Several companies endorse the concept of campus talent acquisition by encapsulating a set of well-devised strategies to engage with, assess, and hire young talent from different college campuses across geographical boundaries.

With the advent of digitisation, the campus recruitment process has witnessed a slew of transformations and has become more dynamic. To elucidate, campus hiring is not just going to college and selecting a candidate, it is a much more evolved realm.

Here’s a rundown of the campus hiring trends in 2023/2024 that have bettered the essence of the recruitment process:

Engage in pre/post placement connect and visibility to ensure seamless hiring 

The process of campus recruitment is a highly demanding task. The talented prospects look for organisations that focus on diversity, equality, and inclusion, and offer a work-life balance. Providing fair remuneration with compensation, allowances, bonuses, concessions, and insurance schemes is also an important aspect that is taken into consideration while opting for a promising career.

Young people look for a level of flexibility at work that highlights the worker’s entrepreneurial spirit, bridges the communication gaps, limits inhibitions, and fosters peace of mind. Also, implementation of less strict guidelines contributes to a high number of recruits from campuses.

Besides online advertising, sending out brochures, and passing down company pamphlets and leaflets describing the job offers is a great step to attract the attention of college-goers.

It is important to engage in innovative recruitment strategies such as hosting informative sessions about the company to spark students’ interest. There are numerous stages of the campus recruitment procedure, namely, the filing of candidate applications, organising pre-placement talks, conducting screening, scheduling interviews, participating in group discussions, and having post-offer engagement conversations.

Developing offline promotional material to spread by word of mouth is a good strategy. Abiding by fair practices without any personal biases and conducting work sample tests to find the best candidate for the role requires great organisation and impeccable communication among the recruitment specialists.

In order to be at the forefront of things, hiring agencies should have immense involvement in college activities such as providing fest sponsorships and making efforts to organise apprenticeship programs. They might provide rotation days and sponsor field visits to establish a long-lasting and cordial relationship with the campus administrators.

Streamline the work and leverage all resources

College recruiters need to streamline their exercises by relying on databases of college students’ profiles to select the most deserving candidates from the lot. In addition to this, talent acquisition teams can make job descriptions on online portals succinct. They must curate interesting content about the company or business to create a great brand reputation.

Moreover, user-friendly company websites with proper landing pages help drive more online traffic and find the right hires without much ado. It is good to make the websites mobile-friendly so that talented prospects do not lose interest in the organisation.

The Hire-Pro end-to-end campus hiring platform has expert panels of recruiters who provide advice about building project support and incubation programs that help consolidate the brand.

By inviting potential candidates to join and share the experiences of new employees, different companies compensate for the shortage of talent. Not only this, campus ambassador programs help college students know about the organisational policies, ethos, and mission.

Besides providing lucrative career growth options to prospective employees, these companies provide virtual internship opportunities to draw students’ attention to campus recruitment.

Apart from this, advertising on alumni websites evokes pupils’ curiosity. If the candidates have passed the different stages of the recruitment process, then they must be kept abreast of the latest information related to their field of work. HR executives could send digital communication, arrange online sessions on conference apps, and engage via video calls to ensure the continuity of the process.

Count on behavioural assessments and hackathons

Focusing on employee value proposition helps find candidates with the right set of skills. A well-formed assessment strategy evaluates the competencies of prospects and who qualify as good hires for the organisation.

Provide the candidates with digital assessments to conduct situational judgement tests and introduce case study simulators to assess their cognitive abilities.

Making use of behavioural assessment tools and customised talent assessment platforms facilitates determination of the personality attributes or traits of the college aspirants. Not only do customised assessments facilitate the selection process, they also assess the candidates more accurately. Recruiting agencies often help organisations maximise their return on investment from the hiring process.

Evaluating the digital readiness/aptitude of talented prospects is important to help them perform well. In today’s scenario, incorporating data-driven techniques to assimilate candidate information from start to finish makes the process more efficient.

Organising hackathons and conducting video interviews provide the students with a platform to demonstrate their skills and prove their mettle. Developing cloud-based platforms managed by an adept team of recruiters makes the process of conducting online job fairs less intimidating for both the parties.

Through these sessions and interactions with prospective employees, recruiters can assess their professional demeanour, behavioural patterns, teamwork/problem-solving skills, resilience, flexibility, decision-making abilities, and style of work. This way, they can determine which prospects will be a valuable resource for the company.

Sending out letters of intent (LOI) to the selected candidates or rolling out offer letters marks the culmination of campus recruitment drives. Also keeping new hires involved via post-offer engagement strengthens their resolve to deliver their best in the job role.

Leverage automation to accelerate the recruitment process

Companies are increasingly relying on digitisation, AI-powered tools, and online proctoring to facilitate campus talent acquisition. The democratisation of the talent economy has made it possible to leverage technology and make good use of digital platforms. Nowadays, talent acquisition teams provide real-time support to help students find lucrative positions in their organisations.

A gamut of predictive analytical models help recruiters sift through candidate profiles by selecting the ones that match the company’s expectations or job roles. Not only that, automated services that respond to social media reviews on LinkedIn and other career development platforms help make employers more trustworthy.

Apart from this, applicant tracking software and online assessment platforms nowadays form a staple of the process. It is imperative for companies to provide their recruitment teams with live dashboards that help manage a hiring process step-by-step. These have made the task of conducting tests at scale possible, without a compromise on precise evaluation.

Promoting digital registration on the company’s portal, securing students’ access to devices and portals, and ensuring the presence of efficient internet infrastructure at college premises help in seamless campus acquisition.

Strengthen the hybrid campus recruitment process 

Bringing the campus staff on board and seeking their referrals help find the right candidate for the company with an ethical professional demeanour. Upon discussion with the campus administrators, the agencies can conduct degree or certificate programs on college premises to recruit employees for the departments that need improvement.

In order to build trust with the stakeholders, several hiring managers can be involved in discussing the recruitment programs and their ideal outcomes.

Develop a highly-skilled recruitment team with experienced professionals

Different HR managers can collaborate with the right set of stakeholders to help them put together an adept team of recruiters. Talent acquisition teams have made college alumni a part of their recruitment process to leverage connections within the college campus. In order to upskill recruiters to take on the pressures of work, they can be exposed to curated workshops, seminars, and virtual events with experienced recruiters across the world.

As an example, the best recruiting executives have incorporated good hiring principles from the tremendous popularity of the virtual recruitment trend. By taking advantage of remote access to elite campuses, numerous agencies and organisations have been successful in recruiting top talent.

It is a good idea to prioritise the inclusion of at least one senior member in the selection team. They can be relied on to coordinate the work, resolve conflicts that arise during the process, and motivate recruiters to showcase the best of their skills.

Overcome obstacles by organising things to prevent confusion or chaos

Effectively handholding candidates by making use of the right digital tools makes hiring seamless and transparent, allowing no room for errors or misconduct. Exercising a level of transparency in the process and making use of a fraud-proof selection process simplifies the voluminous task of campus hiring to a great extent.

