Transforming Recruitment: The Power of Automated Resume Screening

Hidden within the mountain of 200+ resumes an open position receives are star candidates who can significantly enhance your team and overall organizational performance.

How can your recruiting team efficiently process this large volume of resumes and quickly identify the top candidates? By automating the resume screening process.

Let's explore how this type of HR workflow automation can be beneficial, starting with a clear understanding of its definition.

Understanding Automated Resume Screening

Automated resume screening leverages technology to accelerate the process of evaluating resumes. This involves monitoring your applicant tracking system (ATS) for new candidate applications and triggering predefined actions across your technology stack and workforce when a new resume is detected.

Read more about automated screening in recruitment

Implementing Automated Resume Screening

There are two primary ways to automate this workflow, depending on how much you want your team versus an intelligent chatbot to handle.

1. Enhanced Manual Screening by Recruiters

Here's how this automation streamlines the process:

1. When a job application is submitted in a recruiting app (e.g., Greenhouse), the workflow is triggered.

2. An enterprise chatbot shares the applicant's details in a specific channel within your business communications platform (e.g., Slack). The message includes the applicant’s full name, the job they're applying for, their resume and cover letter, the hiring manager, and other role-specific details.

3. Team members can review the applicant's resume and cover letter via a link, and then advance or reject the applicant with a click of a button.

   • If rejecting an applicant, team members can specify the reasons for their decision.

4. The applicant's status in the recruiting app updates automatically based on the decision made.

2. Fully Automated Screening by a Chatbot

To further streamline the process, you can set criteria for a chatbot to evaluate new applicants. Based on whether the candidate meets these criteria, the chatbot can automatically advance or reject their application.

However, it's important to note that candidates might try to manipulate the system. By including specific keywords from the job description, they might artificially improve their chances of passing the screening. This could involve "keyword stuffing" or misrepresenting qualifications to match job requirements.

While automation brings clear advantages, as outlined below, it also comes with potential drawbacks to consider.

Explore more about automating talent sourcing

Advantages of Automating the Screening Process

Considering the use cases above, the benefits of automated resume screening become evident. Here are some of the key advantages:

Significant Time Savings

Automating the screening process allows your team to review candidates and make decisions directly within your business communications platform, reducing the need to log into recruiting apps frequently. This can save your team hours, especially given the high volume of applications.

Moreover, using a chatbot to screen candidates can prevent your team from spending time on unqualified applicants, leading to even greater time savings.

These efficiencies enable your team to focus on more critical tasks, such as sourcing ideal candidates, engaging in deeper conversations with qualified candidates, refining interview assessments, analyzing feedback from candidates and new hires, and optimizing the recruitment process.

Improved Candidate Engagement

Quick response times are crucial for maintaining candidate interest. A study by Robert Half found that when employers take more than 10 business days to respond, 62% of candidates lose interest in the role.

Automated resume screening workflows help prevent delays, giving recruiters more time to engage with qualified candidates promptly. Fully automated recruitment workflows also reduce the risk of delays in later stages of the interview process.

Reduced Bias in Hiring

Biases, whether unconscious or conscious, can affect hiring decisions. Automated resume screening can mitigate bias by ensuring that candidates are evaluated solely on job-specific criteria, such as required skills.

Enhanced Employer Brand

Negative experiences for candidates or recruiters can lead to unfavorable reviews on platforms like Glassdoor or social media. Such reviews can deter top talent from applying and damage your employer brand.

While automation doesn’t guarantee a flawless hiring process, it helps reduce negative experiences, thereby decreasing the likelihood of negative public feedback.

Improved Hiring Metrics

Automated resume screening can positively impact various hiring metrics, including time to hire, by streamlining the initial screening process.

Learn how CVScreener can enhance your resume screening process by seamlessly integrating your recruiting app with your business communications platform.