AI and Machine learning have always been a keen interest of ours. In this blog I want to take a look at how AI and ML is going to affect the Recruitment sector. How the IT jobs market will change over the next decade and what AI could do to the Recruitment industry.
Companies are now using AI to dramatically improve the candidate experience and dating perhaps archaic applicant tracking systems (ATS). Today ATS systems are embracing AI and automation in so many ways. These systems are now improving time-to-hire, helping companies find the right people for open positions through there clever systems that will automatically post a job to 100’s of job websites. This is all pretty old technology and I am looking to see how things can evolve and what role will the Recruiter play in the future.
The basics of Automation are great, and they are saving companies time. If you take a company like Heineken for example, who are well known for there clever Recruitment drives, its would not be unusual for them to get 15,000 applications for maybe 30 graduate jobs. A case study on the solution can be found here. In a nut shell they used a clever ATS like system to break down the candidate pool using AI, key word searches was key.
The results they got were good, they got their positions filled in 8 days using the power of a data word search. So fair to say automation is in a good place where robotic processing automation tools can speed up the hiring process, fill IT jobs or any jobs faster. Is it more accurate than a human, no. But its faster and cheaper. Hardly the candidate experience to remember for those who didn’t get the role. I would be keen to know how the successful candidates got on and are they still working there today. That to me would be the true measure of a successful campaign rather than speed to hire.
So how AI be better in the Recruitment process?
I think Artificial intelligence and Machine learning will soon take over the entire application and outreach process in the near future. What do I mean by that? AI will be used to go through, screen and evaluate CV’s/Resumes to find the best match for the business’s requirement. It will mean that a job spec and CV will have to be written in a way that will attract a bot. This is happening today but poorly.
Soon, your CV will need a photo on it, that photo will then go through an image processing exercise, where a bot will sieve through the internet looking for the image. Meaning, everything that an applicant has posted, uploaded will be in the hands of your employer. Don’t worry, it has to be in the public domain. AI and ML will also search your name, cross reference with who you have been with and start to build a profile to give more accurate information to the employer. If you are an applicate and have done some naughty things in the past, starting considering your data and the right to be forgotten.
So once your profile has been created. The company will also understand a little about your personality (this will be ground-breaking). Interviews have always been difficult to understand a person’s personality due to the pressure, nerves etc that come with interviews, certainly within the IT jobs market anyway. You will more then likely have some personality and technical tests as the next stages of the interview process. All the while, continuing to profile you out of 100.
Once the tests are consulted you will do a video interview, again automated with set questions. These questions are to remove unconscious bias from the process. Each business looks for a diverse and inclusive recruitment process but also team. There will be processes that will also consider this.
If you apply for a job on a Monday, by Wednesday you will have completed the above tasks. Only now a Recruiter will get involved. A judgement will automatically be made on you proceeding based on your score. Let’s say you score is 80 out of 100. You will automatically have an interview arranged with a Recruiter to double check your score. People will beat the system. A recruiter will have to confirm your details are correct. After this process, you can expect to be called for a technical interview and the process will be completed.
A recruiter or HR professional also can go over other applications, do their own manual searches etc. But the Machine Learning will continue to evolve with the help of Recruiters.
So, it’s of my belief the Recruiters job is safe, Automation can only take us so far right now. The role of a recruiter will change an adapt as technology moves forward. People will always want to speak with people. So those hard to fill IT jobs will remain hard to fill, no matter the economic climate. I have written more on this subject around what hiring will look like over the next few years. You can read that here.
Elwood Roberts is a forward-thinking innovative Recruitment Partnership. If you would like more information on what we can do for you, please do reach out to us here.