Why AI Is Crucial to Hiring and Retaining the Best Talent

Recruiters and HR managers are tasked with a very important role within a company. After all, a company’s greatest asset is arguably its staff. And recruiters and HR managers are responsible for staffing the company with the best talent for the positions and keeping them happy and engaged.

With the upward trend of quiet quitting and a climbing quit rate that has led industry experts to coin the phrase The Great Resignation to describe the current state of affairs, the stakes have been raised significantly for recruiters and HR managers in recent years. As a consequence, the margin for error has been reduced significantly, too.

Currently, the US is reporting a labor shortage. There simply are more job openings than job seekers looking to fill those positions. Given the current high level of competition among recruiters and the difficulty (and subsequent importance) in keeping top talent, recruiters and HR managers no longer have the luxury (if ever it were a luxury) of doing without the tools and technological advancements designed to improve their performance.

In this short article, we’ll make the case that AI is not only very helpful to recruiters and HR managers in hiring and retaining the best talent but that it is crucial. No serious recruiter or HR manager can afford to do without.  

How Is AI Used in Recruitment?

AI (often used interchangeably with the term “machine learning”, sometimes correctly so, and sometimes not) helps in recruitment at every stage of the process. By conducting an analysis of millions of jobs, resumes, job offers and data points specific to the labor market (in more or less real-time), AI systems are able to detect patterns and identify the key components of a process that are more likely to lead to successful results. 

AI systems, in many ways, are like a recruiter or HR manager’s extremely precise and efficient virtual assistant service providers.

Drafting the Job Description and Job Offer

Finding and maintaining the right talent begins with an accurate, fair, and appealing job description which will then lead to an accurate, fair, and appealing job offer. In this important step in the recruitment process, AI systems are used to:

• Align the job description with market expectations
• Spot and correct for redundancies in responsibilities
• Identify qualifications and requirements that filter for the right candidates
• Align the compensation package with market expectations

Responding to Applications

Photo by Andrea De Santis on Unsplash

In a best-case scenario, your job offer will elicit hundreds of responses. For many of these candidates, this contact will be their first ever with your company. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. That’s why it’s important to be prompt and professional with your responses. Candidate experience matters. And AI can help improve the chances of a good candidate experience – not to mention all the time it will save the recruiter or HR manager.

AI systems respond promptly and appropriately to applicants, saving recruiters time and improving the candidate experience.

Filtering Candidates

More than a fair share of the applications you get are from candidates who either are clearly not qualified or appropriate for the job or they possess prior work experience and/or background that would suggest they’d be unlikely to succeed at the position you are hiring for. 

By examining candidate resumes, the job seeker’s personal website, and/or social media profiles, AI systems can quickly identify which candidates are clearly not a good fit for the role. And in many instances, AI can steer the candidate to the appropriate role where there is perhaps also a vacancy to fill. 

By filtering out these candidates quickly, the recruiter or hiring manager is saved a tremendous amount of time, he or she is spared having to carry out the menial task of reviewing these applications and then sending out a form rejection letter, and the candidate is expedited quickly thus diminishing the chances of poor candidate experience.

AI Systems Help Eliminate Recruitment Bias

Recruitment bias can come in two forms. Either is extremely prejudicial to both the candidate and the company and in some cases, it is illegal and punishable by a fine. Conscious bias is when a recruiter knowingly favors or discriminates against a candidate for reasons that are not applicable to the job. For example, a recruiter could knowingly discriminate against women applicants or applicants from a specific region of the country.

Unconscious bias is just as prejudicial – and perhaps far more rampant. It is when a recruiter unknowingly favors or discriminates against a candidate. It could be as simple as the candidate previously worked for a company the recruiter had a bad experience with, and this in turn, creates a negative association in the mind of the recruiter vis-a-vis the candidate. 

Recruitment bias unnecessarily reduces the talent pool and further diminishes the recruiter’s chances of making the best hire possible. 

AI systems are impervious to both forms of bias, conscious and unconscious. For this reason alone, they are a great benefit to recruiters and hiring managers.

AI Is Used in Candidate Skills Assessment

AI systems can conduct exams and test the candidate to make sure he or she really does possess the skills the company is looking for. This part of the recruitment process is very important – and also quite time-consuming. AI offers greater accuracy in assessing the candidates’ skills while saving the recruiter valuable time, making it one of the best talent assessment tools out there.

How Can AI Help Retain Top Talent?

Hiring the right talent for your team is an important step in the company’s success. But it is merely a step. It is equally as important to make sure the talent is happy, motivated, and chooses to stay with the company. Otherwise, the company will need to allocate further resources to hiring, onboarding, and training new employees to take their place. AI can help avoid incurring these costs and inconveniences, especially when paired with the best HRIS software or system.

AI Matches Employees With Relevant Opportunities

One of the great strengths of AI is its ability to match or correlate different data points. In practical terms, this means that AI is good at identifying what opportunities would suit which employees, including possibilities for promotion, distributing tasks according to strengths, and optimizing the employee’s schedule for more productivity and a better work-life balance.

AI Can Detect Potential Problems Before They Get Too Big to Handle

Spotting an unsatisfied employee is not always as easy as it would seem. But the employee’s dissatisfaction always has consequences, and thus, it always leaves a trace.

One of the core strengths of AI is its ability to identify patterns and correlations to the point that AI is often able to make predictions with a greater deal of accuracy than a human. When it comes to employee dissatisfaction, when the problem is caught and addressed in its early stages, the chances of resolving it are increased exponentially.   

The Bottom Line

In recruitment, the challenges have never been harder to meet than they are right now. The good news, however, is that there have been spectacular advancements made in AI that can help recruiters and hiring managers to meet these challenges. With the stakes being as high as they are, it is inconceivable that any recruiter should not be taking advantage of the many benefits AI has to offer.

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash