Employer

To dive into game-changing sourcing and recruiting practices using AI, Talk Talent to Me went live with these top leaders in New York and San Francisco:

Director of Talent Sourcing, Activision Blizzard, Justin Ghio
VP of Talent and Culture, Humane, José Cong
Director, Talent Acquisition, Employer Branding & Awareness, PandoLogic, Jenny Cotie Kangas
Chief Technology Officer, Hired, Dave Walters

Time is precious so we’re sharing the top tactics from the workshops so you can start cutting down on time-consuming, redundant tasks. This frees you up to focus on what’s most important – the human-centric aspects of recruiting that maximize impact. 
Need to get started ASAP? Get straight to our free template with the top tech candidate personas and resources for crafting your ideal outreach sequences!

Change your approach: speed > experience
José Cong suggests taking on an analytical perspective. Earlier this year, he did an A/B test with his team. “A” was his most experienced recruiter with over 25 years of experience. “B” was a coordinator he coached on ChatGPT. Five months later, “B” was outperforming the recruiting veteran at a 3X pace. 
The team even recently closed their first two principal-level engineers (the highest level you can get as an IC). To him, that was not a coincidence. He saw a pattern. 
José’s coordinator was taking his guidance a step further, dropping in the resume, job description, and manager notes into ChatGPT. He asked the tool for guidance on how to approach and hold a conversation. It was working.
Augmented over artificial
This experience reinforced to José that AI was trainable. In fact, he says, “I hate the terminology ‘artificial intelligence.’ It’s augmented intelligence. If we think about it from that perspective, we’ll be less intimidated by it and more open-minded. This will allow us to do what we do best. We’re in the people business. Our job is not to write a great email or come up with a list of candidates if we get to a place where we are recognizing great talent.”
José believes talent teams now have the ability to craft a message so individuals see something different than what they’re getting and it makes them stop. He calls it the “aha moment.” 
Focus on relationship-building
To José, the challenge is getting to that “aha” email. He says, “How do we personalize it? How do we make it representative of our brand? How do we figure out the best way to make that connection? And once we do that, how do we initiate the conversation? Once we have them on the phone or on video, that’s the feature allowing us, as recruiters, to not waste months trying to figure out how to become an expert in a subject we don’t know.
For a recruiter, it’s not about how many candidates you get through or how many closes. We judge ourselves in terms of the quality of people.” 
He wants recruiters to spend time developing relationships instead of searching mindlessly through LinkedIn. A tool like ChatGPT handles the remedial work that will eventually burn us out. 
ChatGPT in action: Intake to email
Acting as a new recruiter, Justin Ghio demonstrates how to use ChatGPT to:

Get closer to knowing what good looks like
Build trust with a hiring manager
Sound like a quality recruiter to a candidate (in a job field you may know nothing about!)

What ten questions should I ask a hiring manager about this role?

Linking to a job description for a Director of Product, Justin asks ChatGPT what ten questions to ask a hiring manager for the role. He points out the results are cookie-cutter questions. So, the next step is to make these more product-focused. He says, “This is where you can really see the power of it. 

This AI technology is not output-based. It’s input-based. We are always going to be the input to make this technology powerful. Don’t be scared that it’s going to take your job. You are the key that unlocks its potential.”
Now, with these 10 questions, you might go into the intake meeting and get all the answers. But, you still don’t know much about this rec. 
Hiring managers want to know: Do you know about this role? Can you sell it to candidates?
Write me a Boolean string.

Again, tailor it to the role:

Justin doesn’t recommend copying this output and launching it into LinkedIn, a CRM, or an ATS. Instead, he considers it a solid starting point. 
“At Activision Blizzard, we work off buckets to create booleans. This gives you the ability to extend and find candidates quickly. Everything you know about [the company] and everything you learned from the hiring manager based on the questions you got, you then superimpose on the search to continue making it compelling.”
Then, you might take a deeper dive into who your company is up against.  
What companies are the main competitors?

Write a candidate a compelling email
By now, you’ve: 

Completed the intake meeting and have good notes.
Acquitted your target and know what good looks like 
Evaluated core competitors

Next, it’s time for outreach. Justin requests a compelling email to a potential candidate. 

The result is a standard email but Justin wants you to ask yourself: How many quality pieces of iteration can I get done in the next five minutes? 
Again, ChatGPT offers a starting point. Justin explains it isn’t about getting an entire email. “Maybe it’s to get the first four sentences,  the hook, or a good subject line.”
Next, he requests something more interesting and creative. 

“For [Activision Blizzard], which is in the creative space, this is where we see the dividends pay off because the verbiage will change thematically.”
From here, continue optimizing.
Make it more concise.

