Automated candidate screening: not a fringe benefit
What and why of candidate screening
The candidate screening process is a part of the recruitment cycle that involves evaluating candidates’ qualifications, experience and skills. The purpose of this exercise is to determine whether they are qualified for a particular position.
It is typically carried out in stages through various means, some of which are resume review, phone screening, social media screening, cover letters, trial work assignments, etc.
Why should candidate screening be automated? Today, you can apply for a job with just the click of a button. As good as this sounds, there is also a downside for recruiters. The number of irrelevant applications they receive is significant (nearly 75 percent)1. Separating these from the suitable ones is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. This results in recruiters wasting a lot of time qualifying candidates for the next stage.
Even candidates who fit the role well will have to wait for a long time to be contacted. Employers and applicants stand to lose in such a scenario.
This challenge can be overcome by automating the screening process, which uses Artificial Intelligence (AI). The benefits of automated screening go beyond saving time. Here is a list of the various benefits.
What are the benefits of automated candidate screening?
- Enhances productivity: With automatic screening, candidates can be filtered quickly and with less manual intervention. This reduces the time spent on tedious and banal tasks, allowing the focus to be maintained on more meaningful tasks, especially in the case of volume hiring. As a result, hiring time is reduced and efficiency is increased.
- Improves quality of hire: Automated screening enables recruiters to make informed decisions with a high degree of accuracy by gathering and quantifying data about candidates and applying psychometrics. The task is prone to mistakes if done manually. However, through automation, the quality of hire is greatly increased since only the most qualified individuals are considered.
- Eliminates bias and allows for DEI promotion: Humans have a tendency to judge. Manually selecting applicants is based on assumptions about arbitrary criteria like gender, ethnicity, race, age, etc., whether consciously or otherwise. While manual screening is subject to biases, automating the process increases the likelihood of candidates from a diverse pool advancing to later rounds.
- Organises recruitment workflow: Candidate screening determines how effective the recruiting process is. Mismanagement of this stage has a cascading effect on the hiring cycle’s future operations. Therefore, automating candidate screening is crucial for structuring the hiring workflow in a way that is simple to manage.
- Makes recruitment scalable: Upsizing and shrinking the workforce are inevitable due to market volatility. The challenge is that rehiring when necessary, especially in large volumes, becomes challenging after the workforce is reduced. However, hiring at a large scale is made simpler with the aid of automated screening.
- Facilitates good candidate experience: Automated candidate screening plays a vital role in restoring candidates’ confidence in the selection process. Since candidates now get quicker responses and know that screening is unbiased, it makes for an overall good candidate experience.
Conclusion
“Automation means solving the problem once, then putting the solution on autopilot.”
— Michael Hyatt, author, blogger, speaker
Talent acquisition teams are always seeking methods to improve efficiency, speed up procedures and save time. Automation can reduce some of the pressure to fill open positions on talent teams. With AI-powered automation, difficult operations such as candidate screening have become simpler for recruiters. Both employers and job seekers have had a taste of the advantages of automated screening. There is no doubt that automation is changing the recruiting landscape for the better.
If you’re wanting to automate the candidate screening process, HirePro, an Indian IT solution supplier for all recruiting needs, can help.