Artificial Intelligence is the hottest trending topic in recruitment right now. The growing popularity of AI presents exciting opportunities for recruiters to enhance their capabilities, however there’s still lots of confusion about how best to leverage it. This article will analyse the pros and cons of using such methods, plus offer insight into how AI may shape the future of recruitment in years to come…
The following trends are responsible for the rise in AI recruiting:
- An improving economy: Competing for top talent in a candidate driven market is harder than ever, with 56% of talent acquisition leaders surveyed by LinkedIn believing this figure will continue to grow in 2023.
- The need for better workplace technology: Although hiring is expected to increase, 66% of talent acquisition leaders predict their recruiting teams will stay the same size or even shrink, meaning time-constrained recruiters need better tools to automate and effectively streamline part of their workflow.
- Advancements in data analytics: As technology becomes fast and cost-effective enough to analyse vast quantities of data, talent acquisition leaders are asking their recruitment teams to demonstrate data-based hiring metrics that measure performance and turnover.
Here are the three most promising applications for AI recruitment:
- Candidate sourcing: AI candidate sourcing is technology that searches for data people leave online (e.g. CVs, portfolios, or social media profiles) to find passive candidates that match your job requirements. The advantages of this type of recruitment is that it streamlines the sourcing process by simultaneously searching multiple sources of candidates on your behalf, thus saving you time by not having to manually search. This time-saving solution offers employers the opportunity to screen and interview the strongest candidates instead.
- Candidate screening: AI screening is designed to automate the resume screening process. This type of intelligent screening software adds functionality to the applicant tracking system by using post-hire data such as performance and turnover to make hiring recommendations for new applicants. The recommendations are made by applying the information it learned about existing employees’ experience, skills, and other qualifications to automatically screen and grade new candidates. The advantage of this technology is that it can enrich CVs by using public data, such as candidates’ social media profiles.
- Candidate matching: 52% of recruiters say the hardest part of the job is identifying the right candidates from a large talent pool. AI candidate matching uses an algorithm to identify the strongest matches per open position. Multiple sources of data are analysed, such as candidates’ personality traits, skills, and salary preferences to automatically assess candidates against the job requirements. AI matching is used to identify the most qualified candidates from those who are either actively looking for a new role or are very open to a new opportunity. This means recruiters don’t need to waste time trying to attract passive candidates who are not interested in the role.
The Pros and Cons of AI recruiting:
- AI intelligent automation: This method uses collected data to analyse new information and calculate decisions. The process is instantaneous – beginning as soon as the candidate applies, thus providing a response to the applicant immediately. This is an essential element as 65% of job seekers say they never or rarely receive application status notices. Pros: Time-saving; streamlines the recruitment process and offers immediate communication with candidates. Cons: Automated response lacks human emotion and personal touch.
- AI recruiting assistants: [/dt_highlight]These assistants automate communication with candidates, therefore lowering the administrative time needed to interact with potential new hires. This could involve general policy questions or even the screening of resumes. Pros: Candidates have 24/7 access to potential employers and have decreased risk of being ignored by recruiters. Cons: Limit to conversations as the system is automated, therefore missing human language nuances.
- AI intelligent recruiting software: AI screening tools automate the CV reviewing process by learning to understand the company’s hiring options and employment data. This knowledge helps the software decide what makes a good hire by prioritising and shortlisting the most suitable candidates from the applicant pool. Pros: Immediate identification of top talent backed by data. Cons: May miss CV details due to formatting; cannot screen for soft skills; lack of human judgement capabilities and potential to overlook cultural fit.
- AI digital interviews: Interview AI uses techniques like video interviews to capture the intangible human qualities (facial features, word choice, voice inflection, etc.) to predict candidate fit. Pros: Ability to assess candidate’s performance. Cons: Potential to overlook cultural fit; lacking human decision making judgement.