Recruitment is a time-consuming process in Human resources that is laced with many challenges. Human resource professionals spend a lot of time sourcing, screening, interviewing and assessing talent to ensure they are a good fit for their organization.
With AI in recruitment, it is safe to say that it is changing how the hiring process works, making it easier, faster, and more efficient for recruiters.
An interesting statistic from MSPowerUser states that around 79% of recruiters feel that AI has sufficient sophistication to make full hiring and firing decisions. And about 95% of recruiters believe in AI’s efficacy in the overall application process.
What is Artificial Intelligence for Hiring?
Artificial Intelligence in recruitment is the application of AI technology to streamline and automate diverse aspects of recruitment. AI enables recruiters in HR tech to leverage the power of data to make decisions that positively support organizational growth.
Hiring managers can use artificial intelligence to sort through resumes and predict candidate’s success and organizational fit. With artificial intelligence, hiring managers can save time and effort and make data-driven choices.
AI in Recruitment- 5 Ways AI can be Applied
Artificial Intelligence provides a seamless, smart, and cost-effective way of speeding up the hiring process and enhancing the quality of hires. Here are some ways on how AI can be used in recruitment
1. Talents Sourcing
Recruiters looking to spot and connect with suitable talents can leverage AI tools to achieve this quickly. Most of these AI solutions use machine learning and algorithms to automate different tasks. This may include browsing job boards, social media platforms, and internal databases for organizations.
Some AI tools go further by providing data insights and recommendations, helping hiring managers in HR tech to make better-informed decisions.
While there are several AI tools in the market, organizations need to get the ones with specific capabilities and features that are useful for each purpose.
By getting the right AI solutions, recruiters can find talents based on their experiences and skills instead of depending only on keyword matches.
2. Applicants Screening
Screening of candidates for a job role can be tasking especially when done manually. This process is critical because it helps recruiters identify qualified candidates from the applicants’ pool.
AI tools are mostly useful for applicant screening when the organization has to sift through many applications. These AI solutions can extract vital data from job applications, which can be useful in hiring decisions.
AI tools can be used to identify some discordant characters that might not be a suitable fit for a role. Recruiters can use these insights to streamline the talent pool and prioritize candidates with higher potential.
3. Talent Assessment
Talent assessment is a critical aspect of recruitment, involving the evaluation of candidates’ competencies, skills, and cultural fit for a role. AI-driven solutions in HR tech can be used to assess candidates’ behavioural traits, problem-solving skills and cognitive traits.
The results from this assessment provide invaluable insights into a candidate’s tendency to succeed in a role. Some AI solutions may provide candidates with feedback when they complete the assessments, offering suggestions for their strengths and weaknesses.
During talent assessment, hiring managers can get more insights into soft skills areas like communication, emotional intelligence, critical thinking and problem-solving with AI’s interview analysis feature.
4. Applicant Interviews
AI helps to make the interview process easier for hiring managers by improving the efficiency of candidate evaluations. Recruiters can integrate AI-driven tools into their interview process to automate scheduling for interviews, ensuring seamless coordination with the candidates.
AI in recruitment also helps with creating a structured interview process that helps in reducing bias and improving consistency in questioning This ensures that all candidates undergo a fair interview process.
Interestingly, recruiters can use AI-powered chatbots for initial screening interviews. These chatbots will ask questions to evaluate candidates’ responses, saving the hiring managers time since the initial interview process is automated.
5. Orientation and Onboarding
Organizations can save time and effort for orientation and onboarding when new hires are set to resume work with AI. For instance, artificial intelligence can assist with cultural integration, providing new employees with information on cultural values, norms and expectations.
With this, employees develop a sense of belonging, helping them quickly adapt to the work environment. AI can analyze the experiences, preferences and skills of new hires to create custom-made onboarding plans, ensuring a seamless transition into the company.
Hiring managers can leverage AI-powered chatbots to provide new employees with responses to commonly asked questions.
