AI has doubled recruiters’ workloads – here’s what you can do to stay afloat

4 mins, 38 secs read time

If you had the ability to outsource your most time-consuming and tedious tasks, you’d take it, wouldn’t you? With the widespread availability of artificial intelligence (AI), this is no longer a hypothetical question. It’s a very real situation – and the way candidates are answering it is transforming the talent market.

Particularly in AI-based recruiting, Capterra recently found that 58% of candidates are using AI tools to help them in their job search and 26% have used AI to mass apply to jobs. And because using AI in recruitment removes a lot of the friction that’s typically associated with job applications, candidates who use AI now complete 41% more applications than candidates who don’t. This echoes some of our own research at Greenhouse, where 35% of candidates said it felt fair to use AI in their applications since companies were probably using AI to sort through their resumes.

We’re also seeing this firsthand with Greenhouse customers. In the first quarter of 2024, our customers received an average of 222 applications per job opening – almost three times as many as at the end of 2021!

However, many talent acquisition teams have also been disproportionately impacted by layoffs, which means they’re facing this influx of applicants with leaner teams. If you’re being inundated with AI-generated resumes, here are a few tips to help you navigate this new normal and stay afloat.

Take an agile approach to writing job descriptions

Traditional job descriptions feature laundry lists of qualifications and required experience. But taking a structured, skills-focused approach to hiring, supported by AI for hiring solutions, creates a more efficient and equitable process. You can focus on the skills that someone will need to be successful in the role and encourage candidates to think more critically about how they’ll demonstrate these skills in their applications.

“By integrating technology that processes granular data and skill-related information, we can develop job descriptions that are not only reflective but also predictive of the roles they aim to fill – ensuring they are precise and up-to-date with how work is actually being done today,” writes Adrina August, Greenhouse’s EMEA Content Marketing Manager. Find more tips on skills-based hiring here.

Tap into technology to boost your own efficiency

You might be looking for ways that AI for hiring can speed up your own time-consuming tasks while still allowing you to make critical hiring decisions yourself. One way to do this is by automating tasks like filtering candidates through smart searches (available within Greenhouse Recruiting). This makes it easier for you to narrow down candidates in a transparent, explainable and compliant way using objective information like the suggested keywords based on the public job descriptions. Ariana Moon, Greenhouse’s Vice President of Talent Planning & Acquisition, said, “This is a game-changer because there are so many inbound applications right now.”

Every minute counts when you’re dealing with hundreds (or thousands) of applications for every open role. Application limits within Greenhouse Recruiting allow you to block repeat applications from candidates. You’ll be able to streamline the application review process and have more control over how often candidates can submit applications. This prevents bots from spamming while ensuring real candidates aren’t limited from applying.

And when you do find the right candidates, swiftly scheduling an interview becomes a top priority. Scheduling activities include candidate communication, calendar review and planning tasks and account for upwards of 20% of recruiting time. That’s up to 400 hours per person each year! Candidate-led scheduling significantly reduces the manual work involved in scheduling and is especially effective in high-volume scenarios such as hiring for entry-level or seasonal positions where speed and efficiency are paramount. Learn more about candidate-led scheduling here.

Remember: You can still be fair and equitable – even while moving faster

The resume review process is typically done at high volume and high speed, so it might feel like you have to make tradeoffs between efficiency and equitable hiring processes, but that’s not necessarily the case. Resume anonymization , an AI-based recruiting tool, redacts personally identifiable information, such as first and last name, gender and candidate photo, reducing the likelihood that you’ll be influenced by unconscious bias and gently nudging you to focus on candidates’ skills instead.

Structured interviewing is another way to speed up your hiring process without compromise. We already noted the importance of focusing on skills in your job descriptions. Once you’ve taken that step, consider the questions or assessments you’ll include on your interview scorecards that will help you evaluate candidates in these areas. Commit to using the same questions for every interview and you’ll have a streamlined process that gives all candidates the same opportunities to showcase their skills.

Pro tip: No matter which approach you choose, make sure you take time to track diversity metrics to ensure you have a well-balanced representation of different demographic groups in your pipeline

The key takeaway? AI-based recruiting tools can help you stay afloat with your increased workload – as long as you’re thoughtful about which tools you’re using and why.

When it comes to candidates and hiring teams, what type of AI use should be allowed – and what’s considered cheating? Check out this blog post for TA leaders’ current take on this topic!

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