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How technology is helping startups hire the right candidates

Sudhanshu Ahuja

January 8, 2021

Startups live in a dynamic environment that is often driven by challenging goals. Also, there is typically a pressure to achieve these targets whilst utilizing limited resources and time. Due to these tight budgets and schedule constraints, hiring is an area where they cannot afford to make mistakes.

Startups depend on the commitment and expertise of their employees to take them to the next level. A wrong hiring choice can be costly both financially and in Lost Time. A CareerBuilder survey noted that companies lost an average of $14,900 on every bad hire. Moreover, every mismatch of the role and employee pushes them back from their path to success.

The good news is that Startups are now using technology to hire the right candidates. Apart from eliminating human errors and judgment from the hiring process, technology also helps them to expedite their hiring process. Although it may seem like a significant investment at first,  the value of onboarding a highly qualified team, with a streamlined recruitment process quickly offsets the initial cost.

Here is a round-up of technologies and tools that startups can utilize to fast-track their hiring process and recruit only the best talent.

  • Sourcing correctly to reach the right applicants

    Sourcing is often the first step in hiring, but it does not have to be an area where you spend most of your time. However, talent professionals frequently spend almost 13 hours a week in sourcing. Traditional methods of searching for top talent are not always the most effective. When your requirements are unique, or you have a mandate to hire a large team with niche skills, it becomes even more challenging and the value of the technology becomes clear.

    With challenging requirements, you want a smart solution to deliver your mandates. Sourcing platforms can automate your Search and develop a targeted talent pipeline. Some of these tools are using Artificial Intelligence and analytics to fine-tune and automate your searches. The result is an intelligently sourced pool of new candidates, every day.

    When the pipeline is readily available, your recruiters will save several precious hours of search. They can immediately start engaging with the candidates and have meaningful conversations with them due to additional time availability.

  • Sourcing correctly to reach the right applicants

    Manual processing of resumes can compromise the efficiency of the hiring process. The impact is more prominent for startups that want to make decisions quickly.

    Due to the time constraints, recruiters tend to give only 7.4 seconds to each resume that they receive. Often, Talent Acquisition professionals have a lot on their plate and are tasked to fulfill their mandates within short timelines. When technology comes into this space, the result is a finely-pruned list of candidates who have automatically been assessed, scored, and ranked for the given job opening, before the recruiter reaches out!

    impress.ai is an Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning-Powered Platform, which delivers Recruitment Automation and outstanding candidate experiences. The Impress chatbots will engage with the candidates during their application, assess them based on your job role requirements, and rank them in our dashboard or your ATS, based on their performance. From here, your team can proceed with the next steps in your interview process.
    The Chatbots can also integrate Video Interviews, and any Third-Party Assessments into the Chatbot-led conversation, mitigating the need to schedule these recruitment steps separately. Finally, the Chatbots are equipped with Q&A functionality so that candidate questions are answered automatically.
  • Virtual hiring

    The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has fast-tracked the developments being made with remote working and virtual hiring. For instance, many organizations have become more comfortable with remote working, and after what can be called a test run, several of them are considering adopting this for the long term. Read this article from the New York Times to learn how organizations are shifting towards virtual hiring – Job Interviews Without Interviewers, Products of the Pandemic.

    This situation has also prompted recruiters to explore virtual hiring. Many of them have warmed up to automated video interviews. Using these tools, recruiters can administer a set of questions to the candidates, which can help to connect the hiring managers and the candidates. Many platforms record the answers which the recruiters can view at a convenient time, along with technologies to automatically assess the recorded answers.

  • Assessing the applicants to find the right job-fit and culture-fit

    Hiring the right employees is all about finding the right fit. More often than not, startups are looking for unicorn candidates who can challenge the status quo and fuel innovation. Such candidates are difficult to come by.

    One solution is to hire more experienced candidates with a proven track record. However, this talent comes at a price and typically has more expectations. Another option is to hire with the right attitude and potential.

    Unfortunately, interviews are not always the right solution for this. Despite using the best methods, several hiring managers and recruiters still depend on gut feelings while making hiring decisions. A better approach is to use assessments that have been designed to assess particular attributes. These tests evaluate an individual’s skills, knowledge, abilities, traits, attitudes, and more. Moreover, they can help you identify the candidate’s potential, and even validate your existing talent so you can hire more of the same!

    Such assessment tools allow you to administer questions that relate to the set of attitudes and traits that match the job opening. Based on the answers, you can probe further during the interviews for additional assurance.

  • Onboarding and engagement

    Gone are the days when onboarding would begin on the day of joining! In these times, pre-boarding engagement has become crucial to keep candidates warm and reduce the risk of any last-minute surprises.

    Historically, onboarding was a term that referred to the processes of form-filling and handing over decks of company policies.  These days, it is a much broader term for a range of activities and processes that enable new starters to become productive from day one.

    Early productivity is even more crucial for startups that are battling a time crunch. Pre-boarding tools provide a glimpse to the new joiner about how the organization is structured. Modern pre-boarding is now essential to deliver a delightful candidate experience and to start the new chapter with positivity.

  • In conclusion

    No startup can become successful on just the basis of a great idea. What they need is a team of talented employees who can translate this idea into reality. In light of this, their recruitment habits form the foundation of their success. With the help of technology,  startups can boost their hiring performance and help to build their desired environment.

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