Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER April 3, 2017 14 FEATURES LOOKING FOR A SUPPLIER OR VENDOR? Visit hrreporter.com/hr-vendors-guide TECHNOLOGY Enhancing recruitment through AI Recruiters can put forward more of a human face when screening, feedback and testing tasks are automated By Ji-A Min A rtificial intelligence (AI) seems to be everywhere these days. From Ama- zon's Alexa's natural language processing AI that answers questions via voice commands, Netflix's machine-learning AI that suggests what people should watch next, and Uber's robotics AI that's starting to drive people around, AI has become a part of our daily lives. When it comes to AI in the work- place, 38 per cent of enterprises are already using AI and this num- ber is expected to increase to 62 per cent by 2018, according to a 2016 survey of 235 respondents by tech company Narrative Sci- ences. And 33 per cent expect their jobs will become augmented by robotics and AI, according to a 2016 survey of more than 10,000 business and HR leaders from 140 countries by Bersin by Deloitte. Advantages for recruitment So, what will be the impact of AI on HR? It's about the application of artificial intelligence, such as learning and problem-solving, to streamline or automate workflow. As recruiting has transformed into a data-driven function, it's one of the fastest growing areas of AI in HR, according to Bersin. One reason it is exploding is be- cause AI requires large amounts of data and most HR departments sit on mountains of data. Until recently, this data was mainly used for descriptive and retro- spective reporting rather than driving strategic or predictive decision-making. With growing innovations in AI and technology, the trove of HR data is creating more ways to gain new insights and enhance the recruiter role. In addition to improving the strategic value of recruiting departments, the major appeal of automating the recruit- ing workflow is the potential to free up time. ere are several possible appli- cations to intelligently automate and streamline the recruiting func- tion. AI that learns from resumé data is one of the most promising ways because AI excels at the type of pattern recognition required for resumé screening and matching. A recruiter spends almost nine minutes reviewing a resumé be- fore moving a candidate forward, according to a 2017 report by soft- ware provider Entelo, which rep- resents 23 per cent of their time, according to a 2016 study from software company iCMS. Automated resumé screen- ing uses AI to learn what the required experiences, skills and qualifications of employees are from their resumés. AI can also enrich resumé data by "scraping" a candidate's social media profiles, collecting public data on their past employers, and analyzing their online work portfolio to more ac- curately analyze a person's skills and experience and match them against the job requirements. In applying this knowledge to candidates' resumés, this technol- ogy can instantly identify and rank the candidates who best fit the profile of successful employees. Technology that automates resumé screening eliminates the hours it takes to manually screen a resumé and to conduct research on promising candidates. It also has the potential to reduce uncon- scious bias in hiring because the AI can be programmed to ignore demographic information such as a candidate's race, sex or age. Chatbots improve candidate experience In today's competitive candidate- driven labour market, not pro- viding candidates with feedback during the job application pro- cess can be a disadvantage for the employer. As a solution, a chatbot can improve the candidate experi- ence by eliminating the number one complaint of jobseekers: Not hearing back after submitting an application. A chatbot can be pro- grammed to provide candidates feedback in real time. It uses natu- ral language processing to answer FAQs about a job, ask pre-quali- fication questions, and provide updates on a job application. Chatbots can enhance the re- cruiter role by automating re- petitive tasks such as providing updates and identifying which candidates are qualified and in- terested. is frees up recruiters' time to concentrate on a smaller number of candidates to deter- mine fit and persuade them to ac- cept the job. VR enhances testing, onboarding With Google's Daydream and Facebook's Oculus, virtual reality (VR) is making a comeback. It's a realistic simulation of a three- dimensional environment con- trolled by movements of the body. ere are many intriguing ap- plications for VR technology in the recruiting process. Employ- ers can use VR to create more re- alistic job tests to better assess a candidate's skills and knowledge. For example, a retailer can create a realistic simulation that tests a candidate's social skills and prob- lem-solving abilities when dealing with an unhappy customer. Candidates can use VR to ex- perience a more realistic preview of what a day in the job would look like to better determine their fit. is could include creating a virtual version of themselves that would interact with virtual colleagues and supervisors, and completing tasks they would be expected to do on the job. For new hires, VR can be used to train and onboard them by simulating workplace challenges and providing real-time feedback. VR technology can enhance the recruiter role as a tool for employ- ers to market and brand them- selves to help attract talent and to better assess candidates' skills. AI and technology humanize recruiting As the demands for greater effi- ciency and process improvement continue to challenge HR, AI and technology will help humanize recruiting by reducing the ad- ministrative burden. Automation will create competing demands for recruiting talent: e need for people-focused talent advisors and data-focused analytics experts. As talent advisors, frontline re- cruiting professionals are expect- ed to manage and add a human touch to any automated process. Even with today's technology, people still want to talk to anoth- er person when it comes to hiring and managing people. is will move recruiting fur- ther away from traditional trans- actional roles. Instead, successful talent advisors need to be skilled in persuasion, empathy and cre- ativity in order to create a person- alized recruiting experience for candidates. A high-touch candi- date experience can include creat- ing a custom recruiting video for the candidate and moving more quickly to set up in-person meet- ings in the recruiting cycle. In addition, automation will free up recruiters' time to work on initiatives such as reducing bias in hiring, measuring the ROI of their recruiting efforts, and planning strategic initiatives for proactive hiring based on future growth and revenue. Data-focused people analytics experts, on the other hand, are needed to help clean, analyze and interpret large quantities of HR data. ey require domain knowl- edge of recruiting and people operations to properly interpret results and provide thoughtful recommendations. ese analytics experts can add value to recruiting by calculating the cost of turnover, measuring the ROI of recruiting programs, and linking these outcomes to business results such as increased revenue and decreased costs. As recruiting becomes more efficient, data-driven and auto- mated, people-focused recruiters will be able to put forward a hu- man face to the AI and technol- ogy while analytics experts will enhance the recruitment function by using data. Ji-A Min is the head data scientist at Ideal.com, a software company that uses AI to automate recruiting tasks. She can be reached at (647) 494-3981, jia@ideal.com or for more informa- tion, visit www.ideal.com. Virtual reality can be used to train and onboard new hires by simulating workplace challenges and providing real-time feedback. Credit: Zapp2Photo (Shutterstock)

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