Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been making waves across various platforms, and ChatGPT is one of the shining stars of this technological advancement. Businesses, including GoSkills, are leveraging AI to enhance productivity and efficiency. ChatGPT, with its ability to handle a broad spectrum of tasks, from answering customer queries to generating creative content, is gaining popularity. Its versatility and efficiency make it an attractive option for businesses seeking to streamline their operations.
Whether you're a business owner or an individual interested in the latest technological trends, AI is a subject that is definitely worth exploring.
What is AI?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is an umbrella term for computer programs that mimic human reasoning. In a real-world application, this consists of analyzing large sets of data, identifying patterns, making predictions based on these patterns, engaging with users through a chatbot or similar programs, and much more.
AI is being implemented in nearly all sectors of activity. Here, we’ll take a close look at how AI is being used in the recruitment process, what that means for HR professionals and job seekers alike, and what the pros and cons are for this new trend.
Candidate filtering – a finely targeted search
This means that when implementing AI in hiring, recruiters and HR professionals are spared, to a large extent, the time-consuming task of filtering applications. It also means that the ideal candidate can be reduced to a series of keywords that correspond to predetermined criteria. The AI program will filter out those candidates who do not correspond to the ideal candidate profile.
AI programs can also respond to applicants, sending out politely worded rejection emails or invitations to proceed to the next stage of the recruitment process.
The pros
- AI eliminates ambiguity and approximation, leading to a more finely-tuned search.
- The high-volume tasks of filtering out and responding to applications are handled by the AI program, saving HR professionals countless hours of work they can now dedicate to more intricate tasks.
The cons
- AI systems work within a precise set of parameters. While this does eliminate ambiguity, it also stands the risk of diminishing decisions that stray from “convention.” An unwavering reliance on AI removes the chances of hiring anyone who does not match the predetermined criteria yet has that undefinable “special something” that might make them worth pursuing.
A greater emphasis on candidate experience
In the mid-2010s, when millennials started entering the workforce, unemployment figures dipped to below 6%. This marked the first time such a dip occurred in well over ten years. The combination of these two factors – millennials entering the workforce and a significant dip in unemployment – represented a shift in leverage between employers and job seekers. For the first time in many years, job seekers had the upper hand. Additionally, millennials had expectations of their employers that were relatively new to the business world.
This shift in dynamic brought about many movements in the hiring process, one of them being the concern for “candidate experience.” Candidate experience can best be described as the candidate’s feelings or impressions as they go through an organization’s hiring process. In many cases, it constitutes a person’s first impression of the organization. And we all know that we only get one chance to make a first impression.
It is important to point out that in today’s climate, where social media and online communication platforms such as Reddit allow virtually anyone’s voice to be heard, a negative candidate experience can quickly lead to a company developing a bad reputation. News of a company’s bad reputation spreads quickly and is very difficult to undo.
AI allows companies to increase their engagement with each candidate through tools such as a chatbot, feedback survey, and notifications.
The pros
- More time can be devoted to each candidate, answering their questions and informing them of opportunities.
- Chatbots and surveys allow HR managers to collect feedback on the candidate experience so they can take steps to improve upon it.
The cons
- An increase in ways to engage with candidates can easily lead to making the process longer and more complicated than many candidates would care for. Sometimes, less is more.
A reduction in hiring bias
Hiring bias has been a huge problem plaguing recruitment for decades. The advent of AI systems and their implementation in the hiring process goes a long way toward reducing this problem.
Biases come in one of two forms: conscious and unconscious. A conscious bias is when someone has a preconceived idea of someone based on irrelevant factors. For example, someone could be under the misguided impression that women cannot do a given job as well as a man. If the person is aware of this bias, that would be considered a conscious bias.
However, in many instances, we are not aware of the biases we have. Take, for instance, the fictitious example of someone who had a negative experience with someone who graduated from a given university. When they meet someone else who also graduated from this university, they may make a negative association in their minds. They may not even be aware they are making this association. This is an example of an unconscious bias.
When biases enter into the hiring process, candidates are negatively affected because they are not given a fair shot at an opportunity. And companies are also negatively affected because they can miss out on candidates who would otherwise be an invaluable asset to their organization.
All humans are susceptible to biases. AI systems, however, are completely free of biases (assuming they have been well-programmed). AI systems look for and filter out candidates based on specific criteria that are relevant to the job opening and only such criteria. As AI systems become more and more prevalent in the hiring process, we can expect to see a significant decrease in hiring bias which, in turn, means more people being treated fairly and fewer organizations missing out on worthy candidates.
The pros
- AI systems do not take into consideration factors that are irrelevant to the job openings they are being asked to help fill.
- AI systems assist in making data-driven decisions and not emotional ones.
The cons
- AI systems may still be susceptible to biases if the algorithms they use have not been thoroughly checked for potential biases. For example, if an AI system is looking for patterns in resumes received over the past ten years, and in that time, only resumes from a certain demographic have been received, the AI system may be prone to excluding candidates who do not fit that demographic. The AI system is only as reliable as the data sets they are basing their analyses on.
Skill testing
Testing the various candidates to make sure they do, in fact, possess the requisite skills is a time-consuming and often inaccurate endeavor. This important task can be delegated to AI systems.
There are a number of different ways AI can carry out a candidate’s skill assessment, for instance, exam-based questionnaires, chatbot discussions, or work situation simulations. With a bit of creativity, they can even be fun for the candidate which brings about the added benefit of improving the overall candidate experience.
The pros
- Less time spent by HR managers and recruiters (time they can now spend on more complex tasks)
- A more accurate assessment of a candidate’s skills
- Elements of gamification in skill assessment could help boost the overall candidate experience.
The cons
- Skill assessment tests (if not well designed) could end up assessing the candidate’s ability to take a test rather than assessing more relevant skills.
- Tests can be irrelevant to heavily experienced candidates and might put them off from completing the hiring process.
Less time spent on high-volume tasks means more time for innovation
AI systems are being implemented to help HR managers and recruiters filter out candidates, assess their skills, and communicate with them as to the next steps in the hiring process. This means that the HR manager or recruiter has more time to spend on more complex or creative tasks. How they spend this newly acquired time is up to them.
As AI in the hiring process becomes more and more prevalent, we can expect to see HR managers and recruiters spending their time in creative and innovative ways. It should then comes as no surprise that in the last ten years, we have seen a greater amount of innovation in the field of recruiting than we have ever seen before. This trend is likely to grow and expand in ways that are limited only by our imagination.
Facilitate AI in the training process
AI is being implemented in the hiring process because of its effectiveness and the fact that it helps HR managers save countless hours of work. For these very same reasons, AI is being used to train new employees for long-term success.
When AI is used in the hiring process, it makes for a smooth transition to AI used in the training process, and employee training does not stop once onboarding has been completed. Employee training should continue throughout the tenure of the employee, facilitated by the use of a learning management system (LMS).
Conclusion
We have only scratched the surface of what AI can do in the hiring process: save time, improve candidate experience, and reduce hiring bias. As HR managers and recruiters are relieved of the burden of high-volume tasks, thanks to AI, we can expect to see an increase in innovation in both the hiring and the training process.
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