How AI can increase Recruiting Productivity-AI Product Review of Wade and Wendy

I have become slightly obsessed with how AI will transform recruiting, especially over the next 18 months. As I read how numerous industries leverage both AI and machine learning to create efficiencies, I eagerly await the pending boom of technology that will transform the recruiting industry. There are so many inefficiencies in every recruiting process that could be overcome by the power of the right AI tool.

I had the opportunity this week to review a demo of Wade and Wendy. This is just one tool I’ve reviewed that can potentially have a dramatic impact in productivity within the recruiting process. While I tend to be fairly cynical in most demos, I quickly found myself referring to the AI by name, as if it were an actual human being. I was really impressed by what I saw so I thought I’d share my findings and thoughts on the product.

About Wade and Wendy

The goal of the product is to leverage AI and machine learning to bolster recruiting productivity. “Wendy” (the AI) automates task-driven recruitment processes and increases recruiters’ bandwidth to better focus their time on the candidate experience. The AI functions as a 24/7 recruiter that focuses on the top of the funnel to not only source and deliver candidates but evaluate and rank them before sending them to recruiters for further review.

Wendy focuses on four key areas that are the most time consuming within the recruiting process:

Let’s look at some of the key points I learned during the demo.

Passive Candidate Sourcing

One of the first components that appealed to me was the ability for Wendy to decipher through a job description to best understand the attributes you may be looking for. I know a number of platforms that claim they can parse through job descriptions to help build search functions but I’ve rarely found one to be spot on. Even when they help you build the search string, you still have to copy and paste into all of the sourcing channels to begin building your candidate pipeline. Wendy does all of this for you.

According to the firm, Wendy will leverage its “graph powers influences” to best understand what type of candidate would be most successful in the role then goes to its network to begin sourcing passive candidates. Each candidate is verified through multiple sources to ensure the contact information is correct and the candidate is viable. If this was not already impressive enough, Wendy goes steps further to contact the candidate with branded and personalized messaging to engage the candidate’s interest in the role.

Above is an example of an email Wendy uses to engage the candidate. It uses highly personalized messaging and an invitation to “learn more” about the role. Again, all of this can be done 24/7 without a recruiter being involved in the process. Candidates can engage across multiple platforms on their own schedule thereby increasing the number of potential candidates at the top of your funnel.

Screening

Whether it be a passive candidate who’s engaged after Wendy’s sourcing efforts or an applicant to the job, Wendy’s chat function conducts a conversational interview to evaluate a candidate’s qualifications against the job. I was impressed how this function could be much more open ended to have more information provided by the candidate during the session. Oftentimes, I will review a resume and wonder if a candidate is truly worth the time to interview. With Wendy’s comprehensive questioning, I would not only have the resume but insights on the candidate based on their responses to her questions. It would definitely allow me to spend more time on the right candidates and give time back to my day.

As if gathering more information on the candidates wasn’t enough, Wendy will rank the candidates she’s engaged with and schedule interviews with those who meet the minimums. For those who are iffy, she will forward to the correct recruiter for further evaluation. Can you imagine the day when you can sign on and see your calendar booked with qualified candidates who were sourced and evaluated , all while you were enjoying life outside of work? I can, and I can’t wait.

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I could go on about some of the additional features I was impressed with during the demo but I’d like to save some surprises for you to experience during your demo. I think this product will quickly replace the need for some firms to use RPOs as an option, especially in the high volume world. It was an impressive product with a lot of upside potential. I would love to see a solution like this help on the back-end and onboarding part of the recruiting process which is also time consuming and laborious.

If you would like to learn more about Wade and Wendy, please contact my friend Max for your own demo!