Editor’s Note: This post is by Paul Slezak, Cofounder and CEO of RecruitLoop – the World’s largest marketplace of expert Recruiters and Sourcers available on-demand.
Last week we held our first RecruitLoop Roundtable Panel Q&A for 2018. We chose to kick off the year with a pretty hot topic – How Artificial Intelligence is Changing the Way we Search for and Acquire Talent.
Interestingly enough, the topic initially came up on one of our weekly RecruitLoop recruiter community forums. I quickly realised that it certainly wasn’t only our recruiters who were panicking about the impact AI is having on what they do every day.
Artificial Intelligence is dominating conversations across the full talent acquisition spectrum. We hear buzzwords like AI, chatbots, natural language processing, machine learning, algorithms, auto matching etc … all of which have perhaps created a sense of scaremongering within the industry.
How does Artificial Intelligence impact what you do … either as an external recruitment consultant, contract / independent recruiter, HR specialist, or talent acquisition leader? Does it really impact your business? Is it about developing algorithms that mimic everything you do? Or is it actually more about giving you time back in your hectic schedules? After all, the speed at which we are expected to recruit today is crazy.
We assembled an awesome group of panelists, all experts in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Anne Gregory, Director of Customer Success, GapJumpers; Roy Pereira, Founder of Zoom.ai; Rob McIntosh, Chief AI Evangelist with Paradox; Charna Parkey, Director of Customer Success Engineering at Textio; and Morgan Mackles, VP of Sales at x.ai.
Here are some of the questions I put to the panelists:
- How have you already seen organisations start to adopt AI and automation?
- What exactly is natural language processing technology?
- Do you think AI will ultimately eradicate the role of the recruiter entirely?
- How can AI help ensure more efficient and fairer candidate screening?
- How can AI and machine learning help ‘human recruiters’ make better hiring decisions?
- How, by harnessing the power of AI, can you accelerate the shortlisting process and concentrate on candidate assessment?
- How can you see AI improving the candidate experience?
- How can AI / machine learning help to eliminate bias (either conscious or unconscious)?
- Is it possible that AI could in fact add more to the workload of a busy recruiter in terms of processes?
- What courses or other educational venues are available for someone wanting to learn more about AI?
- Is there a difference between IA (Intelligent Automation) and AI (Artificial Intelligence)?
- How does the role of the Talent Acquisition specialist need to evolve with the onset of all this AI stuff?
- How can AI help accelerate “time to find” and “speed to hire”?
- What does the next decade look like in terms of the impact AI might have on the recruitment industry?
My biggest take-away was that the recruitment industry needs to adopt, as opposed to fear, AI and automation. At the same time, however, recruiters can’t afford to sit back and let a chatbot take their jobs!
Remember recruitment is ultimately about people placing people for people. It’s a people game – not an admin game!
Artificial Intelligence gives recruiters the chance to automate CV screening, schedule interviews, and process high volumes of applications without hours at a computer. Yes … it actually reduces admin – freeing up recruiters to develop their client and candidate relationships and focus on the human touch, playing more of a talent advisory role.
You can listen to the full recording of the webinar below.
Author
Paul Slezak
With over two decades of experience in the recruitment and human capital industry, Paul Slezak has established himself as a transformative force in the realm of leadership and career coaching, group facilitation, and talent acquisition. His unique perspective, drawn from his early career as a leader in global recruitment firms and his entrepreneurial success with his own start-up, has enabled him to make a significant impact on leaders, teams, and organizations across the world. Paul's passion for helping others achieve success and high performance is evident in his commitment to transforming leaders and their teams at local, national, and international levels. He specializes in promoting the importance of human-centered intelligence, focusing on soft skills such as authenticity, transparency, and trust to complement business-centered acumen and drive better workplace outcomes. As an impartial facilitator, Paul brings his expertise to team offsites and strategy days, ensuring alignment on goals, values, and culture while keeping participants on task. His engaging and energetic presence, coupled with his unique "entertraining" and "edutaining" delivery style, enables him to connect with audiences both large and intimate, sharing personal and professional anecdotes that inspire and energize.