During the selection procedure, the use of speech recognition, facial recognition, and automated proctoring software helps prevent impersonation or the use of unscrupulous means to pass. AI-powered candidate selection ensures bias free results. Allowing aspirants access to video interview platforms with lesser bandwidth requirements can also make a difference.

What is most important is that these tools and processes incorporated into your hiring flow are clearly communicated to the aspirants.

Campus talent acquisition requires a well-devised strategy that takes into account different parameters and benefits both recruiters and aspirants. Many organisations have vast resources at their disposal to make their campus recruitment process a success while others walk a tight rope. The exercises above should help companies on all points of that spectrum scout and acquire the best talent from colleges.

 References:

• https://tpe.vtm.mybluehostin.me/resources/blogs/7-ideas-to-innovate-your-campus-recruiting
• https://tpe.vtm.mybluehostin.me/resources/blogs/campus-recruiting-how-to-recruit-gen-z-effectively
• https://tpe.vtm.mybluehostin.me/resources/blogs/campus-hiring-the-ai-way
• https://tpe.vtm.mybluehostin.me/resources/blogs/trends-in-campus-recruitment-to-watch-out-for
• https://tpe.vtm.mybluehostin.me/resources/blogs/10-strategies-for-effective-campus-recruitment
• https://tpe.vtm.mybluehostin.me/resources/blogs/types-of-assessments-for-campus-recruitment

The recruitment landscape has undergone a sea of change in the past few years. Technological advancements, changing work culture, and employee demographics are some factors that have fuelled this change. It is also interesting to observe that the unemployment rate is currently close its lowest.

As a result, various aspects of recruitment such as hiring and retention have become more complex than ever before. Top organisations are focusing on hiring young talent they can train and groom to fit into their work culture. Therefore, campus hiring has become more important than ever before!

Campus recruitment is a strategy usually employed by medium to large-sized companies to fulfill their high-volume recruitment needs. HR professionals of different organisations work closely with career centres in colleges to source, engage, and hire young talent. They also attend events such as career fairs to interact with college students, especially recent graduates. They might have to visit several universities and colleges to find the right talent for their organisations.

Why has campus hiring become important?

Most organisations find it difficult to get the right talent for entry-level positions. Campus hiring overcomes this challenge by providing a large talent pool to recruiters.

As the need for hiring digital-native workforce increases, the demand for Gen Z employees will increase. Data shows that Gen Z is expected to constitute 30% of the workforce by 2030. The best place to find Gen Z candidates is the college campus. Also, companies that hire young talent through campus recruitment have found it easier to engage and retain talent.

Campus hiring also enables businesses to cope with market changes and challenges, as it is closely tied to market conditions. Thus it is beneficial to have an idea of campus hiring trends in 2023 so you can build an effective hiring strategy.

Some major trends that will dominate campus hiring in 2023 include:

Employer branding

It is vital for attracting and retaining top talent from colleges and in general. In today’s job market, high-quality talent is likely to look for top brands to work for. Therefore, businesses need to place enough emphasis on brand building.

Diversity & Inclusion

Diversity and Inclusion have become prime focus areas in many organisations. Having a diverse workforce enriches the quality of work and speaks a lot about your brand. Organisations that have D&I initiatives are perceived to have a fair and unbiased hiring process, and attract a large talent pool.

Virtual campus hiring

Virtual campus hiring which proved to be an effective hiring strategy during the pandemic has become an integral part of the campus recruitment process. Virtual campus hiring provides access to a larger talent pool for employers at a lower cost. It is a more effective recruitment technique that also offers a better candidate experience.

Automation tools in campus hiring

AI tools offer significant benefits and are fast becoming an integral part of the campus hiring  process. AI sautomates various processes like candidate screening, application tracking, and can also proctor online assessments and interviews. It can also identify top talent with the help of predictive analysis. This helps remove bias from the selection process while enhancing the speed of the hiring cycle.

Emphasis on skill-based hiring

Skill-based hiring is expected to be a vital factor that will impact the campus hiring process. More and more organisations are shifting focus from hiring candidates based purely on their qualifications to their skills and potential. AI-based tools facilitate skill assessments and work simulations that help identify the right candidates.

It is important to keep track of the latest trends to ensure that you do not lose top talent to your competitors. Keeping pace with these and other campus hiring trends in a dynamic market alongside performing other HR functions can be overwhelming for the HR team. Campus hiring partners are one of the most effective ways to overcome such challenges!

Here’s why you need a campus hiring partner

They have expertise in campus hiring

Collaborating with campus hiring partners is beneficial because they bring to the table several years of experience in the field. They know the nuances of campus hiring and are aware of the latest campus recruitment trends.

An in-house recruitment team that matches the expertise of a campus hiring partner can be expensive and inefficient to assemble.

Campus hiring partners have access to a larger talent pool

A campus hiring partner with sufficient experience in the field will have a large network. This includes the career centres of multiple colleges and universities. They can easily identify the colleges/universities to approach for meeting your hiring needs. Therefore, they are better positioned to spot the right talent and recruit candidates.

Unlike a campus hiring agency, an in-house HR team has a limited network and hence cannot access a vast talent pool. Consequently, it takes much longer for them to identify the best colleges/universities for recruitment. And, hiring the right candidates is the next part.

Therefore, by partnering with a campus hiring agency, you can hire the right talent quickly.

Campus hiring companies leverage the latest automation tools

Most recruitment professionals of today have adopted automation technologies to streamline the hiring process. Automation speeds up the hiring process and offers better outcomes. By working with a campus hiring partner, you can leverage the benefits of these tools without investing in them. You also save the effort and resources on training your in-house team to use the tools or hiring an IT team to support automation.

In most cases, automation tools help companies hire high-potential candidates.

An automated hiring process also provides a better candidate experience and it will be easier for you to attract quality candidates.

Saves time and money

In business “time is money.” So the longer you take for hiring, the more you stand to lose. A slow hiring process hardly pleases candidates and you run the risk of losing the best talent to competitors. Besides, delays in hiring can impact your business outcomes.

Campus hiring partners armed with their experience in the field, access to a wider talent pool, automation technologies, etc., have much faster time-to-hire cycles.

You can focus on other tasks

When you work with a campus hiring partner who takes care of the end-to-end hiring process, your HR team saves a lot of time and resources. They can also focus on other areas to foster the growth of the organisation.

When you start your search for a campus hiring recruiter, discerning the right one can be an uphill task.

How to select a campus hiring recruiter?

Here are some tips to select a campus hiring partner:

Before you start your search for a campus hiring partner, ascertain whether you want the partnership for a short-term or long-term. When you look for campus hiring partners online, make sure to browse their websites thoroughly. The website will give you clarity about their services and approach to work. Client testimonials and reviews are also a good yardstick to measure the quality of their services.

