With advances in technology and AI, the recruitment process has experienced a transformation. The advent of recruitment technology helps streamline the recruitment process and increase the chances of a good hire. Here are the main recruitment technologies that have helped transform mechanical design recruitment:
Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)
One of the main recruitment technologies that helps in mechanical design recruitment is applicant tracking systems (ATS). ATS is a software used in recruitment to help streamline hiring and automate certain tasks.
Some of the tasks that can all be streamlined through using ATS include:
- Managing job postings
- Managing candidate applications
- Store candidate information, such as CVs, cover letters, etc.
- Applicant communications
- Filtering candidates based on job titles and skills
Most businesses will use ATS, including around 97% of the Fortune 500 companies. Given the many benefits it provides in hiring new candidates, it can be highly beneficial to securing a good hire. This is especially the case in highly competitive roles, such as mechanical design.
All candidate’s applications enter the ATS database. Then, when hiring managers are looking for a candidate, they can search for those most matched to the required job role and skills. It’s possible to filter for candidates based on required and optional skills.
The ATS filter will then only show the candidate applications that have an exact match with every search criterion. Other info you can identify from ATS is the candidate’s relevance score, application source, and date applied.
Any applications that match the chosen keywords are more likely to be read by hiring managers. The greater a match a candidate is, the greater their score or rank. As such, these candidates are much more likely to receive an interview.
Given the highly competitive nature of technical recruitment jobs, it’s only natural that any job openings will receive lots of applications. Without ATS, it can be extremely time-consuming to go through every application and determine candidate suitability.
This makes it ideal for recruiters to identify candidates with appropriate technical skills that may be highly sought after by a business. Doing so enables you to find quality hires that can help improve team and business performance.
How ATS filters candidate applications
ATS software makes the process of finding skilled candidates easier as recruiters can specify whether a candidate has particular technical skills. By filtering based on candidates’ technical skills, companies can identify top talent more easily and faster for mechanical design roles.
This is typically done through knock-out questions. Before a candidate applies, it’s possible to ask certain knock-out questions. Any unsatisfactory answers will cause an application to be flagged or automatically rejected.
Some examples of knock-out questions for mechanical design roles to use with ATS include:
- Do you have X years of experience in mechanical design?
- Do you have any engineering accreditations or certifications?
- Are you fully competent in using CAD software?
- Have you any experience with Finite Element Analysis?
The knock-out questions you set should be specific to the job role. For example, if using AutoCAD or SolidWorks is essential, this would be a knock-out question. Any candidates who answer ‘no’, would have their applications automatically rejected.
Resume screening tools
Resume screening tools are another recruitment technology that can be beneficial in hiring mechanical design engineers. Similar to ATS, this helps recruiters shortlist candidate applications who are more highly suited for a job role.
Given the lengthy process of sorting through candidates’ CVs manually, hiring managers can save considerable time through resume screening. This helps to eliminate candidate CVs that don’t contain certain keywords, such as skills, experience, and qualifications.
While ATS focuses on the whole of a candidate’s application, resume screening tools focus specifically on the CV. Many resume screening tools will also work inside ATS software, making it an ideal way to streamline the recruitment process.
Given how costly bad hires can be for a business, it’s crucial that resume screening tools suitably filter candidates. This is especially the case in mechanical design where candidates are high in demand but lack sufficient technical skills.
Skills and experience are two of the biggest filtering factors. Mechanical design recruitment will be filtered based on candidates’ technical skills, competencies, and how many years of experience they have. Industry-specific experience is also something that can help filter top talent.
Some of the keywords used for filtering mechanical design candidates include:
- CAD expertise
- Finite element analysis experience
- Material selection
- Prototyping experience
- Past projects
Education and qualifications are other filtering factors. It is possible to filter candidates with higher education qualifications, such as a Master’s degree, or professional certifications, such as Professional Engineer (PE).
Resume screening tools also help to reduce bias during the application process. That’s because these systems often remove candidate names and personal information making it difficult for subconscious bias when selecting the most suitable candidates.
Other uses of resume screening tools in mechanical design recruitment include:
- Portfolio integration, showcasing candidates’ previous design work, CAD models, or prototypes.
- Soft skills identification and transferable soft skills are just as important in mechanical design as technical skills.
- Automatically rank and score candidates based on their suitability to the job description and keywords.
- Save time and money by eliminating or reducing lengthy manual processes.
- Customise for specific job niches, such as HAVC design.
- Track and report on the recruitment process to help streamline the recruitment pipeline.
AI-driven recruitment platforms
The rapid rise of artificial intelligence has had an impact on transforming many industries and jobs. The same is true for recruitment. Leveraging AI in the recruitment process helps to streamline processes, improve decision-making, and increase candidate match for good hires.
AI-driven recruitment platforms have transformed mechanical design recruitment. Many businesses and hiring managers can now benefit from the improved effectiveness and efficiency these automated processes provide.
Improved resume screening and matching is one of the biggest impacts AI-driven recruitment platforms have had on technical recruitment. However, there are many other ways recruitment has also been impacted by the rise of AI:
- Predictive analysis makes it possible to determine the likelihood of a candidate’s success in the role based on historical data. This allows recruiters to see how well a candidate will fit into the culture and succeed in their given role.
- Automated candidate sourcing involves AI automatically searching different sources, such as job boards and professional networks, to find passive candidates who may be ideal for a role.
- Chatbots can be used to engage with candidates during the recruitment process by providing answers to questions, giving updates on the application process, and scheduling interviews.
- Skill assessments and tests can be used to determine a candidate’s experience and skills, such as simulations to test CAD skills or material science knowledge.
Recruitment technology has had a profound impact on streamlining the recruitment process. By implementing such technology, hiring managers can better identify skilled and experienced mechanical engineers who are highly suited for a role.