Justin tells his team, “If you copy and paste this, then send it out, you’ll get a meeting from me on your calendar. But if you’re using bits and pieces, it will help accelerate. 
Again, in the creative space, it’s really hard to come up with compelling messages for game developers and figure out what will stick. We have to use [tools] to give us a leg up.”

Justin praises how ChatGPT “points out the key responsibilities, which are parlayed from the job description we fed it. This is extremely helpful and saves time. It allows us to show up to the first meeting with a good candidate instead of making it a two-week process.”
Using AI in an equitable way
Establish guidelines
Justin explains that at Activision Blizzard, AI is “never a decisive step. It is only a guide. We believe any system we have that has automation doesn’t use any simplified output as a determinant factor. It uses it as an indicative factor. 
It is not deciding anything, but simply giving us inference and the ability to iterate and ideate quicker. There’s power in the ability to draw inferences from candidates.”
Justin offers further insight with this scenario: 
“We are familiar with the DEI statistics about candidates not applying for a job when they don’t meet 100% of the qualifications. Let’s take the flip side of this as an example. Let’s say Person A didn’t add technology to their resume because they used it in one project. But their peer, Person B, wrote it on their resume. We can discover, because of AI, there’s a correlation and you should ask Person A about the technology Person B included on their resume. 
It’s giving that inference to make an even better call. That could be the missing link between an instant reject and a potential hire.” 
Justin believes the best results come from following guidelines around ChatGPT in combination with your “personal flair and stylistic input.”
Be intentional
In the case that AI does have some evil in it, José and his team “go out of [their] way to make sure [they] are investing time and effort into cycling through various demographics. I think that is the best of both worlds. You’re hopefully automating something that will take away the unconscious biases.
Just in case it wasn’t untrained with AI, you have to be intentional about making sure you’re targeting underrepresented individuals. The best thing is you can do it at a much higher rate.”
Use a bias checker
Jenny Cotie Kangas points out that generative AI is trained on everything from the Internet before 2021. She says, “If you’re using it for content generation, it’s really important to have a bias checker like Textio to make sure you’re not biased against people at scale.”
Tip: Install WebChatGPT, an extension allowing you to integrate post-2021 information into ChatGPT searches.
A CTO’s take on ChatGPT
Hired CTO, Dave Walters sees his team using ChatGPT more and more. He says, “We’re finding more opportunities to leverage it and make our lives more efficient. I embrace it.”
That’s not without caution though.
At Hired, Dave and his team are trying to “get ahead by setting policies and procedures for when it should and shouldn’t be used, and what you should and should not do with it.
I recommend getting policies in place so teams know what to do and what not to do. Don’t let that policy be ‘don’t use it.’ You will fall behind. It’s inevitable. People will use it anyway so find the safe ways to implement it and the ways that will benefit your employees, team members, and company.”
ChatGPT prompt ideas for talent professionals
How else can ChatGPT help talent pros? Just ask it! Jenny says, “You can ask generative AI to be your consultant to help you figure out where you can use it.” Here’s a simple example for talent acquisition leaders: 

“I have ChatGPT build my project plans for how I handle the day. If I need to respond to an email, I can take the email and ask it to draft a response.”
Write a better business case
Bring ChatGPT a specific situation. Let’s say you’re not getting the candidates you need from your job board advertising. If you need to request more budget, Jenny recommends developing a use case by asking ChatGPT to help you write a compelling argument.
Support your talent acquisition strategy
Legislation changes quite often and talent professionals need to stay in the loop to optimize their TA strategy. Jenny explains, “The Colorado Equal Pay Act says to put pay and benefits on a job advertisement. If I’m looking at that with my talent acquisition strategy as just Colorado, I’m missing the bigger picture. Take the block of information about the Colorado Equal Pay Act and take CCPA and New York’s Local Law 144. 
Then, ask ChatGPT to give the meta implications of these laws to scale that instead of looking at the tiny aspect of a specific piece. That is what we should be using to build talent strategies.” 
Sharp vs non-sharp questions
Now that you have some questions to ask, let’s cover how to ask AI effectively. Jenny emphasizes, “You have to ask the right, sharp question to get the answer.” Here’s her example:
“What is AI?”
This is a non-sharp question, which will just present a broad response not specific to your individual use case. “Think of generative AI as having all the hats. To get it to respond more precisely, you want to call out the specific hat you need it to wear.” 
This is what Jenny considers a sharp question, modified to be specific for a stronger output:
“As a Talent Acquisition leader considering leveraging ChatGPT in my day-to-day, what are some things I should consider choosing to begin?”