Compare different hiring partners based on:

• Whether the company’s value system is aligned with yours or not?
• Experience in the field.
• Whether they use automation tools for recruitment?
• Ask them about their approach to hiring and whether it gels with yours or not.
• Cost of the services.
• Verify any other specific concerns you might have.

This information from different service providers will help compare them and select the best one.

HirePro is one of the leading campus hiring platforms that is a partner of choice for global firms and top startups.

Features of the HirePro end-to-end campus hiring platform

• We have experience in campus hiring since 2004 and have built expertise in all its aspects.

• We have our finger on the pulse of the changing dynamics of the campus recruitment ecosystem and are well-equipped to adapt to them.

• We cover your end-to-end needs for hiring freshers and entry-level candidates.

• We work closely with our clients to understand their specific needs and provide tailored services.

Takeaway

College campuses have become the “go-to” place for businesses looking to source Gen Z talent. However, campus hiring can be an expensive and time-consuming process. Working with a campus hiring partner not only provides you with quality hires in quick time but also minimises the effort and resources spent. Choose a partner like HirePro to make the process seamless and provide you the best talent for your business!

Resources:

•  https://yello.co/blog/campus-recruitment/

For decades now, campus recruitment has been de rigueur for companies looking to recruit new employees at entry-level positions. The benefits are manifold. For one, you have ready access to a large talent pool. Fresh graduates are eager to learn and highly motivated to perform well in their new roles. Research shows that retention rates from campus recruitment drives are also relatively high.

So what is the downside? Talk to any campus recruitment team about the process and you will realise that campus hiring is no walk in the park. It is not as simple as just going to a college and selecting a candidate.  For recruitment teams covering campuses across different geographic locations, the exercise involves time-heavy processes, expenses on logistics, and plain exhaustion. There is no guide book for this exercise and teams learn to cope with time and experience.

Identifying the challenges of campus hiring and devising the best practices to counter them can help minimise pain points and importantly, enable you to drive up onboarding rates. Let us look at some typical challenges of campus recruitment that companies face and how to overcome them.

Targeting preselected institutes hinders talent acquisition

For most companies, the standard practice is to have a longstanding tie up with selected universities/colleges. While this is convenient, it deters you from exploring a wider range of talent. Online recruitment can help you avoid the logistical hardships of visiting multiple campuses. Embrace it to your advantage, to reach out to institutes you have not tapped so far. Reach aspirants who are not from the top ranked colleges or gain access to fresh talent from premier institutions.

High volume of candidates deters efficiency

Entry-level hiring is typically about screening hundreds of candidates — a physically and mentally tiring process for interviewers that can impede their capabilities. One way out is to embrace AI-enabled recruitment platforms that can handle candidate assessments and interviews at scale with ease and speed. This empowers quicker and better decision-making by hiring managers. Tech tools like AI-based chatbots can, for example,  be used to handle routine enquiries from applicants and free up your HR team,  allowing them to enhance candidate experience.

Relying on resumes hampers good decision-making

Campus recruitment teams typically get insufficient time to thoroughly review the hundreds of resumes they receive. Also, the traditional resume is not necessarily the most dependable tool. Structured one-way video interviews complemented by written resumes provide more nuanced inputs to interviewers. Video interviews can also put at ease anxious young candidates who may under-perform during in-person interviews. 

Importantly, rapid advancement in digitisation has altered the skills needed for work today; from focusing on qualifications, organisations now assess aptitudes like problem-solving, logical thinking and good communication. Proctored online assessments, conducted on state-of-the-art recruitment platforms, help hiring teams in many ways, from avoiding logistical nightmares to dealing with issues like cheating and impersonation.

High-quality talent does not relate to outdated practices

Millennials and Gen-Z candidates who have grown up in the digital era typically do not relate to older recruitment initiatives. For this tech-savvy generation, in-person applications are positively archaic!

Companies must meet candidates on their own turf, i.e., the digital space. Companies that add a smart online component to their campus recruitment, such as a dedicated landing page with company culture and values for registration, stand to gain more dividends by attracting students.

A weak employer brand impacts hiring

During campus hiring, small and medium-sized companies, however well-managed and profitably run, are often unable to attract talented candidates due to low brand visibility.

Before embarking on a campus recruitment drive, your employer branding strategy should be to project your company values, work culture, and accomplishments. Some tips:

• Rope in senior managers as part of your interview teams to engage with students. This creates a positive impact and allows candidates a glimpse of your company’s work culture.
• To engage today’s digitally savvy candidates, think up creative online pre-placement programmes like talks, hackathons, and case-study contests.
• Short videos on popular social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube, featuring employee testimonials or your CSR programs also help build your employer brand.

A combination of hiring strategies specifically designed for campus hiring such as proctored assessments and long-term initiatives like developing a strong employer brand are the foundational elements of successful campus hiring today. Besides fulfilling current employment needs, a good campus hiring strategy enables companies to build a positive presence with student communities, thereby developing a talent pipeline to meet future hiring requirements.

HirePro’s end-to-end campus recruiting platform, with over two decades of experience, is a partner of choice for MNCs and top startups alike.

References:

• https://www.linkedin.com
• https://hrshelf.com
• https://www.hrspot.co.in
• https://www.symplicity.com

Recruitment is much more than search, screen, and hire. There are processes that get executed even before an opportunity is announced and after a candidate is hired. End-to-end recruitment describes the full cycle of recruitment, in its 360-degree view. It is also referred to as full lifecycle recruiting or 360-degree recruitment.

Stages of recruitment

The end-to-end recruitment process lasts from the time an organisation recognises the need for new employees until the onboarding process is complete.

The steps of the full life cycle include:

1. Requirement analysis: This is the step when the role is identified and the candidate profile is outlined in terms of qualification, experience and desirable personality traits. The job description is also generated along with the preferred working model, whether in-office, remote, hybrid or flexible. The work culture and company values are also included.
2. Sourcing: The job description is shared in relevant channels to begin the candidate sourcing process. This could be internal or external or both, depending on the role. Employee referrals are usually a reliable way to source candidates. External sourcing naturally widens the talent pool. Statistics show that 87% of candidates – active and passive –  in online job portals are open to new opportunities and about 56% seek opportunities through social media.
3. Screening: One of the most important processes, screening can be manual or automated. Manual processes are time-consuming and prone to errors and biases, especially when the volumes are huge. Automated screening tests use artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tests that ensure higher accuracy and speed. Technical skills, behavioural traits, candidate performance and job changing tendencies can all be assessed.
4. Selection: This involves the interview stage when most decisions are made. Interviews may be face-to-face or virtual. Video interviews, live or pre-recorded, are convenient for both sides and are becoming quite popular. Background checks are implemented at this stage.
5. Hiring: The job offer is now made and details may be negotiated on. It is important to outline every detail clearly at this stage. It is a delicate step and should be handled with care so that the desired candidate agrees to come onboard.
6. Onboarding: If onboarding is not handled sensitively, candidates may leave. They must be made to feel welcome, provided with an orientation and training segment if required and overall, made to feel inspired to perform at their best level.

