During multiple discussions with HR, recruiters and other stakeholders one thing I realized that everybody was curious about what AI recruiting software was all about? Although today, AI recruiting software is no more a newbie, I remember back in 2015 when I would discuss the possible role of AI in recruitment, people would often play it down. In 2016, they started paying some attention. Today, where some companies are adopting it many companies are running proof of concepts (POC) or pilots to see how AI can improve their recruitment process.
What AI Recruiting Software Is All About?
In simple terms, AI is trying to intelligently automate multiple stages of the recruitment process so that the recruiter or hiring manager would have more time to do more human things like connecting with candidates at a more personal level. Let’s take a look at different stages of the recruitment process and how AI recruiting software plays a role at each stage.
Recruitment process comprises of 4 main phases, viz.
- Job Description and Job Posting
- Candidates Sourcing
- Resume Screening
- Interviewing Candidates
AI Helps You In Writing Effective Job Description
“What is so special about Job Description?” Well, I am not surprised if that’s the question that popped into your head. Job description often is the most neglected piece in the recruitment process.
Let me give you an example. Let’s say your job description reads like –
“We are looking for a rockstar data scientist to work on a challenging problem ….”
Sounds impressive, right? Well, there was a time when terms like rockstar used to work. However, it was observed terms like rockstar, challenging problem, etc may not invite many female applicants. It may not appeal to senior professionals with more than 10 years of experience.
Such writing reflects the unconscious bias of the hiring manager or the recruiter. Words you choose make a big difference in how people look at job opportunities.
We have seen people even copying job descriptions from their archives. And copying it wrong too! I have read enough job descriptions where the title says marketing professional and you end up finding a description about sales role.
AI recruiting software like Textio uses augmented writing to avail better results with job ads. Remember if recruitment is a marketing function then job description is your sales pitch.
AI For Candidate Sourcing
Today, it is common for a recruiter or a hiring manager to look around on social media to know more about the candidate. In fact, social media is slowly challenging traditional job boards for candidate sourcing.
Platforms like Beamery focuses on building relationships with passive candidates. It uses AI to identify passive candidates and help you reach out to these candidates.
AI recruiting software have the capability of engaging qualified candidates with personal communication. It can do the social profiling of candidates. Such a tool can source candidates for you without using traditional job boards.
Technology can help you to source candidates from specialized platforms like GitHub, Stack Overflow. However, AI helps you identify the most qualified candidates on such platforms. AI can help engage these candidates with personalized communication based on their hard skills, work contributions, etc.
Discover Candidates In Your Recruitment Database
Apparently, every organization ends up building a resume database over a period of time. AI can help you discover candidates in your existing recruitment or resume database.
There are some existing ATS or Applicant Tracking System out there which could help you search for candidates. However, these searches are purely keyword oriented. And unfortunately, many companies claim this is as AI and claims to be an AI recruiting software. Well, it is NOT!
AI For Candidate Screening, Shortlisting & Matching
It is always difficult to find the right candidate for the right job. Therefore, resume screening is also the most exhaustive job in the recruitment process.
Every organization has its own way of hiring people. Some look for people with specific roles. Few organizations like people who have worn multiple hats. Some prefer people who have stayed longer with previous firms.
There are countless scenarios. It depends on multiple factors such as the role you are hiring for, job location if you are hiring a contractor or a full-time employee. Hence, candidate screening and matching is such an important yet exhausting job.
However, AI can help you automate such tasks. AI recruitment software uses machine learning to learn from your hiring pattern. It uses natural language processing to understand more about the job and candidates. These learnings then help to screen and match candidates for the job.
AI for resume screening and matching saves about 80% of recruiters and hiring manger’s time. It saves you from engaging candidates that are not qualified for the job. Therefore, you can spend more time talking to candidates that are best suitable for the job.
AI For Candidate Interviewing
The interview stage may have two sub stages viz. Pre-Qualifying candidate and Video Interviewing.
Pre-Qualifying Candidates
If there is one thing that AI has made popular, it is chatbots. Chatbot uses natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to drive conversations.
HR is experimenting with chatbots. They are using it for employee engagements, employee surveys, etc.
AI recruiting software like Mya uses natural language processing and machine learning to prequalify candidates. It engages candidates using phone texts. A chatbot is also used for routine tasks like interview scheduling.
There are also platforms that automate audio prequalifying interviews. It also shares details about these interviews using audio analytics.
Video Interviewing
AI recruitment software for video interviewing is still in its nascent stage. There are platforms that analyze video interview to deep dive into a personality trait.
Final Thoughts
Artificial Intelligence as an industry that is projected to grow over $35 billion by 2025. AI in recruitment already making its mark.
We are still away from replicating emotional quotient using AI. However, today, AI in recruitment helps primarily to
- eliminate unconscious bias
- improve the productivity of recruiter and hiring manager
- better candidate engagement
- hire using data than intuition
Also, you may want to get more familiar with AI recruiting technology terms.
