For many companies trying to cut costs, recruitment automation can initially seem like a no brainer. By lowering HR involvement to an absolute minimum, companies can save a lot of money annually on salary costs.
For many industries, automation has all but taken over the recruitment process. The oil and gas industry, however, is often a bit more complicated. Oil and gas employees need more than just the required technical skills and know-how to do their job, they need to be a representation of the company to the client. For these specialized fields, taking the cheap route to hire the future of your company can be a huge mistake.
So to use automation, or not to use automation. That is the question… Here are a couple of the key pros and cons you should consider.
Pro: Low-Cost Alternative
At face-value, automation will always save the company money. Whether you’re replacing current employees, or simply saving them time to work on other things, paying a robot is much cheaper than paying an employee.
Con: Gaming the System
Experienced candidates have faced the machines before. And many of them know how to win. It is fairly easy to write your resume with the right keywords so a candidate can get past the machine and onto the next level of recruitment. While this may be seen as resourceful, bending the rules to get the perfect outcome isn’t exactly a desirable trait in an employee. These candidates might look great on paper when in reality they are sub-par. Unfortunately, automation can’t tell the difference.
Pro: Fast and Effective
Nobody likes doing time-consuming and monotonous tasks. Luckily, that’s what computers are the best at. If you’re trying to ease the burden on your current HR employees, working with them to implement systems where they need them the most can create a vastly more effective unit. Combining automation tools with the use of recruiters is a common technique when trying to find the perfect candidate. Let the computers weed out those who are obviously not the right fit, then let the recruiters take over from there.
Con: Individuality Killers
People are messy. It’s pretty often that they don’t regularly fit into the mold. These key-word based systems don’t make many concessions for those it finds “inappropriate” for the job position. This has harbored a lot of negative feelings among candidates toward automated systems. Nobody wants their fate decided by a machine. Not only does this discourage potentially qualified candidates, it can also be a bad first impression for the company
