Tag: recruitment

Impact of AI on jobs today

Posted on by Missy Lafferty in AI February

Last week I shared a 2013 article from Mother Jones about the fears of job automation. This week I want to share an article from LinkedIn about how this is now our reality.

This September 2018 post leans on LinkedIn data and the World Economic Forum Future of Jobs report to show some trends of the entrance of AI across industries.

An interesting highlight from the article is a comparison of the occupations with the highest and lowest growth over the past five years.

Image via LinkedIn

Among the highest growing jobs are Human Resources Specialist and Recruiter, which this article suggests are inherently difficult to automate and therefore less likely to see the impacts of AI.

These roles require an understanding of human behaviors and preferences—a skill set which fundamentally can’t be automated.

Igor Perisic, “How artificial intelligence is already impacting today’s jobs,” LinkedIn

I would agree that the top jobs on this list do require an understanding of human behavior that may insulate them in some ways. However, the growth of these jobs also increases the pressure to ensure they are as efficient as possible, and that is the benefit of applying AI in these fields.

Sourcing with AI: HR tech companies in the space

Posted on by Missy Lafferty in AI February

And now, the convergence of my two areas of interest: recruiting and AI. The companies in this space, many of which are startups, are finding novel ways to apply AI to the recruiting process. I’ll break these out into a few categories, reflecting the stages of recruiting: sourcing, assessment and candidate experience. Today I’m highlighting sourcing.

Sourcing is a natural fit for AI because it’s an expensive activity for recruiting organizations and there is so much data available on potential candidates.

In traditional talent sourcing, a recruiter (or sourcer) looks far and wide across a population to find relevant talent for an available job. Once a qualified person has been identified, the recruiter then attempts to engage this person to see if they will consider the job. There are a few obstacles here: first, the pool of potential talent may be very large and difficult to comb through; second, it may be difficult to identify best-fit candidates, and third, it may be difficult to engage or find people willing to engage.

AI is a great fit for AI because it’s a data-rich activity. Across the web, there’s social media profiles, participation on forums, articles and white papers. Content that could flag someone as a relevant fit for a job is nearly limitless. And within companies, there is plentiful data as well. Data on existing employees can suggest what skills work well for roles, and efficient mining of previous job candidates can lead to a future hire for a different job.

Here are a few companies applying AI to sourcing activities:

  • LinkedIn: A leader in recruiting technology. LinkedIn Recruiter is a popular tool for recruiting organizations and AI is at the heart of the recommendations to recruiters when they are searching for new talent pools
  • Entelo: A startup that applies predictive analytics to identify those most receptive to a job opportunity
  • Restless Bandit: Analyzes resumes within a company applicant tracking system to match top candidates to open roles

How AI can revolutionize HR

Posted on by Missy Lafferty in AI February

My #AIFebruary project is focused not just on learning about artificial intelligence, but also its applications in my field, HR and recruiting. With that in mind, I enjoyed these thoughts from the Forbes Human Resources Council from July. Members were asked what a future with AI might look like in our field. Some top answers:

Enhance efficiency. Stacey Browning, President of Paycor, advocates for humans and technology working together to scale a high-touch and responsive recruiting process.

Automation and a human touch don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Strategically combining them can deliver unrivaled results. In recruiting, automation’s infinitely scalable levels of efficiency mean that, regardless of the volume of candidates, each receives a timely correspondence. For candidates, being kept in the loop with a thoughtful and sincerely worded email is what makes the difference.

Stacey Browning

Reduce bias. Sherry Martin of the Denver Public School system highlights how assessments can be analyzed for bias in language and outcomes and adjusted over time to minimize adverse impact, ideally leading to a wider variety of job candidates.

Simpler sourcing. Sourcing is a popular aim for up-and-coming AI tools, and Heather Doshay at Rainforest QA talks about the impact of improving the ability to match candidates to jobs.

Sourcing is a time-intensive pain point for most talent professionals, and providing well-matched candidates to companies would significantly speed up the top of the recruiting funnel and increase the quality of hires.

Heather Doshay

Replace administrative tasks. This comment from John Feldmann at Insperity Jobs groups together the time-consuming but critical tasks that are part of nearly every recruiting process.

AI will be valuable in automating repetitive recruiting tasks such as sourcing resumes, scheduling interviews and providing feedback. This will allow recruiters and HR managers the opportunity to focus on strategic work that AI will most likely never replace, such as connecting with top talent, providing a more personalized interview experience and establishing training and mentoring programs.

John Feldmann

Stay compliant. Compliance is a critical concern in recruiting and Char Newell thinks that AI could help automate this aspect of the workload for recruiting organizations.