Using tech in talent management without losing the human touch.

Hey Talent Trackers,

Welcome to Week 8 of The Talent Track! I have been going down the AI spiral since the boom started and gathered a few thoughts I wanted to put together today. Hopefully it gives some ideas for structuring a tech stack in a talent team and, also, some examples of tools you can use without losing that thing we all want, the human connection.

Why does tech matter so much in hiring?

Well if you are a hiring manager or a recruiter out there you will have at some point been buried under a mountain of résumés or played scheduling tricks for weeks so, you know how life-saving good a recruitment tech stack can be. From ATS to AI tools or interview platforms, the goal here is to make the process easier. Just remember that candidates are people, not robots and, at least for now, people want to speak to people.

Tools you can explore for your tech stack

Now, here I wanted to leave some of the examples of tools I have been either using or looking around lately. In a lot of cases, if you choose your ATS wisely, a lot of these can be even included within the system but if you are looking for some 3rd parties, these are some decent tools to look at.

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)

• Purpose (just in case someone doesn't know...): Organise CVs, tracks candidate stages, managing candidate data and following recruitment processes and approvals.
• Examples: Greenhouse, Lever, Workable, TeamTailor, PinPoint, Screenloop, Ashby or even the feared Workday!
• Tip: Choose the one that covers as much as possible (scheduling, AI, GDPR or legal compliance, reporting, support,...), configure it properly and, most importantly, keep data compliance to make sure every recruiter uses the system in the same way.

AI Screening & Matching Tools

• Purpose: Automate tasks, increase productivity or efficiency.
• Examples:

If you want to record / transcribe interviews or meetings (MetaviewAI or Fathom)

If you want to source talent (HireEZ, Jobin, PeopleGPT or Recruitbot)

• Caution: AI reflects the data it’s trained on. If you use scoring tools and you don’t audit for bias, you might exclude qualified people without realising being totally counterproductive.

Video Interview Platforms

• Purpose: Conduct live or recorded interviews, especially helpful for remote roles.
• Examples: Zoom, Spark Hire, VidCruiter or Willo
• Tip: Recording interviews can help your team review them, but don’t forget to actually talk to candidates, too.

Chatbots & automation

• Purpose: Handles FAQs like “How do I apply?” or “What’s the timeline?” so recruiters can focus on deeper conversations.
• Examples:

If you want a chatbot (Mya, Paradox-Olivia)

If you want to create visuals (Canva, DALL-E or Descript)

If you want to create content (MagicalAI or Quillbot)

If you want productivity improvements (Miro, Napkin, Notion, Whimsical, Zapier)

If you want to create and manage campaigns (Sourcewhale or Gem)

• Note: If you are thinking about chatbots, always offer a human contact option as bots can get unavailable for technical reasons.

Scheduling automation

• Purpose: Eliminate back-and-forth emails by letting candidates pick open slots on your calendar.
• Examples: Calendly, GoodTime, Clara Labs
• Benefit: Frees up recruiters to do more strategic tasks rather than coordinate meeting times.

If you are hiring, remember to ??

• Keep the human touch: I have this conversation with pretty much every candidate these days and, I promise you, I am still to find one person that prefers to erase the human touch out of processes. So keep in mind, even the best AI tools can't replace a genuine chat or connection which is what makes candidates feel valued.
• Don't forget about bias: AI tools are only as fair as the data they get fed. Review how these work and make sure you check if anyone is getting filtered out and why.
• Offer training: We can all buy new software, but if your team doesn’t know how to use it effectively, guess what, you won't get too far.

For next week ??

Next, we’ll explore interviewing 101 and hopefully try to nail down how managers can make the most of out of their interviews to try to find their perfect candidates!

If you have ever used a recruitment tool that totally transformed your process or one that backfired spectacularly, I’d love to hear about it. Make sure you leave that story in the comments!

Thanks,

Jose Lazaro Founder & Host,

The Talent Track