Third in a series The Up-and-Coming Talent Challenges Series seeks to examine the additional challenges businesses face in the area of talent acquisition, given the ongoing impact of the pandemic.
Many businesses find it difficult to recruit suitable candidates for unfilled roles. This is often due to the lack of essential skills or an incompatibility with the company’s culture.
Identifying the right candidate can be difficult, and it can be even more difficult if the professional who has been through the entire recruitment process decides to reject the offer. Furthermore, the issue of experts who accept the offer but then leave shortly after joining the team can also be problematic.
It is particularly challenging to manage personnel strategies and maintain a healthy bottom line when offers are declined and resignations are made prematurely. Sadly, this is an unavoidable consequence of HR work. Offers may be rejected and new hires may quickly leave due to dissatisfaction.
While you can’t avoid that fact of life, you may try to limit how often it occurs. You can count on AI to provide a hand, which is good news.
The Issue with Old-Fashioned Methods of Selection
Human Resources (HR) commonly follows a process of advertising an open role, reviewing applications, conducting interviews, and choosing the most suitable candidate. The recruiter will assess the candidate’s qualifications in relation to the job requirements to make a final decision. Candidates are evaluated based on their qualifications, experience, and suitability for the organization.
Due to the subjective nature of such assessments, recruiters may request the opinion of subject matter experts in order to assess a candidate’s suitability for a particular role. However, when making a decision, recruiters must consider a range of factors, including their own preconceptions and bias. This could lead to a candidate being hired who is not fully suited to the role, which increases the possibility of the offer being declined or the employee resigning shortly after being employed.
Hiring managers are aware of the potential risks associated with employing a candidate, such as the potential for rejection, resignation or job-hopping. However, this assessment is highly subjective, as it is based on the recruiter’s own experience and interpretation of data which may not always be reliable.
It is evident that this subjectivity could potentially have an impact on the hiring decision and reduce the overall credibility of the process. On the one hand, recruiters’ subjective assessments can often be inaccurate (particularly if they lack experience). However, many of these assessments do not take into account historical data, which could provide valuable insights into the process and areas for improvement.
When there is a risk in the recruitment process, it is evident that talent management cannot be successful. Fortunately, Artificial Intelligence is the solution to this issue.
Explaining the Role of AI
AI can improve recruitment efforts by providing more context for assessments. Machine learning models can analyse past recruitment data and generate a score that reflects the accuracy of a recruiter’s judgement, based on a variety of factors.
Predictive models can be highly beneficial for HR professionals due to their ability to uncover hidden patterns and behaviours that can help determine if an applicant is suitable for a role. AI can also be used in various other aspects of Human Resources Management. For instance, AI can be used to great effect in the following ways:
- Efficiently sorting through many applications by a set of criteria
- Providing advice on how to best match available talent to your organization’s requirements
- Using historical recruiting data to identify gaps and provide solutions
- Providing suggestions for enhancing the new hire orientation
AI offers businesses the potential to create high-performing engineering teams that meet specific requirements quickly. Works harnesses the power of Staffing HeroTM, a unique AI-driven solution, to identify the right individuals based on their expertise, past performance and client preferences.
Our advanced search technology enables us to identify and select the most suitable specialist for each of our customers’ projects from our extensive range of technical resources, enabling us to assemble a delivery team quickly and efficiently. We also use this technology to manage our own recruitment processes.
AI has allowed us to realize the potential of Staffing HeroTM, which utilizes big data and cutting-edge algorithms to deliver actionable insights. Our human resources team still retain overall authority when it comes to making employment decisions; however, they can now make informed decisions with the help of data provided by our AI system. This approach has enabled us to minimize the chances of a negative outcome and maximize the chances of a successful recruitment process.
It was not an easy task to devise a suitable solution. Crafting the algorithm and training it to generate the desired results was a significant time investment. However, the results obtained from Staffing HeroTM have demonstrated that this investment was worthwhile, as it has had a positive impact on our recruitment and team development. I must advise that introducing AI into the recruitment process is not without challenges. To achieve the best outcomes, it is necessary to overcome a number of obstacles.
The Pitfalls of Artificial Intelligence in Hiring
Despite the potential to revolutionise the recruitment process, AI solutions must be carefully managed to avoid potential risks. The most typical risks associated with AI solutions include:
- A highly educated AI is required. Without adequate training, the algorithm is more likely to produce inaccurate recommendations and distorted insights which could have a detrimental impact on your organisation.
- Cleaning the data and checking the model’s accuracy are also essential steps. The successful training of these models necessitates the use of large amounts of data from multiple sources. This presents a new challenge, however: the time and effort required for the clean up and organisation of the data for effective utilization.
- All of your steps need to be checked. It is conceivable that the current recruitment process may have deficiencies which are leading to job offers being made to unsuitable candidates. It may be necessary to reassess the approach taken to ensure all relevant factors are taken into account when making decisions. To benefit from the full potential of an AI solution, it is important to review and adjust the process accordingly.
- Your crew has to be trained. It may come as a surprise, but some Human Resources departments are yet to adopt new technologies, even when they can offer potential operational efficiencies. Therefore, it is essential to provide staff with a comprehensive overview of the AI solution, including its purpose, the advantages it can bring, and the necessary steps to achieve those advantages.
In conclusion, AI can be a beneficial tool for companies who wish to find suitable candidates more quickly and efficiently. There are some challenges associated with using predictive models for recruitment, but with the right investment of time and resources, the algorithms can be developed and refined to be more effective. Furthermore, the members of staff who use the AI technology should be trained properly in order to get the best out of it. Ultimately, AI has the potential to aid the recruitment process by minimising dropout and rejection rates.
