Recruitment CompanyGenerative AI techniques are being adopted to source candidates and improve efficiency as a way to cope with a cooling job market.
“With the talent market in an all-time tight state, companies are having a hard time finding the right people to fill positions,” said Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, chief innovation officer at global recruiting firm ManpowerGroup, professor of business psychology and expert in recruiting technology. “This is where AI can be very helpful: It enables recruiters to look for talent in wider and more unusual places, identifying more candidates by screening and scanning millions of applications.”
Source Note: The image is generated by AI, and the image is authorized by Midjourney
Recruitment companies are struggling to find more candidates becausepermanentThe reduction in job openings has hit the fee income of recruiters. Like other recruitment companies, Robert Walters, which has a presence in 31 countries, has struggled to collect fees in the UK and other regions. Chief Executive Toby Fowlston said they were using advances in artificial intelligence to increase job applications to reach a wider range of potential candidates.
Their recently launched AI-based Adify software can evaluate and write job ads to attract people from different backgrounds. The company says this can help employers improve the diversity of their workforce. The pilot of the Adify program "led to an increase of 23% in female applicants" and a "significant" increase in overall applications due to changes to the job ad language.
Denis Machuel, CEO of rival Adecco, said AI is helping recruiters "make better choices" and speed up the hiring process. "That's great because it helps recruiters focus on what's most important: interactions with clients and candidates," he said. Machuel believes that chatbots can have "human-like conversations" with job seekers, while AI can handle the "background work." This leaves recruiters more time to build relationships with employers and job seekers. Not only can Adecco create job ads "in seconds," it also uses AI to compile candidate shortlists and identify key skills. In 2021, the company acquired QAPA, France's second-largest digital workforce solutions provider, for €65 million. QAPA uses AI and cloud infrastructure to match candidates with positions.
Technology is also helping job seekers. Adecco’s AI-powered “resume builder” can generate resumes through verbal instructions. The company also announced a partnership with Microsoft to create a generative AI-based career platform that assesses candidates’ skills and provides customized career recommendations.
Recruiters and their clients are bracing for new roles and the need for more technical expertise. Machuel believes,Tips for EngineersSuch positions will “thrive” in the future. However, a recent report by Adecco shows that those at the forefront of innovation are most convinced of the importance of human skills in the workplace. In a survey of 30,000 employees in 23 countries, 67% of technology workers ranked the “human touch” higher than artificial intelligence. The survey results showed that emotional intelligence, empathy or active listening, and interpersonal skills are the most difficult human traits to replace.
However, Chamorro-Premuzic said the risks of "dehumanizing hiring" and cyberattacks associated with the adoption of AI technology are "real ethical concerns." He noted: "If you train AI on junk data, it will give you junk insights and recommendations. If you teach AI to replicate human preferences, it will replicate and reinforce human biases and unfairness. Inequality will likely increase."
Recruitment firms expect this to bring an increased demand for new skills. Fowlston said that over the next five to ten years, as artificial intelligence develops, "tech roles" and specific technical skills within the technology field will be in demand. He also noted the impact on legal and HR departments. He believes that "ensuring that technology is ethical and produces the right responses and outcomes will require some legal hiring."
Fowlston expects HR teams to change as well, “because if you automate certain roles, that’s going to have an impact on job descriptions, how you recruit, how you attract talent and the shift of latent potential within the organization,” he said. “We have people in the organization who were recruiters before and then became product experts… and then they move to strictly product-driven roles.”