Sifting through a towering pile of resumes to find the perfect hire can be like searching for a needle in a haystack. As a recruiter, you know sorting through hundreds of applicants devours your time. In fact, 61% of recruiters say manual resume review is their biggest time sink according to Jobscan.
The good news? There are now a variety of tools that use smart automation to take much of the grunt work out of resume screening. In this post, I‘ll provide an in-depth look at some of the top options to consider. You‘ll discover:
- The benefits of automating repetitive screening tasks
- A breakdown of popular automated resume screening tools
- Tips for optimizing your resume to pass through the bots
- Best practices for implementing automated screening
So if you‘re ready to take the robot army from enemy to friend when it comes to resume review, read on!
Why Automate Parts of Resume Screening?
Before jumping into specific tools, let‘s look at some of the key reasons automating aspects of resume screening can benefit your hiring process:
1. Saves recruiters significant time
Rather than manually poring over hundreds of applications, automated tools can filter out clearly unqualified candidates within seconds. This allows recruiters to focus their scarce time on the most promising applicants instead.
- According to TalentLyft, manual screening takes 35 hours per week for the average recruiter
- Structured data from automated screening cuts review time by 70%
That time savings really starts to add up when dealing with high volume roles.
2. Reduces unconscious bias
Algorithmic screening applies the same clear, consistent criteria to every candidate every time. This removes some of the unconscious biases like affinity bias that can creep in with manual review.
- Textio‘s tools helped Company Y increase diversity hires by 14% by removing exclusionary language from job posts.
3. Broadens your candidate reach
By accelerating early stage screening, your team has more time to take a strategic approach to talent pipeline development. You can proactively source and engage with passive but qualified candidates.
- 63% of job seekers are passive candidates open to new roles but not actively searching according to iCIMS. Automation helps free up recruiter bandwidth to connect with these leads.
4. Provides valuable data and insights
All that structured screening data delivers rich analytics into your overall hiring funnel. You‘re able to spot interesting trends and patterns that inform future talent acquisition efforts.
- Coding challenge platform CodeSignal found that 70% of data scientists it screened were self-taught without formal CS degrees. This insight changed how Company Z sourced data science candidates.
Clearly, there are some compelling reasons to offload repetitive resume review tasks to your robot recruiting friends! Now let‘s look at some specific tools leading the automated screening charge.
Types of Automated Resume Screening Tools
Applicant Tracking Systems
Chances are you already use an applicant tracking system (ATS) like Taleo, Jobvite or Greenhouse to manage your hiring pipeline. Most modern ATS platforms offer robust resume parsing capabilities that act as a first line of defense.
You‘re able to establish rules to automatically scan for certain keywords, years of experience, education, skills and more. This allows you to quickly filter out candidates clearly unqualified for the role.
Customized workflows are key to making sure the automation actually simplifies your process rather than introducing unnecessary complications. Here are some tips:
- Start with 2-3 core mandatory resume criteria vital for the role when first implementing. You can add more advanced logic down the line.
- Work closely with hiring managers and recruiters to define those initial parsing rules based on past high performers.
- Continually review the parsing performance and refine the algorithms as needed to improve accuracy.
Used judiciously, your ATS resume parser can slash review times and allow reviewers to focus on the applicants that matter.
Pre-Employment Testing & Assessments
If you‘re looking to go beyond just resume keyword screening, tools like HireVue and Pymetrics incorporate elements of artificial intelligence and game-like simulations to test candidates cognitive abilities, personality traits and skills.
For example, HireVue‘s recorded video interviews analyze details like word choice, tone, and facial expressions along with candidates‘ answers. Pymetrics uses a series of neuroscience games to gather performance data related to memory, risk appetite, and other attributes.
The benefit here is gaining much deeper insight into candidates‘ potential beyond just the resume. The challenge is ensuring you evaluate candidates equitably across these non-traditional assessments.
Some tips here:
- Target assessments strictly towards qualities definitively predictive of success for the specific role. Avoid vague personality tests.
