Fast forward to a couple months from now, we are done with our BIM masters and now have to take the jump into the adult life of working. We expect to send our resume, a letter of motivation and then wait for the call that tells us we are invited to go see the HR people from the organization. However, instead of talking to an actual person, we now have to interact with a computer by participating in AI games and talking to cameras, in order for the organization to get a sense of your capabilities, personality and ambitions. Sounds weird right?
It is actually not. The usage of artificial intelligence within HR and recruitment has been prominent since a couple of years. There are several ways of the usage of AI during the recruitment processes.
To begin with, it is nowadays possible to automate the way we search for candidates. With the usage of AI, recruiters are able to analyze more than 300 million social profiles at a time. Not only the search has been made easier, but AI also enables recruiters to send automated and personalized messages to candidates.
Besides this automation, companies are also able to created personalized value propositions that are uniquely made for every applicant. Because every candidate is a different person, what would be of value for one candidate, would not necessarily mean it is of value for the other. Which is why with these personalized value propositions for employees (EVP) it is possible to adapt these to the various applicants and to create a unique and customized experience.
Although this all sounds really innovative and cool, we have to ask ourselves, would this actually work and what is the goal of it? As AI becomes bigger, so does the understanding of it. People are more conscious about these different techniques and therefore they might feel that the messages they get are being automated and not as personal as they should be. Hence, this could also work counterproductive to the actual goal of using AI in recruitment processes. Furthermore, research has shown that actually this usage of automation has in the past privileged men over women, which is very undesired. Moreover, what is the point of changing your value proposition for every applicant? Don’t people apply because they like your company, not because you manipulate them into believing they like your company?
Taking this into consideration, AI is a wonderful way to make recruitment easier and interesting, but it is definitely not yet where it should be in order to solely rely on AI for these recruitment processes.
Sources:
https://harver.com/blog/machine-learning-in-recruitment/
https://harver.com/blog/ai-in-recruitment-2019/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190906134000.htm
Very interesting article! I would like to say that I agree with your argument that AI is helping recruitment to be easier and more interesting. I’m sure it saves a lot of time. However, I do feel that at a certain point of the application process you should be in contact with a human person. Even though now most work is automated and done through computers, human contact will always be necessary as machines do not substitute humans in the emotional area. If I am applying to a company I would like to get a sense of the people I am going to be working with and viceversa.
Hi Sarah,
Indeed I agree with that you should be in contact with a human person. Also because in that case you get a sense of who is working for that company and whether you could be a fit, also in the social context way!
I would personally also prefer just talking to people as machines can also be sensitive to certain things and maybe misinterpret you. On the other hand, people can be biased and could discriminate certain people. So I think a combination of the two would be best for now.
Hi Mane,
Thank you for your interesting blogpost. Is it true that most companies that receive substantial amounts of applications use AI for the first phases of recruiting the best people? However, when they arrive to the last selection they actually do use more personal tactics of connecting to the applicants? Maybe it would be interesting to actually implement these technologies into the further development of employees throughout their career; creating a platform that can connect companies to the right people. In this way, recruitment companies can work more efficiently (or are taken over by algorithms..).
Hi Sudevi,
Not every company does this, but most of the big corporates and well-known companies just get loads of applications and therefore use forms of AI to detect whether someone should proceed to the next round. An example could be to detect in resumes whether someone has a university degree, or certain experience in the field. And yes, at some point humans will be in the picture to actually talk to those people. I think that is necessary in order for the candidate as well as the recruiters to get a sense of each other. And yes, that idea would be really nice, because not only is it hard for people to apply for certain companies, but companies have a lot of difficulties with finding the right candidates. Especially because of the tight labor market conditions this year.