Recruiters' inboxes are either crowded with the wrong job applications, or ironically empty. They're potentially wasting 13 hours a week screening candidates that are not worthy of their jobs, and they all want AI, but don't know where to start.
2021 has to be a year where recruiters engage more with tech, data, and systems, so that they can engage better with their candidates, clients, and colleagues. How can AI (artificial intelligence) help?
My Interview with Gareth Christian at Recii
I spoke with Gareth Christian at Recii. They specialise in conversational AI - wow that sounds cool! It's basically where your website helps screen out the candidates you don't want to apply for your jobs, and helps the ones that do, get through to you. I asked Gareth 3 questions about how conversational AI can help recruiters be more productive.
1. Gareth, if 50% of candidate applications are a poor fit, how can we make sure that this doesn't bottleneck a recruiter's inbox?
.png)
The last 12 months has seen a fundamental shift in the recruitment world from a candidate driven market to a role driven space. There’s been a 10-fold increase of job applications - some recruiters can now receive as many as 500 applications.
Hence the knock-on effect is that more time is needed for screening. The recruitment process becomes bottled necked at the front, and there’s little time for the rest of the process. This is creating poor candidate (and colleague) experience.
It affects sales, too - time to hire is increased and this impacts the consultant’s ability to generate sustainable revenue.
Think about how can AI help “declutter” this part of the process.
2. Gareth, if 13 hours spent screening candidates each week, with little time for candidate care, and this negatively impacts on candidate experience?

With the massive increase in job applications, recruiters need to ensure they are speaking with the correct candidates. With application volumes increasing this can mean less time focusing on processes that can generate revenue.Conversational AI can speak to 000’s of candidates every minute, working through a database and applications to ensure each candidate file is updated, accurate and compliant. It can also remove unconscious basis through screening standardisation, suitability grading and soft skill assessment. A great help for D&I improvements.
3. 76% of recruiters believe AI will have an impact on recruitment yet currently, only 10% embrace some form of AI - thoughts Gareth?
.png)
The coronavirus pandemic has forced the recruitment industry to adopt new ways of working – working from home, technological and agile approaches to recruitment are key.
The recruitment industry has always focussed on human interaction, and AI has been seen as “anti-recruiter” – when in fact it could be the driver of better candidate, client, and colleague experience. The key is understanding where in the recruitment process AI is best sat, and how it can boost the rest of the process.
---
Every piece of tech in your recruitment business needs to serve a purpose, and not simply be a cost. It needs a job to do - and it needs to deliver. AI and automation can take a lot of pain away in 2021 - where is your pain? No time, too many candidates, recruiters doing too much admin, dirty data, not enough jobs? How can tech help?
Talking of Recruiters Having More Time and Making More Sales...
Could you save your recruiters an hour a day, which is 6 weeks a year? Plus hire less staff than you think you need?
Our high intensity interval training - Recruitment HIIT - helps recruiters source, convert quicker, and develop healthy pipelines, and recruitment marketers attract, engage, and retain candidates, generate leads, and colleagues (3Cs).
TRY RECRUITMENT HIIT 7 DAYS FOR FREE
READ ABOUT OUR RECRUITMENT TRAINING
BOOK A CALL TO DISCUSS RECRUITMENT TRAINING
media centre
Read more-
Blog
Recruiters! 10 Reasons Why Candidate Engagement is Critical
Recruiters and their leaders who want to spend less time and money sourcing, and more time placing, need to read this blog and think about why they need to create a virtuous circle of talent.On our recent Bullhorn Tips webinar, where we focused on candidate management tips, we asked the attendees about their current candidate management strategy.The results were unsurprising, but also disappointing.They told us that their candidate database was...And that their candidate management strategy was...In other words, not future proof or focussed on creating a robust, easy to deliver pipeline. It's mainly focussed on live, active candidates who are imminently placeable... and Linkedin / Job Boards continue to win at the expense of the recruiter and their profits.Recruitment Data Wealth💵💶💷If we've learned anything (at least since 2008) we need a clean, warm databases to see us through easy and tough times.We need engaged, loyal, happy candidates who are easy to find, happy to recommend, refer, and show up!Some recruiters call this "Data Health" - I call it "Data Wealth".I've seen a lot of tech and data hitting the recruitment market, but still do not see enough process improvements to capitalise on it. We just keep buying more, rather than exploring how we actually need less, but need to work it better.It's Time to Move from Vicious to Virtuous!Recruiters still waste crazy amounts of time sourcing and advertising, but not enough time engaging and managing.And ironically, by not engaging, and letting hot data cool off, the industry creates silos of "cold" data. Hence sourcing is key and reliance on external systems is high, costs increase, placements take longer... Vicious cycle!What if, though, we take a moment? Let the stats below sink in, and engage with our systems and data in a proactive way. Could recruiters create a virtuous circle of engaged candidates staying loyal and placeable, meaning less need for job adverts, Linkedin, sourcing, and insanity?Yes!