Candidate sourcing is central to successful recruiting. But your recruiters face a multitude of administrative duties that distract them from sourcing candidates, building relationships and hiring the best ones. They’re busy writing job descriptions, posting job ads, entering data, scheduling interviews and conducting background checks — all tasks artificial intelligence (AI) sourcing tools can help with.
Without the latest technology, however, most recruiters spend too much time on administrative work and not enough time on the candidates themselves.
How Artificial Intelligence Sourcing Can Refocus Recruiting
New AI sourcing tools are relieving recruiters of administrative burden, returning their focus to the human work of recruiting — and making candidate sourcing more efficient and effective. Here are a few ways AI is redefining candidate sourcing.
Increasing quality and quantity of candidates
Recruiters and talent acquisition specialists using AI tools improve short-term recruiting while enhancing long-term, strategic recruiting goals. Ultimately, they upgrade candidate and new-hire quality even as application numbers rise.
AI candidate sourcing tools like talent-matching algorithms can pair job seekers with open roles. Candidates are selected based on their skills, experience and education. Algorithms can assess cultural fit, too —scouting qualified job seekers who are poised to thrive in that work environment.
Automated sourcing tools use a combination of AI technologies, like machine learning and natural language processing (NLP), to find candidates who align best with a certain role. These tools can analyze a variety of inputs, including resumes, online profiles and other application materials. They score and rank candidates or other potential talent based on how well they match pre-determined descriptions, skills, etc.
Consider a recruiting team at a manufacturer that implements talent-matching tools to find mid-level engineers. The recruiting team provides the automated sourcing tool with the job description, including the required skills and experience. Let’s say the role requires at least seven years of engineering experience in a manufacturing setting. The tool takes this information and evaluates all applications, finding several candidates whose experience meets or exceeds these requirements.
Of course, these tools can perform more advanced searches. Sophisticated talent-matching tools can search for candidates who exhibit leadership skills, for example. The manufacturer may want to hire a mid-level team member who can be developed for an executive role in the years to come. The tool will look for evidence of leadership potential, such as project management experience or time spent mentoring younger employees.
Recruiters can use these tools to evaluate applicants for an open role. They can also use them to perform proactive talent searches among potential job seekers. These tools can even assess in-house talent and flag employees who may be interested in a promotion or a lateral move.
Additionally, recruiters can use automation to level up their long-term search for talent. AI sourcing tools can develop databases of potential talent from past applicants or online sources like social media and professional networks. These professionals might not be actively hunting for a job, but recruiters can proactively reach out when the AI candidate sourcing software identifies an ideal match.
Improving the Candidate Experience
There are many reasons employers want to provide a positive candidate experience. A speedy hiring process reduces the time and money spent on hiring. And a well-crafted candidate journey familiarizes job seekers with a potential company’s employee value proposition, employer brand and workplace culture.
If a positive candidate experience is so beneficial, why don’t all employers provide it? The answer is simple: It’s challenging. Creating a hiring process that’s fast, engaging and informative is hard work. But thanks to AI sourcing tools, it’s becoming more possible.
AI tools offer numerous ways to create a positive candidate experience. Consider AI’s ability to speed up and personalize candidate communications. AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can answer candidates’ questions at all hours of the day. Employers can program chatbots to tell job seekers about a job role’s responsibilities and benefits, as well as what values the workplace embraces. Some of these chatbots can even perform initial candidate screenings.
Once AI tools are implemented, the candidate journey feels effortless to job seekers. When scheduling interviews, for instance, AI eliminates back-and-forth communication by coordinating schedules between candidates and interviewers, making the process speedy and candidate-friendly.
Job seekers are turned off by emails and texts that read like they’re written for a candidate persona. But with generative AI tools outfitted with NLP, employers can automatically generate personalized communications that reference a candidate’s specific skills, experience and goals.
Additionally, employers can use AI to focus on long-term candidate engagement. Recruiters are utilizing generative AI tools like ChatGPT to create personalized content such as newsletters, job alerts and company updates for potential talent, as well as past employees. This engages talent pools over time, keeping them interested in the organization and informed about potential opportunities.
Freeing Recruiters to Focus on Relationships
As AI sourcing tools identify more candidates and engage more job seekers, they give recruiters an invaluable gift: Time. Many types of AI tools are reducing the heavy administrative workload that has long burdened recruiters, but no tool is doing it as effectively as the AI agent.
AI agents are one of the newer AI tools on the market. They are essentially virtual assistants equipped with AI capabilities — “your robot buddy,” as Bear Claw co-founder and COO Justin Solomon puts it. While AI agents are only just taking over previously manual processes, they’re already accomplishing considerable feats. They’re scheduling meetings, editing files and analyzing data.
For recruiters, AI agents not only handle administrative tasks but also early-stage job-management tasks. They create and post job descriptions, search for talent, and conduct the first rounds of candidate communication.
“That’s a lot of administrative work,” Solomon said. “If you can hand that off to an agent, it’ll save you a ton of time.”
How will recruiters use that time? Early adopters of AI agents are building deeper relationships with hiring managers and candidates. Ultimately, these relationships help recruiters deliver candidates who are better aligned with open roles and more equipped to navigate onboarding and succeed on the job.
Augment Your Recruiters With AI Sourcing Tools
AI is rapidly changing the landscape of recruiting and transforming candidate sourcing. The recruiting profession, once beholden to administrative work, is increasingly becoming a role dedicated to strategy. Nowhere is the change more evident than in candidate sourcing, where AI is identifying and engaging more and better candidates for recruiters to build relationships with.
Early adopters of these tools are already transforming their recruiting from administrative to strategic. As talent professionals refocus on relationships, those who hesitate to adopt AI sourcing tools risk falling behind in the competition for talent.
To learn more about how AI can elevate your candidate sourcing, schedule a demo with Bear Claw’s next-generation recruiting platform. For more of our blog posts from our seasoned recruiters: https://bit.ly/47xNMo6
FAQ:
What specific AI tools or software can be used for candidate sourcing, and how can I choose the right one for my organization? Talent-matching algorithms and automated sourcing tools as effective AI solutions for candidate sourcing. These tools use machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) to match candidates to job roles based on skills, experience, and even cultural fit. When choosing an AI tool, consider its ability to integrate with your current system, the specificity of your industry or role requirements, and the level of customization offered
How can I measure the success of implementing AI sourcing tools? What key performance indicators (KPIs) should I track? Measuring the success of AI candidate sourcing tools can be done by tracking various KPIs. These include the quantity and quality of candidates sourced, the time and cost per hire, the speed and efficiency of the hiring process, and the candidate experience throughout the journey. Comparing these metrics before and after implementing AI tools can demonstrate their impact and value.
What are some benefits of using AI-powered chatbots in the candidate sourcing process? AI-powered chatbots offer numerous advantages. They provide 24/7 responsiveness, instantly answering candidates’ queries and enhancing their experience. Chatbots can be programmed to share job role responsibilities, benefits, and company values. They can also perform initial candidate screenings, assessing basic qualifications and providing a more personalized experience. This frees up recruiters’ time, allowing them to focus on more complex tasks and building relationships with qualified candidates.