In the realm of recruiting, artificial intelligence (AI) has a number of applications that can help staffing and recruiting professionals attain a higher level of success. However, being a relatively new addition to the recruiting toolbox, there remains some mystery about exactly what AI is and what it isn’t, as well as where it started and where it’s going next.
Artificial intelligence covers a wide range of functions, but in short means “machine learning” – teaching machines how to perform various functionality that a human would typically do. In recruiting, that means reallocating tasks that a human recruiter would perform, such as communicating with search partners, trouble-shooting candidate inquiries or evaluating job applications. Other types of recruiting tech, like candidate matches or resume parses through your applicant tracking system, don’t fall under the AI umbrella, but are still vital components of a recruiting strategy. It’s important to understand what AI does and can do, so that you can effectively explore its functionality and apply it in the best way for your agency.
How Artificial Intelligence is Being Used in Recruiting So Far
Thus far, artificial intelligence has largely been used for improving efficiency in the recruiting process, namely by eliminating some of the more mundane and/or time-consuming tasks that eat up a lot of human energy and time. This allows business leaders to better allocate their manpower.
Chatbots are perhaps one of the most common items that springs to mind when contemplating this topic. Interacting with an automated messaging system with intuitive direction and elements of natural language processing often means candidates can navigate through an agency’s website without having to wait to speak to a recruiter. The speed associated with this typically allows more candidates to make their way through the application process, boosting your application rates and providing a more user-friendly experience. Sourcing candidates using artificial intelligence has also been a popular usage of the technology over the past few years. Using machine learning to identify qualities and experiences in top candidates out of a large talent pool is an undeniably more effective way to sort through large volumes of applicants, and means only the best of the best make it to human eyes.
Artificial Intelligence Recruiting Trends for 2021
It is interesting to note is how far artificial intelligence in recruiting has come in a relatively short timeline. With a new year comes new possibilities in terms of recruitment technology, and using it to not only increase efficiency, but to build stronger workplaces. Artificial intelligence can be applied to some of the biggest recent workplace trends to help recruiters navigate the new year with confidence.
Companies around the world have become much more adamant about ensuring diversity hiring, especially over the past twelve months. According to a recent study, 25% of Black Americans that changed their names on their applications to sound less ‘ethnic’ heard back from the hiring manager, compared to just 10% when the names were not changed. Artificial intelligence does not suffer from knee-jerk, unconscious biases that nearly all humans can fall privy to; incorporating this kind of tech into your 2021 hiring strategy is a safe bet towards more diverse hires. An important factor to note, however, is that AI is only as unbiased as the human that designed it – so take this into account when selecting your program. The influx of remote work caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is another aspect that AI can lend a much-needed hand in. Remote work removes the necessity of proximity to a workplace – meaning that talent pools for jobs that can be worked remotely can, hypothetically, be made up of workers from anywhere. The prospect of having to manage much larger talent pools of remote candidates can be mitigated through AI, which can sort through large volumes with “performance-based matching”, as described by recruiting professional Ken Lazarus: “[this] entails a large marketplace and much fewer geographic constraints, enabling employers to use AI to optimize for specific talent objectives, including the quantity of hire, quality of hire, diversity, cost and time-to-fill.”
What You Don’t Have to Worry About
When the notion of artificial intelligence in the workplace was first introduced years ago, the minds of many immediately went to one dark place: machines will take over. Fuelled in equal parts by Hollywood sensationalism and a general lack of information available on the subject, a lot of people became resistant to the changes brought about by AI, regardless of how much easier it could make their lives.
Recruitment is an industry that is equally driven by technological advancement and human interaction; the two elements work together to provide the best experiences.
This ‘robot revolution’, for the most part, has not happened, and most experts believe that this is not something to be concerned about. Instead, machines have been principally designed to improve efficiency, reduce likelihood of human error and become a way for recruiters, and professionals in general, to do their jobs better.
Recruitment in particular is an industry that is equally driven by technological advancement and human interaction; the two elements work together to provide the best experiences. A candidate would not trust a machine to provide them with the best personally tailored interview tips or ways to appeal to a hiring manager; a client may be better off having a machine match candidates to job orders to avoid potentially missing the perfect pairing. Alleviating repetitive and mundane tasks from recruiters provides them with more mental capacity to connect and communicate with their search partners on a human level – which is something that robots simply can’t compete with. Mindscope is always eager to contribute to the conversation surrounding recruitment technology and finding solutions that help improve your recruiting efforts. Start your 7-day free trial of our state-of-the-art applicant tracking system today.
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