🔢Candidate Management Stats Every Recruiter Should Know78% of placed candidates are already in your CRM. – Yet many recruiters go straight to LinkedIn or job boards before checking their own database.Only 30% of CRM records are typically up to date. – That means 70% of your candidate data might be incomplete, inaccurate, or out of date.60% of recruiters admit to rarely revisiting past candidates. – This leads to missed opportunities and duplicated effort.It costs 6x more to source a new candidate than to re-engage an existing one. – Save budget and time by starting with your CRM.43% of recruiters say poor data quality negatively impacts their ability to place quickly. – Dirty data slows down sourcing, shortlisting, and matching.48% of candidates who apply to a role never hear back. – Proper candidate management helps ensure consistent communication and better candidate experience.80% of candidates say they’d reapply to a company with a good hiring experience. – Engagement doesn’t stop at “not selected”—it builds your future pipeline.Recruiters spend up to 1/3 of their time on admin. – Automation and smart candidate management free up time for relationship-building and placements.Re-engaged candidates are 2x more likely to be placed than cold-sourced ones. – Prior placements and silver medalists are often your hottest leads.Companies that nurture candidates improve quality of hire by 20%. – Keeping in touch with passive talent builds a stronger, more prepared pipeline.The stats above are from a variety of sources, including IBM, TalentBoard, Bullhorn, and LinkedIn.Even just one of the stats above should be enough to make you stop and think "how can I create a virtuous circle of happy, engaged, and placed candidates?"💻Watch our Bullhorn Tips Webinar and use Bullhorn to manage and engage your candidates.Click to WatchRecruitment and Bullhorn TrainingWe deliver the best live Bullhorn ROI webinar training, and you'll find other tips and tricks in Recruitment HIIT, our online recruitment training platform.Plus, through our Bullhorn Vision service we help generate serious ROI from your Bullhorn, data, and people.TRY HIIT FREE HERECONTACT US ABOUT BULLHORN ROI
-
Blog
Automation RoI Webinar Series: Unlock Bullhorn Part 2 ~ Create a Virtuous Circle of Candidates
Recruiters and leaders — ready to do less admin and make more placements?Do you need to be less reliant on LinkedIn and Job Boards, and have a more engaged, valuable database of candidates?Then Part 2 of our "Unlock Bullhorn with Automation" webinar series is for you. We'll fixate on candidate management and engagement.REGISTER NOW💡 Why Candidate Management and Engagement MattersIn our recent Bullhorn Tips Webinar, we asked recruiters about their candidate management strategies.The results?🙈Most recruiters said their CRM was out of date.🙉Even more admitted their candidate engagement was reactive at best.🙊And LinkedIn and job boards still dominate, draining time and budget.AKA vicious cycle. You source externally, internal data gets colder and becomes irrelevant, sourcing becomes slower and costlier. And the cycle repeats.📊 Candidate Management by the Numbers:70%+ of placed candidates already exist in your CRM.It costs 6x more to source a new candidate than to re-engage.Recruiters spend up to 1/3 of their time on admin.Re-engaged candidates are 2x more likely to be placed.Now ask yourself: What if that cycle could be flipped?💥 From Vicious to Virtuous: Using Automation to Flip the Recruitment ScriptInstead, imagine a virtuous circle where:✅ Your CRM is rich with warm, engaged talent.✅ Your pipeline is always ready, without needing a new job ad.✅ Candidates actually reply to your emails.✅ Admin drops, and placements rise.That’s the power of Bullhorn Automation.Join us for this free webinar and learn how to use Bullhorn Automation and smart workflows to build—and sustain—a thriving talent pipeline.This is part of our "Unlock Bullhorn" Automation webinar series.📅 Webinar Highlights🛠️ Real-Life Automation Tips to Drive Recruitment Workflows:Automate outreach to dormant candidates (without sounding robotic).Keep silver medalists engaged for future roles.Trigger real-time updates when candidates change jobs or locations.Build loyalty with consistent communication at every stage of the journey.Drastically reduce sourcing times and costs.💸 Turn Data Health into Data WealthThis Webinar is for you if:You’re tired of LinkedIn / Job Board over-reliance.You want to scale your placements—not your sourcing costs.You want a Bullhorn CRM to be a database and not simply be a data dump.📍 Save Your Spot!When? 21 May 2025: 16:00 BSTREGISTER NOWPS. Want to go even further? Check out our"Unlock Bullhorn with Automation"series.🔍 24 April 2025: Automate sourcing to find qualified candidates faster and with less effort.Watch the recording💬 21 May 2025: Engage with candidates on autopilot and nurture relationships effectively.Register Now📈 Date TBC: Boost lead generation using automation to improve conversion rates.💡 Date TBC: Streamline your recruitment processes for maximum efficiency and profitability.Automation Buddy / Bullhorn RoIWe are Automation Buddies set on helping ambitious recruitment businesses who want to increase speed and sales.We coach to inspire, and build your automations so you can recruit and sell!Plus, through our Bullhorn Vision service we help generate serious ROI from your Bullhorn, data, and people.READ ABOUT OUR AUTOMATION BUDDY SERVICECONTACT US ABOUT BULLHORN ROI
-
Downloads
Your Recruitment Training Playbook