The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Recruitment Technology

As we begin another new year that is already rife with uncertainty and ambiguity, the current job market assures us of one thing – HR professionals and recruiters will have their hands full again in 2022.  As of last month, three million people still hadn’t returned to the workforce and they’re not expected to return anytime soon.  As the world continues to make a global effort to get the economy back on track, and with so many members of the workforce choosing to remain on the sidelines (or retiring), organizations are relying desperately on their HR professionals and recruiters to achieve one thing this year – “Rebuild our workforce!”

In fact, more than 80% of the organizations in a recent survey said that talent acquisition was the number one priority this year.  It’s also worth noting that a third of the business leaders in America believe that their existing workforce is the reason that growth has stalled for their companies.  Those remarks suggest that, for any organization, attracting and retaining the right talent can mean the difference between success or failure.

As we head into 2022, speed and agility are expected to be the keys to successful recruiting.  They’re right.  The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies is helping organizations achieve this speed and agility through AI’s ability to accelerate workplace efficiencies not only in the HR world but in nearly every other industry as well.  Across the globe, organizations have already applied AI technologies in some way to their HR processes and most recruiters in the marketplace believe that AI has positively influenced the way they approach recruiting at their organizations.

What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

Artificial intelligence (AI) has evolved to be much more than just fodder for science-fiction-based Hollywood blockbusters.  Surprisingly, if you stop long enough to look around, you will see AI at work in your daily lives.  The best examples would be the personal assistants we can scarcely live without anymore, like Alexa, Siri, or Google Assistant.  These are all AI-powered devices capable of interpreting your verbal commands and then translating them into action.  Research shows that the use of AI by organizations has grown by 270% over the last four years.  Now, AI technologies are part of a booming $1.4 billion industry, and many organizations are convinced that AI is the secret to giving their company the competitive edge they need to succeed in today’s marketplace.

But what is AI, and why is it so critical for HR professionals and recruiters to begin taking a serious look at how AI is impacting the world of recruitment technology?

To understand AI, you first need to understand what machine learning is.  Machine learning and artificial intelligence are terms often used interchangeably, but the fact is that machine learning is a subset of AI that allows computers to learn from their own repetitive processes and experiences – it’s a computer’s way of learning a new skill.  The advantage is that, over time, AI technology develops the ability to perform intricate tasks just as capably as any human, and often in a fraction of the amount of time.

The Impact of AI on Recruitment Technology

Ask industry experts what impact they think AI technologies have had on recruitment technology and they’ll likely respond that it has brought about a new wave of forward-thinking organizations that are being ushered on “to the next level” of modern recruiting, via technology.  The direct impact is how significantly AI can be used to assist organizations in identifying the best talent in the shortest amount of time and how that can contribute positively to their employee retention levels.

The new AI technologies that are being integrated into existing recruitment systems are proving to be enormously effective in terms of their ability to automate a wide array of repetitive and frequent processes once manually performed by recruitment professionals.  Being able to streamline parts of the recruiting workflow by using “machine learning” technologies to auto-screen candidates gives the luxury of time back to recruiters and HR professionals so they can dedicate more time to doing what they do best – recruiting.

AI technologies have also had a significant impact on how organizations can leverage candidate databases within their standard Applicant Tracking System (ATS).  The best AI technologies such as Manatal come with “recommendation engines” that can assess a large pool of applicants and reveal the most talented and appropriate candidates for an open position, within seconds.  Once you marry AI technologies with modern-day remote hiring practices (brought on by the recent pandemic), it is easy to see how promising AI technologies are to the future of recruiting and hiring. 

We’ve reached a unique inflection point in history and it will be interesting to watch as more organizations choose to invest in AI to augment their recruitment technology, especially as remote interviewing and modern hiring techniques establish a greater foothold.  

