Four Common Recruiting Errors and How To Avoid Them

Finding good talent is not easy. Especially nowadays, where we’re experiencing a combination of low unemployment and lots of passive applicants. Tracking down and engaging the best candidates in order to satisfy hiring managers requires that you have streamlined systems and processes. On top of this, to give yourself the best shot, you need to make sure your approach is as error-free as possible.

Here are four common errors that recruiters make, and how you can correct for them with the help of automated processes:

1. Your hiring process is slow and disorganized

Because you are maxed out, emails and links fall through the cracks, touchpoints get lost, and replies slow down. Nothing frustrates candidates more than an interaction with a recruiter that is patchy and sporadic. People expect the application process to be rapid and smooth. Job-hunters want to feel seen and heard; the really talented job-hunters will resent being made to wait, or chase things up. If you don’t handle candidates professionally and efficiently, you will lose them. When you do reach out to candidates ensure all of your responses are swift. Make sure you move through the hiring process in a timely manner. Always be proactive with candidates.

How AI can help: An AI recruiting partner like Wendy can improve your hiring process by automating top of the funnel tasks, keeping a perfect record of all back-and-forths, and responding automatically to candidates. This ensures that everything happens quickly, and nothing gets lost.

 

2. Your conversations with candidates are rushed and shallow

In survey after survey, job-seekers complain that their conversations with recruiters feel shallow. They say that they don’t get enough time to ask all of their questions, or that they don’t feel they get to describe their own skills in enough depth. This doesn’t only leave job-seekers feeling undervalued; it creates a risk that recruiters are overlooking people who might be a great fit for a role.

If you’ve found yourself rushing conversations, that’s no surprise. You probably had at least fifteen or twenty other screening interviews lined up that day. However, if you can find a way to give yourself more quality time with candidates, it will go a long way.

How AI can help: An AI recruiting partner like Wendy can conduct many conversations at once, at any time of day, and she is never tired or distracted. She can help you move through those early-stage conversations, at scale.

 

3. Your job descriptions aren’t well written

The details matter. If your job descriptions are too long, people will bounce off them and look elsewhere. If they’re too vague, you’ll get a flood of candidates that aren’t a good fit. If they’re too templated, they won’t catch attention. And in this day and age, your descriptions (and your job titles) need to be search-optimized.

Make sure you get all of the relevant details about a position into the job description: tasks, duties, projects, perks etc. You want the posting to be concise, but comprehensive. Make sure the hiring manager gives it a proper look and signs off. The content should also evoke the company culture and the broader vision of the organisation. Make sure you hit the right keywords and key-phrases to show up in search.

How AI can help: When it comes to job descriptions, an AI recruiting partner like Wendy will push you to standardize the information she requires, and make a habit of writing postings with hard information, not fluff. To get the most out of assignments, you will train yourself to include all the right details, incorporate consistent company markers, and hit the right keywords.

 

4. You’re not sourcing aggressively enough

All recruiters know that proactively going after talent is a big part of the job. However, sourcing can be an arduous and time-consuming task. Scrolling through LinkedIn, looking for suitable people takes forever. This can easily mean that you neglect sourcing, and miss out on some great candidates who just need a bit of encouragement.

How AI can help: An AI sidekick can be a huge help in sourcing. One new Wade and Wendy customer had 63 open roles that needed filling, and were struggling to find qualified applicants. In two weeks, Wendy completed 767 lengthy and personalized chats with candidates she identified as a potential good fit (that’s 54 chats per day). The recruiter accepted 66% of the qualified, interested and available candidates Wendy recommended!