A productive and efficient employee talent pool is the key to a successful business. Whatever your industry, you will only succeed if you have an effective recruitment process in place. Though it is often difficult to find and retain qualified and skilled employees, a dedicated HR professional endeavors pretty hard to meet these goals.
It is critical to find the right match between your company’s needs and the right employee to meet those needs if you want to retain your employees. Replacing an employee cost approximately 6-9 months’ salary, so your goal should be to maintain your valuable talent pool and minimize the attrition rate.
Table of Contents
Employee recruitment process overview
The goal of any organization’s Human Resources department is obviously to hire the best candidates. For this purpose, understanding between the relevant department and HR is essential. Finding the best combination of skills, experience, and personality for the job requires immense effort.
- The first step in the hiring process for HR is to collaborate with the appropriate department to create a job description. It is critical for the HR department to understand that the candidate should have a profile that completely matches the description.
- Failure to select the right skills and talent match will undermine the goal of hiring the candidate. It will also result in attrition, and employee attrition is a significant drain on any organization’s resources.
- Job descriptions help potential candidates understand the organization’s needs and expectations. To attract and meet candidates who can adequately meet the demands of the role, the job description should be as specific as possible.
- Once the job description is floated, you can expect a deluge of resumes and it is a tough job to separate the best resumes from the irrelevant ones. This is a time-consuming process, but absolutely essential.
- It is also advisable to conduct telephonic interviews before you meet the candidates personally. The HR department should then meet the candidate and shortlist the ones who seem to be a good fit. The manager of the relevant department can then interview them.
- The chosen candidates are given a job offer and the negotiation of the salary culminates in the hiring of the best candidate for the job.
What is AI and how can it help with recruitment?
There is a lot of talk about artificial intelligence nowadays as it is helping professionals and organizations for better efficiency in their performance. This is an ever-evolving area and companies are vying for the latest technological developments in AI.
Artificial intelligence has got its name from the fact that it makes a computer, computer-controlled robot or software think, plan and execute like the human mind. A lot of research is being put into making these artificially intelligent systems simulate the exact working of the human intelligence.
The creators of AI solutions have studied the human brain and its patterns. They have also analysed the cognitive processes of the human brain. The result of this effort has been the development of intelligent systems which act quite similar to the human brain.
Of course one of the purposes of intelligence artificial is to make easy the tedious, time consuming tasks in any field or occupation. Sourcing and reaching out to candidates for the next stage of the recruiting process, is one of these tedious tasks. This is the reason that AI powered solutions are used for it.
If you look at it from purely a business point of view, then apart from automating many other processes in a company, it can simplify the hiring process. AI can be used to create job descriptions and post them on many different platforms.
They can also be used to sift through the various platforms and organise the information of the candidates who apply. The software or machine used by companies recruiters does not have a memory bank instead they collect information from outside sources. They add this information to their memory and can be used by the organisation’s HR department when required.
This makes the process more efficient and less time consuming. Many companies around the world are using AI powered solutions in the recruitment process to save their resources for core tasks.
The benefits of using AI for employee recruitment
Nowadays companies recruiters post job vacancies on various social media platforms, which are surfacing as as immensely popular way of reaching out to maximum number of people.There are also the platforms that are totally designed for bringing together employers and employees. When a job is posted on any of these platforms, it attracts the attention of a large number of candidates.
Candidate sourcing: identify the best candidates faster and more efficient
It is essential that your job requirement reaches the maximum number of suitable candidates. With the assistance of AI you can post the requirement on several platforms simultaneously and manage them easily.
AI powered solutions will ensure that no human effort is required in keeping track of all the applications that pours in. It can also make sure that only the right candidates are sieved on to the next stage of the hiring process.
Screening resumes: weed out irrelevant or poor quality resumes
A candidate’s resume is the showcase of their abilities and skills. It is necessary to pick and choose the right candidates, which can be done by studying their resumes and CVs. This task can be done easily and within much lesser time with the help of artificial intelligence.
