Candidates are turning to recruiters to navigate a challenging job market
As finding a job gets harder and more complicated, an increasing percentage of candidates are turning to staffing firms to help them navigate the process. Last year 35% of candidates surveyed said they most frequently used staffing firms to look for work. This year that number was 58% and was basically tied with job boards. It is getting harder and harder to find a job through a job board, and the support and guidance recruiters offer is a real differentiator in the current market.
My whole goal is to humanize you so that when we are considering you for a position, you are a well-rounded individual with a personality, with value that you bring. You're not just a resume.
Talent says recruitment AI improves speed and responsiveness
Talent understands that recruiters working in concert with AI results in faster responses and a better understanding of the overall hiring process. They appreciate the speed, clarity, and communication that they know is only possible today with the help of AI. This demonstrates that AI is directly addressing the pain points candidates face in their job search and accelerating the process at every stage. And some staffing firms are even finding a way to make sure that these tools offer a tangible benefit to candidates who are not placed. One firm noted that these days they are as much about creating detailed skills assessments and recommendations for talent as they are about simply placing them in roles. At Avenica, the resulting report is provided to everyone who goes through their process and the feedback from candidates has been overwhelmingly positive.
At the end, they walk away with something tangible... They get that report, whether they get a job or not... So they're seeing value in the experience with Avenica, even if we're not getting them a job.
Chatbots directly address candidates pain points
When asked what they liked most about working with a chatbot, talent clearly indicated they like how fast it is, and how they know exactly where they stand in the process. Working with a chatbot is a quick and easy way to get through initial baseline screening and get one step closer to a human interaction. These benefits directly address the concerns around speed and responsiveness that led candidates to stop working with a recruiter. And candidates can feel the improvement. However, one thing that staffing leaders shared is that not all agents are created equal. The most successful recruiters are scrutinizing screener questions and carefully tailoring them to the role and the employer. That is what makes a positive chatbot experience and candidates can feel the difference.
We really take an active approach to the questions that we choose, going in and editing, tweaking, deleting, adding. Let's really tweak them more to the job, to the environment, so that right off of the bat the information is really specific to this job.
The agent can speak with candidates and ask legitimately relevant technical questions, which gives them a chance to showcase how talented they really are.
Using AI doubles the chances that candidates are very satisfied at every stage of the recruitment process
One of the most striking findings this year is that simply encountering AI as part of the recruitment process makes it significantly more likely that candidates are not only satisfied but very satisfied, 5 out of 5 on the satisfaction scale. And more than 80% of those who have worked with AI scored each phase at least a 4. So, those candidates who have seen what AI can do are significantly happier with the recruitment process across the board. A strong endorsement for the transformational power of AI in staffing.
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AI skeptics are more worried about being boxed out or denied human interaction
Talent who were not satisfied with AI at some stage of the recruitment process were around twice as likely to be concerned that AI would unfairly eliminate them from consideration or prevent them from speaking to a live person. This raises an interesting question: Are dissatisfied candidates unhappy with the technology? Or are they unhappy with the result they got? The fact that, after dropping significantly last year, talent satisfaction across the recruitment cycle has bounced back and suggests that the technology has advanced to the point where it provides a good experience. But these concerns suggest that candidates may still be uncomfortable with the idea of technology making the hiring call rather than a person. Several staffing leaders noted that candidates often believe they could have convinced a human if they had just been given the chance. They made clear that they have procedures to ensure that they reach out to borderline candidates and evaluate potential, not just a pre-programmed checklist. Everyone noted that building talent’s trust in the tools, offering visibility into how they work, and reassuring candidates that a human will always be part of the process is crucial as AI becomes more and more ubiquitous.
Every single applicant that completes all the steps will talk to a human on our team. We are transparent about that from before they enter into the engine as an applicant... We verify, we guarantee that they will talk to somebody on our team, whether they have a job for them or not.
I want to know there's a human behind the scenes here, and they're sensing, verifying everything, sense checking everything, doing everything properly.
What else are candidates worried about?
For the first time this year, Bullhorn interviewed not only staffing industry professionals, but a handful of job seekers, as well. While a few common themes emerged, in general, candidates today feel like they are fighting an uphill battle with very little chance of breaking through to find a job or even to be heard. A few specific challenges they mentioned:
- Fake job postings: Many people noted that employers often post the same jobs over and over again without ever filling them. The most experienced have become attuned to the subtle signals like no salary range on the posting, or generic language.
- Blackhole of job boards: Candidates continually say that one of their biggest frustrations is that they apply to dozens or even hundreds of jobs on LinkedIn or Indeed and never get a single response – “crickets” they said.
- Scam outreach: Candidates mentioned an overwhelming number of unsolicited texts, job postings that turned out to be multi-level marketing schemes, or outreach from fake recruiters.
- Overwhelming applicant volume and “resume fluffing”: As reflected in the survey results, the candidates we spoke with said how discouraging it can be to know you are competing with hundreds and hundreds of applicants for every job, and that everyone has used AI to optimize for the job description.
One thing really jumped out from these candidate conversations, by and large these bad experiences are coming when candidates apply through job boards or employer web sites. The declining experience among job-seekers should be a real opportunity for staffing firms. Their services are more in demand than ever. Recruiters will only put legitimate opportunities in front of a candidate. Experienced recruiters can tell which candidates are genuine. And all the recruiters we spoke with make a point of communicating with candidates frequently, with AI allowing recruiters to reach even more talent than ever.
I empathize with job seekers right now, because the job board situation, it doesn't matter which one you're using, it's bleak.
Candidate loyalty hits 91% when recruiters reach out at least once a week
71% of candidates want to hear from their recruiters once a week or more, about the same level as the last two years, but only 56% say that is happening. Only 42% of AI skeptics say their recruiters reached out that often, and this group were almost twice as likely to say they stopped working with a recruiter because there wasn’t enough communication. Frequent proactive outreach directly addresses the pain points of responsiveness and support. Several recruitment leaders shared that their candidates are craving as much communication as they can give them and are quite happy with some of it being automated, as long as it actually conveys information about where they stand in the process. It is becoming more and more clear that ideal talent engagement relies on a hybrid team of humans and digital tools.
What candidates seem to want most from the job application process right now is connection. They're willing to apply to thousands of jobs knowing most applications will go nowhere, but when someone takes time to call them, even if it's just to acknowledge their application, you can tell they're incredibly grateful. And very often, they come back.
Career support also drives optimism
As is evident in the data shared so far, optimism is strongly associated with candidate satisfaction and positive experiences in recruitment. Recruiters should actively try to foster enthusiasm by delivering real value, understanding, and support to candidates. 90% of those who are optimistic about AI in the hiring process would keep working with their recruiter as compared to just 66% of pessimists. Core recruiting services are the engine creating loyal talent and the differentiator that job boards cannot duplicate. They are also at the very heart of what staffing firms were created to do. It helps candidates reach for the future they want and it creates real optimism even in the face of challenges.