Interested in crafting better candidate outreach? Try our free template. More

Catch up on the June 2023 episodes of Hired’s Talk Talent to Me podcast featuring recruiting and talent acquisition leadership who share strategies, techniques, and trends shaping the recruitment industry. Plus, tune in to a few special episodes recorded live to share insights and tips on leveraging AI for recruitment. 

Software engineering to talent acquisition with Tony Kochar, Director of Talent Acquisition at Hearst
Early career hiring with Ben Siegel, CEO and Co-Founder of Abode 
Using ChatGPT and generative AI with Jenny Cotie Kangas, Director of Employer Branding and Awareness at PandoLogic and Dave Walters, Chief Technology Officer at Hired
The advancement and impact of AI with Justin Ghio, Director of Talent Sourcing at Activision Blizzard and José Cong, VP of Talent and Culture at Humane 
Staying innovative with Daniel Benavides, Director of Talent at Recursion

1. Tony Kochar, Director of Talent Acquisition at Hearst
Tony leverages a background in software engineering to bring technical expertise to talent acquisition. Find out what motivated this pivot and what he considers the best use of ChatGPT.  Tony also shares his take on when it’s necessary to insist on working on-site, drawing on data around remote work and productivity. 
“You have to believe in the companies and you have to believe in the people you are representing and recruiting, your candidates.”
Listen to the full episode.

2. Ben Siegel, CEO and Co-Founder of Abode
Ben’s company, Abode, began as a corporation hiring students to mow lawns for $25 an hour. It has since evolved into a thriving company helping other organizations attract and retain early career talent. This talent group is largely comprised of Gen-Zers. Ben, a Gen-Zer himself, explains what this generation of jobseekers wants and debunks common misconceptions older generations have about them.
“You can boil everything [Gen-Z jobseekers] want down into four main things; transparency, connections, respect, and expectations.”
Listen to the full episode.
3. Jenny Cotie Kangas, Director of Employer Branding and Awareness at PandoLogic and Dave Walters, Chief Technology Officer at Hired
Live from NYC, this episode delves into generative AI and its role in the world of talent acquisition. Jenny shares how she is conceptualizing AI and leveraging it best, why you don’t have to be afraid of generative AI, and some examples of how to use ChatGPT as a talent professional. Dave shares his thoughts as a tech leader on implementing workplace AI policies and why it’ll be important. 
“One of the things to remember is, [with] any sort of generative AI, you have to ask the right sharp question to get the answer.” 
Listen to the full episode.
4. Justin Ghio, Director of Talent Sourcing at Activision Blizzard and José Cong, VP of Talent and Culture at Humane
In the next installment of AI in recruitment (live from San Francisco), guests discuss why we should embrace AI. Justin demonstrates how to maximize the potential AI in recruiting. José reiterates why AI is the future and how he and his team use it responsibly. 
“I hate the terminology ‘artificial intelligence’; it’s augmented intelligence. If we think about it from that perspective, we’re going to be less intimidated by it and we’re going to be more open-minded.”
Listen to the full episode.
5. Daniel Benavides, Director of Talent at Recursion
In this episode, Daniel reminds talent professionals to stay innovative throughout their careers. He says, “You are never too busy to be innovative!” Daniel offers the inside scoop into Recursion’s inclusion model and strategy. He also discusses the company’s employee resource groups and why they are a real community. 
“I can only speak to my lived experience – I can’t speak to the experience that our [Latinx or Black employees] have – so being able to have an ERG that is focused on that pillar or that marginalized group is key so we can ensure our policies are more inclusive.”
Listen to the full episode.
Want more insights into recruiting tips and trends?
Tune into Hired’s podcast, Talk Talent to Me, to learn about the strategies, techniques, and trends shaping the recruitment industry—straight from top experts themselves. More

How do you eliminate bias from the recruitment process? Watch this on-demand webinar to hear experts discuss key findings and data from Hired’s 2023 State of Wage Inequality in the Tech Industry report. Get the approaches used by leading companies to overcome biases, creating a fair and inclusive hiring process.
Hear from:

SVP People Strategy, Hired, Sam Friedman
Director of Talent Acquisition, Cedar, Mike Aldous
Director of People Enablement, Remote, Amanda Day
Lead Talent Acquisition, GTM, International, Sonatype, Heidi King-Underwood
Founder & CEO, Hustle Crew, Abadesi Osunsade

