Recruiting pros, when you think about AI, what’s the first tool that comes to mind? If you’re like most people, it’s ChatGPT. From the moment it surfaced, it dominated headlines, causing a frenzy of positive and negative opinions.

It’s certainly the most prevalent and accessible AI tool out there, but it also has its limits. For example:

Yet, even before the ChatGPT craze, AI recruiting tools had already made their way into businesses across the globe. And it continues to grow at lightning speed. In 2017, only 20% of businesses used AI in some sort of capacity in their business according to McKinsey’s Global Survey on AI. Today, that number has more than doubled.

While Forbes reports that only 26% of companies have leveraged AI to support talent acquisition, for those who have, the results speak for themselves.

• 85% say it saves time and increases efficiency
• 44% say it helps them find top candidates 
• 30% say it helps reduce biased decisions 
• 18% say it increases diversity among candidates

If this tells us anything, it’s that more talent teams need to jump on board with tech and automation to help them find their best workers.

And this is truer now than ever before. Our 2024 Hiring Insights Report shows that on average, talent teams are hitting just half of their hiring goals. Likely due to recent team reductions and leaner budgets, talent teams are struggling to do the same amount of work with fewer resources. 

They need extra hands — a problem technology can solve. AI won’t replace recruiters, but help them hit their goals with less time and resources. But when it comes to tech for recruitment, it can be hard to tell what’s beneficial and what’s just a good marketing ploy.

So where do talent teams begin?

Stay tuned as we cover the top 6 AI recruitment tools every talent team should know about.

1. Interview coordination: GoodTime Hire

Check it out.

We may be biased, but for good reason. With GoodTime Hire’s AI-powered interview scheduling, teams hire up to 50% faster. And in today’s hiring landscape, faster is always better.

But that boost in efficiency comes from much more than basic scheduling. GoodTime offers quick communication through text and WhatsApp, workflow automation, candidate screening questions, actionable insights, and interviewer coordination so teams can scale and fill high-volume roles in half the time.

But don’t take my word for it. Allie Scheu, Recruitment Coordination Manager at Hubspot can back me up. After implementing GoodTime for her team, she stated, “GoodTime makes the process so much easier for the recruiting coordination team because it really eliminates a lot of the back-and-forth that we would have been previously going through between interviewers, candidates, and hiring managers.” You can read HubSpot’s full story for more details.

Top 3 benefits

Easily handles high-volume hiring: In a world where teams are trying to do more with fewer resources, GoodTime offers a solution. By providing seamless automated solutions, teams can focus less on the cumbersome details and more on getting talent through the door faster.

Prioritizes relationships: While GoodTime’s intelligent automation takes care of tedious tasks, such as back-and-forth scheduling, talent teams now have more time to focus on creating relationships with the candidates that matter.
Speeds up hiring: GoodTime Hire greatly reduces time-consuming work, allowing talent teams to hire at a much quicker rate. And with the average time-to-hire sitting at 44 days, there’s no better way to get ahead of the competition than this.

2. Resume sorting: SmartAssistant

Check it out.

You know as well as I do that it takes hours and hours to screen resumes, just to find one well-matched candidate.

SmartAssistant’s AI-powered recommendation service does this for you. Using powerful custom algorithms, SmartAssistant easily finds and scores talent, recommending the best match at lightning speed.

It also helps eliminate subjective opinions. Yes, even the most well-intended recruiters can let bias seep in. When reviewing information, this tool does not analyze personal data (such as name, age, gender, etc). Nor does it factor past hiring decisions into the algorithm. Instead, it focuses on the competencies that matter.

Top 3 benefits

Increases productivity: With rapid applicant screening, SmartAssistant discovers talent in just minutes — giving recruiters more time to work on other important tasks.

Boosts discoverability of candidates: Sometimes good candidates get lost in the weeds. With SmartAssistant, every candidate is evaluated the same way, giving everyone a fair chance to be seen and heard.

Expands team diversity: When biased opinions are not a part of the sourcing decision, your company gets a better chance at well-rounded, diverse hires. And this is critical for company success.

3. Search queries, prep, and drafting emails: ChatGPT

Check it out.

You know I had to include this one on the list. Only surfacing in November of 2022, ChatGPT is still in its early days. Yet, it’s created ripples across every industry. Hopefully optimistic, recruiters joined the crowd to see how ChatGPT could help them speed up their efficiency.

And it didn’t disappoint. While ChatGPT is certainly not perfect (keep in mind that many still use the free version), it’s certainly eliminated extra steps for the recruiter. Here are a few ways recruiters use Chat GPT to speed up their hiring process:

To level up search queries: Using ChatGPT, recruiters can generate Boolean search strings to help them find the best candidate.

