Recruiting Automation Insights and Opportunities by Jiří Kostov

At the end of 2022, OpenAI publicly released ChatGPT. This massively expanded the use of so-called AI and greatly influenced the way we approach our work. Whether you're a software developer, designer, copywriter, lawyer, or HR professional, ChatGPT has helped us speed up processes and provide guidance whenever we need a little boost.

However, even before AI appeared, automation already existed, including in recruitment.

What is recruitment automation?

Recruitment automation encompasses everything that helps alleviate repetitive manual work in the recruitment process. This can include transcribing interview notes, saving communication with candidates, or even conducting the interview itself.

To be more specific, let’s look at an example.

At Moravio, we use Google services. Our online interviews are conducted via Google Meet. The simplest automation you can imagine is scheduling a meeting in the calendar by entering the date, candidate’s email address, and sending the invitation. Google services then send an invitation to the candidate’s email, allowing them to accept or decline the event. There is also a Google Meet link where we can meet, so there's no need to use additional services for connecting, and everything is handled with a few clicks in the calendar.

Another feature is the ability to set up availability for online meetings in the calendar, saving time because you don't need to coordinate schedules with candidates. You simply send them a link, and they can see when you’re available and book a specific time.

Going further, we arrive at transcriptions of interview recordings. This is also covered within Google Meet, as conversations can be transcribed into notes, although this feature is only available when the call is recorded. It’s therefore essential to inform candidates beforehand or at the beginning of the interview about this.

There are also many third-party browser extensions that can handle this.

But these are still “minor” automations.

Recruitment and ATS (Applicant Tracking System)

When it comes to recruitment automation process, companies dealing with dozens or hundreds of candidates each month almost inevitably use an ATS (Applicant Tracking System).

These systems help automate and simplify various steps in the recruiting and hiring process, such as managing applicants, sorting resumes, tracking communication with applicants, and scheduling interviews.

We at Moravio also use such a system.

In the previous section, we discussed minor automations that help us in the day-to-day recruitment workflow. With an ATS, we can go even further.

For example, automatic email sending during different recruitment stages is foundational, where candidates receive an email template with information based on their current stage and the next steps.

Additional functions can be linked to each stage. Accepting a candidate (marked in the ATS) can trigger sending information to a Slack channel for the back office, creating a Jira ticket for onboarding, and more.

To mention a high-level automation feature, which involves AI, there's automatic candidate matching for positions based on CV content (previous positions, skills, language proficiency) or, for example, a chatbot that assists with recruiting itself.

We also have experience with such projects. You can read more about this in articles such as Junglee - AI Assistant to assist in recruiting and collecting data from job seekers - Developed by Moravio or Custom AI-powered CRM SaaS Web Application development - Developed by Moravio.
But this is not everything. We have many more examples of automatisation but that would be for a separate article.

For us at Moravio, it was also essential that the ATS has an API, allowing us to retrieve data into our internal system. We connect this data with additional information from other systems, creating a digital repository that we can use in various ways (such as reporting, forecasting, etc.).

What are our future plans?

The narrowest bottleneck in any recruitment process is limited human resources. Thanks to recruitment process automation, we can eliminate this bottleneck.

What might an automated recruitment process look like?

An example is a One-Way interview, which is an asynchronous digital interview where candidates answer predefined questions while being recorded. This type of interview is primarily used during the screening phase, where you want to gather basic information about the candidate.

A huge advantage is the time flexibility, as neither the candidate nor the recruiter is bound to a specific time.

Of course, there are challenges, such as the recruiter not being able to respond to the candidate’s additional questions or clarify a question if the candidate doesn’t understand it. Therefore, working with this type of interview requires some initial fine-tuning, and research into solutions that offer this feature will be necessary.

Let's summarize automation in recruitment

Recruitment automation, hiring automation, or process automation has been around in HR for years. It helps recruiters and hiring managers save time (and therefore costs), and it simplifies the recruitment process for candidates (assuming everything is set up correctly).

If you are asking who needs automation and who doesn't there is a simple answer. Everyone needs it!

Even a one-man show company needs it because it simplifies and makes you more effective. And there is no doubt that bigger companies would be lost without it.

However, it is important that recruitment automation does not overshadow human interaction. This is still irreplaceable, and even with AI development, it will take some time before this changes.

If you decide to automate your recruitment processes, please don’t hesitate to contact us.