Artificial Intelligence (AI):
How is it transforming the HR sector
Recruiting has come a million miles from the days of sifting through a pile of paper CVs and manually selecting the top applicants.
Mark Baggs
Head of Global Expansion
With AI, tasks can be automated, key words identified and interviews carried out from thousands of miles away. Acquiring talent is a somewhat different process now to what it was a decade ago. From recruitment to employee experience, and talent management, AI has the potential to transform HR.
What is AI for recruiting?
It’s a technology that can streamline or automate aspects of the recruiting process. This includes auto-screening of candidates, using algorithms to match people to the right jobs and using chatbots to help answer any questions. These are just a few ways AI is being used in the HR sector.
The possibilities brought about by AI are endless. And in the world of HR, can provide an array of benefits both to the candidate and the recruiter. These include:
Reduced workload
Key words can be scanned from CVs, helping to identify candidates for certain skills. Plus, AI can help identify potential candidates who aren’t actively looking for a new role.
Over 73% of job seekers today are only passively looking for a job. Which before AI, was a massive market previously untapped. Profiles of passive candidates can be scanned and through analysing recent activity, those who may be open to opportunities can be identified.
Candidate screening by AI further helps to reduce workload by shortlisting thousands of applicants in an instant. This saves time and means recruiters can focus their time on those shortlisted, rather than the initial shortlisting.
A deeper insight into candidates
Personality and situational based tests can provide a more rounded analysis of a candidate that stretches beyond skills listed on a CV. Before these tests, it was a CV and the way a person comes across via a face-to-face interview. Now, personality tests enable recruiters to understand how candidates react to different situations. This enables a more informed decision to be made and a better candidate to role fit.
Smoother recruitment and application process
Chatbots allow for increased candidate interaction and engagement. They provide the opportunity to ask questions based on the job requirements and allow for feedback and updates to be provided automatically.
An increased level of engagement from the recruiter to candidates will improve the experience and decrease the workload for HR team. Plus, 49% of candidates say it would greatly improve the overall experience if employers provided a clear timeline of the hiring process. With AI, it’s possible to provide candidates with up to date information on the process of their application meaning increased transparency and an overall better experience.
Allows for easier an easier global expansion process
AI can help eliminate some of the uncertainty that comes with global expansion. It allows businesses to identify their primary focuses, potential opportunities and challenges.
With increasingly reliable information, businesses can make better, more informed decisions regarding the time, country and strategy behind global expansion.
Plus, the automation of arduous time-consuming tasks frees up time to focus on wider business strategy.
How will AI change the role of the recruiter?
By automating the repetitive, tedious tasks, valuable time is regained that can be spent doing things that have wider, long-term impacts. For example, focusing on hiring strategically. It leaves more time to spend with candidates in person and nurture those relationships to help make more informed decisions during the recruitment process.
While AI-powered tools have numerous positive impacts on a HR department, the implementation doesn’t come easy.
What are the challenges that come with AI in recruitment?
Lack of humanness
Chatbots are perfect for dealing with immediate queries and acknowledging an application. But it’s important these aren’t relied upon too heavily. Doing so can impact the experience negatively and give the impression to a candidate of a lack of care. Chatbots shouldn’t be used to entirely replace human responses, merely to compliment whilst time is taken to respond.
AI requires a lot of data
To accurately mimic human intelligence, significant amounts of data is required to analyse trends. Not enough, and a pattern won’t be recognised. Too much, and the wrong trends can be identified and used as reference. For example, if data is fed in from a 10-year period, trends will be analysed based on this. Therefore, any unconscious bias will be learnt and applied to future actions.
To counteract this, it’s vital to be mindful of the potential for such biases and test your data regularly.
Today, smarter technologies are enabling HR teams to solve critical business challenges, drive exponential performance improvements and even impact larger business outcomes and profitability. When used correctly, they can transform recruitment, increase efficiency and provide a higher quality of talent acquisition.
If you need a partner to help facilitate your global expansion quickly and seamlessly, request a call back from one of our experts today.