Using AI in recruitment, Good, Bad, or Neither?
Using AI in recruitment, Good, Bad, or Neither?
There is no denying the presence of AI in most areas of our lives, from Siri on iPhone’s, to summaries of google search results, to driverless cars! Should AI be used in recruitment processes? While AI can streamline hiring processes and enhance efficiency, it also raises concerns about fairness, transparency, and accuracy.
There are lots of ways AI can be used in recruitment including transcribing calls, filtering applications, scheduling interviews and lots more. Many of these tools have been designed to increase efficiency and save time. By using AI-driven video interviews, Unilever cut screening time by 75%, speeding up their whole recruitment process.
The benefits go beyond saving time, they can greatly improve the candidate’s experience during the interview process. AI can be used to support setting up interviews, sending feedback to candidates and sending follow up messages. By ensuring messages are sent to candidates, delivering good or bad news, candidates are informed, up to date and know where they stand.
Some companies have even reported that using AI has helped to reduce human bias. HiredScore develop AI tools that undergo regular bias tests to ensure fairness in candidate selection, aiming to eliminate gender bias in recruitment. Other companies have reported increases in diversity among new hires, after bringing in AI assessments.
However, using AI when recruiting isn’t always a good thing. AI tools are only as unbiased as the data they are given, which can inadvertently perpetuate existing biases within companies. Amazon faced this issue when they discovered their AI tool was biased against women. The tool was trained on CVs submitted over a 10-year period that were predominantly from men, leading to CVs from qualified women being rejected.
There have also been reports of candidates using AI to not just write their CV but also answer interview questions on remote interviews. By using AI to represent yourself as a candidate, you are not showing your true strengths and weaknesses. You lose the personal touch and the ability to sell yourself.
Using AI too much on either side, company or candidate, can have a huge negative impact on the human part of recruitment. Recruitment, at its core, is supposed to be about building networks and relationships. When too much AI is involved, it can start to feel too transactional.
In conclusion, AI offers substantial benefits in recruitment, including increased efficiency, cost savings, improved candidate experience and reduced bias. However, it also presents challenges such as algorithmic bias, ethical concerns, technical issues, and the risk of over-automation. Most companies should strive for a balanced approach, integrating AI tools while maintaining transparency, ethical standards, and human oversight to ensure a fair and effective recruitment process.
If you would like to discuss how you can better implement AI into your recruitment process feel free to reach out to one of the Kemio team for a discussion. You can reach us on +4433008838 or email info@kemioconsulting.com