Why do you need an in-depth insight?

An in-depth insight helps the recruitment team understand the complete process well and that helps widen the team’s perspective of the process. This improved transparency in turn helps keep the process fair. A well-informed team can guide the candidates well too.

Awareness about the responsibilities and responses expected from each stage of the recruitment cycle helps design a result-oriented hiring process that is smart and efficient. In-depth knowledge also helps team members better understand the possible hiccups along the way and stay prepared with solutions. Candidates feel engaged and the process attracts top talents. The turnover rate is brought down too. The process can be used to hire every employee, not just a select few.

The absence of an in-depth insight

So what can go wrong if the team is not well-versed in the end-to-end recruitment cycle?

• A messy recruitment process: The absence of a clear understanding of the recruitment life cycle increases the chances of misdirection, confusion, and possibly unfairness. Candidates cannot be given clear guidelines about next steps, especially if the recruitment process is long, and that can make candidates feel stranded. Skilled candidates may even walk away from a recruitment cycle midway.
• Brand distrust: A poor candidate experience does not bode well for the business. A lack of transparency can quickly generate misinformation and rumours, which not only mean missing out on top talents, but also increased brand distrust.
• Lack of candidate engagement: Visibility is key and in its absence, candidates do not feel engaged. Candidate engagement is a powerful tool in the modern recruitment landscape. Attracting and retaining top talent needs a planned approach. They need to feel engaged from the beginning of the cycle or some other team will grab their attention. Unless the recruitment team is clear about its goals, it cannot guide or engage with candidates well.
• No constructive feedback: Candidates who do not feel motivated during the recruitment process hesitate to share any feedback. A lack of feedback from candidates is a missed opportunity to improve the hiring process, and that can make the process stagnate.

Automation enhances the end-to-end recruitment process

Using well-developed automation tools can enhance the efficiency of the recruitment process. Other than using AI and Machine Language (ML) algorithms during the screening process, workflows can be automated, and organisations can set selection processes to be based on data-driven insights, free of biases.

Continued association

Modern recruitment includes continued engagement with the top talents who were not selected but showed potential for future roles. Progressive organisations try to keep the sourcing windows alive through well planned strategies.

HirePro’s Campus Hiring Workflow is an example of a well-tested end-to-end recruitment platform in its true essence. It offers a specialised and efficient platform that enables completely remote college hiring. AI-powered automated workflows deliver insightful and accurate results to recruiters, and candidates enjoy a seamless hiring experience.

Write to us at sales@hirepro.in for a demo.

Sources:

1. https://x0pa.com
2. https://www.linkedin.com

Introduction

The axiom “catch them young” comes to mind when discussing campus hiring. Yet, attracting Gen Z is not as easy as quoting the phrase. They are digital-natives, socially conscious, independent, and adept at having their way. Therefore, while traditional recruiting methods such as campus career fairs, assessments, and interviews still hold value, they are no longer sufficient.

How to resonate with Gen Z

New and improved tactics need to augment traditional recruitment methods to attract top talent. We suggest implementing these eight tried-and-tested strategies for successful campus recruitment:

1. Establish hiring goals: The first step is to identify the department(s) in your business that need fresh talent. Is it the Human Resources (HR), Information Technology (IT), or Finance and Accounting team? Which specific skill sets and what level of knowledge are you looking for in these budding professionals?
2. Shortlist campuses: With a clear understanding of your hiring objectives, the path forward becomes much clearer. You can identify the academic disciplines that align with your needs and the schools that offer these specific courses so as to target the most suitable candidates.
3. Build campus connections: There are endless possibilities to make your presence known: from hosting webinars, seminars, hackathons and workshops, to sponsoring events and offering internships. You can even engage with potential candidates through the vast landscape of social media. The key is to open up channels of communication and forge a connection with the student population.
4. Generate visibility: Brand building is an ongoing quest. Out-of-sight is most certainly out-of-mind. Harness the power of social media and job portals to stay in the spotlight.

Employ visually engaging infographics and immersive videos (with the help of augmented reality and virtual reality) to keep things fresh. You could also announce job openings in innovative ways to ensure that you stay top of mind for fresh talent.

5. Streamline the hiring process: The Gen Z crew is a discerning bunch, armed with a plethora of choices and used to conveniences. It is up to you to ensure that their hiring experience is seamless.

This translates to leveraging technology for creating mobile-friendly career landing pages and embracing virtual hiring platforms that offer advanced features such as automated workflows, online assessments, and video interviews.

6. Reduce hiring bias: When it comes to attracting Gen Z, transparency and objectivity are the name of the game. Personal biases in the hiring process simply won’t fly with this generation. So, companies must embrace the latest tools and techniques such as AI-assisted and blind hiring to create a level playing field.
7. Embrace diversity hiring: The modern generation firmly believes in equal opportunities for all, regardless of gender, race, or colour — after all, skills and talents know no boundaries. Companies that champion inclusivity and diversity are their heroes, and they’re watching closely for evidence of DEI initiatives. By giving sincere weightage to these efforts, you are sure to catch their eye.
8. Track metrics: Are your campus recruitment efforts yielding the desired results? Keep tabs on metrics such as the number of hires by university, the number of hires by channel, offer-to-acceptance ratios, and engagement durations for each hire. By evaluating them, you can pinpoint areas for improvement and revisit your strategies.

It is time to welcome Gen Z into the workforce. They are unlike what Gen Y or even millennials were, speaking their minds, demanding things, and expecting to receive them.

Are you ready to rise to the occasion and attract the brightest and best of fresh talent?

Ref: 

• https://assessment.aon.com
• https://microstartups.org
• https://www.conveyiq.com
• https://www.freshworks.com
• https://tpe.vtm.mybluehostin.me/resources
• https://www.recruitingnewsnetwork.com
• https://www.testgorilla.com

In the Indian context, there is great emphasis on choosing the right colleges and institutions. One of the prime parameters that educational institutions get evaluated on is their placement record. The placement percentage and the average salary package play a significant role in determining the choice of educational institution. Along with other factors such as infrastructure and quality of education, these parameters add value to the ranking and credibility of the institution.

In the post-pandemic world, graduating Gen Z students are showing a marked shift in their career choices. While some are braving it to go the start-up way, others are becoming very selective about picking their employer. Knowledge is power, and they have every piece of information they need at their fingertips. Organisations must understand these changing attitudes and focus on specific outreach programs that appeal to this crowd.

Not surprisingly, it all boils down to employer branding, which goes much beyond a one-time placement activity on campus. Even before you step into the campus, there is already a perception of your employer brand in the minds of students. If it is good, it becomes easy for you to step in and build on it. If not, you might have to start from scratch to gain a foothold on their list.