Even as the marketplace marvels at what AI and machine learning have done to accelerate workforce productivity and despite the wide array of advantages that a more automated recruiting process can offer, there are still business leaders who believe adopting AI technologies into their organization is the equivalent of letting machines do the critical “thinking” they believe should be left in the hands of their recruiters.  In short, they still see AI as a liability.

Below we’ll look closely at the impact that AI technologies have had on recruitment technology and hope to outline how AI can be anything but a liability, especially as it relates to the world of recruiting.

How AI Benefits HR Professionals & Recruiters

The essential role of AI in the world of recruiting is to significantly enhance the efficiency of an organization’s recruitment efforts, primarily via automation.  When innovations in AI technologies prove capable of taking over the administration of the more repetitive tasks that are commonly assigned to an HR professional or recruiter, it frees up their time to dedicate towards more important recruitment efforts – oftentimes, these are the tasks that require critical thinking and involving personal contact with candidates.  

Over 70% of the world’s recruiters will tell you their job is more difficult now than it has ever been, and the luxury of time is something they desperately need more of – giving time back to our recruiters and HR professionals is a marquee benefit of an AI-powered recruitment system.

AI Technologies Yield Better Candidates

The most time-consuming component of the recruitment process is having to screen resumes.  This is where AI can play its most instrumental role.  The ability to streamline the entire screening process via the automation of repetitive tasks that once took a considerable amount of time is now a reality.  As AI-powered processes return that time back to recruiters, it gives them more opportunity to focus their efforts on strategic recruitment and empathetic communications that attract higher-quality candidates.  

With the support of AI, recruiters also have a unique ability to gradually build a pool of potential candidates that may be in the passive job seeker category.  As recruiters engage with more and more passive candidates over time, those efforts can be very successful in building a greater awareness of an employer’s brand.  This can produce interest from candidates who may not be actively seeking a job.

According to LinkedIn, 70% of the global workforce falls into this passive talent category – candidates who may be interested in a new job but may not be actively searching.  AI technologies can be leveraged very effectively to allow recruiters to be more proactive in their recruitment strategies and tap into a massive pool of talented candidates they wouldn’t otherwise have connected with. 

AI can also be effective at screening social media for a pool of candidates, including LinkedIn where candidates often list troves of information about their work and educational history (including job-related training) that wouldn’t necessarily be on a resume.

Soft skills too have become increasingly more important as the global workforce becomes more inclusive.  92% of recruitment professionals believe the ability to demonstrate empathy and having conflict resolutions skills are critically important in new hires, yet only about 40% of the organizations that are hiring have processes in place to accurately measure a candidate’s soft skills - another area where AI technologies are having a huge impact.

Lastly, AI can play a key role in augmenting the skillset of new hires (or upskilling).  By identifying what a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses are, an organization can gauge how to invest in new hires over time which has a positive impact on employee retention levels.

AI Technologies Accelerate the Hiring Process

Organizations that have adopted an AI-powered recruitment system have reported seeing their cost-per-screen reduced by 75%.  That’s a remarkable number.  Organizations are adopting AI-powered screening processes en masse just to help their recruiters get through that preliminary round of screening that usually involves so many resumes.  These AI-powered systems are quickly and efficiently omitting non-qualified from contention and are doing so with remarkable reliability.

AI Technologies Enable Smarter Hiring Decisions

Wouldn’t we all love to have that crystal ball that can give us all the facts we need to make the right decisions?  AI technologies are making this more of a reality and it’s revolutionizing the decision-making processes in many areas outside of HR.  In terms of recruitment software, as ATS systems fill up with candidate metrics and data, and as AI technologies evolve, recruiters now have a resource they can draw upon to augment their intelligence and create an environment to make more resourceful and prudent hiring decisions.  AI technologies are designed to eliminate human error and biases.  Therefore, AI can be used as a resource that eliminates the significant costs of making an erroneous, high-level decision.

