Dive Brief:
- Recruiters are finding candidates faster thanks to artificial intelligence tools, but that speed is not translating into candidate confidence, according to data sent to HR Dive by TestGorilla.
- While 72% of the more than 1,400 U.S. talent professionals surveyed said AI made finding candidates quicker, a third of those who reported as much said they gained no confidence in the solidity of the candidates — and 18% said their confidence actually fell.
- In order to ensure these candidates can do the job, recruiters “are making up the difference themselves, by hand,” per TestGorilla, an AI recruiting platform. But recruiters, per various surveys, are already struggling under an unprecedented number of applications.
Dive Insight:
More than 2 in 3 recruiters told TestGorilla they spend an hour or more manually checking a candidate’s credentials, while 30% said they spend two hours or more.
“Recruiters got a better search engine and a worse index in the same 12 months,” said Wouter Durville, CEO and co-founder of TestGorilla. “Every sourcing tool sells reach, and reach is close to free now. The expensive thing is a shortlist you can defend to a hiring manager, and most tools give recruiters no way to tell a checked claim from an unchecked one.”
Such is especially important in a time when applications per hire have tripled since 2021, according to an analysis released earlier this year by recruiting platform Ashby. Open roles tend to garner an average of 300 applications, Ashby said.
One upside of AI tool use for recruiters, however, has been more hands-on time with candidates, a report from the American Staffing Association said in June. Call time had increased to a record 286 minutes per week, reflecting where recruiters were putting time gains made by AI tool use.
“Doubling call time in two years is a significant finding, and it tells a compelling story about where AI adoption is actually paying off,” an ASA executive said at the time.
But amid the deluge of applicants, recruiters are also having to get more creative in sourcing candidates they can trust — including by recruiting outside of work, like at restaurants and grocery stores, per a Zety report from April.
