With digital transformation we have witnessed an explosion of recruiting automation software. Job portals, online search tools and social media increased hiring transparency and productivity. Global recruitment software industry is estimated to grow to $2.7 billion by 2027. 

Now, with AI-based knowledge work automation, we will discover new solutions that reduce manual tasks and increase productivity. These solutions will support executive search, full time recruitment and temporary staffing.

"Most recruiters waste 50% of their time on routine tasks. Identifying ideal candidates, determining who is qualified and establishing contact for screening can be easily automated with AI."

Jim Holcomb, Staffing Executive

The hiring process usually consists of four main steps – sourcing, screening, assessment, and selection. In technical recruitment it may take 300 candidates to find a single hire.

Sourcing involves posting job openings on job boards, company websites, social media and other avenues to collect applications. Portals and social media sites provide very little pre-screening and can generate high volumes of candidates. There are often hundreds of applicants for a single position. Many of them are not meeting even basic screening criteria.

Recruiters also approach candidates who are not actively looking for new roles. But only a portion of people contacted may consider exploring new employment opportunities and respond to such outreach. 

With either approach, resumes need to be reviewed to determine if they’re a fit for the position. Out of an initial set of 300 profiles a recruiter may find perhaps 50 potential candidates for screening. This can take about 5 hours of recruiter time per open position.

Selected candidates are then contacted via email, phone or social media. For those sourced by the recruiter (not actively applied for the role), only a few may respond with interest. In either case, after collecting additional information, a recruiter then evaluates technical skills and backgrounds for about 50 candidates and may shortlist about 50% of them as suitable prospects. This is the most effort intensive step in the process and can take about 9 hours per open position.

Shortlisted candidates then undergo a more detailed technical assessment in the form of personal interviews, and/or evaluation via specialized testing portals. Candidates then provide the next level of detail regarding their professional experience, background and skills. Recruiters spend about 4 hours on this step.

The hiring manager reviews the remaining candidate resumes and a technology panel is often involved in the interview process. One candidate is usually selected to then move to the offer stage. While the recruiter is involved mostly for coordination, this step takes about 2 hours.

As you can note, the total effort per recruiter, per open position can easily exceed 20 hours. Most of the work (14 hours in this case) goes into sourcing and screening. These two steps are a prime opportunity for AI-powered automation. AI can handle many tasks, including: 1) matching applicants to job descriptions; 2) communicating with applicants to share information about the company; and 3) collecting additional information, while filtering out unqualified candidates. 

In later steps, the technical assessment and coordination of interviews also offers opportunities for automation. The AI can be leveraged to automate communication and coordination with the candidate, that is typically done by recruiter via email or chat channels.

A mid-level recruiter (including benefits and other expenses) will cost a company around $9,000 per month. Software used by recruiters can easily cost $1,000 per month. Software includes products such as LinkedIn Recruiter Lite, an applicant tracking system (ATS), Boolean search tools, sourcing tools, and assessment tools. The average mid-level recruiter for technical positions hires about 5 people per month, bringing the hiring cost per position to about $2,000.

OneForce can reduce the cost by a factor of 2x to about $1,000 per hire in Year 1. We think there is an additional opportunity to reduce this by an additional factor of 2x in Year 2 and Year 3, lowering the overall cost by 8X to around $250 per hire.

The age of AI-based automation is here and now. The ability to not only look at keywords for simple skills-based matching, but also interpret the complete resume and collected information about a candidate, to analyze the companies where the person worked before and compare the career progression over the years with peers in the industry will transform the hiring process. The days of manual, inefficient processes based on personal and inconsistent manual recruiter tasks will soon be history.

Finding the right candidates in the shortest amount of time is critical for any company. The impact of not being able to staff an open position can jeopardize projects and impact brand reputation. The next generation of AI-powered hiring tools will be essential for every business.