Recruiters spend a lot of time looking for candidates. It’s quite a task to write job descriptions to capture the attention of those job seekers you’re looking for, to then go through tons of résumés to find the profile that means a match for you or your client. 

Hiring managers want to hire candidates with the best set of skills as quickly as possible. However, one of the biggest complaints made by job seekers is that the hiring process needs to be shorter. By using AI to source the most suitable candidates more quickly, we can improve the whole.

LinkedIn, the social media network owned by Microsoft, has been using artificial intelligence for years, matching open-to-work talent with opportunities, making it easier to connect with recruiters and talent acquisition professionals. LinkedIn plans to launch new ways to integrate generative AI to improve the help to recruiters and talent. The rollout will start with a limited number of LinkedIn members in the United States, India, the U.K., Canada, and Australia, with plans for global implementation.

The technology will serve as an assistant to recruiters, taking care of repetitive tasks like writing job descriptions. The tool will help them to spend more time preparing their candidates for interviews instead of reviewing hundreds of unbefitting résumés. 

 

Ways AI is helping hire better

 

1- Improve filtering with faster apps

The staple of the hiring process, the CV, is the top item in the tech shake-up of HR. 

AI tools such as ChatGPT can help applicants to optimize their CVs. Robert Symons, senior vice president at SmartRecruiters, says: “Candidates use these new tools to build job descriptions. The AI identifies relevant keywords in existing job openings and suggests improvements to their CV to get them through to the next step.”

That might sound like conventional CV filters are redundant, but AI is also helping. Indeed, it can help hiring managers screen volumes of submissions in a smaller fraction of time.

“A recruiter spends about 7 seconds on a CV, skim-reading it for things like a competitor’s name, reviewing that profile before moving on to the next because they have a large quantity to go through. AI, though, is like having a ‘co-pilot’ to read across all those CVs. It goes far beyond keyword recognition; it can analyze career paths, tenure, skills, and many more data points, which all help to prioritize candidates who more closely match the intent of the job description.” Symons says. 

 

2- More engaging and helpful virtual assistants

AI-powered chatbots have come a long way in recent years, making companies more accessible to potential applicants. 

By using neuro-linguistic programming and machine learning, chatbots can handle those initial interactions with candidates; for example, answering frequently asked questions, providing information about the company and the application process, and increasingly, they can now even schedule interviews and interact with people and collect data throughout the recruiting process.

From a starting point, chatbots are available 24/7, can speak multiple languages, and can operate across various messaging platforms like WhatsApp or Messenger.

 

3-  Faster interview process

While the idea of using technology to surf through tons of CVs and cover letters and make quick decisions about who to interview is known ground to most hiring managers, some go further and use AI to speed up the interview process.

As a recruiter, one of the biggest pains is scheduling interviews and trying to match multiple agendas. Still, AI scheduling tools can promote available slots and even push messages out to the candidates, read the response, and go ahead with self-scheduling.

Here, the value of AI lies in the time saved, as It can free up time for higher-value interactions between candidates and hiring managers.

 

4-  Smarter jobs boards and personalized recommendations

One of the biggest challenges for any recruiter is getting the proper job opening in front of the right talent. The targeting features on sites such as LinkedIn have been around for some time, but these systems are getting smarter.

The actual systems are more likely to highlight roles that recruiters weren’t considering. That widens the candidate’s perspective on roles that might be interesting and shows why they’re suitable. It also helps employers to make better data-driven decisions to optimize the hiring process.

For example, by drawing on past recruiting data, AI can identify the most effective channels for recruiters to engage with candidates that seem like perfect matches. This can even be as granular as automatically making minor adjustments to listings to ensure they reach the perfect fit.

 

5-  Diving deeper into personalities with AI testing

In recent years, psychometric assessments and personality tests have become more relevant in interview processes, but the arrival of AI enables managers and recruiters to get even more data about candidates.

Robert Newry, co-founder and managing director of gamified testing provider Arctic Shores, says: “Traditional tests gave some people an advantage and disadvantaged others, so we wanted a different way of uncovering potential.

“The reports from these kinds of tests are a meaningful way of providing good feedback, keeping candidates engaged, and giving them information about themselves. It’s an overview of their potential skills and experience which they could apply elsewhere, and it also supports their interview process at the company they’re applying to.”

 

How Companies Are Incorporating AI In Recruiting

 

Amazon

Amazon has been working on an Automated Applicant Evaluation system to determine which job applicants possess the most potential for success. The software searches for matches between the applicants’ résumés compared to current Amazon workers currently in the same type of role. Upon identifying these candidates through the AI tool, the online retailing giant will then fast-track these candidates for interviews within the white-collar headquarters and warehouses.

 

Hired

Hired, part of the Adecco Group, one of the largest staffing and talent agencies in the world, offers an AI platform that matches tech and sales talent with top companies. The tech job-matching platform has more than 10,000 companies in its global marketplace. With data, curated matches, and higher acceptance rates, employers could save hours searching for potential job suitors.

 

Phenom

Phenom, a unicorn HR tech company based in Ambler, Pennsylvania, uses artificial intelligence to automate tasks and personalize job searches. The technology can predict and guide job seekers to the roles that fit their backgrounds. Phenom also enables employers to match people with the right jobs. This includes finding on-target talent within their organization and promoting them internally. Its software is embedded into an array of job sites with some of the largest companies in the world. The career-tech company has 300 million users and one million jobs posted in 130 countries.

 

HireVue

HireVue offers video interviewing and recruiting automation technology. The company has conducted millions of interviews and has the data to predict the best person for the job. HireVue’s proprietary software enables companies to record videos of job seekers answering a standard set of interview questions. The video interview assessments use AI to transcribe and analyze the candidates’ recorded responses to quickly determine whether they fit the role.

 

Wrapping up

The recruiter’s daily routine is intensely competitive. They must race against time to find the best candidate before all of their competitors. They don’t have the luxury of wasting time on people who aren’t fit, as they must prioritize their time to avoid losing great talent to the competition.

Despite this, as promising as these applications of AI in recruitment seem, essential issues need to be resolved before AI tools can be safely rolled out as a standard part of recruitment practice.

The lack of transparency is worrying. “If I submit my CV to one of these scanners, in what way am I being scored?” or “Is a report being given to the hiring manager?” someone may ask when applying through a platform. If applicants don’t make it past a first or second round, they won’t usually come into contact with the hiring manager, so who is being held accountable in this process?

Also, these kinds of systems could put some candidates at a disadvantage. Some marginalized communities, such as neurodivergent people, might not make eye contact with the camera because they can’t. For example, think of someone with paralysis on one side of the face; one of the key things these algorithms look at is facial movement, and he would probably get a lower score for a reason that is not representative of the skills needed for the position.

AI is becoming closer to being the perfect tool to assist hiring processes, but as every technology in development, it also has its flaws; testing and adjusting is part of a product design. We can use the AI tools that are available today, but we have to understand that we can’t rely 100% at the moment. We still have to keep an eye on the tech while we use it.