Indeed, employer branding plays an all-pervasive role in the choice of students wanting to associate with your brand in any way. So, what factors affect the perception of employer branding on campus? A study on the topic, ‘Factors Influencing the Employer Brand Perception of Campus Recruits: An empirical evidence from India’, published on the Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University site, presents some interesting findings. It says social media presence is a huge influencing factor in employer branding campus perceptions. And social media presence does not just mean your posts on social media channels. It covers the entire spectrum of your digital presence – an up-to-date website, implementing digital recruitment strategies such as online assessments, your CSR activities, and their societal impact, etc.

Let us explore what you can do to build your employer branding for effective campus hiring. These strategies are meant not just for this season but for the long term, considering the expectations of Gen Alpha are similar to Gen Z. Here are four ways you can build your campus employer brand.

1. Plan activities throughout the year

A recent news article about a prestigious business school’s successful Class of 23 placement season mentioned how they ensure round-the-year engagement with potential recruiters. Are you one of those employers who believe it pays to do so? If not, it might be time you changed your campus recruitment strategy towards engaging with students throughout the year.

Employer branding is an impression built in the students’ minds based on many factors. It does not happen in a day or a week. Plan various events across the year, such as webinars, hackathons, internships, industry talks, and even office visits to engage with a wide section of students. Plan to share information about your office culture, CSR activities, vision, mission, etc., with them through these activities. Pre-placement engagement is the most crucial time to build an employer brand. To help you in this endeavour, you could find and engage some campus brand ambassadors to front-end your brand. The key is to remain visible throughout the year and not only during the placement season.

2. Create a positive and authentic online presence

An authentic, positive, and powerful online presence is intricately linked with your business culture and CSR activities. You must understand what social causes students identify with and focus your CSR activities on those causes. Create positive stories on social media about the societal impact you are making with your CSR activities. Plan for engaging social media campaigns like quizzes, themed competitions, and more, so it adds to a positive employer brand perception.

You must also pay special attention to your careers page and ensure it reflects your company’s authentic and diverse culture, with growth stories and more. Little things make a deep impression! Hence, be sensitive about the language used in your social media posts, job postings, etc. Remember, social media is a double-edged sword. A single post that sends the wrong message can take years to live down. All the hard work you have put in for years to build the employer brand will come to nought.

Fine-tune your HR policies to incorporate flexible-working hours, remote/hybrid work options, encourage learning and development through skill building, etc. Post positive employee stories that mention how these policies supported people’s growth through a work-life balance. You could also find some alumni to create and share videos of their experience.

3. Embrace digitisation in end-to-end campus hiring

Online assessments are a big plus for creating positive employer brand perceptions, says the study we quoted above. Digitise your campus recruitment end-to-end to gain benefits at every stage. AI-powered platforms can speed up the filtering, scheduling, etc., to remove lags from your hiring process. Proctored online assessments can help evaluate candidates across many competencies, at scale. The automation, speed, accuracy, and objectivity gained through digitisation, can also help create a strong impression of your employer brand.

However, be aware that at the entry level, up to 30-50% of candidates cheat in online assessments. To ensure your online assessments are fraud-proof, opt for the robust HirePro end-to-end campus hiring platform with advanced proctoring capabilities to detect malpractices.

Use digitisation to elevate candidate experiences. Explore recruitment gamification for added benefits and also pique their interest. Keep engaging with students even after rolling out the offer, as this is a crucial aspect of employer brand perception. Finally, ensure that you make onboarding memorable, as it is the beginning of their professional journey, and it matters. For all you know, many years later, these people could be your sterling brand ambassadors who will tell tales to an incoming batch.

4. Maintain a human touch

While digitisation is essential, it is equally important not to compromise on the special connect of the human touch. Encourage your team members to visit the campus periodically and personally engage with students whenever possible. Even people at the leadership level can pay odd visits to build confidence in your employer branding. Bonding over activities can become your mantra to humanise an otherwise digitised hiring activity. This aspect can take your employer brand up by a few notches.

You could also arrange for aspirants who excelled in some activities to get to spend a day at your office campus. Plan this day such that these students go back with stories to tell their friends on campus, adding to your brand value as an employer.

These are four strategies to help build your employer brand on campus effectively. However, you must remember that it is a highly digitised world where you must walk the talk. Your leaders participating in events within or outside the campus must reflect the beliefs and culture you have showcased on the campus.

All the points mentioned so far make a strong case why campus recruitment is a different ball game that needs a different approach and a focussed team. Think of campus recruitment as an investment for the future and not a sales and hiring activity. These fresh minds are the harbingers of change in your organisation, bringing new perspectives that can spur innovations. There is no scarcity of opportunities for the talented. The rise of the start-up culture and growth projections of the gig economy in India may prove to be a significant challenge in attracting good talent on board the corporate bandwagon.

What works well in such a scenario is presenting the big picture of being part of an organisation that has a vision and takes its people along to realise it. The students should feel the urge to be a part of your organisation, to learn, contribute, and grow because they believe in your story. They should be able to see their story shaping up, linked to yours. That is the true success of your employer branding on campus.

Resources:

• www.linkedin.com
• www.evalground.com
• www.peoplematters.in
• https://amrita.edu
• www.indiaeducationdiary.in

The recruitment process has undergone a sea of change in the past couple of years. Organisations are competing to woo the best talent in a market where there is a dearth of quality talent.

The needs of candidates have changed. Candidates today are looking at factors beyond the salary and perks. They choose the organisation they want to work with based on the experience it offers. The first interaction of a candidate with the organisation is the recruitment process and they will join only if they are happy with their initial interaction with the company. Hence, the focus of recruiters has shifted to providing a great candidate experience. Data shows that “a positive candidate experience makes a candidate 38% more likely to accept a job offer from a company.”

One of the most effective ways to enhance candidate experience is by automating talent acquisition. Bots perform several tasks like application tracking, onboarding, etc., seamlessly. Automation in talent acquisition increases the speed of the hiring process and enhances accuracy. A faster and error-free hiring process offers a great candidate experience.

How to automate the recruitment process?

In legacy systems, recruiters have to read through applications, filter them, schedule meetings, engage with job-related platforms, write job descriptions, and more.
Recruitment automation platforms like HirePro automate manual workflows and make the recruitment process seamless.
Automation technology performs recruitment-related tasks like candidate sourcing, communication, scheduling, assessments, etc., and relieves the HR team from low-impact time-consuming tasks.
Automation speeds up the front end of the hiring process by bringing forth the best candidates, conducting skill tests, auto-scheduling interviews, and more. This enables recruiters to fill up the vacancies faster.

AI-based software scours the database and offers you a list of pre-qualified candidates based on the experience and skill sets you have specified.
It collects and analyses data and offers a comprehensive overview of your hiring process. This data also provides you insights into the lacunae in your existing process.
Recruiting software streamlines communication by ensuring that emails and other communication are sent to the candidates in a timely manner.
Recruiters can spend more time on personal interactions with the candidates and pursue candidates who are the best fit for the company and the role.

How recruiting automation enhances candidate experience?