Read an excerpt of the conversation here and scroll down to access the full webinar. 
What are commercial benefits to employers adapting to progressive times wanting all employees of all backgrounds to thrive? What do those policies look like?
Amanda Day
It’s not surprising to any of us here that diversity can translate into better performance and commercial benefits. I think it includes things from better financial performance, higher productivity of your teams, better employee retention, and higher engagement. There are so many areas this touches on and I think it’s talked about a lot but it can’t go without saying how important that is and how impactful it can be on business success. 
We also tend to see younger generations not as keen to work for a company not promoting interest and commitment to diversity. That’s really important to consider when you’re looking at attracting and retaining top talent. 
As for policies, there are so many to approach. It’s really about building a culture in which everyone feels welcome and included. They feel encouraged to speak and you ensure there’s psychological safety. 
Diversity goes hand in hand with inclusivity. That doesn’t just mean having a diverse group of people. Inclusivity is something else you have to continuously work on and work toward. Make sure people know their voices can are heard and they have a place for sharing. 
Increased transparency is always really important. It could be having conversations in public channels and public documentation instead of doing a DM or a private email. It can help ensure everyone gets an equal chance to contribute.
At Remote, we try to make sure even though we’re across different time zones, everyone is always able to contribute and share their perspectives and insights. That’s how we’re going to achieve our best outcomes and be the best that we can be. 
Mike Aldous
When I think about the people policies benefitting both the company and the employee, the first that comes to mind is obviously the opportunity or the ability to hire remotely. The industry Cedar is in, which is healthcare, impacts everyone. Our goal is to engage with fifty percent of patients in the US in the next five years, and fifty percent of all patients is fifty percent of everyone in the United States. That’s a really diverse population.
Cedar has been fortunate to have headquarters in New York City and we have the opportunity to hire people remotely across the US. This allowed us to connect with more underrepresented people for these various opportunities. 
Second, as the voice of healthcare providers, it’s our job to make patients feel welcomed and confident through their healthcare journey. Every patient is different and has a unique background. To design a product that works for everyone, you need to hire a diverse workforce.
If we don’t build for the patient’s needs, we risk them seeking care elsewhere or worse avoiding healthcare entirely. 
We encourage people to block time in their day for childcare and for carpools. Our parental leave policy is sixteen weeks for all parents. We have a lactation support policy to ensure new parents can meet their responsibilities. Those are a few things Cedar’s thinking about. 
Sam Friedman
From a diversity perspective, we’ve seen transparency in our every day helps. So, what does your calendar look like? Even as the head of HR, I try to keep my calendar open and have blocks for people to see.
I do go pick up my son and I am currently nursing my child. I have those blocks on my calendar. If it’s coming from the executive team, hopefully, it means other individuals in the company feel empowered to have that on their calendar too. 
One thing we are working toward over the last twelve months and have seen a large shift in is being transparent with our salary bands. If we are hiring you to do a job, regardless of where you are or what experience you bring, we want to make sure we’re paying you appropriately. Introducing those salary bands has been a critical policy.
Watch the full collaborative panel discussion to discover: 

How to create job descriptions and interviews to invite a diverse range of candidates
Types of bias affecting hiring decisions
Strategies for building a more inclusive definition of cultural fit
How to use technology to reduce bias in the recruitment process More

Experiencing an overwhelming volume of inbound applications? In a new episode of Talk Talent to Me, LTK’s Global Head of Talent and People Analytics Shally Steckerl shares the importance of balancing application friction and how to optimize the applications coming in (especially when it’s become so easy to apply). 

With Shally’s insights, let’s explore how to think about talent sourcing analytics in a new way and manage a flood of applications. 

Handling too many inbound applications

Shally has noticed a recent increase in candidate volume on LinkedIn. Reflecting on this, he says:

“It’s more people clicking on jobs. But compared to the per capita click per job per person, it’s gone down. It used to be that a hundred people would be looking for jobs and fifty of them would be clicking on jobs a day. Now, it’s ten thousand people looking for jobs, [and] more like a thousand people clicking them. 

There’s more indiscriminate clicking. We get the same person applying for dozens of jobs and [LinkedIn’s] Easy Apply doesn’t seem to really be a good idea anymore because we have too many applicants too quickly.” 

Tools like this enable low-intent candidates and result in a “fire hose of candidates,” which usually means fewer fits for a role but more work for the recruiter. Seeing how much time and money this wastes, Shally encourages talent professionals to shift to a big-picture view. 

Related: Connect with a curated pool of highly qualified tech candidates on Hired.

Evaluate your hiring tools

Shally points out teams may be spending a lot of money on a tool “where only a quarter of one percent of the people is getting hired.” Can you relate?

Related: How to Secure Approval for New Tech Tools (Free Template)

“There are other tools where I’m spending less and getting more hires per capita. I need to think about that and try to improve the conversion of quality from LinkedIn by essentially decreasing the volume.