To prep for an interview: Based on a specific prompt, ChatGPT can generate a list of interview questions for a specific role.

To draft email communication: ChatGPT can act as an email subject line generator, and even create entire emails for a variety of scenarios, making candidate communication quick and seamless.

Top 3 benefits

Saves time: ChatGPT creates answers to prompts in seconds and helps talent teams speed up their time-to-hire.

Reduces manual effort: Many talent teams spend hours writing emails or developing interview questions. Now talent teams can use ChatGPT to do their tedious tasks. And while ChatGPT is still not perfect, talent teams can quickly make edits and move on to the next task.

Minimizes cost: ChatGPT offers three plan options. Many businesses choose to stick with the lowest plan, which is free. Even the next plan level is very affordable, coming in at $20 a month. For talent teams who are trying to do more, but reduce costs, ChatGPT is a great option.

Curious how a real TA leader uses ChatGPT? We spoke with Dubi Ben-Shoham, Head of Talent Acquisition at Socotra, and he shared how he utilizes it for repetitive or templated candidate emails. You can watch a clip from our conversation below.

4. Background checks: Checkr

Check it out.

Before offering a job, it’s important to verify that a candidate is who they say they are. That’s where Checkr comes in. 

This AI-powered platform saves hours of administrative work by verifying employee information — in just seconds. While traditional employment verifications can take up to 10 days, Checkr can complete it in less than 90 seconds. Checkr processes a mind-blowing 1.5 million + background checks per month, without sacrificing accuracy or compliance.

For Jackie McKewon, HR Generalist at Deploy HR, Checkr has been a huge time saver. “As a result of bringing Checkr on board, our team has more time back in their days to focus on candidate retention programs, improving the onboarding experience, and the candidate onboarding process,” she raves.

Top 3 benefits

Improves accuracy: When records are processed manually, there’s a greater risk of mistakes. Checkr’s tool categorizes data clearly and consistently so records are always accurate and up to date.

Maximizes time: Checkr saves talent teams time by doing the hard work for them. 

Lessens Administrative burden: Talent teams can spend days getting background checks, drug testing, and verifying reference checks. Checkr greatly reduces the administrative workload so teams can focus on hiring faster.

5. Technical screening: HackerRank AI

Check it out.

HackerRank AI makes technical hiring a dream. It provides screening and interview technology that is solely focused on the technical hire. With skills-based assessments, developers can prove their capabilities using the latest technologies. And talent teams can adopt an extensive library of technical skills, giving them the insights they need to make the most informed decisions.

But there’s more. HackRank AI also provides a live coding option. This way, developers can show off their skills in real time. This is especially important since a growing number of developers and technical recruiters we speak to say technical interviews aren’t effective.

For talent teams focused on technical hires, HackerRank AI makes finding and interviewing candidates seamless. Here’s what Jon Duggins, Director of TA at DraftKings, had to say: “Screening candidates through HackerRank has helped us rapidly and accurately identify the skills of candidates, and therefore find and hire the technical talent our team needs to innovate.”

Top 3 benefits

Mitigates bias: Certified assessments are built to ensure fairness. Unlike subjective evaluations that may be influenced by biases, technical skills assessments focus solely on the performance of the candidate.

Ensures honesty in performance: When assessing candidates, this AI-powered tool automatically detects plagiarism, making sure that only those with the best skills get through.

Discovers most in-demand tech skills: HackerRankAI has an extensive library of tech skills, helping talent teams assess and hire with confidence. 

6. Sourcing: SeekOut

Check it out.

Although SeekOut offers many recruiting services, it focuses on one, main theme: using data to discover talent.

One benefit of SeekOut is its ability to quickly identify and close skills gaps. Their AI-powered search engine uses data to understand current employee skills, experiences, or career goals. Then, using this data, talent teams can make targeted decisions around their sourcing strategy, like planning for new roles or training existing employees.

Beyond that, SeekOut gives access to 800 million public profiles and matches applicant competencies with the roles they best fit. Then, it sorts these applicants based on how qualified they are for the role.

Top 3 benefits

Improves efficiency: With SeekOut, talent teams quickly get the insights they need to hire the best-matched candidate for the role.

Increases diversity: This powerful search tool finds the most diverse, hard-to-find talent. And talent teams have total control over how they filter candidates, helping them focus on what truly matters — skills.

Creates unity across teams: Finding top talent is always easier when every member of the talent team is on the same page. With SeekOut, teams can easily share and discuss insights. 

What AI recruiting tools does your team need?