- Ensure tests do not unfairly disadvantage neurodiverse applicants or those with disabilities. Offer appropriate accommodations.
- Use unclearly validated pre-hire tests sparingly to supplement rather than drive decisions.
Textio for Eliminating Biased Language
They say that hiring is really just sales and marketing. Your job post is essentially a sales document for attracting great candidates.
That‘s where Textio comes in. Textio analyzes your job listings for phrases that could unconsciously deter some qualified applicants from applying. The AI scans for gender-coded language, unnecessary qualifications, and other issues that hamper diversity.
The platform offers suggestions to make the language more inclusive – guiding you to cast a wider net for your subsequent resume screening. This helps create an equitable automated screening process from the very first candidate interaction.
For example, Company X used Textio to refine job posts and saw applications from women increase by over 10% as a result.
Cloud-based Talent Intelligence
Tools like Google‘s Cloud Talent Solution take an integrated approach to candidate management and automated hiring under one roof. In addition to robust resume parsing functionality, Cloud Talent Solution offers other AI-powered features like:
- Proactive candidate recommendations based on sources like LinkedIn to surface qualified passive candidates.
- Chatbots and custom communication workflows to engage applicants and gather data.
- Collaboration functionality allowing recruitment teams to seamlessly share candidate feedback.
Centralizing all of this in a unified cloud-based recruitment platform with AI makes it easier to scale up high volume resume screening. The power of the cloud 3allows your team to work collaboratively while automating mundane tasks.
For instance, leading retailer HomeGoods was able to shorten their time to hire by 15 days after implementing Cloud Talent Solution.
Coding Tests & Challenges
When hiring for technical roles like software engineers, you want candidates that can walk the walk – not just talk the talk on their resumes!
Platforms like CodeSignal and HackerRank allow you to incorporate live coding challenges and problem solving tests into your screening process. These assess whether candidates can efficiently turn their purported coding abilities into practical solutions.
By automating this capability early in the hiring funnel, you ensure only applicants with verified technical competency make it to the next review round. The interactive, game-like nature of coding challenges also reflects positively on your employer brand.
For example, leading enterprise CloudSignal uses CodeSignal to validate 90% of developer applicants‘ skills within just 3 days – drastically speeding up hiring.
5 Tips For Getting Your Resume Past The Bots
We‘ve covered the advantages of automated resume screening for recruiters. But what about as a job seeker? How can you optimize your resume to impress both the bots and the humans reviewing applications?
Here are 5 quick tips:
1. Include relevant keywords – Seed your resume with keywords and phrases from the job description. But avoid awkward repetition.
2. Use standard formatting – Stick to common templates. Avoid tables, images, fancy formatting.
3. Quantify achievements – Wherever possible, include measurable results like "improved process efficiency by 15%".
4. Check for errors – Verify no typos or formatting issues using tools like Jobscan.
5. Submit in multiple file formats – Provide your resume in DOC/DOCX and PDF formats.
Following these best practices helps ensure your resume makes it past the initial robotic gatekeepers!
Best Practices For Implementation
Automated resume screening tools offer invaluable assistance filtering candidates. But it‘s crucial to implement them judiciously to avoid introducing new issues. Here are some best practices to consider:
- Get stakeholder buy-in – Work closely with hiring managers and recruiters to configure tools appropriately for each role.
- Take an iterative approach – Start with a minimal viable product and expand capabilities over time.
- Continuously review data – Audit algorithms regularly for signs of bias or other issues skewing results.
- Use a hybrid approach – Automate repetitive early stages, but keep humans involved in final decisions.
- Focus on transparency – Communicate use of automation tools in job posts and during application process.
Adhering to responsible implementation practices like these allows your team to strike the right balance between automation efficiency and human insight when screening resumes.
So in summary, automated resume screening tools offer immense potential to take the hassle out of early stage candidate review. Approach intelligently and strategically to transform your hiring function. Let the robots handle the repetitive tasks so your team can focus on meaningful human connections with top talent!
