AI should aid and not replace humans in the recruitment industry

by in Industry and Markets

AI (Artificial Intelligence) has been the word on every recruiter’s lips for the last couple of years. Although still in its early stages, the computer system has already made a large impact on the way recruitment companies find and hire the right candidates for the job. The relatively new technology aims to help sift through high-volumes of applications. Then shortlist potential candidates, but where does this leave the human interaction that is essential to recruiting?

The Benefits of AI Technology in Recruitment

It is undeniable that AI recruiting has its benefits. For one, it enables businesses to achieve ultimate efficiency. As previously mentioned, AI has the ability to screen large numbers of applications to locate the “best talent” for a job. By analysing each applicants’ skills and experience, the technology decides whether the candidate may be suitable and thus “job-worthy”. Manually screening CVs is one of the most time-consuming tasks for recruiters, and it can become even more difficult when the amount of applications outweighs the number of recruiters looking at them. Thanks to AI technology, this recruitment process becomes quick and easy, in which the intelligent software powered by Ideal claims to save recruiters 23 hours per hire!

Current AI Recruitment Tools

Recruitment automation has become the way forward for many businesses, and such modes of recruitment hiring have been adopted by the business and employment social networking service: LinkedIn. The company’s Recruiting Tool enables recruiters to plunge into the diverse pool of talent and fish out the candidate that best fits the criteria.

AI is “smart technology” at its finest, and businesses have also used it in an attempt to improve their interaction with candidates. With the help of recruitment chatbots – a technique that also falls under the AI category and works in a similar way to Apple’s Siri – candidates are able to receive answers to any questions they have about a job role they are interested in. For example, if a candidate asks “How much managerial experience is required?”. A chatbot can reply with a statement explaining the years of experience that are needed to be qualified for the job. In short, chatbots collect information about candidates and any data from inquiries. Recruiters can then go back and review these robot-to-candidate conversations.

What AI cannot do that Humans can

Another potential issue with AI is its inability to detect an untrustworthy candidate. It may seem pessimistic, but there are occasions where candidates lie about their skills and experiences on their applications. Recruiters should therefore not skip the interview stage, nor completely rely on a computer system to tell them who the best candidate for the job is. Human interaction within the interview stage enables recruiters to get to know the candidate in more depth; recruiters can analyse the candidate’s behaviour, ask them critical questions, and even suggest they demonstrate some of the skills their application states they possess.

In conclusion, it is clear that AI benefits recruitment companies, but does it benefit the customer experience that comes hand-in-hand with the recruitment industry’s USP – human interaction? As the Director of Technical Recruitment at Harvey Nash points out, recruitment is a “people-centric” industry, thus robotic technology in recruitment does not tick all the boxes. Firstly, the downside of chatbots and their automated recruitment experience is the impersonality: if not properly developed, chatbots can come across as following a generic script. Communicating with a recruiter is more interpersonal than that with a robot.

Creating a Balance between Recruiters and Technology

Finding the right balance between recruiters and AI technology is key in the recruitment industry. Although businesses can rely on AI recruitment tools to essentially speed up the hiring process, care needs to be taken when considering interpersonal communication because building a human relationship with a talent employer is vital.

So how can recruiters improve the recruitment process? The answer: by using AI software to support and complement their businesses; human intervention should not be completely eradicated from the process. There needs to be a balance between “man” and the machine.