All of us are aware that Digital Disciplines bring in transformations and disruption in the world of work. Certain elements which bring in these changes in terms of technology are Cloud, Big Data, Social, Mobile, AI, IOT, and Robotics.

Will machines replace human beings in the world of work? The answer will be “NO” as humans have survived and are the “fittest” to evolve and re-evolve time and again to face the challenges of evolution and stand against the odds of challenges. The man has survived Computers when typewriters became extinct, there were more jobs created when this happened and today the order of the day is computers in smallest forms. Still, there are a lot of jobs in the market for people to join.  

The Role of a human HR in Digital world

Digital reduces the mundane and laborious tasks of recruitment process which has been followed all these days. Digital is a massive support agent to various aspects of recruitments. Noting could actually replace the Human intervention at all stages of recruitment but rather it could act as a facilitator to reduce the operational redundancy for the recruitment process. 

Is this change important or is it the paradigm shift for the employment catastrophe?

The Shift is necessary as typewriters became computers and computers became I phones. Evolution and improvement are constant and are necessary to seek finer tuning of the recruitment process. The shift is very beneficial and brings about massive time and cost savings to both the organization and the recruiters. There is no limit on what we could do when we harness the full potential of AI for recruitments but Human intervention is unparalleled when it comes to recruitments as only and only Human intelligence can take decisions.

Pertaining to the recruitment industry Artificial Intelligence can be used in multiple aspects of the recruitment process :

Candidate identification: - The validation of the resumes can be enabled by an AI algorithm to get the levels of fitment of the candidates as this could be a great time saver for the recruiters to get the relevant resumes rather than going through the laborious process of screening the resumes physically which would take a very long time and also brings in fatigue to the recruiters. Many companies are investing in AI and doing the first level of fitment validation for the resumes received. The same is enabled by AI using candidature and skill mapping for the required Job role / Description.

Candidate assessments: - AI and cloud play a very significant role in candidate assessments though there are many assessment tools available. There multiple parameters which can be monitored for the assessment of candidates like Behaviour, Soft skills, Interpersonal skills, Attitude / Aptitude and core skills. AI assists to bring in a comprehensive measurement of the overall candidate assessment and validates the fitment quotient of the candidate in a much more elaborate manner; It also stores the assessment data for future use.   

Candidate Interview: - AI could be the future for Interviews, though it is at an evolutionary stage that organization are trying to test AI for basic interview process with Chatbots and virtual interviews to enable the first level validation of the candidates to be recorded and restored for candidate assessments. 

Post offer follow up: - AI and big data could bring predictive analysis by engaging with the candidates on post-offer follow up. Today it is very important to keep in touch with the candidate in a very innovative and engaging manner for them to look at the origination as a potential fit to their career. The reduction of offer back out is very evident and improved when the engagement level is higher. Some of the organization who deploys AI for Candidate engagement post offer even tries to complete 20% – 30% of their non-confidential company induction processes through these mediums.

Post joining retention: - There are Chat bots which chat with employees to understand their issues and have they reported directly to the CEO’s or the CHRO’s. This is a more convenient and confidential medium of understanding the employee pain points. Many controversial problems can be addressed through robotics without affecting the confidence and confidentiality of the employee. An employee is more open to chatting with a BOT rather than a human.

While these are some of the operational level usages of Digital in HR there are various strategic uses are available such as resource optimization and cost planning, predictive hiring and reduction in revenue leakage, better source mix for hiring, Diversity indicator, People & Cultural health of the organization, Performance appetite, and utilization.

To introspect how the Digital framework helps HR and recruitment functions scale up on their status quo or inabilities let take a sneak peek into each of the aspects of Digital:

Cloud: -Cloud is more affordable and saves Space on installation, Infrastructure, Expensive software and Licencing, Easy of availability of data at any point in time and any place. The mobility of data is the biggest virtue in cloud. Should you candidate database be in cloud the same is accessible across the world should you have an internet connection. Safety of data since cloud virtual security has certain advanced safety features and sophisticated security firewalls. Parking your employee data and the candidate data is Safe, useful and easier to access.

Big Data: -People analytics has come a long way today where the Candidate profile is aggregated and the CV is scanned for fitment against roles, social media profiles are managed and mapped, Suitable Assessment parameters are deployed to churn the best fit candidate against the total talent pool available across various source mix.

Social Mobile: -Attraction of Jobs and Attraction of talent has become simplified with the social media and the mobile coming of age in the Digital discipline. Now candidates can be on the move and apply for a job. Employers can attract talent with mobile and social platforms as this is the easiest way of reaching out to a larger audience.  

AI: -Artificial Intelligence is an important game changer as this will and is enabling the recruitment fraternity to adopt technology which brings ease of operations and save cost and improve operational efficiency across various stage and status of recruitment lifecycle. The example of usage of AI it to identify the best-fit candidate among a stack of million candidates by using skill matching algorithm and defining parameters of shortlisting, AI could be used in the overall rating of the candidates and this is primarily useful for companies who have lengthy and numerous interviews as a process for selection. Let AI do the job of pre-screening, validation, skill assessment, candidature assessment, BGV and other aspects as the hiring managers could take the final call to select the candidate. 

IoT: -While every individual is connected and the Internet of thing is from Smart Phones, Smart Homes, Smart cars to Smart cities, IoT could have a significant contribution toward how the employer looks at the candidate in terms of his/her professional life. While the calibration is one aspect the candidate can now be tagged through a QR code to simplify their data and the access to this data across various uses in the organization for better utilization and productivity. A simple example is that the resource management team can have the QR code of a candidate where they will be able to view the details of the project participated, skills sets, learning required etc. and deploy them better in projects which they will suit.

Robotics: -Bots have a huge role to play in automation of laborious, repetitive, monotonous process in recruitments. Bots could assist in performing tasks like interview scheduling and taking confirmation from candidates, Reminders for Interviews, taking feedbacks on the experience of the interviews from Hiring managers and the candidates and rating the same, do candidate assessments in a gamified manner and share the results across the board for evaluation. Chatbots could be deployed to do exit interviews and share meaningful insights to the organization on the various reasons of the exit which could be points of improvements to the organization culture. Various other use of Bots are possible and the options are endless. 

Conclusion

At the operational level, Digital could help in pre-assigned process improvements and assist largely to save time, effort, cost and infrastructure. The real decision making still stands with the human interface and that is facilitated by the various Digital Disciplines. Together they become the perfect art board for painting the future of the world of work for the Recruitment / HR industry.