The Pros and Cons of Using AI When Recruiting – Guest Post

 

 

The pros and cons of using AI when recruiting

 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing how businesses work and it has now entered into the recruitment space. In fact, many companies are now using Applicant Tracking Systems (ATSs) to sift through applications and schedule interviews, removing the manual process for recruiters.

The use of AI in recruitment seems more popular than ever. However, some are still wary about its effectiveness when it comes to finding the right talent. Below we review the pros and cons of AI in recruitment.

 

Pros of using AI when recruiting

 

It saves time

Probably one of the key benefits of using AI in recruitment is that it saves time. Applicant Tracking Systems can help recruiters with tasks such as posting jobs, sorting through applications and reviewing resumes. It can also take care of the marketing side of recruiting and help promote vacancies across a number of platforms.

What’s more, many companies are now using chatbots to engage with visitors on their website and this can work particularly well when it comes to interacting with candidates. After all, it means you can assist candidates with certain queries and ultimately speed up the application process.

As a result, recruiters can spend less time having to sift through poorly constructed resumes and more time on matching the right candidate to the job.

 

It can improve the candidate experience

 

Job hunters can often get frustrated when they’re kept in the dark about their application. However, with the increasing number of applications per job advert, recruitment companies may struggle to respond in a timely fashion to the majority of applications received.

AI can help alleviate this stress by swiftly notifying candidates on the progress of their application. This can help preserve your reputation as a recruiter and prevent your candidates from feeling disgruntled.

 

It eliminates bias

 

Whether intentional or not, recruiters may make hires based on an unconscious bias around gender, ethnicity, age, looks etc.

However, AI will focus solely on important factors such as a candidate’s personality, skills, experience and qualifications and as result, remove any biased hiring decisions.

 

It can increase the quality of applications

 

By using AI, you can increase the quality of the applications you put forward to hiring managers. This is because the technology will have pre-screen potential recruits, match them against the job criteria and ensuring they’re a good fit for the role.

 

Cons of using AI when recruiting

 

It can be unreliable

 

One of the potential pitfalls of using such technology is that it can get confused by unorthodox formatting such as different style headings or bullet points and consequently fail to scan a perfectly suitable candidate. This is particularly true for ATSs.

 

Candidates can trick the system

 

Anyone reading about AI and how ATSs work will know that the process relies heavily on finding certain keywords to help establish a match.

Therefore, if you use enough keywords in your resume, the system can be tricked into thinking you’re the right match, even though you might not be. Similarly, those who could potentially be a good fit might be dismissed due to being unaware of how keywords work.

 

It reduces diversity

 

Using AI could also potentially reduce diversity as it’s scanning a resume looking for certain keywords and will only collate candidates based on certain information. Alongside this, it may not pick up on whether someone is a great cultural fit or not.

Although you want a candidate to tick all the right boxes, a recruiter can at least read an application and assess if the candidate has attributes that aren’t necessarily required, but could be highly beneficial to the company. Gut instinct can be a powerful thing.

 

Should you use AI when recruiting?

 

Regardless of its pros and cons, AI in recruitment is becoming quite widespread and it might be time to start looking into how you can implement artificial intelligence into your recruitment process.

 

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