Automating job applications with a human touch? This is how!

Recruiting automation, c’est quoi ça?

Recruiting automation is basically the automation of your recruitment processes such as looking for, screening of0, and following up with candidates. Automating applications will streamline your tasks as a recruiter, leaving more time for other aspects like perfecting your communication, the vacancy web page, and vacancy content. Your potential candidate, in turn, will receive a first-class candidate experience as the bumps on the road are gradually smoothed out. 🛣

Popular tools

There are several popular tools you can use to help you automate your applications. For screening your candidates, you can choose between a variety of convenient chatbots: automatic chat channels that can be installed on your website. A chatbot will be able to answer frequently asked questions such as: ‘Do I need previous experience for this position?’ or ‘Where is this position located?’. 💬 An extra advantage to these bots is that you can let them ask your potential candidates questions like: ‘Do you have any experience in this field?’ and ‘How motivated are you?’. This way, you’ve already automated the first screening. 

A second tool that has recently gained popularity is the video interview. This tool has advantages for both you and the candidate. It’s a win for you because it simplifies your task: you’ll quickly find out whether the candidate is a match for your organisation. It’s a win for the potential candidate because the date and time of the interview are a lot more flexible. Morning or afternoon? In the kitchen or the living room? 🛋 The candidate can choose when and where they are most comfortable. And that is another advantage: the candidate does not need to travel to the employer. This is ideal for candidates who are working a full-time job, including the harder-to-get passive candidates.

These tools are already growing in popularity, and experiments are underway to develop automatic screening of CVs in the future. But we have yet to find artificial intelligence that would be able to do that flawlessly. One thing is certain: automation will only continue to grow and develop! 🤖

The human touch

Automating the application stage may have many advantages, but some recruiters and candidates fear the idea of a complete takeover by bots and machines. If we solely focus on streamlining processes and making them as convenient as possible, we risk losing sight of the human aspect. Are you relying on standard templates for automated emails? This will likely come across as cold and impersonal. Automation should strengthen your processes in aspects of both technology and humanity, not weaken them. Recruiting team members is way too important to leave entirely up to technology. The more stages of the process are automated, the more it will force the recruiter to zoom in on the human aspect. 

Are you using automated emails? Tick the human touch box by addressing everyone by their first name. This is easy to achieve with platforms that specialise in automated emails.

The bottom line is that you, as a recruiter, will have to put more effort into building an authentic dialogue with your potential candidates. Show them that you are happy to personally tell them about your organisation and your vision. And don’t forget, it’s just as important to show that you are interested in listening to them as well. 👂🏼

The perfect balance

The ultimate goal is to find the perfect balance between automation and the human touch. Both aspects are equally necessary and have the potential to support each other; technology can smooth out any ‘obstacles’ to pave the way for your final decision (hiring the right candidate). Tools will undoubtedly help you, but it will always be up to you to make the decision. 💪🏼

Here at sympl, we view online recruiting as a machine, and a machine needs an operator who knows the design like no other and can ‘tell’ whether everything is running as it should. A recruitment operator gets and keeps the recruiting machine running smoothly.