Save time and money: Automate repetitive tasks in the recruitment process
With AI you will save time and ensure that only a limited amount of time of the HR department is used. The screening of resumes and short-listing the right candidates for the further stages can easily be done by AI powered solutions.
Improve candidate experience: provide a more personalised and efficient experience
HR managers can use AI for conducting online interviews with the help of chatbots. The chatbots can simulate a conversation with a living person. The candidates can be asked some basic questions and their answers screened in a completely automated process.
This is because a chatbot does not get tired answering repetitive questions from different candidates. It also does not act impatient or angry when faced with unpleasant experiences. These and other qualities of an artificial intelligence run hiring process will prove more efficient in the initial stages at least.
AI also can provide a real-time immediate feedback to the candidates which will reduce the recruiters’ workload and candidate’s frustration. One of the best aspects of using AI powered solutions is that it enhances the candidate’s experience during the short listing process.
It creates a positive impression regarding your organisation and attracts quality candidates to take part in the future growth of your company.
The future of recruiting: A combination of human and artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is considered to be the future of many things and recruitment is one of them. However there is a long way to go before artificial intelligence can replace the human brain completely. This is the reason that the future of recruitment will be a mix of artificial and human intelligence.
HR professionals have been adopting AI solutions for some time now, in order to automate and optimise the hiring workflow. We have discussed how the time consuming, but essential tasks in the recruitment processes have been delegated to AI powered automated solutions.
Apart from the obvious benefits stated above, one of the good parts of using AI in this process removes the chances of human biases. This is because it focuses completely on the experience and skills of the candidate. In turn a more diverse workforce can be recruited into an organisation, enhancing its chances for exponential growth.
Of course it is very alluring to completely substitute human intelligence with the artificial one. But there is a long way to go for AI to replace humans, regardless of what sci-fi movies would have us believe.
There are the pitfalls along with the benefits and they have to be taken into account before you decide what tasks are to be delegated to AI solutions. There is the infamous example of Amazon who unintentionally ended up with a software that discriminated against women.
On the other hand human beings do not just use their brains, but also their feelings, gut feel and intuitive thinking. Thus they will take a 360 degree view of the matter at hand and choose a good candidate based on their gut feel and superior intelligence.
Here it is important to find a middle path where a collaboration between the human intelligence and artificial intelligence is used in the candidates data consulting and screening.
Hence we can say that the future of recruitment is going to be a combination of human and intelligence artificial. Slowly but steadily, HR departments of medium and large organisations are turning to artificial intelligence in order to improve and hasten the hiring process.
The potential drawbacks of using AI for employee recruitment
The challenge of bias in AI: Why it’s important to address this issue
Just like the example of Amazon mentioned above, a simple error in the creation of AI software can result in the solution becoming biased.
There is also the important consideration that whether the AI software should prioritise a candidate who has taken on multiple responsibilities in a small outfit or someone who has done his/her internship in a Fortune 500 company.
Such complicated decisions for candidates data consulting cannot be handled by AI alone. A human being with intuitive thinking and a better understanding of qualities required in the relevant job profile is essential. AI can overlook atypical qualifications and make a mistake in short-listing candidates for a specific job position, hence human intervention is necessary.
The challenge of data quality: How to ensure that data is clean and accurate
An AI software can perform only the tasks that it has been programmed to accomplish. This is done by a human being and the software professional will have to be guided by the HR department of any company.
Hence the data chosen by the AI solution will be only as clean and accurate as it is programmed to choose. An AI software can understand only the tasks that it has been taught and that seriously limits its accuracy in the data selection process.
The challenge of change management: How to manage resistance to change
Change is the most powerful law of nature and in the modern world, technology develops (changes) every so often. However, it is a human tendency to resist change and if you try to implement AI in your organisation’s hiring process, then your employees will resist it at least to some extent.
