In Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), we find that the sophistication of organizations’ recruiting functions varies greatly. Internally, it was a learning process to ensure we’re getting at least 5,000 therapist applicants a year and quickly evaluating all candidates. Furthermore, we also learned what some of the largest ABA companies are using to meet their hiring targets as we work to integrate our scheduling solutions with their recruiting platforms. The question at hand is: How can automation or artificial intelligence (AI) help with competitively recruiting ABA therapists? 

Table of Contents

1. Understanding the Recruiting Landscape
2. Use AI Today 
3. Integrations
4. Conclusion

Understanding the Recruiting Tech Landscape 

The anchor tool any ABA company needs to invest in for automated recruiting is an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). All ATS functions include the following:

• Job Posting: Take one job post and push it out to all the different hiring websites (Indeed, Glassdoor, LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter, etc.) 
• Sourcing: Sending referral emails to your existing employees.
• Screening: Consolidating and evaluating all candidates’ responses to automatically reject or advance candidates for recruiter interviews.
• Scheduling: Automatically coordinating interviews without lifting a finger.
• Communication: Keeping candidates engaged throughout the recruitment process as they advance through the process or get rejected.
• Hiring: Requesting references, background check automation, and offer letter generation.

ATS Solutions for Scaled Hiring

Here’s a list of some notable ATS solutions that we know other large ABA companies are using:

• ICIMS
• Greenhouse
• Lever
• ADP
• Fountain
• Workstream
• Ashby

Top Considerations when Selecting a Recruiting Platform:

• Pricing: ATS solutions are NOT cheap! And yet, we still view them as necessary costs. 
  • ICIMS is for 1,000+ employee organizations so don’t expect that to be very affordable
  • Fountain is $30,000 per year
  • Greenhouse and Lever were around $10,000 per year when we spoke to them 2 years ago
  • Ashby should be less than $10k per year and we know a 500+ therapist organization that just launched with them in Q4 2023 
  • Workstream used to be $6 per month for the first 3 years we used them but then they ratcheted it up to roughly $2k per location per year
    • This can be the most affordable solution if you have a few centers rather than lots of zip codes covered in a community-based model, which is how Workstream defines a location

• Two-Way Calendar Syncing for Automated Interview Scheduling: Coordinating interviews is the biggest hassle for recruiting
  • The best ATS solutions will integrate with an interviewer’s schedule and pull their busy times so they don’t show improper availability to interviewees and then push scheduled appointments back onto the interviewer’s calendar. Be VERY careful as a lot of ATS solutions do not have a bi-directional integration. When it does work, like it does for Workstream, it saves so much time!  
  • Most of these ATS solutions only have one-directional syncing. Confirm for yourself!

• Deep Integrations with Leading Job Sites: The quality of the integration with Indeed, LinkedIn, and other key sites matter! 
  • ATS solutions will say they are integrated, but dig into it more. We switched to an ATS solution that had a weak integration with Indeed, our top source for Registered Behavior Technicians. What happened? Therapists couldn’t “quick apply” to our job post and so our applications plummeted as candidates had to jump through extra hoops to apply. It’s been sorted out now but it was a headache that you can avoid

How To Use AI in Recruitment Today

Reputation Management

Use ChatGPT to draft emails to send to recent hires for feedback. Review for positive feedback, automatically ask to have those posted as reviews on Glassdoor or Indeed, and provide a gift card or other reinforcer to incentivize the act. We were able to prime ChatGPT and get a friendly, semi-formal 100-word feedback request email along with a 3-question form idea with questions on culture, job satisfaction, and professional development within 4 minutes.

Employer Branding

Get ChatGPT to review your job descriptions, benefits, and website to provide better stories and messaging to improve therapist conversion

• • Check out Proud Moments’ careers website. They paid a third party to build a page that we think is beautiful, yet concise. You can use AI and write copy that sells your own company’s unique story and includes testimonials from the previous tip for way less!
  • Also, look at Action Behavior Center’s career page as well. It very clearly lays out benefits and career progression as well! 

Enhanced Communication

Use AI chatbots to answer queries, schedule interviews and keep them informed about their application status. Want an example? Look up Olivia right now!

• • Paradox says that 74% of recruiters are more likely to stay at their job with a chatbot
  • 60% of candidates scheduled interviews that came in through an AI assistant after work hours

Broader Integrations

While discussing recruitment technologies, a good solution should also integrate with your other tools, not just the job sites. You should find out if your HR, payroll, practice management and staffing & scheduling solutions have open integrations. For example, Teamwork has developed a scheduling and matching platform, which when integrated with these advanced recruiting platforms, can further streamline the process, ensuring that even before a therapist is hired, therapists are effectively scheduled and matched with families needing ABA services. We found that our no show rate for new BTs dropped by 50% if they had a defined schedule by the time they signed an offer. Furthermore, Teamwork’s waitlist map views allow recruiters to know where exactly they should be recruiting.

Conclusion: Embrace Technology or Lose the Competitive Edge

Automation and AI already plays a transformative role in recruiting ABA therapists for several organizations. By leveraging a strong ATS solution, sprinkling in AI to improve employer branding and reputation, as well as integrating with efficient scheduling platforms like Teamwork’s, ABA service providers can fundamentally streamline their hiring process. This technological edge is not just about filling positions quickly; it’s about finding the right talent in a highly competitive environment. 

If you’re interested in learning what staffing and scheduling solutions are available for ABA providers, we’d love for you to reach out by scheduling a demo!

Interested in Teamwork? Schedule a Demo!

At Teamwork, we pride ourselves on being different from our competition. Teamwork is built specifically for ABA providers with a focus on clinical quality. We automate manual work associated with matching, staffing and scheduling so your team can focus on what’s important: delivering quality care to your patients.

Interested? Fill out the form below to sign-up for a demo of our tool!

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