{"id":931,"date":"2022-06-15T13:21:31","date_gmt":"2022-06-15T12:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/articles.acdev.co.uk\/articles\/?p=931"},"modified":"2024-08-06T20:13:12","modified_gmt":"2024-08-06T19:13:12","slug":"the-truth-about-ai-recruitment-how-safe-are-our-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.agencycentral.co.uk\/articles\/the-truth-about-ai-recruitment-how-safe-are-our-jobs\/","title":{"rendered":"The truth about AI recruitment: how safe are our jobs?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you\u2019ve read our two-part article series on Automation in the workplace, then you\u2019ll already be familiar with the benefits (and threats) that come with it. And while it\u2019s not quite as scary as cyborg Arnie hunting you down, AI does involve adaptation, redundancies and a wave of change to many sectors.<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

So if you work in recruitment, what will your job look like in 15 years? Will there even be a job to look at? Answers below \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will AI affect the recruitment sector?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

70% of HR managers believe the recruitment process would be more effective if it were more data-driven. Given that AI thrives at providing detailed feedback (on such a scale and accuracy humans cannot compete with), this is an ominous stat for recruiters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But does this mean recruiters will be completely <\/em>redundant?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard to say just yet, but here\u2019s one thing: recruitment has been around a while, since the 1940s in fact. Back then, recruitment was used to fill workforce gaps that had been left by many going to war. Since then, the recruitment industry has experienced dramatic evolution \u2013 more so than many other sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well aside from recruitment\u2019s obvious adaptations to technology<\/a> (the birth of things like computers and applicant tracking systems), recruitment has to adapt to all of the new job roles that are provided by technology too. So when jobs like App Developers, Social Media Managers and Big Data Analysts were born just a few years ago, recruitment had to find new ways in which to engage with and source these people.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Lack of a human touch: Would recruitment suffer from the cold service of robots?<\/em>
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The idea of technology doing anything other than assist recruitment might seem crazy. You just need to take a look at the stats to see that the recruitment sector has experienced incredible levels of growth over the past 10 years. In 2016 alone, 4,529 recruitment agencies<\/a> started up and the UK market is now worth more than \u00a335 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So do we need to worry about it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How automation could change recruitment<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Just like most other sectors, recruitment will inevitably undergo some changes as the imminent wave of automation sweeps the country. But are these changes significant enough to cause worry for recruiters? Or are they actually beneficial to the recruitment process?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of all, let\u2019s take a look at how human and machine can work together in perfect harmony \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CV screening<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In a recent\u00a0interview with Personnel Today<\/a>, Gareth Jones, who is the Head of Technology for HR consultancy The Chemist Group, discussed how AI will actually aid recruiters rather than abolish them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than having 10 people reviewing and evaluating CVs, it\u2019s increasingly being put in the hands of screening tools, for example.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This both reduces cost and increases efficiency in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe thing people often forget is that if an applicant has a crappy experience trying to get a job, they\u2019ll stop being a customer too. So process effectiveness has a huge return on investment.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such screening systems will allow recruiters to save lots of time sifting through candidates who have irrelevant or inapplicable skills (and according to Jim Roach<\/a>, there are a lot of them), and allows more time to be invested in the right candidate and matching them with the perfect employer.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Emotionless and poor at hitting targets\u2019: a recruiter\u2019s thoughts on the AI threat.<\/em>

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Personality matching<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Another potential advantage to AI as a recruiting tool is its ability to personality match. When we say personality match though, we don\u2019t mean culture match<\/em> \u2013 this is a slightly different thing which we discuss further down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personality matching involves finding a candidate who has interests, hobbies and experience that aligns itself in a beneficial way to the company they are applying to. This is an important factor to take into account from a client\u2019s perspective, as staff retention is crucial<\/a> if they\u2019re to save themselves from making a costly hire<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI could mean interviewing more candidates, because employers were unable to distinguish between them well enough to begin with.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Software beware: the competition recruiters face\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Talify is a revolutionary new recruitment software<\/a> that graduates can use to input their working skills and personality \u2013 which will then be matched up with relevant employers. It works differently to simply having a LinkedIn profile, in the sense that it doesn\u2019t work purely off keywords. Michael Novack, the founder of Talify, explains that,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCandidates complete one instrument, but embedded within it are multiple measures, including job interest, self-assessed skill, experience, and personality. The tests can also assess leadership qualities, empathy, problem solving, ability to work on a team, and entrepreneurship, among others.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Snap.hr<\/a> is a unique type of AI recruitment software that has gained traction in 2017. With companies like Tesco, JustGiving and TransferWise already using it, we managed to grab an exclusive interview with Snap.hr\u2019s CEO and founder, Raoul Tawadey<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. What motivated you to start up Snap.hr?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was running another company and hiring developers and just found the process of finding good people so time consuming. Most platforms out there were solely for passive talent and recruiters would always push their own agenda instead of being candidate-centric. We thought if we could create an amazing candidate experience for active talent that could be big.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. You predominantly operate in technology recruitment at the moment, what other sectors do you think Snap.hr could expand into?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re only going to be focussing on tech-related roles for the foreseeable future \u2013 these could be developer roles but also, more broadly, roles in growth, digital marketing, UX\/UI, data science and many others. We believe that in light of the digital transformation that\u2019s happening, demand for these roles is only increasing.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Efficiency: Snap.hr uses technology and developers to find companies talent.<\/em>
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3. What benefits does Snap.hr offer over using a recruiter (benefits to both client and candidate)?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Snap.hr every developer on our platform has their own personal talent manager to attend their needs. Whether it\u2019s getting company feedback or helping in negotiations our talent managers are always on call to help.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over 2,000 companies use Snap.hr \u2013 from Transferwise to Tesco \u2013 and so there\u2019s a good chance you\u2019ll get contacted by 5 or more companies within the first week that you\u2019re live. I think that\u2019s a great benefit for any candidate, as it means they know quickly who is interested in them, and the message is coming straight from the company (3rd party recruiters are banned).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. What would you say to traditional companies, who have used recruiters for many years, in order to convince them to try out Snap.hr?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Snap lets you book interviews with the best developers in 48 hours, and you pay nothing upfront.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eye opening stuff, right? Many people worry about the lack of connection, emotion and general human touch when it comes to machines and AI. As good as these new recruitment-based softwares may be, are they lacking something that humans have? And, if so, how important is it to the process?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what about the human element in recruitment?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below are two important things that could be lost if we were to use AI as a total replacement <\/em>for recruiters. Have a read and see if you agree \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loss of cultural assessment<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Cultural assessment is a big part of the recruitment process for any position. Whether an apprentice or a senior manager, finding a candidate to fit with a company\u2019s ethos and ongoing \u2018vision\u2019 (pardon the unavoidable jargon there) is important to staff retention and progression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cultural fit differs slightly to personality, as it involves adaptation to things such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n