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Briah Handa-Oakley26.07.20215 min read

How AI is Revolutionizing the Recruitment Process

The struggle of talent acquisition and retaining it has gained enormous traction in recent years. Identifying the right talent pool is crucial for any organisation - they allow companies to develop employees in areas that align with company competencies. The quality of hire and talent can essentially make the difference between a company that grows, and a company that stagnates.

Often, recruiters analyse applicant resumes, but ultimately are driven by "gut-feeling" rather than logical decision-making. I mean, that's no surprise if you know that the average company recruiter spends on average 13 hours per week sorting through resumes and job applications before singling the applicants down to one candidate to hire. Without a doubt, candidate sourcing is an exhausting job, even for the professionals in human resources. Recruiters are feeling the pressure to speed up their recruitment process without compromising on the quality of hire. It only makes sense that human resources are adding artificial intelligence to their recruitment process and ultimately adding machine learning as one of their essential prerequisite recruiting tools

Employment interview with a close up view of a female applicant handing over a file containing her curriculum vitae to the businessman conducting the interview

AI in Recruiting

Often, the talent acquisition process seems like a never-ending job for hiring managers. Screening the candidate pool, shortlisting applicants, to finally finding the top talent through countless interviews and time-consuming decision making - not to mention, the time pressure they have to search for the perfect team. However, as recruiters struggle to close the skills gap in the organisation and avoid unconscious bias in their hiring process, it comes as no surprise that more and more HR professionals are turning to ai based recruiting tools to screen candidates, and ultimately aid their hiring decisions. So, how exactly can artificial intelligence and machine learning help recruiters in the hiring process and seek the right talent from candidates?

 

1. Saving time, and a lot of it.

 

Stressed businesswoman sitting at her desk in the office“Eliminating the repetitive aspects of the hiring process gives recruiters the ability to manifest meaningful relationships with people and focus on the more human side of the job.” - Jacob Morgan 3x Best-Selling Author, Speaker, and Futurist.

 

The average time to hire the right candidate for a job is somewhere between 43 days - that's from initial job opening till they are officially an employee. I mean, we've all been in that boat to know the familiar candidate experience - applying for a job after reading countless job descriptions, then waiting for weeks, even months for a response, to then have to wait further for an interview date, likely another few weeks. Or, candidates having to wait a few weeks just to get an email from the recruiter saying that they're hiring another applicant who's better-suited for the job. Sound familiar?

But whether we like it or not, it often isn't the hiring ability of HR professionals that is to blame. Finding the right applicants with the right talent that works well with the existing company team in a given timeframe is always a challenge for the recruiter. Screening candidates, analysing data, identifying talent, avoiding unconscious bias, conducting interviews, keeping in mind diversity, these are all steps involved in the recruitment process - it's no wonder the hiring process leaves recruiters panting for breath every day!

Enter AI tools - the ultimate way for recruiters to save time on candidate screening. By using AI powered tools based on machine learning algorithms, AI driven ATS can help source the best candidate pool for resume screening and find quality talent for companies, without compromising on speed or quality. When hiring managers use AI tools to screen candidates, this allows recruiters to do what they do best - search and identify talent once the artificial intelligence has analysed the data objectively and cut down the pipeline of candidates.

 

2. Reducing bias

Image of a succesful casual business woman using laptop during meeting
"Talent acquisition leaders who invest in analytics and AI will have more success scaling to meet their recruiting demands." - Madeline Laurano, Co-Founder and Chief Reseach Officer at Aptitude Research Partners.

 

Companies have long faced the predicament of bias during the talent acquisition process - discrimination based on race, gender, disability and many other characteristics continue to distort recruiters hiring decisions, limiting candidate job opportunities and impeding quality of hire. Furthermore, this often leads to a poor candidate experience and less diversity. But I mean, we are only human, right?

Considering the fact that 85% of talent acquisition leaders feel the pressure to increase diversity, reducing conscious and unconscious bias during the hiring process is one of their top priorities. Recruiters are recognising the need for a more systematic approach to hiring candidates , and are familiarising themselves with the use of AI and ai powered technology ,such as video interview tools, to keep up with the ever growing hiring demands.

Currently, only 1 in 10 enterprises don’t increment artificial intelligence tools in place to ensure their resume review process is fair and unbiased, which is a steep improvement from 2017, when 1 in 5 enterprises didn’t have have artificial intelligence in place to ensure a fair opportunity for candidates during the recruitment process.

As the use of ai to increase diversity and inclusion are reportedly working in the recruiting scene, the use of ai powered tools is continuing to grow and help recruiters during their recruitment process, as company efforts seek to reduce hiring bias.

 

3. Ensuring the best fit for candidates

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With the help of artificial intelligence technology, recruiters are able to not simply access the candidates' resumes, but their online presence as well to further ensure a precise fit for the job. By allowing AI technology to analyse candidates' online existence, for example, their social media and other public data, recruiters can allow artificial intelligence to make predictions based on this data and decipher which candidates would be more likely to fit a specific job. For instance, the AI could pick up that a candidate is passionate about supporting social causes and directly target relevant jobs.

The Future of Artificial Intelligence for Recruiting

As the trends have shown, artificial intelligence is changing the recruitment game immensely. HR managers and recruiters are recognising that they don’t need to manage manual, repetitive tasks. Instead, they can utilise artificial intelligence to their advantage, and focus their time on what they’re really good at - listening to and empathising with candidates when they need to and construct meaningful relationships. As today's hiring landscape is changing, it becomes crucial for talent teams and recruiters to understand and adapt to the 21st-century workforce, including emerging technologies and artificial intelligence, in order to maintain a competitive advantage in the future.

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Briah Handa-Oakley

Conducting in-depth content strategy at the intersection between artificial intelligence and L&D. I cover emerging technology and the latest advancements in AI technology and ultimately fuse technical knowledge with storytelling skills.

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