Now it’s your turn. What AI recruitment tools would best benefit your team’s specific needs? Begin by asking questions like, “What is our ultimate goal this year?” or “What are our current challenges?” Then find the tool that works best for your team’s specific needs. It’s a challenging time to hit hiring goals right now with leaner resources, and adding recruitment automation is your best bet to getting ahead.

If you’re still not sure where to begin, try GoodTime Hire. Our interview scheduling software gives teams the edge they need to hire up to 50% faster.

We need to talk about the modern recruitment funnel. And we will. But I explain the stages and steps you can take to optimize your funnel, let’s take a brief look at the state of recruitment in general.

Here’s an uncomfortable truth: GoodTime’s 2024 Hiring Insights Report found that for years, TA teams have struggled to hit just half of their hiring goals.

There are no convenient excuses for this underperformance, either. Numbers of job seekers have remained roughly the same, while job openings have dwindled. So in theory, hiring goal attainment should be ticking upward, right?

But of course, it’s not quite that simple. The report also speaks to skills gaps in available candidates and increased demands of potential hires as significant obstacles.

So how can companies turn things around? What “secret sauce” can ensure you meet your hiring goals while ensuring your candidates are of the highest quality?

Let’s take it back to the basics: A well-defined, fine-tuned recruitment funnel.

What is a recruitment funnel?

When it’s working correctly, your recruiting funnel is a self-replenishing candidate pipeline to ensure top-quality candidates can fill roles in your organization as needed. Typically, the recruitment funnel can be broken down into seven stages:

1. Awareness
2. Interest
3. Application
4. Consideration
5. Interview
6. Offer
7. Hire

Below, I’ll break each of these down in more detail.

The 7 stages of the recruitment funnel

A recruitment funnel can’t help you achieve your goals unless all seven stages are clearly defined and you have a shared understanding within your TA team. You might want to adjust these definitions a little to suit the unique hiring process steps of your organization, but for the most part, your recruiting funnel should look something like this:

1. Awareness

This stage involves creating and spreading awareness about a job vacancy and the organization among potential candidates through various marketing and advertising channels.

Here, you’re introducing visitors to your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and your organizational mission, whether candidates are suitable for the role or not.

You’ll want to go beyond just the basic job posting and actually inform candidates about your organization, sell them on your company, and convince them they’ll be an ideal fit.

This is also an opportunity to capture names, emails, phone numbers, and other basic candidate information to bolster engagement further. 

Use social media – especially LinkedIn – to make your employer brand more visible and transparent. For instance, the banner on your LinkedIn Company page can spread general brand awareness to promote upcoming events, celebrate awards, or use other ways to project/promote your identity. 

Make sure to highlight the benefits that are a priority to your target candidate group (e.g., parental leave, childcare subsidies, and student debt relief).

You can also use platforms like LinkedIn to show off your employee experience and attract new applicants. HelloFresh does a great job at this. Take for example, their “day in the life at HelloFresh” video series, which lets users see what the offices actually look like, what perks they can expect, and what the general vibe of the company is, all before they even have an intro meeting.

2. Interest

In this stage, candidates express initial interest in the job opportunity or the organization by engaging with content or outreach efforts.

Drive interest by crafting compelling job descriptions. Techniques include addressing candidates in the 2nd person (referring to them as “you” instead of “they” to make it more personal).

Call your company “we” to make your candidate feel like part of the company. 

Use active voice. Make your candidates feel like they’ll be part of the action. “The objective is to convert sales and satisfy customers” isn’t clear about who will do what. Conversely, “You’ll interact directly with customers, build relationships, and convert sales” is more direct and impactful. 

Make sure to also write clear, descriptive job titles, craft an honest and transparent “About us” blurb, and be precise about role responsibilities. 

3. Application

The application stage is when candidates formally apply for the position by submitting their resumes or applications, indicating a strong interest in the role.

A simplified application process is one of the best ways to keep potential candidates engaged and interested. Note how 60% of job seekers quit while they’re completing applications due to complexity and length.

These days, it’s crucial to make the application process mobile-friendly is crucial since 52% of job-seekers look for roles on their phones. You want to be where your top candidates are. 

User-friendly application interfaces are a must. Select typography and color schemes carefully to align with your company’s brand. Colors and thoughtful formatting should be used to highlight the most important elements of an application and establish a visual hierarchy. Make sure to keep things simple visually. You want the process to be as easy as possible to avoid any confusion or unnecessary labor for the applicant.

4. Consideration

At this stage, recruiters review applications and qualifications to determine which candidates merit further consideration for the position.

