The human element is still essential, but AI improves candidate sourcing, interviewing, and hiring.

It’s difficult to go a day without hearing about artificial intelligence (AI) and its many applications. In human resources, it’s being employed to recruit and hire the best and the brightest without the usual substantial time investment of the traditional process. As hiring has become a strategic concern for organizations, AI achieves high-quality, optimum results in less time and at a lower cost than humans.

AI recruitment has been embraced by 65% of recruiters, and 67% say it improves the hiring process.  95% say it significantly improves talent acquisition and retention. This is because traditional recruitment is a time-consuming and labor-intensive activity dependent on manual processes, human judgment, and interaction.

Even small businesses can use AI in HR for pre-employment screening – gathering resumes, scheduling interviews, and providing automated updates for candidates – which is the most significant drain on HR resources. The key is creating an AI process aligning with current strategies and company goals. In this article, we’ll present the advantages of AI recruitment, the key components, and how to build your AI recruitment strategy.

The advantages of AI recruitment

In business today, efficiency is the name of the game. HR departments are shrinking in the gig economy, so there’s an incentive to increase both time and cost-effectiveness, and AI can help. Here’s how.

• Decrease administrative time for tasks like candidate screenings, qualification, skill searching, answering candidate questions, data analysis, and arranging interview appointments. Almost half of the recruiters say that time savings alone is a great reason to use AI.
• Better quality candidates. AI can screen candidate resumes and choose the most suitable applicants. AI in HR can provide valuable insights that otherwise might have been missed.
• Removes unconscious bias. Almost half (48%) of hiring managers say they have unconscious bias that affects their recruiting and hiring decisions. Recruiters point to AI to reduce unconscious bias and improve diversity and equity. 
• Advanced data analysis for improved decisions. AI can analyze large amounts of data far faster than humans to extract patterns, business metrics, trends, and correlations that humans can miss. Predictive analysis can leverage historical data that can help predict behavior. Advanced analytics can help develop job descriptions, assess skills, devise interview questions, and pinpoint current employees who would fit the role well.

Humans will always be indispensable in the hiring process, but AI in HR provides the subjective data needed to balance the objective side of the operation.

The 9 key components of AI recruitment software

The first step to adding the power of AI in HR is implementing an AI application tracking software (ATS). This will significantly improve recruitment efficiency by automating repetitive tasks, improving candidate matching, and giving you the all-important data, you need for great decisions. 

1. Automatically extract and parse resume information to make it easier to filter candidates based on skills, qualifications, experience, education, and other set criteria.
2. Improve job postings. Create and distribute job posts across pertinent online platforms, including job boards and social networks. AI tools can suggest job titles and keywords that optimize job descriptions for increased visibility.
3. Source better candidates with AI algorithms that search for potential candidates across the web in job portals, social media, and your own internal database. Expand your talent pool by discovering passive candidates.
4. Automated screening. Using AI in HR, you get an analysis that matches candidate qualifications with job requirements. From this, you can develop a short list of the best fit. 
5. Automated candidate communications. Chatbot integrations can be used to send acknowledgment emails, invitations to interview, and rejection notices. This provides a professional and streamlined candidate experience for them and for you.
6. Schedule interviews directly inside the system. No more phone tag or potentially missed emails.
7. Optimize hiring strategies. With the insights and analytics AI provides, like time-to-fill, hiring source, candidate engagement, etc., you can make data-driven decisions that elevate your hiring strategy.
8. Improve candidate assessment. AI assessments are more accurate and efficient than humans by standardizing candidate matching based on experience, skills, knowledge, and interests based on the job description. This results in higher-quality candidates and hires. 
9. Video interviewing. A recent survey showed that 82% of employers implemented video interviews during the pandemic, and 93% plan to continue using them. AI can improve the process with computer vision and speech recognition to analyze facial expressions, body language, tone of voice, and verbal content. After the interview, AI can generate reports and ratings. 

To get everything you need in an ATS tailored to your industry’s unique needs, a technology partner that offers software development as a service will likely be your best option. 

How to build an AI recruitment strategy

AI recruitment can solve many HR problems, but it must be implemented strategically to be successful. The first step is analyzing company needs and objectives and starting with the business case: what is the problem, and can it be resolved with the improved insights, information, and data offered by AI in HR? 

Once you’ve decided AI is right for your organization, you’ll need help identifying the right solution for your company, and getting what you need can require custom development. Custom development ensures that your existing HR systems and processes are incorporated, and that the software serves your business well into the future. 

Privacy and security concerns

AI in HR offers significant benefits, but there are data privacy implications. Before adopting AI, conduct a data protection impact assessment to identify potential privacy and cybersecurity risks. Then strong encryption should be used, access to data should be limited to authorized personnel, and your software should pseudonymize data – replacing personal identifiers with randomly generated letters or numbers.

Note that cybersecurity is complex, and the right technology partner can offer AI-centric solutions that merge perfectly with the rest of your technology.

Equally important is providing transparency about how you collect, use, and store data so that candidates understand how their data is being used and can control how it is shared. A way to opt out and request the deletion of their data is also essential.

AI in recruitment is a powerful tool to find, assess, interview, and get the data you need to make the best hiring decisions. It also automates manual tasks, streamlines processes, and offers insights and data analysis that lead to better decision-making. 

But it’s also essential to keep the human in hiring. Use the insights and analysis offered by AI to improve your job skills. Boost your emotional intelligence, become more flexible, work on your negotiation skills, and find new ways to contribute. This is how you’ll get the most out of AI in HR.

Get the most out of AI in recruiting by partnering with Allari. We’ll work with you to develop your AI recruitment strategy and build custom software that not only makes your HR team more efficient but helps you achieve your overall business goals. 

From IT operational solutions for cybersecurity, Allari offers custom-tailored services that can be adjusted on the fly as your needs change. No scope limitations, and no fixed fees. Discover the difference a truly #customerfirst approach can make. Reach out, and let’s get started!