All the different aspects of recruiting start to come under the microscope and into question. Are they a good return on investment? As a recruiter, you want all the money to spend on all the tools because you don’t know what’s going to work. But when it’s your budget, you really start to look at what you’re spending your money on in a different way.”

Related: Get Internal Approval for Recruiting Tools: A Step-by-Step Playbook

4 Ways to better balance the hiring process

Over the last few years, there’s been a lot of talk about how important it is to reduce friction in the application process. That might include:

Removing the cover letter 

Not asking applicants for information already on their resume

Making the job application process mobile-friendly

But then the floodgates open.

Shally believes there needs to be a balance when it comes to reducing friction. “You want to reduce friction so you’re not making it inordinately awkward and difficult to apply. [At the same time,] you don’t want to reduce friction to the point where people can indiscriminately apply.”

So what can you do to achieve a balance? He suggests the following strategies.

1. Advertise jobs more selectively

“You could use, for example, programmatic advertising. This would spend your advertising dollars on destinations producing the outcome you want. Rather than looking for the outcome to be an indiscriminate number of applications, now we need to measure the source based on the percentage of interviews it generates.

Let’s say Source A has a hundred applicants but produced five interviews. Source B has ten applicants but also produced five interviews. Source B is producing higher quality per capita so I need to look at that.”

2. Prioritize outcomes over activity

“Activity refers to clicks and applies, which are really not relevant anymore. The outcome would be an interview or other results downstream. At the very least, you should be looking at which ones are making it to the interview because that’s a good indicator.” 

More on this later… 

3. Improve job description readability

A few tips to keep in mind:

Make job descriptions more gender-neutral. 

Make job descriptions interesting and appealing. 

Structure the order of information and how much information is present. 

Make job descriptions shorter (without removing the interesting parts).

Keep your company brand, mission, and vision apparent without excess text and long lists of bullet points.

Shally says you might say, “‘If you’re interested in this kind of job, you landed in the right place.’ or ‘This is the kind of job for people like this. If this is you or you are someone who does this, then this is the job.’ 

Then you have a little bit about what’s exciting about a job, the requirements to qualify the candidates, and the nice parts. Somebody will read that and know they’re in the right place and check those boxes. All the details need to be succinctly visible on the page.” 

You’ll also have people looking at the job and realizing it’s not a fit for them. They might actually opt out after looking at the minimum qualifications or because they don’t align with the mission. This provides an effective filter to reach the right people. 

4. Enhance employer brand

It’s also possible you have a high volume of applicants because people are just looking at the job and have no idea what your company does. Address this by creating an employer branding campaign to make more people aware of what your company does. 

“That way, they don’t have to determine that from the job posting itself. Candidates instead focus on reading the job requirements to see if they’re a fit.”

Related: 8 Ways to Hire Faster & Build a Better Employer Brand

Rethink your hiring metrics

In this episode, Shally emphasizes a focus on the quality of a hire over the activity numbers game. When evaluating the best sources, he likes to compare which source led to the most amount of interviews. 

So, why the interview? Why not go further back or ahead? 

Once you get a candidate and a hiring manager to agree to meet with each other (whether they actually do or not), consider it a win. This is still a positive indicator of quality according to Shally. Where things tend to no longer depend on a recruiter’s ability to attract people is beyond the interview. 

“Before the interview, we can’t measure quality because all we know is they applied – unless you want to look at every resume.

Anything beyond the interview is out of the control of the recruiter because the hiring manager is the one conducting the interviews to determine the actual hiring of a candidate.” 

Let’s consider the end of the funnel – the number of job offers. Here, you’re “looking at the quality of the entire process. That’s not just the source of the applicants. It’s the source of the interview experience, compensation, employment brand, hiring manager competencies as an interviewer, background check, and market conditions. These things don’t need to be tied to that source.

You would be crediting a source for an offer when, in reality, there’s more to the offer than the source. However, there’s not much more to the interview than the source.” 

Level up your talent sourcing  

Want more insight into reaching high-quality candidates in a flood of applicants? Download this eBook to uncover 8 ways to prevent and/or handle an overwhelming amount of inbound applications.

If your team needs some temporary or long-term help sourcing candidates for tech or sales roles, Hired can help! As an extension of your team, Hired Sourcers shortlist, screen, and manage communications to keep the process moving. Learn more about Hired Technical Sourcing services.

Want more insights just for recruiters?

