How does Artificial Intelligence improve the efficiency of recruiters?

I suggest we think about the question: can machines think?

Alan Turing, british mathematician

However, scientists soon realised that computers lacked the power to attempt to reproduce the functioning of a human brain. It was not until the 2000s that a turning point was reached, following the bursting of the internet bubble. AI research then focused on learning.

There are now two key techniques, favoured by companies in all industries, particularly the HR sector, that enable machines to learn on their own:

• Machine learning: a process that enables computers to improve themselves by learning and analysing data. Think of AI as the science and machine learning as the software and algorithms that make machines intelligent. Today, digital recruitment is one of the HR function's fastest-growing areas of activity in terms of service providers and digital solutions.
  
• Deep learning is actually a sub-category of machine learning.This learning technology is based on artificial neural networks that mimic the functioning of the biological neurons involved in problem solving. A programme can thus learn to recognise images, spoken languages, etc

The benefits of Artificial Intelligence for recruiters

Automate administrative tasks

Contracts, payslips, holiday requests, knowledge of legal rules to advise candidates and communicate internally... The administrative tasks that fall to HR teams are as numerous as they are time-consuming. Using AI to automate certain processes, and thus simplify and optimise administrative management, can relieve HR teams and recruiters.

One of the best examples, favoured by major groups such as Adecco, Randstad, BNP Paribas and Nexity, is the automation of internal communication using an HR chatbot. This is an algorithm programmed to manage a natural language conversation with employees and improve the employee experience. It has a very wide range of applications in companies, from recruitment and administrative management to training and answers to the most frequently asked questions.

By freeing up this strategic time, the quality of the process and recruitment are easily improved. HR teams save time and can concentrate on the essentials: the exchange, the assessment of the candidate's compatibilitý with the future working environment, the welcome and the preparation of the onboarding...

Reduce sourcing time

Sourcing refers to the activities of searching, identifying and engaging potential qualified candidates. In short, the recruitment strategy put in place to attract the best talent for a position.

Today's sourcing tools are capable of refining the selection process by analysing millions of pieces of data from multiple databases, such as social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter) to compile a wealth of information and extract the essential information based on the criteria selected.

Matching tools also complement these data analyses, enabling a link to be made between the needs of the position, the skills of the candidate and the values of the company.

There are many applications for these tools, which can also be used to build up databases and facilitate the monitoring of candidates. Useful when you're often looking for the same profiles!

Sorting applications

• AI to help sort through the (very) many profiles

How do you manually process several hundred applications? When you consider that a company like Google receives several million applications a year, the sorting task is a major one... Even in much smaller organisations, it is not uncommon to receive hundreds of applications per post. So how can you simplify and optimise application management?

Some algorithms help to sort and enrich data, producing, compiling and cross-referencing results to provide a fresh perspective and limit the risk of recruitment errors. Their aim? To better understand the company's needs and process applications (much) faster.

Major groups such as Ikea and Pepsi, for example, use Vera software, which selects 10% of the profiles that most closely match the job offer from 5 recruitment websites.

• AI, an objective aid

AI can sort profiles in the same way! If a parameter is not included in the selection criteria, the algorithm will ignore it. The risk of cognitive bias and discrimination is therefore much more limited than with a human. And the objective result of this sorting will surely be easier to communicate and share with unsuccessful candidates.

Psychometric algorithms are also very useful for promoting diversity in recruitment and limiting discrimination linked to stereotypes and cognitive biases. There are now even video interviews with facial expression analysis!

Artificial Intelligence and the recruiter: a winning combination

The need for human intervention

An algorithm without an enlightened mind to guide is blind. To function properly and perform their feats, AIs need a lot of human attention. This is reassuring for those who fear that they will soon be replaced by a machine.

AI improves the efficiency of recruiters by freeing them from certain tasks, but on its own it cannot improve the quality of recruitment itself. Human intelligence, which is intuitive and emotional, combines perfectly with AI, that is fast, objective and analytical. And by freeing themselves from repetitive tasks, recruiters have more time to enrich their traditional expertise, devote to their data analysis work and put the raw results provided by the technological tool into perspective and share them.

Recruiter and AI, a powerful duo for predicting performance

The HR sector, and specifically recruitment, is extremely favourable to the emergence of AI, as the core business remains making predictions, and in particular identifying which candidate will be most successful in the position to be filled in order to limit recruitment errors. With its enormous capacity for data analysis, AI is proving to be an invaluable aid to prediction, making it possible to substitute the tool for the human being in complex and repetitive tasks.

These tools also make it possible to find new ways of cross-referencing information about the positions to be filled and the candidates, saving recruiters a great deal of time and reducing costs for the company. Recruiters then have more time to improve the quality of their process and incorporate innovative candidate experiences, using psychometric tests, for example, or cognitive gaming to go even further in predicting performance!

AI will not replace the recruiter, it will enhance him! Using AI refocuses the recruiter on the essentials. Humans can use AI to optimise recruitment, making it more diverse and inclusive, and freeing up their time. It's up to the recruiter to adapt to make full use of the possibilities offered by these tools and improve their practices.

As for what the future of what AI holds in store for us, it's easy to imagine recruitment processes in the metaverse, offering an immersive and unprecedented candidate experience! The key is to go beyond videoconferencing, to create a better-quality bond, to gamify the relationship - because let's not forget that the first field to take an interest in the metaverse was video games - and to (re)boost the attractiveness of the company.