4 Key Talent Acquisition Tools for Hiring the Best Candidates

As a hiring manager, you want to find and onboard the best talent for the role. But you also want to ensure that the recruitment process is seamless for both your team and the candidates. That’s where talent acquisition tools come in. 

When it comes to hiring new talent, there are a lot of different things your business needs to consider. You want to make sure that you’re not compromising on quality for accessibility, and you also need to make sure that the people you hire are well-suited to the positions they’ll be filling. From identifying qualified candidates and screening them, to completing background checks and verifying references, this blog post will give you all the information you need about the top AI tools for recruitment.

What are talent acquisition tools? 

Talent acquisition tools are recruitment software that automate and streamline the process of hiring. These online systems or products help recruiters measure candidate quality and manage candidate pipelines. Intelligent hiring and selection tools can help with sourcing, screening, and interviewing candidates. Powerful AI-driven analytics and automated processes are used to reduce manual work and boost candidate insights for talent acquisition professionals. Recruiters can therefore focus their energy on the people who are most qualified for the position.

These tools have become a hiring manager’s best friend. Their ability to aid and empower hiring decisions are significant and have seen a substantial uptake across the world. According to a survey by SHRM, 70% of talent acquisition professionals from over 28 countries believe that a hiring process that combines virtual and in-person processes will become increasingly standard due to cost and time savings.

What makes a good talent acquisition tool?

The best talent acquisition tools are those that make it easier for your company to find the perfect candidate. This means that they should be able to create a customised search to find the desired individual and provide valuable information like skills, qualifications, work history, and other relevant details. Other important features include an intuitive interface that makes it easy for you to use, accurate data provision, clear instructions, and affordability.

The best talent acquisition tools do more than just list potential candidates – they match applicants to jobs based on skills and experience. They must also integrate with other tools, be scalable, and offer robust reporting- enabling you to easily track metrics for all your hiring stages.

4 important talent acquisition tools

Here are four of the most important talent acquisition tools every hiring manager should add to their toolset. 

1. Applicant tracking system (ATS)

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is a recruitment software that organises and tracks job applications. The software filters and sorts CVs and applications by keywords, before adding suitable candidates to a digital talent pool. These systems are geared toward holding onto data and simplifying the hiring process for employers. Their purpose is to make the process easier by making it more efficient, scalable, and less time-consuming.

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are one of the most effective tools for large-scale recruiting because they save time and money. Top HR managers may receive large volumes of applications for a single role. This can be unmanageable for teams to screen individually. An ATS allows recruiters to process a greater number of applicants in less time than what it would take to manually search by hand. 

Applicant tracking systems are an important first-level screening exercise that objectively scan for the best skills and experience. Recruiters can quickly and easily assess job applications and CVs without sacrificing quality. This makes it easier and faster for recruiters to evaluate talent objectively.

Key Features

• Easy candidate pre-screening and sorting – intelligent keyword trackers highlight desirable skills, experience and education. Advanced AI-driven platforms use natural language processing (NLP). NLP goes beyond keyword matches to consider words of similar meaning. This reduces the exclusion of suitable candidates who may be  missing some keywords in their CV.
• Automated retargeting of candidates–an ATS like X0PA’s AI Recruiter uses AI-powered retargeting to ensure that suitable candidates already in the talent pool are automatically highlighted for current or future roles.
• A CRM approach to candidates – An ATS will store all candidate data for future role considerations. This includes insights, recruiters’ notes and previous interview performance etc.

2. Hybrid virtual interview platform

With so many currently working remotely worldwide, video interviewing has never been more necessary in recruitment. Using HR Tech, employers can not only video interview top talent, but also conduct pre-employment assessments to evaluate skills and potential job fit. 

Video calling platforms such as Microsoft Teams have made it easier for companies to interview and hire across cities and borders. But more specialised or hybrid interview platforms such as X0PA ROOM can powerfully augment the virtual interview experience. Using these selection tools, applicants can complete assessments and video interviews in tandem, with all responses being analysed by artificial intelligence to produce predictive analytics. 

Interview questions can therefore be in multiple formats including text, multiple choice and video. This makes for a much more interactive and engaging hiring process for applicants. This combination of pre-employment assessments also gives employers more confidence in giving a job offer to the best candidate, as their skills and expertise will be more highly tested.  

