Tech redefines high volume hiring and Fountain is determined to support the Indian market for blue and gray collar work enabling seamless recruiting

CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Mr. OmPrakash Muppirala, VP of Engineering & Head of Fountain India 

How automation helps reduce time-to-fill and drop-off rates in organization?

One of the most time consuming and challenging tasks for HR at any organization is to  evaluate candidates from a vast pool of applications. Companies can reduce time-to-fill and drop-off rates by adopting automation. According to Aptitude Research, 65 percent of candidates drop off in the process when not using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, and in high volume hiring space these numbers matter. Companies have to adopt tech-based tools to facilitate automation, as technology provides solutions that make recruitment processes easy, faster and efficient. Hiring for blue-collar jobs is time consuming, costly and unstructured. Tech tools and platforms enable recruiters to use AI to automate recruitment processes. AI becomes robust with a higher number of interactions in the system, providing better results.

Successful organizations necessitate successful strategies, which can be easily attained by incorporating automation into the workforce. By deploying digital hiring platforms loaded with automated onboarding, attendance, payroll & compliance systems, businesses can generate significant employee retention and workforce development by improving time management, increased workplace safety, and employee support.

How can high volume hiring platforms empower blue-collar workers in India ?

Various factors, such as the unorganized nature of the workforce, and the resulting gaps in the processes developed to effectively address their issues, have only added to the growing problems that Indian blue-collar workers face.

Studies indicate that while the COVID-19 pandemic did present challenges for  the blue-collar workforce, it also presented new opportunities. It provided the right scenario to implement automation on a large scale, which, of course, encouraged a variety of new approaches to the work that was being done.

Technology has played a major role in blue-collar workforce management. High volume hiring platforms stimulate on-demand hiring, which lower fixed expenses of the organization, while giving flexibility to the employees to work. The platform also helps companies with services like attendance tracking, payroll, and workforce settlement at scale along with the accessibility of labor availability across locations. Candidatesare then able to find jobs in areas convenient to them in less time.

The platforms may provide authenticated employment records, along with proper accountability and wages to workers, which is otherwise unstructured and is a gap in the manual system, which includes lengthy application processes, slow response rates by ineffective communication protocols, and slow recruitment times. At every stage of the hiring process, meaningful talks are essential. Automation and AI can speed up this process by intercepting the questions and answering automatically without the need for a recruiter to do so, improving the candidate experience.

In order to hire the best candidate and deliver a great experience, a successful recruitment process must be in place.

How to overcome the difficulties of remote hiring? What are the benefits of leveraging digital, remote hiring platforms for companies?

In today’s fiercely competitive labor market, it is getting difficult to find and keep the right employees. Although a larger dent is made by high employee turnover, an aging population may soon widen the talent gap. This emphasizes the urgent need for better approaches to lure and keep talent. Every industry has felt the pinch as the current recession brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic grips economies around the world. The hiring process has also been significantly impacted by the recession in addition to the workforce.

Automated chatbots, interactive video Q&A sessions, and live group chats are just a few examples of chat-based digital platforms that have the potential to significantly enhance both the candidate experience and a company’s ratio of successful hires. These chatbots can now respond to every query a candidate would typically submit and give them all the details they require to submit an application for a particular position. Utilizing various technologies, such as applicant tracking systems, and utilizing automation in the HR sector would aid in efficient hiring.

Mobile recruiting has made the challenging task of hiring easier. The hiring process is more streamlined when smartphones are used. A variety of recruitment tasks could be quickly finished by the hiring team.

Hiring blue collar workers: How is technology helping navigate the talent shortage?

Jobs are plentiful, but it can be difficult to find the proper skills. All industries struggle with the issue of drawn-out or difficult hiring processes. Because of this, a lot of job searchers abandon their applications or reject employment offers. By efficiently and successfully analysing applicants, it is essential to streamline the recruiting process for job seekers.

By experimenting with cutting-edge evaluation techniques and keeping in mind “Candidate-first” technology, companies can find and hire the best candidates for less money and time. This technology enables HR departments to streamline referrals, integrate gamification tools and other evaluation methods, and quickly and easily set up mobile-optimized careers pages and application forms.

What are your views on hiring as a global challenge not only for businesses but for applicants as well?

