How Over-Automation Can Be Damaging For A Company’s Hiring Process

Can over-automating damage a company’s hiring process?

Automation is used as an innovative solution for companies wanting to streamline their hiring process. It possesses the capability to complete recruitment tasks, faster and more efficiently than previous ‘traditional recruitment‘ methods. However, ‘over-automation’ can occur when employers become solely dependent on automated methods to complete hiring processes, with very little human input.

Too much hiring automation can be difficult to quantify. How can you measure exactly what classifies as ‘too much’? Whilst this isn’t always so straightforward, an automation overload in recruitment can be recognised as incorporating a technological input into the hiring process, where it may not be completely necessary or beneficial to both the employer and candidate.

By no means are we discrediting the advancement of technology within the hiring sector. It has endless time-saving and performance improving abilities. But overuse can be damaging for various different reasons… It’s important to establish how hiring teams will work alongside technology and not become too reliant on its automated solutions.
 

The risks of over-automation:

Loss of human interaction

Job seekers still prefer to communicate and interact with potential employers rather than undergo a fully automated hiring experience. A recent study showed 77% of candidates still favour human interaction during their job hunt. Arguably, candidates are expressing their desire for communication and conversation between themselves and the employer or recruiter.

Consequently, a fully automated experience can run the risk of creating a robotic recruitment strategy, that’s completely impersonal to the majority of prospective employees.
 

Does data become the priority?

Will data handling become of primary importance to employers, leaving the candidate and their needs secondary?

Whilst some may argue this is a good thing. It’s important to be aware of the risks of becoming completely dependent on data-led hiring decisions.

The modern recruiter’s role will change with the incorporation of technology. It will require additional investment into reskilling those to become more data-savvy and skilled in interpreting data to make the best hires. In the long run, this has the potential to become a much more effective recruitment strategy. The process of retraining can be financially daunting and a time-consuming prospect for some employers.

On the other hand, from a candidates perspective, some may feel their needs will become pushed to the side. With automation not having the capability to take into consideration, the candidate’s needs or acknowledge their feelings to treat them as a human rather than number in a large talent database.
 

Trust in technology

Could you be missing out on potentially great hires because of your reliance on automated initiatives to make important hiring decisions? Placing 100% trust in an overly automated hiring strategy can sometimes be risky. Take a look at Amazon’s recent AI recruitment system, which allegedly taught itself to downgrade resumes that contained the word “women’s”. This type of discrimination goes beyond an employers control if their hiring process is completely dependent on the overuse of automation.
 

How to effectively manage automation in recruitment:

Distinguish room for improvement

Take your time and be meticulous when planning tech incorporation. Not every recruitment step needs an automation overhaul. It’s far more effective to review current processes and determine which areas could benefit from the technological input. Rather than making rushed decisions that could lead to drastic costly changes.

Focus on where you want to see improvements and determine the software that could make this possible. For example, a hiring professional looking to manage their time more efficiently could reap the benefits of automated job application software.
 

Find the balance

It’s all about finding the right balance between automation and human input. Technology is most effective when used alongside human input. Employ technology to assist in the managing of high volume recruitment. To ensure the focus is reinvested back into the candidate by interacting and getting to know their abilities beyond a CV.

Hiring technology is functional in completing routine tasks with consistent results, whilst human recruiters have skills hard to replicate through automation.

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