Recruiting automation enhances candidate experience in the following ways:

Simplifies form filling
Data reveals that 60% of candidates have abandoned a job application because of its length and complexity. Automation software simplifies the process so that candidates are more inclined towards completing the process.

Faster process
Delays in different stages of the recruitment process have a negative impact on the candidate. Automation speeds up several repetitive processes and consequently speeds up the recruitment cycle.

Effective communication
Automation software can manage large volumes of emails and other forms of communication. It ensures regular communication with the candidate and keeps the candidate updated through different stages of the recruitment cycle. Automation can also provide feedback to candidates who have not made it.
Clear communication helps build trust and offers a great candidate experience.

Convenience
Recruitment software includes features that facilitate conducting skill tests, interviews, etc., virtually. Candidates can take up tests/ interviews from a location of their choice.

Personal attention
Automation frees up recruiters from mechanical tasks so that they can focus on more “human” tasks like personal interactions with candidates. Personal interactions with recruiters enhance the candidate experience. They reflect a positive image of the company as an organisation that cares for its people.

Conclusion
While many fear that automation will replace recruiters, this is far from reality. In fact, recruiting software assists recruiters in better outcomes. Recruiting automation improves the candidate experience in more ways than one. HirePro is one of the leading hiring platforms that automate the end-to-end hiring process giving you more quality time with candidates.

Resources: (https://standout-cv.com/candidate-experience-statistics).

According to a Future Market Insights report, the market size of global recruitment automation software will likely touch $660 million by the end of 2032. This report indicates labour shortage and inefficient recruitment hampering growth goals as the significant challenges that organisations will face. Recruitment automation is helping enterprises counter these challenges while gaining benefits such as cost-effectiveness and improving hiring quality through better decisions backed by analytics.
Recruitment is a vital function, tasked with filling the talent gaps with the right people at the right time at the least cost. Not surprisingly, an ET HR World South-East Asia article mentions automation in recruitment as one of the top five hiring trends in 2023.
Let us explore the key drivers of this trend.

Improved hiring efficiency

You can automate your end-to-end hiring process with credible hiring platforms. Whether screening profiles or scheduling and conducting assessments and interviews, recruitment automation can boost your hiring efficiency. It streamlines your processes to reduce hiring time and cost through better communication.
Also, candidate pool tracking becomes easier through automation to approach suitable candidates, if required, at a later stage. You can elevate your virtual onboarding experiences through automated learning management programs for induction training, auto-assigning buddies to new hires, etc.

Catering to Gen Z preferences

According to an article published by the World Economic Forum annual meeting in May 2022, Gen Z constitutes 27% of the workforce in Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.
Many studies indicate a keen Gen Z preference for digital recruitment. One study from Bullhorn found that three-quarters of Gen Z candidates drop out during hiring due to poor processes. The Future Markets Insights report also mentions the Gen Z influence on recruitment automation software. It indicates that 82% of respondents in a survey wanted to complete the recruitment process within two weeks.

Therefore, you must automate your hiring processes to attract Gen Z – the future of the workforce. You can even explore recruitment gamification to elevate candidate experiences. Also, Gen Z is big on DEI and wants organisations to walk the talk on creating inclusive workplaces. AI eliminates biases in the recruitment process to ensure only competency matters in selection.

Improves recruiter productivity and focus

A recent McKinsey article titled ‘What is the future of work’ mentions increased technology adoption to make better decisions as a vital point to strengthen organisational performance in a hybrid world. The Chief Human Resource Officers (CHROs) across US and Europe expect HR elevation through automation. It would help them refocus their time on core HR tasks, such as advising top management.
Complemented by automation, recruiters find the right people in less time from a wider pool at a lesser cost, improving their job satisfaction and productivity. They can spend more time on employee engagement activities to enhance employee retention.

Convenience to candidates and hiring managers

Automation brings convenience to all stakeholders. While candidates get timely responses, hiring managers can easily slot their availability. The system schedules interviews by matching the slots to candidate availability. This approach hastens the process by eliminating lag and reduces drop-out rates.

Cost and time benefits

Automation speeds up hiring with improved quality outcomes, directly impacting a crucial hiring KPI, the cost-per-hire, tracked diligently by most organisations. Automation helps organisations achieve operational efficiency by reducing cost and time to increase productivity and keep the cost-per-hire within reasonable industry benchmarks.

Quality of hire

Remote hiring does have a few challenges, a significant one being candidate malpractices. A recent HirePro study found:

• 30-50% of entry-level candidates cheat in online assessments and interviews
• At the lateral level, it was between 10-25%
• Without proctoring, cheating grew by 80 to 100%

Credible platforms with advanced proctoring capabilities can fraud-proof your recruitment automation to assure the integrity and quality of the hire. Customised job-specific tests help you find the best-suited people for a role, as AI can analyse various aspects of candidate responses to enable better hiring decisions.

Employer brand and candidate experiences

Digitisation is a great way to establish a credible employer brand through elevated candidate experiences. Also, chatbots can guide candidates toward the right roles suiting their profiles, increasing chances of selection. When candidates realise that your organisation values their time, it enhances brand value. They may even share their positive experiences on social media, helping you attract more candidates.
While the benefits are many, automation should not replace humans in hiring. Your HR policies must apply due consideration to verify the selection. Also, recruitment automation must ensure ethical AI usage to maintain objectivity and address potential concerns about systemic biases in AI models. Creating strong policies to bridge the limitations of automation and adding a much-needed human touch balances the hiring process.

References:

• www.peoplematters.in
• www.peoplematters.in
• www.communicationmgmt.usc.edu
• www.analyticsinsight.net
• www.linkedin.com
• www.futuremarketinsights.com
• www.mckinsey.com
• www.hrsea.economictimes.indiatimes.com
• www.businesswire.com
• www.weforum.org
• https://tpe.vtm.mybluehostin.me/resources/reports/a-report-on-fraudulent-practices-by-candidates-during-job-assessments-in-india

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is perhaps one of the most talked about subjects in the present talent market. Unfortunately media focus largely targets jobs that may be eliminated by AI and not on how AI can add value to an organisation. It is time to focus on AI’s potential to create new openings and help the human workforce in almost every industry.

The business climate today rewards organisations that can shift gears quickly and respond to changing business demands and disruptions, whether it is about manpower or products or any other unforeseen emergency. AI can make that happen and it is already playing a significant role in helping HR professionals, talent managers, and recruiters identify and manage the best people for their organisations.

What is talent mobility?

Talent mobility is the movement of employees within an organisation from one position to another. It is an efficient and cost-effective technique used for talent deployment and maximising potential. By leveraging and mobilising existing talent into new roles, organisations can have a workforce that is agile and flexible. It becomes easier to quickly meet changing business environments and market needs, and future-proof the workforce. Mobility enables employees to evolve and grow within an organisation and for the organisation to quickly move key skills across the business, and when needed, across geographical borders too.
Recent upheavals in the business landscape has made it clear that organisations cannot thrive in a shareholder-centric environment alone; they must work to benefit all the stakeholders, including employees. When a purpose-driven employee experience is created, organisations benefit in many tangible as well as intangible ways, such as positive reviews, loyalty, and strong employer advocacy. A robust talent mobility strategy is a critical way to create an inspiring experience for employees. They get an opportunity to explore and polish other areas of specialisation, sharpen skills, and widen their knowledge.

