Article: 4 things that artificial intelligence can do for recruitment

HR Technology

4 things that artificial intelligence can do for recruitment

Find out how GrownOut, an innovative young startup is utilizing artificial intelligence and analytics to help recruiters make informed choices.
4 things that artificial intelligence can do for recruitment

For a long time now, recruiters have had to rely excessively on “Boolean search” and “Keyword mapping” as a means to hunt the right talent. This has also meant that recruiters spend hours on end cross verifying data and following up with candidates who might not be the right fit for the job. A crop of new age technologies is changing how recruiters spot the right talent. GrownOut, a Gurgaon-based start-up uses big data analytics and artificial intelligence. “We map professionals first and then add a layer of intelligence to that data,” says Sumit Gupta, CEO of GrownOut. In an age when the hunt for talent is skewed towards identifying the best of active and passive candidates, young start-ups are bringing in the much required technological prowess to solve the problem.

Here’s how technology is helping recruiters:

Enable contextual search

Understanding the context of an employer helps in identifying the right candidate. This matching of “job to candidate” introduces variables that Boolean searches are unequipped to handle. For example, hiring patterns in a company, schools, and colleges most popular for a specific job profile, competing employers and the kind of experience that candidates possess; all shape a job hunt scenario. And artificial intelligence, although in a nascent stage is helping employers to account for such dynamics.

“Our platform enables recruiters to first select a job, and it allows them to identify relevant candidates against the job,” says Chandrasekhar, VP Sales, and Customer Success. This exercise establishes the right context and moves away from the traditional ‘laundry list’ of candidates that recruiters have to vet.

Study social imprint

In order to understand the skills of a potential candidate, artificial intelligence tools tap into many sites on the internet, not just social media, they scout career portals, knowledge sharing platforms such as coding websites, journals and other publishing platforms, even college and personal websites – where people tend to update information about projects they were involved in. This information is then used for skill validation – it helps employers understand what kind of work an individual has been associated with, what was his/her level of engagement and what potential opportunities the candidate would be most interested in, for the future.

Tap passive candidates

While tapping into people with the right experience and skills helps employers narrow the talent pool, understanding variables that include personal preferences enhances the chances of finding the right passive candidate. Artificial intelligence helps recruiters prioritize within the identified talent pool by asking questions such as: Is the prospective candidate willing to move right now? And would the candidate work for the company? So, if the probability is high for a particular candidate, (s) he is on top of the priority list. 

Quantity to quality

Recruitment professionals look at the candidate to employee conversion ratio to measure how successful their initiatives have been. With technologies of the future, the gap between identifying the prospective candidates who will go on to take up the job is set to narrow. This shift from quantity to quality is the key to making HR more business ready.

Even as technology like artificial intelligence and big data enable the transformation of HR departments, the evolving regulation on the use of publicly available information will be critical to understand how these technologies are applied. Challenges also remain in bulk hiring efforts, tackling new generations of employees and accounting for dynamic business and economic change. As technology models evolve they will need to build in these variables to offer better intelligence and forecasting.

Read full story

Topics: HR Technology, Technology, #TechHR2016

Did you find this story helpful?

Authors

QUICK POLL

How do you envision AI transforming your work?