How Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Recruitment

While the concept of AI has gained prominence over the past decade, it is now playing a significant role in powering lots of things which we utilize on daily basis. Be itin the form of smart cars, smartphones, email spam filters, shopping list recommendation, translator, or chess, artificial intelligence now has many takers, and is being considered by many as a step forward in the field of technology. Some of the most common applications of artificial intelligence are in the fields of healthcare, automotive, finance, video games, and science based competitive events.

Apart from aforementioned industries, AI has also begun to foray into the recruitment industry and has managed to create a ripple effect all across the sector. Most recruiters around the world have begun to gradually shift their focus towards analytics and Artificial Intelligence in a bid to redefine the future of recruitment or the process of finding employees to work in an organizations by sifting through numerous candidates, and selecting those who are qualifiedfor the job description set by recruiters. The industry is ever growing, and has witnessed several developments over the years.

Globally, the recruitment/employment sector is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 17.66 per cent within the next 4 years, according to a report published by Technavio. Another report suggests that the evolution of online recruitment is engaging both recruiters and candidates like never before, and is opening several doors of opportunity for both parties involved, as well as allowing new technologies like AI to disrupt the market effectively.

At present, the following factors are determining the prevalence of artificial intelligence in the recruitment sector:

AI Powered Recommendations: Manually finding candidates resumes is an error-prone and time-consuming task. Although human touch is essential for any kind of activity, it has been observed that most recruiters tend to invest a majority of their limited time in finding relevant resumes for any given job profile. However, with AI, recruiters are able to solve this problem now. If done right, AI powered recommendation algorithm can list down candidates sorted by relevance, allowing recruiters to connect with them one by one, and hence,substantially optimizing his/her precious time. These days, some artificial intelligence powered recommendation engines can also analyzes the job description posted by employers, and after taking into accountseveral parameters, and find the best candidates in the database who fit the given requirement. What’s more, using AI can also eliminate the need for recruiters to come up with long and complicated Boolean or keyword searches to conduct a resume search manually.

Finding best time to reach candidates: Recruiting passive or unresponsive candidates can become a harrowing task for recruiters as it is almost impossible to gauge if someone is actually looking to switch jobs or not. However, with artificial intelligence powered, many online search engines can monitor social media behaviors that correlate with someone who is ready to make the transition or those who are not. For active candidates, AI powered notifications can be sent at a time slotwherein candidates are more willing to open email/SMS based on past behavior, and thus,considerably improving the campaign’s performance funnel.

Writing Better Job Descriptions: Writing a job description can be a difficult task as there is no fixed rule or technique to create it, and highlight the ultimate goal of persuading candidates to apply in the first place. However, based on machine learning on past job descriptions & marketing analysis, artificial intelligence can help recruiters in writing better job descriptions for different job roles. In short, letting the human mind take the final judgement in terms of the tone of voice while verbally speaking. Sentiment analysis plays a major role here as such technologies can help create a more neutral tone, and ensure that any job description being presented to candidates appears inclusiveness and friendly work culture.

Screening Incoming applications: Imaging having to go through hundreds of applications on daily basis, most of which are not relevant. Such things can become a challenging task for anyone. On the other hand, AI powered screening can automatically filter out applications that are not relevant for a job role so that recruiters can focus on only those applications which are potentially useful. In addition, such intelligent screening algorithm automatically flag irrelevant candidates, and lists relevant submissions in decreasing order so that recruiter/employers do not have to work hard to find relevant candidates first, and in the process, cut down on manual labor.

Reducing unconscious bias: One of the biggest advantages of introducing artificial intelligence in the realm of recruitment lies in the fact that it can minimize instances of unconscious bias based on cast creed, gender, or race on part of the employer. This allows people from all walks of life and social strata to apply for jobs based solely on their qualification.

To conclude, AI is a huge boon for recruitment industry if properly used. Despite popular belief, AI will not make recruitment process more inhuman but instead will make it more human by freeing by recruiters time to more deeply explore candidate’s data and needs and determine fit with company values and requirements. By using it in right places, AI powered technology will help ease the recruiter frustrations and build a bridge between disconnect of employers and job seekers and can lower time to hire for recruiters.

As the renowned German Engineer & economist – Klaus Schwab once said, “The Fourth Industrial Revolution can compromise humanity’s traditional sources of meaning - work, community, family, and identity - or it can lift humanity into a new collective and moral consciousness based on a sense of shared destiny. The choice is ours.”