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Originally Posted On: AI in Screening Candidates and Hiring | tilr

The pandemic crushed the job market. Wait until you see the dynamics in the job market in the post-pandemic economic recovery. As many as 4 million workers in the U.S plan to leave their jobs in what is expected to be a tsunami of turnover once the pandemic ends. This is in addition to millions of jobseekers who are in the job market and have yet to find employment. So, where do the employers fit it this picture? They simply need to develop new talent strategies as the pandemic nears its end.

It is important to take notice that returning to work post-pandemic will most likely result in a hybrid work model, whereby many employees will continue to do remote work and only partially come to the office. How will this impact hiring practices? Employers need to revise, if not revamp, their talent acquisition and retention strategies based on this new reality.

How is Artificial Intelligence Used in Human Resources Today?

According to recode, in 2018, 67 percent of hiring managers and recruiters surveyed by LinkedIn said AI was saving them time. And that was nearly three years ago. AI is used to screen application materials such as a resume, or a brief on applicant’s key competencies. AI-based resume screening tools can highlight to recruiters which candidates they should reach out to first. They can match a candidate’s skills and competencies to open requisitions and job requirements.

AI tools used in recruiting, despite concerns from privacy groups, have brought significant efficiencies to HR departments by drastically cutting the amount of time spent to process pools of applications. They have brought fundamental changes to the management of applications and a noticeable degree of fairness to offering each resume the attention and time they deserve, even though the majority of applicants for a single job opening are not qualified. As we all know, recruiting professionals often cannot afford to give sufficient time and attention to each resume they receive.

Effective Communication with Applicants
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Job applicants will tell you that the most frustrating aspect of their job search is lack of communication from HR departments and hiring managers. While applicants expect prompt and timely response on the status of their job applications, HR and recruiting teams along with hiring managers are tasked with, if not overwhelmed by, tens of other daily responsibilities. Here AI can function as a company representative that communicates with candidates and responds to their queries promptly. This leads to improvement in communication and better candidate experience throughout the application process.

Candidate Shortlisting

One of the functions of Application Tracking Systems (ATS) is to short list candidates based on their resume credentials. At the time of submitting your application, your resume is entered into an ATS that matches your experience with required qualifications in the job description. Leveraging AI, an ATS can match candidates based on their skills. This is a step forward in expediting the hiring process and making it more efficient as many resumes are not reflective of the skills the HR is looking for. The integration of ai algorithms into ATS contributes to the improvement of the much-needed alignment between hiring managers and recruiters. HR and talent acquisition teams need to improve their hiring practices. This reduces churn rates with increased efficiency in the hiring process.

Ability to Implement a DEI Action Plan

We live in an age of increased social and political awareness augmented by instant amplifications of news on social media. Effective hiring practices are no longer confined to finding the right candidate with the right resume and experience. They include developing a team that is reflective of an organization’s community and its socio-cultural makeup that also speaks to its gender dynamics. Hence the imperative to develop and execute a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) plan.

AI in the recruitment process is helping with planning a DEI program to mitigate discrimination and equity issues within the workforce, and in some cases removing them. The use of AI in developing a DEI plan makes the hiring process fairer by addressing sources of systemic bias in the recruitment pipeline. Even though it’s still a new technology, AI algorithms have been instrumental in reducing human biases by focusing on skills matching.

Removing different types of biases are critical in developing an inclusive workforce. For example, a phrase like “rock star” that primarily targets male job seekers can be replaced, instead, with terms like “high performers”. These algorithms can generate skill matching scores that find candidates with those skills that would otherwise be ignored because their resumes did not have the required credentials.

tilr’s Platform in Hiring Process

tilr’s integrated talent intelligence platform enables you to find your people, know your people and grow your people in every stage of recruitment. tilr’s Skill Matching technology finds you the right candidate in a significantly shorter time frame. Our talent intelligence platform filters through job applications based on skill, experience and career goals, and ranks candidates based on their compatibility with open positions. Find out how you can make better and more confident talent acquisition decisions.