Although it's still early, artificial intelligence appears to be the next big step in technology. As many tech companies compete to produce the most advanced and useful AI software, more and more people incorporate AI into their life and work. Human resources is definitely one of the fields where the impact of AI technology is already making a mark, and its influence on HR practices is likely to increase dramatically in the future. Keep reading to learn how you can use AI in the workplace as an HR professional.
Using AI in the hiring process
The primary role of technology in the workplace is to reduce or eliminate the need for repetitive and time-consuming tasks. AI is fundamentally no different, but its ability to execute more complex tasks makes it potentially more useful than any other preexisting computer-based technology. AI can streamline your hiring process and other HR-specific tasks in various ways.
It can help HR professionals source prospects
One of the most tedious and time-consuming aspects of HR work is finding candidates with the appropriate skills for a particular role. Companies usually do that passively by posting a job ad and waiting for suitable candidates to apply or actively seeking professionals likely to fit the role. AI can help with both these approaches.
After your company posts a job ad, AI software can help you scan through resumes from applicants and identify those who are most likely to have the necessary attributes for the role, based on specific instructions. It can also search online for social media profiles and resumes from people who may be suitable for the open position. After identifying them, it is possible to teach the software to send personalized messages inviting the candidates to interviews. Human HR professionals currently execute these tasks. Automating them can free up their time for other, more complex activities.
It can help you screen candidates more effectively and efficiently
While sourcing prospects is the first step toward creating a candidate pool for a specific job opening, screening the ones that make the cut is the next phase. This involves assessing their applications and matching the information in their resumes, such as educational milestones, skills, and experience, with the respective job's requirements. This is probably the most time-consuming aspect of recruiting, meaning that HR professionals can save time and effort by implementing AI into their work.
It also saves time for candidates, as they get a much quicker response after applying. An AI-based software can automatically give them tests relevant to the tasks they would have to execute if they secured the role. It can then analyze their performance and invite those who do well to the next stage of the interview process. Besides saving time, this can also incentivize candidates, as long waiting times between applying and receiving feedback may demotivate them and incite them to seek other employment opportunities.
It reduces bias in hiring processes
Bias, conscious or not, is an integral part of human nature. Although human recruiters usually do their best not to let irrelevant factors, including age, gender, race, sexual orientation, or political affiliation, influence their decisions, some biases may still creep in and affect the hiring process. Using AI in the hiring process can help reduce this or eliminate it. If properly configured, an AI-based recruitment system will only use relevant factors, such as skills, qualifications, experience, and education level, to evaluate each candidate. This can lead to a better-qualified workforce that includes professionals you may have overlooked.
It can help with the interviewing process
After selecting and screening job applicants, you typically invite those that best fit the job requirements to interview for the open position. This is also a time-consuming aspect of HR work that AI can help streamline. An AI system can manage the initial interview phases, such as scheduling interviews with potentially suitable candidates or conducting introductory interviews via a chatbot.
You can program this chatbot to ask specific questions and rank candidates according to their answers, or take it a step further and program the AI system to analyze elements such as facial expressions, word choices, and various mannerisms to create a more in-depth candidate profile. While this won't completely eliminate the human aspect of interviewing candidates and selecting the most suitable candidate, it can make it easier and more effective. For instance, you can ask the system to only shortlist five candidates from 20 potentially suitable ones based on their initial interview performance.
It improves the onboarding process
The hiring process doesn't stop after you fill a position. The next step is onboarding the new employee and integrating them into the company's procedures and culture, and AI technology can improve and simplify this. It can automatically send out training materials that match the new employee's role, helping them understand work procedures and company policies. It can then keep track of the new employee reading those materials, answer their questions, and even test them to see if they learned and understood how the organization expects them to work and act.
It can use algorithmic management to track employees
Another way AI can aid your hiring process is by managing and supervising existing employees in a way that increases the likelihood of them staying with the company over the long term. This is an indirect benefit, as having more loyal employees reduces the need for constant recruitment. Algorithmic management is an AI-based system that automatically supervises and directs employees according to a predefined set of instructions.
It can collect data and make real-time decisions automatically or with human input. Having objective metrics for incentivizing effective employees and penalizing ineffective ones can reinforce positive behaviors in the workforce and help everyone understand how they need to work and behave to achieve good results.
"Human resources is definitely one of the fields where the impact of AI technology is already making a mark, and its influence on HR practices is likely to increase dramatically in the future."
Potential challenges of using AI in recruiting
Like any new technology, AI has potential downsides you may need to address. Some challenges that HR professionals may face when using AI-based recruiting are:
- It's heavily data-reliant. There's an old saying in computer science: garbage in, garbage out. AI systems can significantly improve the performance and efficiency of your HR department as long as it receives enough data to draw relevant conclusions.
- It can't match human judgment. AI may get to a point where it can make decisions and analyze situations independently, with no human input. For now, regardless of how well-integrated an AI system is in your HR practices, human judgment is still necessary at various stages of the process.
- It can lead to privacy issues. Collecting large amounts of data always involves the risk of data breaches. When gathering and using candidate data, you must train AI systems to use it ethically.
- It's deeply impersonal. One other challenge that anyone using AI in the workplace for recruiting must address is that it completely lacks the human touch. We're social beings and tend to feed off each other's energy, so solely relying on computers to interact with job applicants may put some of them off due to the lack of human connection.
Whether you like it or not, it's becoming increasingly apparent that AI is here to stay. As it gets smarter with each new generation, the ability to integrate it into your work can differentiate you from your competition. That's certainly the case in HR, and companies that don't use AI to improve their efficiency risk getting left behind by those that fully embrace it.
Learn more about automating HR tasks and processes:
Discover these four ways AI can enhance hiring.
Read more about the different ways in which AI is changing the recruitment process.
Not sure about automating HR tasks? This is why you should do it.