Educating them about the benefits of AI and how it will make their task easier is also a challenge that you will face. However, this is not very difficult because intelligent people can soon see the time and effort AI will save them.
How to implement AI into the employee recruitment process
During a study conducted by Randstad it was found that maximum recruiters believe in working in harmony with AI powered machines. 82% of the recruiters believed that the best hiring process can be created with the combination of personal connection and innovative AI technology.
According to a report compiled by a leading recruitment platform, HR personnel reported that AI is best used for
- Sourcing candidates
- Screening candidates
- Scheduling interviews
- Engaging candidates
The different ways in which AI can be applied for the candidate data consulting and hiring have been discussed above. Let us take an overview of the same:
- The AI system can assist you in offering individualised and highly targeted EVP (Employee value proposition) for every candidate
- AI can sift through thousands of profiles on selection platforms and automatically rank, grade and shortlist the best candidates for the job.
- With the help of chatbots, the candidates can provide consistent updates to the candidates and chatbots are available 24×7.
- The more advanced AI software can also assess the word choices, speech patterns and facial expressions in a digitised interview. This is the strongest similarity between human intelligence and AI.
- By removing the biases towards genders, ethnicity and age, you can create an unbiased hiring solution.
- AI powered recruitment solutions can send messages to the candidates that it finds on several recruitment platforms.
Top AI recruiting tools in the market
There are a number of AI recruitment tools available in the market and they can be used to bring about impeccable changes in the recruitment process. Choosing the right ones for your organisation can be a bit of a challenge. Let us look at the top 5 AI recruitment tools:
Aiola
This company is working hard to bridge the gap between human and intelligence artificial. The best task that this solution provides employers is that it connects recruiters and candidates on a single platform, making the process seamless.
BotSpice
Botspice has its own chatbot that works parallelly to screen resumes and keep the talent pool well-occupied with minimal effort. Its amazing management of candidate profiles automates the screening of resumes and sifting through huge data pools with great efficiency and minimum error. Besides offering proactive sourcing, Botspice also ranks candidates on metrics and automates the administrative process. It also helps new recruits in onboarding by acquainting them with company policies and procedures, besides helping them understand their role in the organization.
Skillate
This software has an advanced decision making feature that ensures a smooth and fast hiring process. It also provides a detailed job description with the assistance of JD assistants to attract the best talent.
Hiretual
Hiretual is mainly recommended for larger organisations and it can build for them a robust pipeline for not just the current but also future roles. This software also provides the HR recruiters with market insights that help them understand types of candidates to look for and hire. It enables faster optimisation and enhanced visibility of the organisation’s data.
Arya
Both internal and external recruiters can benefit from Arya. It is a smart AI tool that allows you to short-list candidates from more than 50 online channels. This enhances the chances of HR personnel to build better engagement with the candidates. This software is suitable for all sizes of companies recruiters.
Conclusion: The benefits of using AI for recruitment outweighs the cost
According to a research conducted by a leading socio-professional platform, 32% of recruiters say that AI saves money. On the other hand, 67% say that it saves time, and saved time in the business world is equivalent to saved money.
Of course high end intelligence artificial solutions are quite expensive and you need to justify the expenditure of such a large amount of money. However, as mentioned most employers are in the favour of adopting AI for their hiring process as it does justify the expense.
AI solutions for recruitment processes can be a little expensive, but they save money in the long run. In fact, the world famous company Delloitte states that employers who use AI powered technology in the recruitment process are more successful in the market. These companies show more than 30% higher profits and 18% higher revenue compared to their counterparts.
AI enhances the quality of the recruitment process, by weeding out the unnecessary elements that can waste the time of the recruiters. AI software created by good professionals integrates easily with the organisation’s current recruitment process.
It saves time, money and effort and yet provides a better result without the chance of human error. This is why most companies have started using AI to some extent or the other in their recruitment process.