Tune into Hired’s podcast, Talk Talent to Me, to learn about the strategies, techniques, and trends shaping recruitment and talent acquisition—straight from top experts themselves. More

Catch up on the May 2023 episodes of Hired’s Talk Talent to Me podcast featuring recruiting and talent acquisition leadership who share strategies, techniques, and trends shaping the recruitment industry. 

AI in talent acquisition with Justin Ghio, Director of Talent Sourcing at Activision Blizzard

Talent sourcing and people analytics with Shally Steckerl, Global Head of Talent Sourcing and People Analytics at LTK 

Hiring and building a successful team with Erica Maureen Carder, Head of Talent Lifecycle at Wellthy

1. Justin Ghio, Director of Talent Sourcing at Activision Blizzard

AI is taking every industry by storm and tech recruiting is no exception. Justin encourages talent professionals to view AI in recruitment as a tool to enhance productivity and hiring processes. He explains everything he knows about AI in the talent sphere, why it is misunderstood, and how to make it work for you. Read this blog to dive deeper into the episode.

“AI can’t do everything from start to finish for me. What it can do is give me 10 options to look at faster than I can think through one option.”

Listen to the full episode.

2. Shally Steckerl, Global Head of Talent Sourcing and People Analytics at LTK 

Shally shares why we need to find talent-sourcing tools other than LinkedIn, the importance of balancing application friction, and how to optimize the applications coming in (especially when it’s free to apply). He tells us why he considers the interview set-up to be the first marker of recruitment success – and why recruitment success should not only be based on the number of hires.

“You want to reduce friction so that you’re not making it inordinately awkward and difficult to apply but you also don’t want to reduce friction to a point where people can indiscriminately apply. There’s that fine balance.”

Listen to the full episode.

3. Erica Maureen Carder, Head of Talent Lifecycle at Wellthy

For Erica, finding the right kind of employees – ones prone to growth and seeking out challenges – is fundamental to success. She talks about why this individual attitude is the number one thing she looks for in prospective hires. She also shares what makes for capable employees and why there are no perfect candidates out there.

“If you have employees that are stagnant, guess what? They are not going to be engaged.”

Listen to the full episode.

Want more insights into recruiting tips and trends?

Tune into Hired’s podcast, Talk Talent to Me, to learn about the strategies, techniques, and trends shaping the recruitment industry—straight from top experts themselves. More

As a recruiter, talent acquisition specialist, or hiring manager, you may have experienced an overwhelming number of inbound job applicants. Sadly, with the ease of online job submissions, many of the candidates won’t meet the requirements but apply anyway. While a high number of job applicants could be described as a “good” problem, it creates new problems when the majority are poor matches. 

This makes the recruitment and hiring process challenging and consumes valuable time, especially on lean teams or in startups without dedicated recruiters, to sift through resumes to find qualified candidates. Fortunately, there are a few strategies and tactics to handle too many inbound applicants to a job but not enough qualified ones.

In this eBook, we’ll cover 8 ways to prevent and/or handle it when you have a flood of inbound candidates. But first, ask yourself…

Do You Need to Post Jobs Online?

There’s no rule that says you need to list your open roles on your site or within other channels, especially if you:

Don’t have the capacity to handle an overwhelmed inbound pipeline

Your company has had a reduction in force (RIF) or layoffs in the last six to 12 months. The optics of open roles, especially if they’re similar to eliminated ones, is bad for your employer brand and employee morale. 

Only have a few roles to fill due to internal changes or attrition

Outbound Candidates are 5x More Likely to Be Hired than Inbound

According to a 2022 article, companies saw greater success in hiring outbound candidates versus inbound candidates. Why? As one SVP of Talent said about inbound, “It’s the lowest-quality and lowest-ROI channel you have because of the sheer volume and lack of strategy involved.” 

Advice from LTK’s Global Head of Talent Sourcing and People Analytics on Too Many Inbound Job Applicants

In a new episode of Talk Talent to Me, LTK’s Shally Steckerl reflects on the recent increase in candidate volume he sees on LinkedIn:

“It’s more people clicking on jobs. But compared to the per capita click per job per person, it’s gone down. It used to be that a hundred people would be looking for jobs and fifty of them would be clicking on jobs a day. Now, it’s ten thousand people looking for jobs, but more like a thousand people clicking them. 

There’s more indiscriminate clicking. We get the same person applying for dozens of jobs and [LinkedIn’s] Easy Apply doesn’t seem to really be a good idea anymore because we have too many applicants too quickly.” 

Tools like this enable low-intent candidates and result in a “fire hose of candidates,” which usually means fewer fits for a role but more work for the recruiter. Seeing how much time and money this wastes, Shally encourages talent professionals to shift to a big-picture view. 

