Recruiting Talent with AI: Is It Effective or a Waste of Everyone’s Time?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is pretty much everywhere and it’s not going away. While AI makes sense in some applications like helping to develop robotic limbs for amputees, other times it can be annoying. You know when AI tries to take over your text messages or emails. This brings us to the use of AI in recruiting platforms. Is the technology useful or is it hindering everyone? We’re looking at the pros and cons of an AI recruiting platform to figure out once and for all:  is it the tool saving time and helping recruiters spot top talent?

Comparing the Benefits and Disadvantages of AI Recruiting Tools

Business leaders love finding ways to save time and money. AI often delivers but sometimes there’s an unexpected cost. We’re not necessarily talking about financial costs. Instead, we’re looking at whether or not AI is helping or hurting companies find the right talent.

AI Recruiting Can Save Time

If your organization is receiving hundreds of applications pretty much every day, your HR department is probably getting ready to stage a revolt. No one can sort through hundreds of applications a week without missing a potentially great hire. A not-so-perfect application can also make it into the approved contact pile. You’re probably losing out on the chance to bring some truly great talent onto your team.

AI algorithms can help weed out imperfect applications from the ones that may be a good fit. Since the algorithm is taking care of this automatically, your HR team has time to focus on other tasks. The primary downside is training your staff to use the AI recruiting platform. Training takes time and this also means money. If your business doesn’t typically receive a ton of applications it may be best to sort through them by hand.

The Tools Can Give You Accurate Results

Most businesses typically aren’t hiring for every position. Even start-ups tend to have a core group of employees. From there, you sort through resumes searching for individuals to fill the remaining spots. This means you’re probably searching for specific skills and experience from potential applicants.

We mentioned an algorithm sorting through the submitted applications. This algorithm searches for things like applications that are correctly filled out and specific keywords. What these keywords are depends on your guidance. Remember AI is constantly learning but it needs human guidance. You can’t just send the algorithm off without giving it some parameters. You can just let the algorithm do its thing but there’s no guarantee what you’re going to get.

Since AI needs human guidance, errors can and do occur. A simple typing mistake or omission can produce some unexpected results. You may end up with a batch of applications for a position that’s not open. Human programming errors can also mean great applications aren’t making it to your desk. Instead of hiring top talent, you’re missing out.

AI Can Help Eliminate Bias in Hiring

Okay, hiring bias has been unnecessarily politicized over the last few years. Even though it’s not often a topic of conversation it’s something business leaders often consider. As a business owner, your goal is to attract the best talent regardless of their gender, race, or religion. All you care about are their skills and what these applicants can bring to the company.

Unfortunately, humans tend to be biased even subconsciously. This is also something that rarely makes it to the discussion table. After all, no one really wants to admit they may be guilty of being a little biased. This is also when AI can help. If you want to eliminate any bias in the hiring process, AI can be a great solution. The algorithm doesn’t care about things like gender and race unless it’s taught to weed out applications with certain characteristics.

Even though AI can help eliminate bias in the hiring process, it’s not guaranteed. AI learns from historical context and bias is certainly present throughout history. To avoid machine-learned bias, pay attention to the algorithm’s parameters. Until history catches up, humans are still responsible for preventing bias in AI.

Easily Search Through Video Content

Has anyone ever warned you about what you post on social media? Sometimes the warnings about posting are to help ensure your safety. For example, you really shouldn’t post that you’re away from home on social media. You never know who may take advantage of the situation and decide to rob your home. What you post online can also impact your chances of landing your dream job.

Now that businesses are taking advantage of AI recruiting tools, it’s easier for them to scroll through your social media postings. However, it’s also not uncommon for AI tools to take things a little too far. Sometimes AI isn’t great at detecting subtle nuances. A single word in a post can throw AI off and potentially send a qualified job applicant to the bottom of the pile. Once again, it takes continual monitoring of an AI tool for it to be effective.

Speed Up the Hiring Process

Being able to speed up the hiring process comes with more than one benefit. You’re saving time and money. With AI, you can easily sort through hundreds of applications and whittle them down to a few potential candidates.

Since it isn’t taking as long to start the interview process, most of your candidates should still be available. Sometimes, the length of time between submitting an application and landing an interview is longer than an applicant can wait. This is also one of the few times when an advantage doesn’t come with an automatic downside.

So, are AI recruiting tools a good fit for your business? The answer is probably yes but with a few caveats that you want to keep in mind . As long as you account for human error and monitor the algorithm then AI can take a lot of the hassle out of the recruiting process on your behalf to help streamline operations and make the hiring process smoother.