Challenges to talent mobility

Managers are often reluctant to let go of their top performers to other departments in the organisation. They are naturally apprehensive about the position and strength of their department when experienced members have to be let go and new members have to be trained and fitted in. However, it is in the best interest of the department to let the changes happen, preventing employee dissatisfaction and stagnation. In fact, certain progressive organisations have rules that allow employees to request for a department change within the organisation every few years.
The reluctance to change is often on both sides. Managers who have to accept new members in their department from within the organisation often worry about how the new members will fit in with the existing group. This is especially true in large organisations where managers may not know every member all that well.
On the other hand, there are many employees who are so comfortable in their existing positions that they do not want to move out of their comfort zones, or give up their positions of expertise gathered over years. Studies show that only about 30% of employees are eager to move to other departments. Moving to another department often means learning new skills besides having to fit into a new  group. Managers who are in favour of talent mobility have to overcome this challenge by working with the employees and showing them how a move would benefit their long-term career plans.

Benefits of using AI in talent mobility

1. AI streamlines mobility tasks and ensures compliance

By handling administrative and routine tasks that touch talent mobility, AI is already making inroads into talent mobility. True, the full benefits of AI are still being explored and tested, but AI is quite effective at managing tasks in areas such as immigration and taxes, both of which require compliance with regulations of the land.
Given the changing immigration laws in various countries, talent mobility specialists depend on AI to stay up to date with information about work authorisation, immigration, and all regulatory compliance issues. Such information helps organisations reduce the effort needed to comply with rules.
Manpower information is also critical during geopolitical, health, or environmental emergencies when employees may have to be evacuated from crisis locations.

2. AI helps gather employee insights

AI brings visibility across teams. Talent mobility professionals are beginning to use AI to sift through internal and external data to find the right candidates for different roles. As almost every candidate today would have a digital footprint that covers skills, potential, experiences, and know-how, AI has already been used to help with external recruitment. Now it is being integrated with internal platforms to build employee profiles and find the right candidates for roles across locations. Training programmes can also be better designed by knowing the strengths of employees and their potential for future roles. This helps keep maintain a high quality of hires.
Gathering enough employee insights enables organisations to know which roles are of least interest to an employee and that can help in planning talent succession. There will be other employees who would be interested in the same role and by having that knowledge, talent mobility professionals can move employees across the organisation.

3. AI helps ensure efficient resource allocation

With AI, large organisations can easily determine locations where certain skills are more concentrated than others, and this information can help them make data-backed decisions about opening new work sites. It can also help organisations identify locations that require more manpower or specific skills. Skill gaps can easily be identified and necessary training programmes can be organised to fill them. AI can also help organisations identify emerging roles and develop actionable plans to help employees adapt to them. These internal talent pipelines help remove barriers between teams, and increase transparency and camaraderie.

4. AI can boost retention

The availability of sufficient data enables AI to quickly identify attrition problems and managers can then plan better to boost employee retention. Even way back in 2018, a Gartner report stated that 40% of employees leaving their jobs did it because they felt there was no scope for career development. Talent mobility is a powerful technique of retaining valuable employees. A LinkedIn global report indicated that 41% of employees are likely to stay in one organisation when it regularly hires from within the existing talents.

5. AI prevents recruiter burnout

Recruitment is a time consuming process that can drain recruiters if processes are not streamlined by using effective tech tools. Recruiters can perform better when AI makes their access to important information easier and they are not constantly sifting through piles of data.

The future of talent mobility with AI

Certain organisations are already using augmented reality (AR) platforms to take employees on virtual office tours of potential work locations. In the coming years, talent mobility specialists are expected to find more and more innovative uses of AI to improve and personalise their services.
AI’s potential to help organisations customise the employee experience is being recognised and perhaps it is time to focus on that facet too instead of only the threats AI seemingly extends. For example, discussions about new work locations that are not suitable for specific employees can be avoided completely by mobility managers when they have access to information about the employee’s family responsibilities or other areas of interest.

In the future, organisations are very likely to face challenges while trying to find the best people for new opportunities. AI will not only help talent managers find and move employees to new locations if needed, but also to set up new operations in resource-rich locations. With AI in tow, employees too will be provided with more personalised experiences every step of the way. Employees are likely to be more motivated and aligned with employer expectations when they perceive the effort put in by the employer to make them comfortable. It is sure to be a win-win situation for both employers and employees.

AI, yes or no?

Finally, the decision about whether an organisation should implement AI in its talent management operations or not, and if yes, how intricately, can be decided by the organisation’s business goals, industry, workload and technological prowess, among other factors. It should make business sense to implement AI and not be done to merge with the herd.
The AI-powered HirePro platform offers complete remote recruitment solutions. It can be used by organisations for talent mobility too. From sourcing, screening, interviews, to hiring and onboarding, all of it can be taken care of remotely. It should work especially well for large organisations that have worksites distributed globally.
Write to us at sales@hirepro.in for a demo.

Sources:

1. www.recruiter.com
2. www.hrexaminer.com
3. www.forbes.com
4. www.techfunnel.com
5. www.peoplefluent.com
6. www.peoplefluent.com
7. www.gartner.com
8. www.weforum.org
9. www.hrsea.economictimes.indiatimes.com

The need for automating recruitment

Recruiting top talent is crucial for maintaining high levels of productivity and innovation within a company. As the job market becomes increasingly competitive, companies need to be able to attract them and quickly fill open positions.
However, the top talents entering today’s job market belong to the tech-savvy Generation Z. They have grown up with technology, and so, to attract them, you need to match their expectations of convenience, speed, and personalisation in their job search process.
Also, recruitment is demanding. It consumes time and is costly, particularly when done manually.
Recruiting automation comes as a relief and has emerged as a game-changer, transforming the way companies hire talent. With the increasing competition for top talent, recruiters are turning to automation to upscale their recruitment efforts.

Benefits of recruitment automation

Diamonds in the rough are waiting to be found, and will propel your company to new heights. What is required is to empower recruiters to find them. Free up their time, and allow them to build relationships and sell the company’s unique value proposition to potential candidates. Let automation tools take care of other mundane, time-consuming tasks. They are very capable of mass processing at high speeds with remarkable accuracy. Here are some ways recruitment automation tools can benefit you:

Effective use of time, cost and human resources: A recruiter’s to-do list is long: resume parsing, candidate communication, interview scheduling, job advertising, documentation, etc. Recruitment automation relieves recruiters of these tedious activities, allowing them to spend more time with applicants and on meaningful responsibilities.