Related: Connect with a curated pool of highly qualified tech candidates on Hired.

The Big Picture Point of View of Too Many Inbound Job Applicants

Shally’s solution includes reducing friction just the right amount so there’s a balance in how easy it is to apply for positions. He suggests strategies including improving job description readability, enhancing employer brand, and prioritizing outcomes over activity. 

In fact, Shally emphasizes a focus on the quality of a hire over the activity (clicks and applies) numbers game.

So, what exactly should you be doing to reach those quality candidates in a flood of applicants? Use this eBook to uncover 8 ways to prevent and/or handle an overwhelming amount of inbound candidates. More

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is taking every industry by storm and tech recruiting is no exception. In a new episode of Hired’s Talk Talent to Me podcast, Activision Blizzard Director of Talent Sourcing Justin Ghio encourages talent professionals to view AI as a tool to enhance productivity and hiring processes. 

Any recruiter or TA professional knows how precious time is… and how time-consuming the talent search can be. AI helps free up recruiters and TA teams to focus on what they do best: relationship-building and delivering exceptional candidate experiences.

With Justin’s insights, let’s explore how AI empowers recruiters and TA professionals.

AI meets Talent Acquisition & Human Resources

While AI can feel overwhelming and even a bit scary in such people-centered roles, Justin assures talent professionals it’s not something to fear. 

He says, “I feel the perception is ‘It’s going to take my job. It’s going to replace everything I’m doing.’ But currently, it’s more about how you can make it work for yourself and understanding its limitation. I think that’s something we’ve realized: it can’t do everything from start to finish for me.”

Justin encourages TA professionals to focus on “how to use it to speed up processes and ideation without replacing what we do best.”

Reflecting on AI in HR tech, Justin explains it’s being “sold as something so much broader and bigger in our industry versus the incremental steps. AI is never going to close a candidate… or talk to an international candidate about types of credit cards to open while they’re abroad to build credit in the US. Those are human conversations. Those are things we still have to broker. We use the technology to get us to those conversations, but not impede them.”

So, how exactly can AI help you? 

Justin shares a few ways AI supports talent activities: 

Enhance candidate sourcing

Uplevel candidate communications

Let’s review some examples of how talent professionals and AI might join forces. 

1. Enhance candidate sourcing with AI

Justin finds the underlying AI’s natural language processing technology to be quite useful. Gone are the days of having to write developer and programmer and engineer. AI knows those are the same. 

Simply write “software developer” and anyone with the title “programmer” or “engineer” will surface too. “You’re saving time that scales out infinitely across your user base and second to second for recruiters.” 

Related: Hired Releases 2023 State of Software Engineers Report

The same goes for sending a message, then clicking “Contact Attempt One.” You probably don’t need to do both of those actions so rely on a machine that knows If the user sends an email, it moves the candidate to “Contact Attempt One” If they reply, it moves it to “Bonded.” Ditch the notepad and tally list on your desk. Justin encourages you to “lean on the AI to manage a lot of that minutia.”

Activision leans largely on AI for skill adjacency to target mid and entry-level candidates. “We’re able to see a match score based on someone’s skill rating. AI is looking at peers of individuals at organizations and based on skills they have, helps me understand the questions I need to ask. 

AI will verify the individual has a particular skill or that we need to confirm it because someone who worked there has this skill, but they don’t have it on their resume. The days of someone forgetting something on their resume will hopefully be forgotten as we move and the technology matures.”

While Justin believes Boolean search will still be a differentiating skill set, he does think: 

“Those who don’t use AI technology to speed up the iteration process will be left behind. I think the people who will continue to be the best Boolean searchers are the ones who can use AI to get 60-80% of the way there. 

Add the special sauce

Then, they put their special sauce on top and allow it to become uniquely their version of that boolean. This will continue to allow people to be great at those sub-skills in the world of sourcing.”

And by “special sauce,” Justin is referring to the human touch. 

After all, he says “Nobody’s excited about being the best phone screen scheduler. People are excited about being really memorable on the phone. They’re excited about being really punctual with getting things on the books with candidates and having meaningful conversations where candidates feel like they’re being respected, heard, and being given opportunities in the organization.”

2. Uplevel candidate communications 

Those human moments are what make working in recruiting or talent acquisition special.  “At Activision, we look at how to leverage technology to help us do more of what we’re best at…You’re better at a lot more dynamic parts. You work with candidates very well.” 

Related: Find your next opportunity in TA with Hired’s Tech Recruitment Collective

When it comes to making the case for this technology internally, Justin says the key is “understanding where that point of finality is – where that stopping point of what the technology is or isn’t.”