48% of candidates claim employers failing to communicate with them about their candidacy is a top-five frustration when seeking a job. Regardless of a candidate’s chances for landing a role, don’t ghost them – word spreads. While you’re at it, always send confirmation emails to show candidates you’ve received their applications. It prevents unnecessary back-and-forth over email and helps them see you as an engaged employer.

As discussed in our article on tech hiring challenges, AI tools can streamline personalized communication, showing consideration to candidates without bloating your workload. 

In the consideration phase, it’s important to set clear expectations about your hiring process from the start. Consider publishing a FAQ section on your careers page, answering queries of would-be applicants proactively.

5. Interview

Candidates who pass the consideration stage are invited for interviews, where they are assessed further for their fit and suitability for the role.

Conduct interviews with your shortlist of candidates. While three interviews should be enough, this number can change based on who you’re hiring and for what position.

Interview scheduling software like GoodTime closes the gaps between hiring stages, making communication and interview scheduling with candidates much more efficient. In fact, it can help TA teams reduce your time-to-hire by up to 50%. Read Pinterest’s story to learn more.

Ensure a positive candidate experience by giving them information about the process. Prepare your hiring team to ask the most effective questions that help avoid unconscious biases.

And never ever skip an intake meeting. Trust me. That’s your chance to align with the hiring manager on what a good fit for the role looks like. An efficient intake meeting sets the entire process up for success.

Just as important is the post-interview debrief. Debriefs are how you make sure you’re evaluating candidates against the right criteria and are an important opportunity to coach and align with hiring managers.

Want to learn more about coaching hiring managers for interviews? We asked Socotra’s Head of Talent Acquisition, Dubi Ben-Shoham, about his process for coaching and training interviewers, including behavioral interviewing techniques. Watch his advice in the clip below.

6. Offer

After successful interviews, a job offer is extended to the chosen candidate, outlining the terms and conditions of employment.

The first thing your chosen candidate will read in your offer is the compensation. Be transparent with the starting base salary in either pay-per-period or hourly amounts, payment frequency, payment methods, and stock options/bonuses. 

Next on your chosen candidate’s priority list will be your benefits. Include anything pre-negotiated (e.g., healthcare plans, relocation assistance, insurance, vacation time, and wellness benefits).

If you do end up negotiating on compensation, Indeed suggests these employer negotiation strategies:

• Research industry standards
• Set a range
• Determine candidate expectations
• Spearhead the negotiations yourself
• Expect a counter
• Consider a signing bonus
• Understand the significance of your benefits

7. Hire

Once the candidate accepts the offer and completes any required background checks or paperwork, they officially become an employee of the organization.

Your new hire onboarding process – and its overall soundness – will dictate whether your new hire succeeds and sticks around. Nearly 70% of employees will stay with a company for three years when the onboarding experience is on point. 

Forbes suggests “Preboarding” new hires. This effort entails engaging and communicating with soon-to-be-starting employees before they begin, keeping them excited about the new opportunity. Send company swag (e.g., notepads or water bottles with your logo) and encourage them to ask questions. Email them an onboarding schedule to ensure the smoothest first day possible.

Also, get the initial paperwork out of the way ASAP. Include other team members as “welcoming crews” to help new hires immediately feel part of the team. Job shadowing is another suggested onboarding tactic, as is making the first day an exciting event (consider taking the new employee out for lunch).

Optimizing the recruiting funnel

Conceptually, optimizing your recruiting funnel sounds excellent. But getting from concepts and hypotheticals to concrete results is no simple task. 

For one, you wouldn’t be alone if you felt like the net you’re casting in the marketplace isn’t wide enough. Moreover, gaps often exist in available data to help find specific candidates.

While we’ve established the benefits of brand recognition, enhancing this organizational and recruiting facet has its obstacles.

Choosing the right Applicant Tracking System (ATS) — along with the right add-ons and integrations — helps you overcome all these challenges. 

Data-driven decision-making will prove crucial in developing a high-functioning recruitment funnel. The ideal tech stack allows you to view and analyze complex recruitment data, identifying the differentiating skills of top performers within your organization. 

Isolating success factors within your data enables you to create more targeted and well-defined postings. It also allows you to assess skills and screen candidates more granularly.

This information will also shed light on recruiting funnel weaknesses. Your dashboards should paint more thorough and specific pictures of your preferred candidates, developing a more personalized and headache-free experience for potential hires. 

Seeking constant improvement and feedback through the hiring and recruitment funnel will help cultivate long-term success.

4 key challenges in recruitment funnel management

1. Attracting best-fit candidates

We discussed in the introduction how skills gaps are increasingly prevalent in potential candidates. Yes, plenty of job-seekers exist, but the increasing demands of today’s workplace mean fewer potential candidates are qualified for the roles to which they apply.