Key Features

• Powerful one-way video interviews – candidates record video answers to standardised questions on screen with timed responses. All responses are able to be re-recorded and are fairly assessed by video analytics and speech-to-text capabilities.  
• Integrated skills assessments – skills-focused pre-screening of candidates with video, text, multiple choice or ratings-based assessments.
• Collaborative Hiring – recruiters and hiring managers can rate, provide feedback and discuss candidates all in one platform. This is made even more seamless through ROOM’s integration with Microsoft Teams. 

3. Virtual career fairs  

Finding multiple candidates in a specific field quickly can be a difficult exercise. That’s why virtual career fairs are an excellent talent acquisition tool for hiring managers. They also are a great opportunity for applicants to stand out. 

A virtual career fair is an event where employers meet with multiple job seekers using video platforms like webcasts, teleconferencing, webinars, or chat rooms.  In a virtual career fair, candidates can log on to a website and see a schedule of the participating companies that will be there. It’s cost-effective, accessible for companies of all sizes, and reaches geographical areas that are otherwise difficult to reach. You can offer job seekers the opportunity to meet with employers quickly and conveniently. 

A virtual career fair is typically an event where job seekers have access to certain online content, exhibitors, and recruiters. This gives the event a special appeal because it gives users the chance to develop connections with potential employers. Potential candidates can browse individual company profiles and post questions to the company representatives present.

Key Features

• Interviewing multiple candidates quicker – this format allows employers to conduct virtual interviews for multiple candidates over a much shorter period. This means hiring managers can compare candidate responses faster.  
• Bulk hiring – a Virtual Career Fair makes it easy for companies to post several jobs at the same time, giving them the freedom to hire several candidates for various posts.
• Create a talent pool for future engagement  – using X0PA’s Virtual Career Fair, employers can easily add applicants to their ATS and rank them for role fit. This widens the talent pool for future consideration. 
• Customisable application forms – Using X0PA’s Virtual Career Fair, users can also customise application forms to pre-screen candidates. Questions can be included as text, video or multiple choice.
• On-brand virtual experiences – employers can personalise virtual career fairs to their own company look and feel.

4. Automated Interview Scheduler

One of the best ways to save time when interviewing potential candidates is to automate portions of your interview workflow. The automation process removes the need for manual data entry and reduces outreach to candidates in many cases. 

Automating interview scheduling eliminates the need for lengthy back-and-forth communication between you and your applicant. This makes engagement with the best candidates for the job much more streamlined. This valuable HR Tech is also particularly helpful for human resources departments when it comes to resource management. Artificial intelligence also lets you build a more structured, consistent process that’s less likely to have issues with things like interview availability.

X0PA AI Recruiter goes even further with built-in features such as interview workflow automation and automated candidate references.

Key Features

• Interview workflow automation – take all the manual work out of interview workflows. 
• Automated interview scheduler – integrated calendars and appointment setting find the best times for you and your candidates to interview with none of the effort. 
• Automated candidate emails – start positive employee engagement early, by automatically staying in touch with your best candidates throughout the hiring process. 
• Candidate references automation – background checks have never been so easy!
• Candidate job offer via the integration with Docusign – you’ve found the best candidate, now it’s time to get the most important documents in front of them fast. 

Bonus number 5! Automated candidate sourcing

Automated candidate sourcing is a technique that can help you find the best candidates for your open positions. To do this, the software will search through your ATS, social media, and other job boards to uncover potential candidates. This recent innovation uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyse and screen candidate data sets against certain parameters, including qualifications and desired traits. You can also use this method to see if there are any qualified, hard-to-find candidates in specific industries or professions who would make a perfect fit for your company.

AI sourcing solutions can scrape several online job boards including LinkedIn. Automated sourcing gives access to millions of applicant profiles from different sources. In particular, X0PA’s AI Recruiter can give companies access to more than 750 million candidate profiles worldwide. This enables recruiters to easily find, contact and add profiles of prospective candidates to their ATS and talent pool.  

Talent acquisition tools are a recruiter’s secret weapon 

In conclusion, talent acquisition tools are phenomenal enablers of smarter and faster hiring. But only when these sIn conclusion, talent acquisition tools are phenomenal enablers of smarter and faster hiring. But only when these secret weapons are in the right hands. Used correctly, these tools can shorten times to hire, reduce manual recruitment processes and keep candidates far more engaged. This enhances the experience both for recruiters and candidates. However, these powerful tools are by no means foolproof. Hiring managers still need to use their own judgment in evaluating candidates. Particularly as it relates to how a candidate might fit a company’s culture and job functions.