Artificial intelligence is taking the recruitment processes of companies by storm. According to global talent acquisition and management firm Alexander Mann Solutions, 96% of senior HR professionals believe AI has the potential to greatly enhance talent acquisition and retention.
In these rapidly changing developments, confusion and misconceptions around AI and recruitment can thrive – leading companies to dither around whether to incorporate AI into their HR processes or not. So, what are the pros and cons to consider?
Pro: Efficient and time-effective hiring
On average, recruiters face losing 14 hours a week to manually completing tasks. By using scheduling software and automated resume checkers, recruiters can spend time on greater priorities in the process – such as building genuine relationships with high profile candidates. Automated chatbots are another great example of this, giving candidates answers to specific hiring-related questions 24/7 – rather than waiting for recruiters to respond to their email queries.
Pro: Providing recruiters with an improved quality of candidates
In addition to cutting down on manually checking a large pool of applicants, AI also helps recruiters reduce time wasted looking through semi-qualified applicants. AI has led to a plethora of software and tools that help recruiters formulate clear job descriptions to attract more suitable candidates. Programmatic advertising is an AI-based tool that targets individuals based on demographic and behavioural variables set by the recruiter – essentially giving out the right message to the right person at the right time.
Pro: Improved and quicker experience for the candidates
This may not seem a priority to recruiters at first, however, a positive experience in a candidate’s recruitment through fast and easy answers (i.e. through chatbots) to questions will make them want to work with you even more – it is their first impression of the company after all. 26% of candidates say they left a hiring process because “it took too long” – leading companies to lose out on potential talent. Evidence of this is clear when 97% of applicants for Zappos – who implemented AI into their recruitment process as an emphasis on candidate experience – ‘agreed’ or ‘agreed strongly’ that they had a positive experience applying for the company.
Con: Not immune from human biases
One of the perceived benefits of AI in recruitment – by avoiding human bias and helping companies benefit in diverse hiring – is also its own flaw. AI is trained to find patterns in companies’ previous behaviour, identifying “the best” through the existing historical hiring data of the companies. This means that it could reinforce the status quo of companies’ potentially biased recruiting patterns and define the best candidates as those most similar to past employees. Amazon recently removed its AI resume screening tool upon realising it had learned to down-vote resumes mentioning attributes linked to women.
Con: Issues of accuracy can happen
A lot of AI-based tools are still on a learning phase and errors can happen. Some candidate screening systems may not put forward strong applications if they hadn’t included certain ‘buzzwords’ deemed appropriate in the Application Tracking System – meaning good candidates can miss out. Some candidates who understand how the system works may include keywords and trick the system to identify them as a good fit.
Con: Lack of human judgement
As Harnil Oza, CEO & Fouder at Hyperlink Infosystems stated – “There are times when human judgment and calls are necessary and not something decided based on algorithms and calculations”. AI’s data-based conclusions may not show a recruiter what someone’s work ethic or character is like. Sometimes a face to face interview is the best way for a company to recruit based on what they need in the present moment.
Conclusion: Highly useful but prepare for the flaws
While AI is likely to pivot and peak companies on a large scale, it may not have the answers to all issues recruiters will face, such as emotional intelligence. So, it seems that human judgement will always be needed in recruitment. However, it should be noted that many of the flaws of AI are leading to corrections – IBM’s AI-based tool Watson, screens resumes without considering personal details such as age or gender. It is clear that with time, AI-based technology will counter its own flaws and further improve recruitment processes.
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