HR Recruitment Automation 101

As remote work grows and the talent pool for any given job expands, the burdens on recruiters and hiring managers get heavier with each new role opening.

Recruitment automation keeps you on track no matter how many candidates you’re talking to. With the right HR recruitment automation tools, you can keep an eye on applicants throughout the entire hiring process.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the recruitment automation basics, as well as its benefits for recruiters, candidates, and the entire organization. Then, we’ll dive into what HR recruitment automation can do for you.

⚙️ What is recruitment automation?

Recruitment automation applies technology to the hiring process to help you make faster, better hires.

Recruitment automation tools combine the strongest features from your applicant tracking system (ATS) with those from a customer relationship manager (CRM) — and even artificial intelligence. You can track applicants, post jobs, and even pre-screen candidates. 

HR recruitment automation gives People Ops teams and hiring managers better insights into their candidate pool. By connecting all the stakeholders in the hiring process, information is shared more quickly, leading to faster hires. 

While recruitment automation can do a lot, it’s not a replacement for human recruiting. Rather, recruitment automation enhances and amplifies the work of your recruiting team. 

📝 8 ways to use recruitment automation in hiring

Recruitment automation can take many forms across a variety of tools. Applicant tracking systems or recruitment CRMs may include automation and/or recruitment features. Or, you can invest in specialized recruitment platforms to govern your hiring process from start to finish. 

Here are just some of the many hiring tasks you can automate to save time and make better hires. 

1. Place job ads

When you manually place job ads, you’re limiting your reach to the job boards where you’ve decided to post a role. For a single recruiter, it simply doesn’t make sense to spend a whole day posting a single job on dozens of different job boards. 

Job advertising platforms like Appcast or Wonderkind automate placements and advertising for all your open positions. 

You’ll create a posting and set parameters and budgets for targeting candidates. The platform then automatically places job ads where the most qualified applicants for your requirements can be found.

2. Screen resumes and applications

With AI and automation technology, you can smart-screen resumes as soon as candidates submit their applications. Your ATS may have some basic resume screening capabilities, or you can invest in a more thorough resume screening tool. 

Resume screeners like Freshteam work by parsing text from resumes that you can then filter and search. Automated resume screeners allow you to set rules for sorting candidates based on the position. 

Some candidate screening tools like Ideal use feedback from live recruiters to refine the screening algorithm. With detailed feedback, the screening platform gets smarter and you make hires even faster.

Screening candidates with recruitment automation software often results in faster and more accurate leads for your open positions, but don’t skip the human touch: 19% of employers said resume screeners excluded some qualified applicants.

3. Answer common questions about jobs

Are you getting the same five questions about every job you post? Many recruiters spend hours answering repetitive emails when a simple bit of automation can save tons of time. 

Enter chatbots. In the same way that a customer service chatbot can answer questions about pricing, return policies, and product features, a recruitment chatbot can talk about salary ranges, application requirements, and more. 

Mine your past recruitment data to see what questions you most commonly receive. Then, set up your chatbot with these answers. Review and refine the chatbot regularly to make sure it still meets applicants’ needs. 

Chatbots don’t have to end with recruitment, either. Consider developing an onboarding chatbot to guide new hires through their early days at the company. With Zavvy, you can even build automated messages sent via Slack to bring onboarding to your newest employees.

4. Track applicants

One of the most helpful features of recruitment automation is applicant tracking. You may already have an applicant tracking system, since knowing where your applicants are in the hiring process is paramount to successful recruiting. 

HR recruitment automation enhances your ATS in a few different ways. When candidates complete an action, like submitting a resume or scheduling an interview, you can automatically move them to a new stage. 

Applicant tracking also helps you review past candidates for new roles that may be a better fit. These platforms use AI-powered screening and matching tools to source leads from your existing talent pool. Since they’re already in your recruiting ecosystem, finding qualified applicants this way can speed up hiring even more. 

5. Source candidates from social media

With LinkedIn projected to reach over a billion users by 2025, it’s no wonder you head there first to source candidates for a new opening. But candidates are plentiful on other social media sites too. 

Social recruiting tools help you find candidates from their public profiles. You can aggregate this data to identify potential leads for your open positions. 

You can also automate your social media posts for recruitment with a tool like Hubspot or Hootsuite. Consistency and professionalism go a long way in building your brand’s social media reputation, and social media automation helps you build it.  

6. Assess employee skills

Job platforms like Indeed and LinkedIn offer built-in skills assessments you can automatically assign to candidates who have submitted an application. 

Candidates can take skills tests proactively, or you can prompt them to complete relevant assessments when they apply. All you have to do is connect the right tests to the right positions. 

