Why can't recruitment be automated?

Recruitment SaaS products promoting the automation of recruitment are invading the lives of recruiters. More and more tools through Chrome extensions are also available to internal recruiters, recruitment consultants, HRBP and headhunters to help us be more productive and collaborative. 

First stop is CRM and ATS. Are they essential? Yes, I think so. They help us keep track of everything we do, every person we speak with, comply with GDPR regulations and manage some automated tasks efficiently, such as scheduling interviews.

Then comes a wide variety of options to find and attract candidates. Artificial Intelligent job boards matching candidates to a job vacancy, mapping our market and sequencing our approach in a similar way Account Development Representatives do, sending Invites or Inmail with LinkedIn, there are so many that it’s sometimes really difficult to decide which one to use. The questions we need to ask before choosing a tool can be:

●     What value am I offering my clients?

●     Where can I improve to offer more value?

It can be used to reach a larger audience if you cannot find enough candidates, but it may also be used create the need to work on your influencing and communication skills to convince the hiring manager to alter the profile sought. It can also simply mean that you have too many requisitions to work on and, therefore, it is actually another sourcer or recruiter that you need in your team.

Finally, there is the automation of the assessment process. Candidates answer pre-screening questions to ensure they perfectly fit a need. They complete an online assessment to ensure their behaviour will suit the responsibilities of the position and then they complete another one about “cultural fit”. Those tools, as long as they do not damage the candidate's experience and that they agree to complete them, are there to build a conversation when interviewing candidates, certainly not to help make a firm decision.

Sometimes, beneath the piles of our daily work, we forget the essentials in recruitment.

• Do I understand the intrinsic motivation of my candidate?
•  Have I spoken to the candidate?
• Are we providing constructive feedback to hiring managers and candidates at various stages of the process? 

In addition, a well-managed recruitment process is key and the following can hardly be managed by a robot:

• Anticipating and managing a counteroffer
• Negotiating a contract
• Having the intuition that this candidate is the right one

Real conversations between people are the only ones that create emotions and allow people to engage with each other, which is what recruitment is about. So automate what you can, but don’t forget the essential part of recruitment: human relations. Make the time for them. If you don't, people will not want to work for or with you.