advance with minimal effort, creating a modern, positive experience that meets today's standards.

Related customer story: How Personalized AI-led Processes Helped a Major U.S. Healthcare Company Meet Chronic Staffing Demands

6. Nurtures Candidate Engagement

Email and text campaigns have become invaluable recruiting automation tools for teams seeking to enhance candidate engagement. By leveraging email campaigns, recruiters can establish consistent communication with potential candidates, ensuring a steady flow of relevant information tailored to individual preferences and career interests. And with 1:1 or one-to-many SMS campaigns, you can meet candidates where they are — immediately.

These kinds of campaigns not only foster a more personalized connection but also allow recruiters to strategically nurture relationships over time. Drip campaigns enable the delivery of timely updates about job opportunities, company culture, events, FAQs, and industry insights — keeping candidates informed and engaged throughout their journey.

By personalizing campaigns, recruiters are empowered to boost candidate engagement, increasing the likelihood of successful placements and fostering long-term relationships within the talent pool.

Additionally, Phenom Intelligent Automation provides real-time data that gives HR teams insights into pipeline health, campaign success, and bottleneck areas needing improvement, such as application completion, conversion, and interview attendance. This data transparency enables better hiring outcomes and allows for continuous optimization of the hiring process.

Related reading: The Definitive Guide to AI Recruiting

By replacing repetitive, mundane tasks with AI and automation, recruiters and hiring teams are able to spend time focusing on people and not paperwork. Recruiting automation accelerates the entire hiring process, connects companies with best-fit candidates, and decreases time (and therefore cost) to hire.

See how recruiting automation can work for you — read more in our complete guide.