AI Technologies for Targeted Recruitment

Another huge impact of AI-powered recruitment technology is the ability to use an organization’s existing database of resumes to determine if there may be former applicants who may qualify for current job openings.  Candidates who have previously applied to a company have their resumes “inventoried” in an ATS system.  When those systems have AI capabilities, recruiters can query the database of resumes for certain skills that may fit an existing job opening.

If a candidate applies to a company, the candidate will likely maintain a level of interest in pursuing new opportunities with the same company.  By targeting candidates in an ATS system with AI-powered engines, not only can recruiters find good talent already within their database, but it also dramatically accelerates the hiring process.  AI-powered ATS systems allow recruiters to search resumes using a wide array of metrics, including industry, schooling, skills, and more.  

In other words, an organization’s ATS system can be converted into a goldmine with the integration of the right AI-powered technology.

AI Technologies to Reduce Hiring Bias

Statistics show that organizations who have invested in a diversified workforce often report better financial performance than less diversified organizations, yet a large proportion of applicants report that they have experienced some form of discrimination in a previous hiring process. 

Whether AI-powered recruitment systems have a role to play in the market’s hiring bias is a very hot topic, and it is something that merits further investigation.  Whether or not human bias has played a role in “teaching” AI recruitment tools to discriminate against candidates based on their race and gender is a fair question.  HR professionals and recruiters should be aware of this debate, but it should also be stated that AI recruitment technologies are designed to eliminate bias from the candidate selection process by removing what is called “unconscious human bias” from the screening procedure.

Artificial intelligence should therefore also be celebrated for its achievements in helping HR professionals to eliminate bias in their recruiting and screening processes.

Conclusion

In a very short amount of time, AI has had an incredible impact on recruitment technologies – nearly all of them being beneficial to organizations.  Adopting technologies capable of simplifying and accelerating the hiring process in such a way that it yields higher quality candidates is an investment that every organization should, at the very least, consider in the coming new year if they are hoping to remain competitive.

Modern recruiting is an entirely new ball game, especially in a job market where the candidate seems to have all the leverage.  It was mentioned early that speed and agility would be the keys to successfully recruiting in the future.  With an AI-powered recruitment system, organizations will be well-positioned to recruit great talent in 2022, and beyond.

Finding the best options for an AI-powered recruitment system may sound like a daunting challenge for any organization.

Manatal – The Industry Leader in AI-Powered Recruitment Technology

Manatal is an industry titan in the world of recruitment technologies - a company that is widely recognized for developing the most innovative and robust AI-powered recruitment SaaS platform on the market today.  

With Manatal, the business of modern recruitment has been made easy once again.  Whether it be for an organization with a large HR department or for recruitment agencies, Manatal has gone well beyond the basics to integrate the latest advancements in AI and machine learning technologies to design an assisting Applicant Tracking System (ATS), or an ATS that can use AI recommendations, advanced processes, and automation to simplify recruitment into a simple handful of clicks.

Customization is another reason why Manatal’s AI-powered recruitment platform has achieved an especially remarkable reputation among recruiters and recruitment agencies.  The platform was designed with customization in mind so, in many cases, the Manatal platform is immediately adaptable to the unique dynamics of any organization, large or small.

Of all the useful features that recruiters have discovered with Manatal’s platform, the intuitive AI technology is where the company truly stands apart from the competition.  With Manatal’s impressive AI and machine learning capabilities, recruiters can look forward to accelerating their screening processes and identifying their best candidates reliably, and more quickly.  That is a successful formula for making employment offers sooner and that reduces the likelihood of having to compete with other candidate offers.

Manatal – Free Trial & Free Demo

To see for yourself just how remarkably well Manatal’s AI-powered platform will work with your organization or recruitment agency, the company offers a free trial of their ATS software via their website, or you can also book a demo with one of the professionals who can share specifically how the AI and machine learning technologies can benefit your organization. 

Taking advantage of this free demo and free trial are the best ways for your organization to discover how Manatal’s AI-powered platform can make recruitment and talent management your agency’s best competitive advantages in 2022.  Here’s to starting the new year right!