General tips to avoid Bias during Recruitment
While many organizations largely believe that they’re not biased when recruiting new hires, it is critical to mention that biases still surface at various points during the process. Hence, irrespective of an organization’s good intentions, bias can still tamper with the recruitment process.
According to statistics from Zippia.com, 48% of hiring managers admitted that bias affects their candidate choice. Not all organizations may be able to completely eliminate bias from their hiring process, but following these steps can reduce the outcomes caused by bias.
Firstly, ensure that all members of the hiring team are educated on the presence of bias in hiring.
They can undergo awareness training helping them recognize the signs of bias, how it forms, and how it affects their good judgment. This awareness training would also be useful in helping the hiring team learn more about different types of bias that may occur during recruitment.
Next, it is critical for hiring managers to make data-driven decisions to avoid bias during recruitment. Data-driven decisions help to prevent making decisions from an emotional standpoint, which can taint the job vetting process. By using data analytics, recruiters can evaluate a candidate’s capability with any given criteria, reducing the prospects of biases during the selection process.
Also, recruiters need to focus on comparing candidates to responsibilities to prevent biased hiring. This involves not comparing candidates to the person who was there before.
Comparing each candidate to job responsibilities is vital as it ensures that the hiring decisions depend on the candidate’s ability to meet the specific qualifications and requirements needed for success in the role. Hence, hiring managers will prioritize experience, skills, and qualifications that directly affect job performance.
Benefits of AI in Recruitment
By integrating AI into every level of your recruiting, you can attract the right candidates, ask the ideal questions and make better-informed choices. Here are some of the top perks of AI in hiring.
1. Improved Standard in Hiring Quality
AI algorithms can analyze large amounts of data, including job descriptions, resumes, and hiring data. This helps hiring managers to make data-driven decisions with objective criteria, than relying on intuition or subjective judgments.
AI-driven tools are mostly designed to reduce unconscious biases that may disrupt decision-making in hiring. These tools help recruiters focus on relevant experience, qualifications, and skills, ensuring an inclusive assessment of candidates.
2. Automation of Manual Tasks
AI-driven tools are used to simplify diverse labour-intensive processes during recruitment. With AI, recruiters can analyze vital keywords, qualifications and experience. This eliminates the need for hiring managers to manually sort through a vast volume of resumes, thereby saving energy and time.
Hence, they can prioritize strategic parts of recruitment. AI algorithms can pair candidates with job requirements using criteria like skills and experience. This presents recruiters with a shortlist of talents that may be a good fit for the position.
3. Enhanced Candidates Experience
When candidates have a good experience during the recruiting stage, a good image of the brand is created in their minds.
AI tools can be used to analyze data and preferences to personalize communications. This can be achieved with virtual assistants or chatbots that can provide tailored responses to inquiries, creating an engaging experience.
Hiring managers can ensure that candidates are kept in the loop during the recruitment process, giving the organization a positive image.
4. Cost-Effective Recruitment
By leveraging AI in recruitment, hiring managers can optimize diverse processes, reducing monotonous efforts, which reduces hiring costs. Artificial Intelligence tools can sort and shortlist resumes with predefined criteria, reducing the need for manual effort.
Hiring managers/recruiters can streamline the overall recruitment process, from sourcing to the final selection. This enables hiring managers to pay attention to other operational considerations of their roles, enhancing overall efficiency.
5. Reducing Human Bias
The use of AI in recruitment is a vital advantage that addresses the unconscious prejudices that influence decision-making during recruitment.
AI-driven tools facilitate standardized evaluation, ensuring that candidates go through the same process without biases from variations in human judgment.
If you’re a hiring manager, and your organization is looking to enhance diversity and inclusion, you can use AI to identify candidates based on merits instead of other uneven characteristics.
Conclusion
If you’re not implementing artificial intelligence in your recruiting process, you’re missing out a great deal. It is crucial for hiring managers not to see AI tools as a means to an end; rather, they should be collaborative solutions that make recruitment efforts easier and more effective.
Before opting for any AI-driven tool for recruitment, do your research and ensure the selected tool has features aligning with your organizational needs.
