AI can simplify the hiring process – but don’t lose sight of candidate experience

Let’s not kid ourselves – hiring can be time-consuming and admin heavy. There are job ads to put together, hundreds of applications to sift through, candidates to keep updated, interviews to arrange, and a whole host of other things to get done before you can bring your chosen candidate onboard. So it’s little wonder organizations are using automation to remove a lot of that administrative burden. While technology’s helping to simplify the process for hiring managers, is it also making the experience more impersonal for candidates? 

In a room with 22,000 data and AI experts at the Databricks Data and AI Summit last month, a theme that kept coming up was that AI can be really powerful in making us more efficient, but if we want to hire the best talent then we can’t lose sight of what recruitment’s all about – people. 

 The danger of taking the people out of the process 

Many of the candidates we spoke to said that hiring processes are getting longer and more impersonal. With organizations cautious about hiring in a challenging market, every recruitment process now seems to include several rounds of interviews, aptitude tests and presentations which take days to prepare for. And at the end of all that, unsuccessful candidates receive an AI automated rejection with no feedback, making them feel that they’ve wasted their time. 

This isn’t just impersonal and inconsiderate after the amount of effort the candidate has put into the process – it’s also unhelpful. In a competitive job market where it’s really difficult for one candidate to stand out from all the others, every bit of feedback is crucial in helping them refine their job hunt, whether it’s updating their resume or presenting themselves in a slightly different way at interview. 

From the hiring company’s perspective, there’s also employer brand to think of. Even if you don’t bring someone onboard, providing a seamless recruitment process gives them a positive learning experience to help them on their job search. It’s all part of showing that the organization cares about people. That can only be positive when it comes to attracting talent. 

How to improve your candidate experience 

Keep comms human 

Imagine that you’re really interested in working for an organization – and then imagine receiving an automated rejection from an unmonitored mailbox that you can’t reply to. You’ll probably be grateful not to have got the job. In a client led market, businesses need someone dedicated to reaching out to candidates and giving them proper feedback. Using your talent attraction team to manage communications with candidates is crucial to your reputation and candidate experience. It makes candidates feel that they’re a part of the process, that they’re dealing with other human beings who are interested in what they can bring as an individual – not just a list of skills on a resume. 

Minimize the recruitment process 

In reality, the ideal candidate doesn’t exist, so keep the number of interview stages to a minimum. Similarly, you’re not hiring a CEO, so think about how many layers of sign-off are really necessary. Ensure everyone required to sign off the hire is available during the process, or that alternatives are in place if they’re unavailable. There’s nothing more frustrating for a candidate than having a decision on their application delayed because a specific person is away. It makes the organization look disorganized and disinterested. 

Make sure tests are testing, not troublesome 

Chances are, most people applying for the role will be able to do the job, or have the capacity to learn any required skills that they don’t already have. Keep any aptitude tests realistic. This not only reduces the amount of work you need to do in devising and assessing these tests, but also ensures that candidates don’t feel they’re working for you already, but without getting paid.   

Conclusion: candidate experience is all about people  

We’ve commoditized the recruitment process to such a degree that it’s become impersonal. In a time where organizations are using AI to make their lives easier, don’t lose sight of candidate experience. Data might help you identify the right person, but the quality of your interactions is what will bring them on board. Moving quickly and reducing the layers of sign-off will give you more time to form a genuine rapport with the best candidates. 

If you’d like any more advice on providing a great candidate experience, are looking to hire data and AI talent for your team or are a candidate looking for your next role in data and AI, please get in touch with us.