AI-Driven ATS for High-Volume Hiring: Managing Applications at Scale

Working efficiently within a high-volume hiring strategy is challenging for your HR staff. They need to process many resumes while avoiding bias and hiring the best talent. Nearly half of recruiters say that screening candidates is the most difficult and time-consuming part of their job. At the same time, attrition and hiring bias remain pressing recruitment issues. Introducing AI into the recruitment process is expected to overcome these challenges. With AI-powered tools, hiring at scale will no longer be a headache, as recruiters will know how to navigate the process while still getting the results needed.

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Let's take a look at how AI is helping with recruiting. 

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What is high-volume hiring?

It's hard to pin down this term because it covers several scenarios:

1. A company creates a lot of job openings and expects them to be filled within a certain, often limited, time frame. 
2. During a recruiting campaign, the firm sees an extremely high number of applications for a position.

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In either case, there is a need for a high volume hiring strategy. Let's take a look at why companies choose hiring at scale:

• Seasonal demand for employees. This may be due to the specifics of the industry, such as needing workers for harvest or public events.
• Business is growing rapidly. This happens when additional offices or branches are opened in other cities/countries.
• The company is entering new markets or introducing new activities. Bulk hiring helps when an organization decides to expand not only horizontally but also vertically. IT companies often launch sustainability initiatives or create startups using proven startup tools and advice. One way or another, all of this requires them to hire new people. 

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Image source: Unspalsh

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Another reason for bulk hiring, although not as pleasant, is high employee turnover. Bulk hiring allows you to quickly replace lost employees or create a backup pool of candidates. 

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We must warn you that a high volume hiring strategy is not a cure-all for the difficulties associated with sourcing and hiring candidates. There are some challenges that HR professionals face.

Key challenges of high-volume hiring

The situations outlined below are not exceptions, but rather real-life situations that even the most experienced team can face:

Boring, repetitive tasks that eat up time

The hiring process typically involves many repetitive tasks - from creating a job description and placing it, to processing applications and manually selecting candidates. While recruiters are performing routine tasks, they are actually wasting time because valuable employees are being hired by your competitors. 

Lack of money and recruiters

Often, a high-volume recruiting strategy does not match the resources available. You may have a small budget and not enough recruiters to process applications. As a result, your HR department is overwhelmed with tasks. Instead of successful hiring, this leads to recruiter burnout.

A recruitment process prone to bias

Overloaded with tasks and aspects to keep track of during the hiring process, recruiters can accidentally show bias or draw unreasonable, if not hasty, conclusions about candidates. 

All of this bears little resemblance to the idea of diverse teams and unbiased attitudes. 

Poor candidate experience

Imagine juggling hundreds of resumes and trying to keep up. As a result, you can't see what's important in each resume because they all look the same. And while you are juggling a bunch of hiring tasks, each candidate is waiting for your feedback, expecting you to pay attention to them. But you don't because you don't have time, forgot, or didn't notice.

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Is it really that bad? Let's not get frustrated. The AI-based bulk hiring tools we mentioned above are the solution to such problems.

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How to make high-volume hiring work: AI-based application management at scale

AI is more than just a buzzword. It can truly be a game changer, improving the hiring process itself and enriching your business with the most appropriate talent. Let's take a look at how it's done.

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) for all your recruiting needs 

If you're looking for a proven and fast AI recruiting solution that covers the entire spectrum of recruiting tasks, you should consider this system. A state-of-the-art ATS is usually an AI ATS, meaning it uses Artificial Intelligence by default. This makes recruiters' work automated, trackable, and supported by data analytics. Thanks to AI candidate tracking, recruiters can keep all work tasks under one roof, not separated, track the trajectory of each candidate, respond to candidate requests on time, and get reports on the effectiveness of the work performed. 

AI tools for candidate screening 

Instead of screening candidates manually, you can now let AI do it for you. The original purpose of AI-powered bulk hiring tools - to boost productivity and automate tasks - is fully realized in this case. As a result, your recruiters can do things that require more human involvement, such as empathy, support, experience-based feedback, and more. 

AI-based background check and pre-assessment

Before human intervention, AI can check candidates' experience, compare it to the job description, and create an initial shortlist of candidates. Another task that can be done simultaneously is the preliminary assessment using surveys, tests or chatbots. The main idea is to identify each candidate's personality traits, values, plans, and expectations. In the case of hiring at scale, such an AI application looks quite beneficial, although it still has room for improvement. 

AI-curated candidate experience 

At first glance, bulk hiring tools make the hiring process less human, as they still rely on AI-driven decision-making. In fact, according to surveys, 62% of candidates believe that AI can help make the process more human. AI ensures quality initial communication by answering common questions and keeping candidates engaged, making it seem like recruiters are responding. And then the real human recruiters come into play, all contributing to a better candidate experience. 

AI-powered onboarding and training platforms

The onboarding process involves a variety of administrative tasks and document management, especially in a large hiring environment. It makes sense to provide employees with a comprehensive onboarding platform so they have all the work documents, instructions, and tools to communicate with colleagues and managers at their fingertips. In addition, the same platform can be equipped with learning tools to provide employees with ongoing training related to their current job responsibilities or for upskilling. 

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Image source:https://fitsmallbusiness.com/ai-hiring-trends-and-statistics/

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Do you feel like you need a lot of AI tools to handle your high-volume recruiting needs? The good news is, you don't. There is only one solution: a comprehensive AI-powered ATS. It includes everything you need to make better hires. 

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Benefits you get from an AI-enabled ATS for high-volume hiring

Once you add an AI applicant tracking system to your hiring process, get ready to reap some tangible results.

You save money

Companies often report significant cost savings when using AI, especially generative AI in HR and recruiting. And that is exactly what an ATS will give you. Yes, the initial investment in this software can be costly. However, once purchased and properly configured, this system will pay for itself within months. 

You get only the best talent

Here's something you need to know:

• Artificial Intelligence works tirelessly around the clock (something humans can barely do);
• AI algorithms can process huge amounts of data in minutes, while it would take a human months to do the same amount of work. 

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We think this is a pretty compelling reason to integrate an AI system into your recruiting process. With such deep data analysis provided, you get not just candidates, but the best fit for your organization.

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Time-to-hire can be significantly accelerated

In a high-volume hiring situation, the speed of hiring decisions is critical. Artificial Intelligence gives companies the speed they need, so the time savings are not only compelling but justified. Need some numbers? Statistics show that companies can reduce the time-to-hire by 90% thanks to AI. 

You can ensure diversity and inclusion in the workplace

AI can process job applications regardless of a candidate's age, gender, nationality, and other characteristics, focusing solely on skills and experience. This approach helps reduce human bias and ensures diversity and inclusion in the workplace. All this contributes to a healthy team environment and is a sign of a sustainable and responsible business. 

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Conclusion

Now that we've seen how valuable a modern, AI-powered ATS can be in high-volume hiring scenarios, there's one more step to take. You need to figure out what your company's high-volume hiring challenges are, and what tools you already have in place to complete hiring tasks in such an environment. After that, focus on choosing an AI ATS that can provide you with all the tools you need to make bulk hiring less daunting. Don't forget to train your HR professionals on how to leverage the system to make things run smoother.

AI is here to help, so use it. 

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