Enhance productivity: There are thousands of job applicants and not much time. Without recruitment automation tools, hiring would have taken many more hands and hours. Automation tools operate with speed and accuracy, making the hiring process more streamlined and productive.

Increase diversity: Talent knows no colour, race, gender, or location. Unconscious bias sometimes sneaks in on human assessments. Thankfully, automated solutions can help eliminate any potential prejudice. By screening candidates unbiasedly, recruitment automation tools help build a more diverse talent pipeline.

Improve quality of hire: With  applications pouring in on various job portals, sourcing suitable ones from among those is best left to automation. A positive beginning sets a positive tone for the hiring journey for candidates as well. Even at subsequent recruitment stages, automation tools can help filter the most qualified candidates much faster and with a higher skill-role match than humans can. With quality candidates passing down the recruitment funnel, the quality of hire naturally improves.

Enhance candidate experience: An employer’s brand, a smooth hiring process, effective communication, prompt responses, and transparency enhance the candidate experience. In a candidate-centric market, this is a key factor in hiring success.

Enhanced employer brand: Digitally savvy and spoilt for choice, this generation is hooked to mobile phones and social media, constantly judging companies and looking out for the brand that vibes with them.Your social media campaigns, work culture, hiring process smoothness, promptness of communication, etc., are all up for judgement. You want to leave no stone unturned in building a strong brand image.

What can be automated

Recruiting is a complex process with many moving parts. To ensure a successful outcome, all components of the recruitment machine need to work efficiently. Here are the tasks of the hiring process that can be automated to boost efficiency and improve your overall recruitment results.

Programmatic job advertising: To meet hiring goals, recruiters face tight budgets and time constraints. They keep looking for quality candidates despite a growing flood of hurdles at practically every level of the hiring process.
Technology can help them find excellent candidates from the start.
Programmatic job (or recruitment) advertising targets the most qualified job seekers by placing the most relevant job ads on appropriate channels at the right time and at the right price.
The market has witnessed a steady rise in recent years and is expected to grow to a $7.62 billion industry by 2028 at an annual CAGR of about 31%.

Candidate sourcing:  Who would you rather hire? The one who says, ‘I need this job’, or, ‘I want your association’? Know this: the former’s choice is fear-driven, while the latter’s is value-based.
People who choose your organisation for the right reasons stay longer. However, they are not actively seeking a job, and make the majority of candidates (about 64%). The upside is that you do not have to face competition from others, but the challenge is connecting and engaging with such candidates.
Why is networking with passive candidates important? Because (a) you want to be ready with the right candidate when the next position opens up, and (b) you do not want to trade talent quality for timelines. The process of identifying and connecting with passive candidates is called candidate sourcing and is a precursor to hiring.
AI-powered automated solutions are a boon to candidate sourcing. They match skills to job descriptions, making it easy and fast to identify individuals with the right qualifications and zero-in on the best role-fit. The tool also helps expand and diversify talent pools.

Resume screening: It is crucial to evaluate candidates at each stage of the recruitment cycle and advance the deserving ones to the next stage.
However, huge volumes of resumes make it difficult for hiring managers and recruiters to screen them manually. Automated tools employ keyword-based screening to grade resumes, enabling recruiters to find competent prospects, swiftly.

Candidate assessing: To succeed in a role, many skills must come together, including technical, domain, communications, problem-solving, etc. A résumé alone cannot tell if a candidate is skilled enough for the role. Many applicants look good on résumés. But if you want to know if they can handle the position’s responsibilities, it is imperative to assess them.
Today, AI-driven platforms offer pre-built assessments to test candidates on various competencies: technical, functional, behavioural, aptitude, etc. Additionally, you can customise the assessment to meet your unique needs.

Video interviewing: Interviews serve two purposes: they allow you to determine candidates’ suitability for your firm’s needs & culture and give applicants an opportunity to elaborate on their qualifications and accomplishments.

Today, video interview technology is improving as digital, remote interviews become more popular. The available features extend beyond teleconferencing.
It includes features such as automatic ID verification (to ensure only the qualified candidate who was scheduled is interviewed), interactive interviewing (to allow in-depth discussion on topics ranging from job-related to life experience-related), live coding (to gauge a candidate’s creative side and problem-solving ability), whiteboarding (to assess a candidate’s coding knowledge), screen sharing (to evaluate a candidate’s on-the-fly troubleshooting abilities), and asynchronous interviewing (which allows evaluation of recorded interviews at your convenience).

Virtual onboarding: A successful hire needs to be followed by efficient onboarding. Document collection and verification are essential parts of onboarding. Educating new hires about your organisation’s philosophy, culture, organisational rules, and workings will help them feel at home. Virtual onboarding tools facilitate digitising documentation and training new hires in a remote and hybrid work culture.

Candidate tracking and process workflow: To track a candidate’s journey from sourcing to onboarding, and get a comprehensive view of the recruitment process, the Application Tracking System (ATS) tool helps.
An ATS offers a unified platform for all stakeholders with end-to-end process automation that streamlines hiring. Additionally, its detailed analytics and customised reports provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of the recruitment process, allowing for continuous improvement and better decision-making.

Scheduling: In hiring, planning, coordinating, scheduling, reminding, and approving are all necessary evils. By automating them, recruiters can focus on more meaningful tasks such as candidate assessment and engagement.
Automation also reduces scheduling conflicts and provides candidates with timely updates, greatly improving the candidate experience. Automation in recruitment scheduling streamlines hiring and ensures a more efficient and effective recruitment process.

Communication: Automating recruitment communication enables recruiters to keep candidates informed and engaged throughout the recruitment process. It can trigger emails and text messages to candidates at each phase of the hiring process. This provides regular updates on the application’s status and next steps.
Automated communication notifies candidates immediately, even if they are disqualified from the position. This allows candidates to move on to other opportunities and reduces the likelihood of disengagement or frustration.
Meanwhile, top candidates are encouraged to stay in touch for future opportunities. This not only helps maintain a positive relationship with candidates but also increases the likelihood of them considering the company for future roles.

Embrace automation, soar high
Recruitment automation is a powerful tool. It can help organisations attract and hire top talent, reduce recruitment costs and improve candidate experience.
By implementing automated recruitment processes, companies can focus their resources on the most critical aspects of recruiting, while allowing automation tools to handle the more mundane and time-consuming tasks.
Moreover, recruitment automation enables companies to keep up with the Generation Z tech-savvy job seekers’ expectations.
As the job market evolves, recruitment automation will become increasingly critical for companies that want to remain competitive and attract the best talent. By embracing automation tools, organisations can streamline their recruitment processes, make more informed hiring decisions and ultimately build a more robust and productive workforce.

Ref:

• www.ismartrecruit.com
• www.zapilio.com
• www.bautomate.com
• www.tribepad.com
• www.talentlyft.com
• www.recruiteze.com
• www.rallyrecruitmentmarketing.com
• www.adroitmarketresearch.com
• www.joveo.com
• www.everyonesocial.com