Talent acquisition is the top priority for many organizations right now. Traditional hiring has become more challenging for both businesses and candidates. Not only do manual outreach and the conventional HR process fall short in attracting the best candidates, but candidates also encounter a number of difficulties in the recruitment process, including a lengthy application process, slower response rates caused by ineffective communication protocols, and manual outreach. An effective recruitment process must be in place in order to hire the best candidate.

An advantageous candidate experience is one that makes the candidate more likely to accept the job offer during the hiring process, as opposed to one that makes the candidate less likely to be hired. A favorable candidate experience that enhances the employer brand is crucial.

The hiring process can be strengthened by using metrics and recruitment data, enabling better-informed choices. Therefore, introducing automation into the hiring process will help both the employer and the candidate. Businesses can make the hiring process as easy and straightforward as possible by investing in technology like an applicant tracking system (ATS) and other platforms.

How has Fountain simplified hiring and recruitment in large volumes?

Blue and Grey collar workers are notably underrepresented in the HR technology market, not just in India but around the world.

Fountain helps with process automation so that recruiters can focus on the most important tasks rather than simple, repetitive tasks. The hiring process is sped up, acquisition costs are decreased, and AI/NLP/ML are used.

With a retention rate of almost 90% over the last three years and a CSAT rating of about 4.65/5, Fountain has experienced phenomenal global adoption, demonstrating the value a product can provide.

Within six weeks of going live, its recent success with a major Indian e-commerce company produced fantastic results, with the applicant-to-interview show rate rising from 10% to 40% (4x increase) and the offer rate rising from 34% to 68%. (2x increase). Both of these led to a three-fold increase in the number of hires and a 50–60% decrease in the hiring time.

Fountain has  a lot of experience helping clients scale, like Fetch, where we helped them accomplish the following:

• Time to hire on average decreased by 93% (15 days to one day).
• From 27 warehouses in November 2021 to 42 warehouses in September 2022, there was a 56% increase in warehouses nationwide.
• An increase in applicant volume of 325 percent, from 2,350 to 10,000 applicants per month.
• 10,000 candidates to three recruiters (monthly applicant-to-recruiter ratio).

How can AI help reduce cost of acquisition and seamless recruiting?

Recruitment is a costly process. The entire cycle from sourcing, screening, interviewing and onboarding talent is not just physically tedious and time-consuming but also expensive. To make the recruitment process cost-effective and efficient, (while still keeping the human touch), HR needs AI recruitment software that can be completed quickly and easily, automates, lowers hiring costs and time, streamlines processes, and increases diversity.

HR is currently undergoing a transformation, and artificial intelligence is here to stay. Automation of the hiring process involves numerous factors including integrating with ATS seamlessly, programmes, tools, and technologies to provide end-to-end functionality throughout.

By creating a talent pipeline ahead of time, conducting bulk interviews and recruiting via social media, AI can help recruiters save money and time on job promotion, candidate sourcing without sacrificing candidate quality, identifying false information, facilitating  interviews, reducing hiring bias, yield data-driven scientific results to make well-informed hiring decisions.

Your comments on the present state and future of high-volume hiring.

High volume hiring is a challenge even under normal circumstances. The last two years have forced companies to take stock of various aspects of their operations, in light of the significant operational dynamics changes. Recruitment marketing is one of these as companies are looking at high-volume hiring. The pressures of filling a higher-than-average number of positions in a short time are compounded by a hiring dynamic that has radically changed.

Many businesses are willing to accept automated recruitment as a concept and implement it as a potent tool of recruitment. Forward-thinking managers and organizations are increasingly using automation as a powerful tool of recruitment to foster the recruitment process. A study found that 40% of HR Dept worldwide are utilizing future-proof technology. However, this indicates that 60% of the work is still done manually.

Numerous studies predict that by the end of the next two years, 69% of managerial tasks will be completely automated. Many businesses and recruiters have switched to using virtual platforms and innovative technology solutions to approach the hiring process.

Instead of replacing recruiters, AI empowers them with automation and streamlines the hiring process. While keeping in mind the need to strike a balance between automation and the human touch to enhance workplace efficiency, automation in the recruitment process is made to help humans work smarter, resulting in proactive hiring rather than ad hoc hiring.