Imagine a future where every single stage of a placement could take place without needing the involvement of a human recruiter. Farfetched? Perhaps not. That future may be just six to twelve months away, according to Pankaj Jindal. Jindal is the co-founder of Sense, a company in the AI space that exclusively serves staffing and recruiting businesses. If anyone knows the potential for AI technology in the staffing industry, it’s Jindal; he ran two staffing companies prior to starting Sense nine years ago.
Why does AI have the potential to be such a game-changer? Simple: time is money.
Jindal maintains that up to 90% of common recruiter activities can be automated today, using AI. In a recent presentation to TechServe Alliance members, he offered five use cases – taken directly from Sense’s own customer base – to illustrate how implementing AI is making staffing firms exponentially more efficient and productive.
Reactivate your talent database
Staffing firms continue to spend a great deal of money on job boards. “Even though you might have a million people sitting in your database,” Jindal says, “recruiters are still going to a job board to search for new candidates. Part of that is because they don’t trust your database to be current.”
The solution could be using AI to reactivate that database, increasing the likelihood that recruiters will use the information you’ve invested in gathering.
AI has the ability to reach out to a specific group of candidates, engaging them in a conversation. Their answers – to questions like motivation to find a new job, dates of availability, desired salary, and more – can automatically populate your ATS with the most current information.
The payoff: One Sense customer reactivated 42,000 candidate records, saving the FTE equivalent of 20,000 hours, and increased their redeployment rate from 7% to 18%.
Reach candidates via AI-powered text messaging
In all likelihood, you’re already communicating with candidates by text message. Even if your ATS doesn’t have that functionality, your recruiters are reaching candidates that way.
AI has the ability to drive not only higher efficiency, but better quality, in your firm’s text messages in several ways. It can:
- Generate initial messages, lessening the need for creativity on recruiters’ part and ensuring quality messaging.
- Use NLP technology to automatically generate numerous variations in broadcast outbound text messages.
- Flag message quality issues prior to sending, and recommend improvements that increase engagement and response rates.
The payoff: A Sense customer achieved an average response rate to text messages of 54% in under ten minutes.
Capture, screen and schedule candidates in real time
The staffing industry is in the midst of a rapid consumerization, where candidates expect a best-in-class experience when reaching out to a firm of any size. “Every candidate who goes to a staffing company’s website expects the same consumer behavior that they would expect from amazon.com,” Jindal says. “If I want you to text me, text me. If I want you to email me, email me. If I want you to reach out to me after hours, do that. If I want you to reach out to me during work hours, do that. You have to do this for tens of thousands of people, based on their preferences.”
By implementing AI-powered chatbots on their websites, firms of nearly any size and budget can deliver.
Engaging in real-time conversation with candidates, chatbots can create records in your ATS, populating data fields automatically. Progressing down the funnel, AI bots can ask predetermined screening questions to identify candidates who should be interviewed right away. They can then book them right into the calendars of appropriate recruiters.
The payoff: One Sense customer reported 30 placements in a single quarter that were enabled by a chatbot, saving an estimated 4,000 recruiter hours.
Drive efficiency with a recruiter copilot
Firms expect a great deal from their recruiters, including content creation. Some recruiters are great at it; others not so much. AI can help by:
- Crafting first-draft job descriptions and postings based on just a job title
- Generating emails and text messages that improve response rates
- Developing pre-screening questions for new jobs, especially unfamiliar ones
Automate phone conversations
Voice AI technologies have become remarkably responsive and adaptive, providing a surprisingly human experience. These tools can grade candidates based on their responses to screening questions, flagging them for a next interview, or even for hire. AI can also be used for reference checks, interpreting the responses as positive or negative, and delivering transcripts right to your ATS.
The payoff: One Sense customer reported a connect rate of 40%, with an average call length – conversation between AI and candidate – of two and a half minutes.
Ready to harness the power of AI?
Is it time to explore automation opportunities for your recruiters, and bring the future to your staffing firm? Jindal shared a lot more during the live presentation – including a can’t-miss demonstration of a voice AI bot in conversation with a candidate.
