Article: Here’s how AI is disrupting talent acquisition

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Here’s how AI is disrupting talent acquisition

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Artificial Intelligence has emerged as a game-changing technology that enables companies to cut business costs, boost productivity and deliver a great customer experience. Read on to know how AI can transform your recruitment process.
Here’s how AI is disrupting talent acquisition

As workforce productivity takes center-stage, companies are increasing their investment in HR technology. In the last two years alone, venture capital and private equity companies have invested $1.87 billion in HR and workforce-related products. The investment in HR technology is only set to increase as companies leverage the power of emerging technologies to achieve higher productivity. 

In the last decade, digitization of people management process and SMAC (social media, mobile, analytics, and cloud) technologies changed the very tenets of talent management. Companies are now turning to newer technologies like Artificial Intelligence,  Augmented Reality, Blockchain to enhance organizational effectiveness while delivering a superlative employee experience. 

The rise of AI-based applications in hiring

One of the hottest technologies in HR is Artificial Intelligence (AI) or machine learning. Its ability to deliver “intelligent automation” stems from its intuitive base concepts of pattern recognition, natural language processing, speech recognition etc. These touch upon every stage of the employee life cycle, right from hire to retire. 

AI is helping HR professionals by not only automating the transactional activities but also empowering them with analytics by identifying patterns and trends in data. This data-driven approach is especially useful for talent acquisition, where the search for the “finding the perfect fit” has been a subjective process for long. 

Whether it is managing high hiring volumes, deploying the right employer branding message, or optimizing the candidate selection process, there is a pressing need to improve recruitment efficiencies. Data can serve as the logical base for making intelligent hiring decisions.  

Benefits of AI in hiring: 

Introducing AI into an existing process involves an investment of time and money. Here are some of the key benefits of adopting AI. 

  • Intelligent Sourcing:

Sourcing the right candidate from a vast pool is the first step to hiring success. Machine learning algorithms can match the best prospects to jobs by observing patterns and profiles of successful hires. This approach can help you create job postings to attract the right candidates. In addition to this, AI-powered assistants or chatbots can help reduce the time-to-hire by getting candidates to quickly apply to positions by handling queries by prospective applicants in real-time.

  • Accurate screening, scheduling, and selection: 

Sifting through thousands of applications to identify the best ones within a specified time is a time-consuming process. Today, information about a candidate’s profile lies in multiple data sources – resumes, professional networks, social media etc. AI-based tools can not only refer to these sources but also consolidate this data and screen these applications for the requirements of the job. Chatbots can also help carry out the first-level of selections through basic conversations. 

AI-based automated selection tools can align personality-based assessments and gamified tests which can further ease the life of a recruiter by providing useful insights on candidate-job match. Similarly, AI-based tools are increasingly used in video interviews to identify non-verbal cues from interviewing candidates. 

AI cannot replace the human element in hiring, so HR and TA leaders should design their strategy by ensuring  they are making the best use of their resources – recruiters empowered by technology. A good starting point can be  automating routine and repetitive hiring tasks such as screening  and then progress towards higher intelligence-based hiring tasks  such as candidate engagement.” 

  • Better candidate engagement:

Candidates often complain about not receiving timely updates about their application status. This hampers the candidate experience, thereby directly impacting the employer brand. AI tools enable better hiring-notifications and candidate engagement. For example, a chatbot can be used to resolve typical queries of candidates who apply for a given position. This can greatly enhance the candidate experience. 

  • Reducing bias: 

Bias is one of the most critical hindrances to quality recruiting. The fact that AI stems from data intelligence, allows it to identify and eliminate biases (both conscious and unconscious). For example, a screening tool can be programmed to ignore demographic factors such as age, gender, ethnic origin etc. 

  • Hiring for the future through predictive models:

In recruitment, it is important to fill a role with a candidate who has the maximum chances of success in that role. AI can help predict an applicant’s likelihood to succeed in the role he or she is applying for, based on factors related to the job, organizational culture etc. This gives both, the job applicant as well as the recruiter a clear view of whether the candidate is a good match for the company and vice-versa. This is of great significance in an age where employees’ longevity within a company is a challenge in itself. 

AI thus has the potential to transform both recruitment efficiency and effectiveness for the better. AI cannot replace the human element in hiring, so HR and TA leaders should design their strategy by ensuring they are making the best use of their resources – recruiters empowered with technology. A good starting point can be automating high-volume, repetitive and transactional tasks like resume screening, freeing up recruiters’ time to work on building effective relationships with candidates and keeping them engaged throughout the hiring process. Irrespective of the stage of technology adoption an organization is in, it is crucial that they make an ongoing commitment to invest in artificial intelligence and technology to be able to reap the benefits it promises to bring. 

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Topics: Talent Acquisition, Technology, #Hire Better Hire Faster

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