You want to capture how to leverage it to a certain point. “Our philosophy isn’t to use it to send all emails. It’s used to write ten rough copies. Then, take two or three of them and customize them.” Use AI to deliver something in five minutes which typically takes an hour.

When evaluating AI tools, how can talent professionals ensure they are being fair and equitable to candidates?

Justin advises you to consider these three questions: 

How does this work? 

Why does it work this way? 

What happens if I want to change it?

It’s essential to grasp the underpinnings and leverage them in a use case applicable to your environment. “There should be an underlying human element. Being able to author rules over top of the machine is really what I would have people ask vendors about,” Justin says.

Embrace collaborative intelligence

Justin views AI as “an invaluable tool to help us accelerate the ideation already happening in TA.” Recognize that AI is not a replacement for human expertise but a powerful tool to augment and accelerate recruitment processes. Think of AI as your strategic ally. It works best in collaboration with human expertise. 

Unlock its potential to drive efficiency, increase productivity, and attract top talent quickly. With the right approach, it can revolutionize recruitment while preserving the invaluable human touch that defines successful hiring. 

Start plugging in those prompts and questions keeping in mind you now “have a jumping-off point. It’s really for that starting block, not the ending.” 

Interested in unlocking the power of AI in recruitment?

Learn to use game-changing sourcing and recruiting practices with AI. Join the Talk Talent to Me workshop on Wednesday, May 24 at 6 pm PT at the Minna Gallery in SoMa. Top talent leaders in San Francisco will explore what AI means for the talent world and how you can use it to create powerful candidate experiences. More

Catch up on the April 2023 episodes of Hired’s Talk Talent to Me podcast featuring recruiting and talent acquisition leadership who share strategies, techniques, and trends shaping the recruitment industry. 

Putting people first with Kelly Minella, Head of Recruiting at Calendly

Investing in early talent with Krishna Kumar, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Quintrix 

Relearning and eliminating biases with Jenny Cotie Kangas, Director of Employer Branding and Awareness at PandoLogic

Creating a thriving company culture with Maryjo Charbonnier, CHRO at Kyndryl 

1. Kelly Minella, Head of Recruiting at Calendly

Put people first. You’ll be more likely to make quality hires and maintain a cohesive work environment, according to Kelly. In this episode, she shares how she knew her CEO cared about prioritizing people and the importance of a talent team having a shared understanding. Plus, Kelly tells how the introduction of interview training has made Calendly better and why you should always be asking for and reviewing candidate feedback.

“I applied [to Calendly], and my first conversation was with our CEO, Tope Awotona, and it was fabulous. I remember calling my mom afterward and being like, ‘Mom, that was special’. And the reason why, and why it has remained special, is how much priority he puts on people.”

Listen to the full episode.

2. Krishna Kumar, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Quintrix 

Investing in early talent is becoming more popular. Krishna discusses why businesses need to think more about this talent in the long term and how companies can better support their new recruits. He also dives into his game-changing post-deployment framework and why many candidates are falling short of the mark. 

“Career development, or lack thereof, is the number one reason for people to leave their jobs and explore other opportunities. So, you want to make sure that the candidates are constantly receiving the support, feedback, and career development to be successful.” 

Listen to the full episode.

3. Jenny Cotie Kangas, Director of Employer Branding and Awareness at PandoLogic

Sometimes the best approach to a challenge is to start from scratch. When Jenny lost most of her memories as a result of a head injury, she underwent a process of extreme relearning. Though the experience came with hardships and frustrations, it was hugely beneficial to her professional life. In this inspiring episode, Jenny shares how learning to explain things in their simplest form, eliminating biases and blindspots, and employing reverse engineering strategies leads to true organizational change.

“When you storytell something in a way that makes sense to a 10-year-old – all of a sudden everybody can understand it. Not just the top 10% or the most experienced in your organization, but everybody can. And when you’re trying to actually make change happen, your goal is to hit everybody, not just the top 10%.”

Listen to the full episode.

4. Maryjo Charbonnier, CHRO at Kyndryl 

Maryjo isn’t afraid of a challenge. In fact, she has sought out difficult problems to be part of a solution. Her passion for change-making led her to be Chief HR Officer at the world’s largest startup with over 90,000 employees and $19 billion in revenue. As an expert on cultural processes, Maryjo explains what it takes to cultivate and maintain a thriving company culture. 

“One of the most important things HR people do is listen to what isn’t said.” 

Listen to the full episode. 

Want more insights into recruiting tips and trends?

Tune into Hired’s podcast, Talk Talent to Me, to learn about the strategies, techniques, and trends shaping the recruitment industry—straight from top experts themselves. More