AI-Powered Talent Acquisition: What is it, and why are more and more organisations turning to it? Artificial Intelligence is revolutionising the way lots of businesses operate, and talent attraction and retention are no different.
“Companies are increasingly turning to AI to improve hiring process throughput, find quality candidates and create consistency in selection. Used properly, AI can help make the hiring process more objective, drawing on multiple data sources to increase precision of fit with indifference to volume of candidates in an even yet expeditious manner.” - Forbes
AI creates the potential for organisations to hire in a more efficient way. Whether it’s using AI-powered platforms or automated activities that can support smaller teams with less resource, AI is becoming the helping hand that a lot of us so desperately need when it comes to talent attraction.
Hiring great people is arguably every business's Achilles heel - there’s no silver bullet for talent acquisition, even the most successful businesses make mistakes. But, AI is giving organisations more control and valuable data to make better-informed decisions on their hiring.
Here are some of the ways that AI is revolutionising recruitment strategies:
Resume screening
AI in resume screening usually involves scanning and qualifying a set of candidates for the relevant skills and experience for a specific role. Whether this is data submitted by candidates applying, or it’s a data set manually provided by a recruitment/HR individual, resume screening looks for keywords and analyses the document and the information provided within it.
It naturally is a lot quicker than the human eye, and can help recruitment teams to filter out unqualified candidates - or candidates who simply haven’t put thought into their application.
One role can generate hundreds, even thousands of applications, and the amount of time that takes to process can be incredibly resource consuming, even for huge, fully-fledged talent teams.
Candidate sourcing
AI in candidate sourcing looks at finding and connecting with talent quickly based on specific data provided. Technically, we all have access to this already to some degree using platforms such as LinkedIn.
However, AI candidate sourcing tools are a lot more intelligent than the publicly available platforms that we all have access to. AI is intelligent, meaning that over time it’ll understand your requests with better accuracy - meaning that even some of the most hidden gems of talent can be found.
Interview scheduling
Automated interview scheduling can be provided by AI, enabling teams to reduce the amount of monotonous tasks that they have to do when scheduling candidates.
Getting an individual’s availability and trying to synchronise it for a set of interviews can be laborious and a bit like pulling teeth - especially when you’re coordinating multiple. AI can take the headache away and also save you a ton of time due to it having the ability to quickly correlate diaries.
What are the benefits of using AI in Talent Acquisition?
Efficiency
It’s no secret that AI is incredibly efficient. From accelerating processes through to automating tasks that would take humans much longer to do - AI makes the talent acquisition process a thousand times more efficient.
From an organisational standpoint, this can be a godsend for teams that are under-resourced or going through significant growth - AI can be that digital helping hand to speed up tasks and shave time off someone’s working day.
Cost-effectiveness
Hiring is expensive - and the more experience and expertise you need, the more your purse strings will be stretched. AI can be expensive, but on the whole, there are enough tools and platforms out there that are cost-effective and won’t break the budget.
Improved candidate experience
The candidate experience is crucial, whether you’re moving someone through a process or if you’re rejecting them from your organisation.
Let’s say for example you receive 300 applications, and out of those 300 applications 20 candidates go to a first interview. Before AI and automated tools, there would be 280 people that (in theory) you’d need to send a rejection message to. Nowadays, an automated system can contact each of those 280 people with a semi-personalised rejection message.
Within the same example, let’s say out of those 20 candidates only 5 make it to a final round. That leaves you with 15 candidates to manage through the current interview process, and they may have interviewed with different individuals and may have received rejections at different stages in the process.
Before you know it, filling one role can take weeks, even months of your time if you have to manually manage every single candidate to ensure that they have a good experience. This is where AI can step in, and metaphorically hold your hand and be that support throughout the process. Think of it as a personal PA.
What are the challenges?
Algorithm bias
“Vendors must regularly monitor their tools for bias. Bias can develop in tools over time, even if they are initially bias-free, so it’s critical to work with a vendor that regularly assesses validity and fairness.” - Forbes
AI’s “artificial intelligence” needs to come from somewhere, and that programming is going to be achieved through using a human. Humans have their own set of biases and beliefs which unconsciously can be programmed into technology. Additionally, all data that we use is biased in some way.
Low-quality data or data that hasn’t been screened for biases can further contribute to algorithm bias. AI then will learn over time to keep reinforcing these biases unless we tell it otherwise.
The need for human connection
Although AI can be an incredible aid within talent acquisition (not to mention across other industries), we still need human connection. Recruitment and finding the right fit cannot be solely achieved using an artificial piece of intelligence. The human element of a business: the culture, the personality, the people - all play a part in attracting and retaining incredible talent.
Although we are lucky to live in a digital age where we have access to things such as AI, remote working, and high-speed, reliable technology - we cannot discredit how impressive human connection really is.
This brings a unique challenge for those who rely heavily on AI, as they can fall into the trap of being removed from the reality of what talent acquisition should be. This isn't to imply that AI should be demonised - instead, it should just be used in moderation.
How a replacement can be detrimental
“Hiring high-quality candidates is tough, but technology and AI, specifically, can help make the process faster and more effective while providing high-quality feedback to the recruiter and to candidates.
New regulations around the use of AI in hiring don’t have to be daunting. So long as the organization conducts appropriate due diligence on its vendor and follows best practices, AI can be effective, efficient, engaging, and ethical.” - Forbes
The goal is to never use AI as a sole replacement for your TA efforts - see it as a metaphorical helping hand. It’s there when you need it, but you also value the importance of human connection and having quality oversight over your talent acquisition process.
