3 Ways to Improve Your Frontline Recruiting and Hiring Processes

About 70% of employees in the United States are frontline workers. What is a frontline worker? People who work hourly roles and/or must show up to a physical location in order to do their job, like healthcare workers, restaurant employees, grocery store staff, truck drivers, and factory workers, just to name a few.

Companies that need to hire frontline workers usually do so en masse, often hiring hundreds or even thousands of employees in a very short amount of time. To do this well — and quickly enough to fill these open roles — they need frontline recruiting and hiring processes that are efficient and able to capture quality candidates before competitors.

Here are three ways to boost your frontline recruiting and hiring efforts and attract top talent to your organization:

1. Personalize the Candidate Experience

Candidates today are looking for a personalized experience when they apply to jobs — and frontline workers don’t have time to sift through your company’s career site to find relevant open opportunities. A great way to truly personalize the candidate experience is to implement technology like a conversational chatbot that can interact with candidates in real time and offer job recommendations based on their skills, location, or even browsing history.

Unfortunately, only 6% of Fortune 500 companies last year utilized an AI-powered chatbot to do so, and of those 6%, only 2% could provide job recommendations to candidates. This is an extremely low number for something that companies can easily adopt.

Hiring frontline employment can have challenges due to the need for special skills and certifications, remote locations, and non-traditional working hours, but implementing AI-powered technology that can personalize the first step in the application process for candidates is a no-brainer. It gives candidates a great first impression of your company and a quick list of roles they’re suited for.

2. Streamline the Application Process Through Mobile

Almost everyone has a cell phone, and organizations that don’t adapt their application processes for mobile use are losing out on talent. A great way to attract frontline workers is to streamline the application process through text-to-apply and mobile pre-screening capabilities.

Again, implementing a chatbot that can pre-screen candidates for open roles — often in as little as a few minutes — is a great way to improve your frontline recruiting processes. If you can notify candidates almost immediately that they are qualified and ready for the next step in the process, they are much more likely to continue that process with you. In addition, most chatbots can gather passive leads based on candidate expression of job interest, even if they don’t continue with the application process.

Another way to streamline the application process is through SMS, which allows you to send candidates 1-to-1 or 1-to-many text messages that promote open roles, upcoming events, follow up on interviews, arrange next steps, or even communicate offers.

When you’re hiring frontline workers en masse, this always-on, automated communication is a must-have.

Related reading: How Circle K Tackles Always-On Recruiting

3. Automate Screening and Scheduling

Another way to gain a competitive edge by quickly connecting candidates with jobs, interviews, and hiring managers is through automation. With AI scheduling and video assessment technology, for example, many manual processes are put on auto-pilot, freeing up your recruiters to focus on building candidate relationships.

AI Scheduling can sync candidate and hiring team calendars as well as schedule and even reschedule interviews. This all happens automatically, eliminating the time-consuming back-and-forth between recruiter and candidate.

Video Assessments, a one-way video interviewing tool that candidates can complete and on-site hiring teams can review when convenient for them, saves time for all parties involved. Not to mention it helps candidates feel confident in delivering a great first impression.

Using automation in these ways makes the frontline hiring process fast, frictionless, and flexible for candidates, recruiters, and hiring managers, allowing you to capture top talent quicker than competitors.

Related reading: Pump Up the Volume: How to Get High-Volume Hiring Right

When it comes to hourly or frontline employment, candidates are looking for an application process that is quick, easy, and personalized. Using AI-powered technology, you can automate many of the tasks slowing recruiting teams down — without sacrificing quality for quantity.

If you’re ready to learn more about boosting your frontline recruiting and hiring processes, check out our High-Volume Hiring Playbook.