From Screening to Onboarding: How AI is Streamlining the Talent Acquisition and Management
Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
Move over human recruiters — AI is the new MVP in town!
The days of reading boring candidate cover letters and doing mundane HR tasks are numbered. With lightning speed, AI is revolutionizing the way companies hire and manage talent. It saves time, nips biases in the bud, and helps HR managers find the perfect match for their company!
But are there any real-world examples of this futuristic talent acquisition and management method? What things must HR managers know about AI before implementation? Are there any hiring drawbacks?
Rethinking recruitment: How AI is transforming the hiring landscape
Finding and retaining top talent in today’s job landscape is like conquering a new planet. New kinds of positions are appearing, day in and day out, putting additional pressure on HR to get in-depth knowledge about the field while forcing them to learn new technical jargon.
With the introduction of AI, old-school HR practices have taken a 180-degree shift. Days of sifting through countless resumes and manually screening candidates are starting to get behind us.
AI is repaving the HR industry in these four aspects:
- Easily identify top talent for the job.
- Streamline the recruitment process.
- Automate resume, cover letter, social media profile screening, and other vast amounts of candidate data in a matter of seconds.
- Make better-informed hiring decisions while maintaining incredible levels of efficiency.
But that’s not even the best part.
Here’s where AI truly shines: The HR industry is filled with unconscious bias. Achieving diversity, equity, and inclusion was really hard with traditional HR methods. With AI, things can be easier. By removing human judgment from the initial screening stages, AI ensures that candidates are evaluated based on their qualifications and experience, not on their race, gender, or age. (Of course, that will only happen as long as the AI isn’t biased itself, but that’s the topic for another article).
Smart hiring: How AI is used for talent acquisition and management
You still believe AI-powered talent acquisition and management are something from a sci-fi movie?
Top-tier companies like Johnson & Johnson, Hilton, IBM, and Siemens jumped on the AI-talent-acquisition-and-management train with their own machine-learning algorithms promoting reverse recruitment strategies.
IBM is using its natural language processing (NLP) algorithms and AI recruitment software, increasing diversity in the workplace. Hilton’s software uses predictive analytics to identify the best candidates for the job and assess their fit with the company culture.
5 things HR must know about AI talent acquisition and management
Improved candidate screening, increased efficiency, and reduced bias are the common pros AI talent acquisition and management bring to the table.
But there are five lesser-known things every HR manager must know about this revolutionary hiring technology:
- Cost savings — AI hiring tools are famous for finding top talent for the pennies on the dollar. But if you’re an HR manager, don’t jump the gun with the most low-cost AI hiring tools. The best combo for finding top talent is getting an AI tool that’s low-cost and fits your company’s needs.
- Employee training — AI doesn’t replace your whole HR team. It’s just a tool with which your HR department becomes smarter and faster. Training your HR department on how the technology works and how to use it effectively is what makes or breaks your talent acquisition.
- Collaboration between departments — With AI, HR isn’t the only department involved in talent hiring and retaining. IT and Legal have a say in it too!
- AI’s ethical side – Every HR manager must ensure that the AI algorithm for sourcing top talent is transparent, bias-free, and without discrimination against age, gender, race, or ethnicity.
- Data privacy – AI algorithms go through mountains and mountains of candidate data. A little data leak of talent’s personal information is a disaster for your HR department. That’s why you should use AI algorithms that comply with data protection laws, and make every piece of data better secured than Fort Knox.
Is there a bad side to it?
Using AI for sourcing talent and management might feel like HR’s dream come true, but every new sexy tech has its own skeletons in the closet.
Lack of touch, limited context, unforeseen consequences, and overreliance on technology are the dark side of AI talent acquisition. Add data privacy concerns and hiring bias into that mix, and you have a talent catastrophe!
Automation is a miracle tool in the recruitment process but lacks the human touch. It’s the one-on-one talk with rapport and relationship building that no AI could replace. Algorithms-based talent acquisition and management struggle to accurately evaluate candidates from underrepresented groups or those with non-traditional backgrounds.
AI in the modern talent landscape – HR’s takeaway
AI is not a replacement for the old-school hiring method, but rather a techy wingman in acquiring and managing the best talent. It’s a tool helping HR managers go through candidates faster than a cheetah on espresso.
Biased data and the potential lack of human touch are the pitfalls of AI. But with the right strategy, killer data analysis, and streamlined talent management and retention, this sexy technology builds diverse, dynamic, and data-driven dream teams.