Some recruiting automation software offers tools or integrations for creating your own assessments based on your skills matrix for the role or department. You can build your test in a form creator and automatically send it out to applicants via email. 

7. Schedule interviews

Have you ever been stuck in an endless back-and-forth with a candidate, trying to find a time you’re both free? 

Recruitment automation can change that for good. 

By automatically scheduling interviews, you and the candidate can almost immediately align on a time.

You’ll send your availability via a scheduling tool like Calendly (that's also the tool we use), and all the candidate has to do is pick a time that works for them. 

Automatic scheduling tools typically connect to multiple calendars and update in real-time (or close to it). Plus, you’ll never have to worry about time zones again when scheduling international interviews. 

8. Begin preboarding your new hire

Preboarding begins the moment a candidate accepts your job offer. At that time, you can transition your new hire from your recruitment automation software to a preboarding software like Zavvy. 

The transition from applicant to employee is critical to the new hire’s experience. By automating preboarding and onboarding, you can offer the same caliber of experience you did during hiring. You’ll increase employee satisfaction and retention throughout the organization. 

🎁 The benefits of HR recruitment automation

Implementing automation in your recruitment process benefits everyone — recruiters, candidates, and the company as a whole. 

In general, HR recruitment automation helps hiring go faster and yields better results. It also provides a better experience for everyone involved. 

Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of recruitment automation. 

For recruiters

Recruiters have the most to gain from automation software. With the right recruitment automation tools, they can save time by amplifying their efforts across hiring channels. 

Recruitment automation software helps recruits and HR professionals by: 

• Improving efficiency: 85% of employers using automation in hiring reported time savings and increased efficiency for their people ops team. 
  

• Amplifying efforts: A little goes a long way with recruitment automation. When you set it up, recruiters get better results for the same amount of work. 
  

• Cutting through unnecessary information: Automation helps recruiters find the most important information for hiring quickly and easily, whether it’s a specific skill or their updated contact information. 
  

Automation isn’t a replacement for recruiters. Rather, it’s a way to enhance the work they’re already doing. 

For candidates

Applicants benefit from recruitment automation too. With a faster, smoother hiring process, candidates get a great first impression of your company, helping you attract top talent. 

Recruitment automation can give candidates: 

• A better overall hiring experience
• A faster decision on their application
• Quick answers to their questions 
• Reduced bias in hiring
  

Much of the candidate’s experience with recruitment automation depends on how when you set up your hiring process in the software. A fully automated hiring process that’s carefully monitored by your People Ops team will likely be a better experience than automating bits and pieces. 

For the company

The benefits of recruitment automation extend to the entire business — not just those involved in hiring. It’s a cumulative effect that benefits your company long-term. 

Here’s how recruitment automation can benefit your whole organization: 

• Faster time-to-hire: Automation gets positions filled faster, leaving your organization with fewer gaps in productivity. When you extend automation to preboarding and onboarding for new hires, you get faster time-to-productivity too. 
  

• Higher-quality hires: With all the automation tools at your disposal, you can source more experienced and in-demand candidates from as broad an area as you like. By recruiting top talent, you’re investing in the long-term success of your organization. 
  

• Bias reduction: Some recruitment automation platforms offer tools to reduce bias, such as anonymizing applications to focus on the candidate’s applications rather than personal details. This way, you make sure you’re focusing on skills, not unconscious prejudices. 
  

Keep in mind that recruitment automation still requires a human eye to catch errors. Some employers still have concerns about recruitment automation excluding qualified candidates or failing to reduce bias adequately. Regularly review your recruitment automation to avoid these issues. 

⏰ When should you get HR recruitment automation software?

Recruitment automation software is a great investment for any organization looking to grow its team now or in the future. 

If you’re preparing for significant growth, you can lay a strong foundation for recruitment through your automation tool. If you’re already in a growth period, recruitment automation can alleviate the burdens of a high-volume hiring process. 

Plenty of recruitment automation software offers the above capabilities as either native features or additional integrations. If you’re using an entire stack of HR and recruitment automation tools, it’s time to bring them together in a single platform. 

📈 Automate beyond recruitment with Zavvy

The rewards of automation don’t end when recruitment does. You can extend automation to the onboarding, training, and development of your new hires throughout their time with your organization. 

With Zavvy, you can automate everything from preboarding to setting 90-day goals to checking in on annual reviews. New joiners connect with onboarding buddies and their supervisor to complete early tasks, while people ops gets a high-level view of onboarding for the entire organization. 

➡️ Try Zavvy’s preboarding software today.