When you’re pressed for time and need to hire someone ASAP, you’re in a position where you can’t make an optimal hire.

Avoid this lose-lose situation by following the tips above. For instance, investing in your employer brand might not feel like a priority, but it really pays off in the long run. 

At a basic level, writing more engaging job postings highlighting attractive benefits and compensation will go far. The truth is you’ve got to be prepared to shell out some cash for quality hires at the end of the day. 

2. Keeping passive candidates engaged

Passive talent comprises 70% of the global workforce. 

These individuals keep their ears to the ground, are typically highly skilled (they already work somewhere, after all), and are in high demand. They have all the leverage and have a long line of recruiters chasing after them. 

How do you differentiate yourself from all other recruiters? A bolstered employer-brand identity and sterling reputation will go far in attracting passive talents.

Moreover, employee referrals can make a massive impact. Passive candidates don’t respond much to job ads since they aren’t actively looking. So, a connection through an employee and their network can catalyze your recruitment efforts in this area.

3. Implementing data-informed decision making

Recruitment metrics and data are vital to your hiring process. However, many recruiters and hiring managers find themselves stuck using spreadsheets and manual calculators that stifle progress more than provide insights. It’s important to establish a realistic recruiter capacity model to make sure your plans are attainable.

Data-driven recruitment strategies will ensure you hire the best people, and you can streamline these efforts with automated or AI technology. This way, HR workloads won’t skyrocket, and everyone can work with quality data that helps make informed hiring decisions. 

4. Hiring fast enough

The clock keeps ticking when a position is vacant. The company loses money every second you haven’t hired someone.

Unfortunately, making snap decisions increases the likelihood of an ill-informed hire when you must recruit top-performing people to stay ahead of your competitors. Moreover, stretching out the recruitment funnel can make quality candidates disinterested.

So–you must hire quickly, but you can’t rush your decision. That’s a conundrum if we’ve ever heard one.

CareerPlug suggests the following methods to hire the right person faster:

• Immediately respond to all applicants
• Lean on your employees for referrals
• Implement text messaging in your recruiting funnel
• Use pre-screening questions to fast-track quality candidates
• Incorporate automation to expedite the interview process

Recruitment funnel metrics and benchmarks to watch

Time-to-hire efficiency has proven itself a pain point for many hiring professionals trying to foster a thriving recruitment funnel. 

In a recent chat we had with Skyla Lambeth, Recruiting Operations Manager for Collective Health, she shared “It’s crucial to monitor candidate time-to-hire data. Pay close attention to pass-through rates, understanding how many candidates are required at the top of the funnel to make a job offer. Additionally, it’s vital to assess how many candidates successfully progress from the on-site stage or panel interview, especially when multiple people are involved in the interview process.”

The GoodTime 2023 Hiring Insights Report points to 71% of industry leaders claiming an increase in time-to-hire in 2022, an uptick from 60% in 2021. 

43% of respondents spoke to heightened candidate demands. Then, when unicorn candidates are discovered, the competition is fierce. 

Consider this statistic: Three-quarters of hiring managers say reputation impacts their recruiting ability. Moreover, 83% of potential candidates are hesitant to work with companies with bad reputations. 

Jackie Dube, the Chief People Officer at The Predictive Index, explains that Glassdoor ratings can only be good–and stay good–if you have “a structured, efficient hiring process.” 

“For your candidate experience and Glassdoor ratings to be good (and stay good), a structured, efficient hiring process is essential.”

-Jackie Dube, Chief People Officer at The Predictive Index

There’s a reason why 37% of survey respondents have prioritized upgrading automation and technology in their hiring process. 

Improved efficiency in hiring will functionally enhance your recruitment funnel. It will also bolster your brand identity as an employer. Employees don’t take kindly to being victims of the runaround. 

While your goal is never to treat a potential hire poorly, inefficiency and oversights in your recruitment funnel can cause these hiccups.

Turn your recruiting funnel into a recruiting flywheel

A strong recruitment funnel is great, but you know what’s even better? A flywheel. 

Turning your recruiting funnel into a recruiting flywheel involves shifting from a linear and transactional approach to a continuous and relationship-centered one. In a flywheel model, candidates are not just seen as one-time hires but as potential advocates and sources for future talent. 

By providing a positive candidate experience, nurturing relationships, and fostering a strong employer brand, you create a self-sustaining cycle where engaged employees refer top talent, reducing recruitment costs, and improving overall retention. This approach emphasizes the long-term benefits of building a talent community rather than simply filling immediate job openings, ultimately making your recruitment efforts more efficient and effective.