Demystifying AI & The Evolved Recruiter

With remote work still going strong and recruiting needs on the rise, talent acquisition and recruiting teams must continue to evolve and adapt as they face unprecedented job seeker volume, reduced budgets, and minimized resources.

During our virtual event, AI & The Evolved Recruiter, our CEO & co-founder, Mahe Bayireddi, shared how artificial intelligence and automation can help manage today’s unpredictable recruiting landscape, enhance productivity, and improve the talent experience for all. Read on for key takeaways from the presentation, and check out the full presentation on demand!

1. COVID-19 accelerated a digital transformation in HR.

Bayireddi kicked off the day talking about COVID’s impact on recruiters, and the HR landscape at large. “The industry is superfluid," he said.

After speaking with hundreds of HR leaders and CHROs — including Phenom customers — Bayireddi discovered most organizations currently face common challenges.

A company that’s hiring wants to acquire best-fit talent as quickly as possible — virtually. Others that are experiencing critical skill shortages — yet have frozen hiring efforts — seek internal mobility for employee agility. And then there are those that were forced to furlough and/or layoff employees and are preparing for talent recovery.

The solution? High-powered, intelligent technology.

“AI brings automation so we can increase productivity in the middle of a pandemic and accelerate faster,” said Bayireddi.

2. AI enables recruiters to evolve — and thrive.

“If you take a look at the day in the life of the recruiter — what’s happening today?,” Bayireddi asked. “Recruiter tasks are increasing day by day.”

For many companies, bringing in the right talent is a top priority in order to maintain business continuity and keep up with demand. Between conducting strategic assessments, building talent pools, identifying best-fit candidates — the daily list of activities is growing at an insurmountable rate.

To address this, Bayireddi stated that there are areas here where AI and automation can help.

By taking on tedious, time-consuming tasks like sourcing, screening, and scheduling candidates, AI can free up a recruiter’s day so they can focus on more critical and strategic work.

“Is the recruiter’s job over? It’s not. The recruiter has to evolve into what we need to do today — that is connecting with people.”

“Think about ethics management, how to close talent faster, how to become a talent advisor. Evolving into a new role is what we’ve been anticipating for the last 10-15 years. COVID has accelerated that faster than ever,” Bayireddi said.

So how can organizations deliver this in a seamless experience so that it reduces frustration among both candidates and recruiters?

Resource: The Definitive HR guide to Artificial Intelligence

3. A unified approach to AI-driven tech is essential.

Artificial intelligence strengthens the talent experience for candidates, recruiters, employees, and managers. Bayireddi shared AI’s role at a high level:

Personalization. Provide candidates with tailored job recommendations based on skills, experience, resume, location, and more.
Search. Enable job seekers to do what they want — find the right job — as quickly as possible.
Insights. Equip candidates and recruiters with intelligent information that allows them to take action and find the best fit faster.
Automation. Reduce the time it takes to complete a tedious or mundane task to support talent acquisition teams 24/7.

While each of these elements play a critical role in strengthening the talent experience, Bayireddi said it's also important to ensure the data is interconnected.

“There are a lot of shiny new toys — a lot of products coming out from AI, chatbot, employment branding, etc. If we look at them as isolating thoughts, they won’t really work well,” he stated. “At the end of the day, the data has to be interconnected efficiently. An interlinked approach is required which can deliver a modern consumer-like experience.”

This is where a single solution like the Phenom Talent Experience Management platform really shines. Not only does it provide talent acquisition and talent management teams with the ability to manage the entire talent lifecycle — it’s also built with an AI infrastructure that ensures personalization and seamless experiences every step of the way.

4. Talent Process Automation enables HR teams to address the challenges presented by the pandemic today.

According to Bayireddi, COVID has precipitated new requirements to be successful in talent acquisition:

Video Everywhere
Bots for Automation
AI for Productivity
Access to Talent

To address the challenges presented by the pandemic and meet these new TA demands, Phenom developed a process called Talent Process Automation (TPA) — a framework that automates tedious and data-driven tasks more effectively so recruiters have more time to evolve.

With TPA, Bayireddi said, recruiters can reduce human error and costs, connect data across platforms more effectively, improve talent expectations, and harness artificial intelligence.

Resource: Hiring in a Recruiter Shortage: How BMO is Filling Roles Fast with AI & Automation

5. AI tech must learn to drive accuracy.

Yes, AI can empower recruiters in incredible ways. But there is a caveat.

“Here’s the catch: If AI predicts that a candidate does not fit — when they really are a good fit — that’s a miss,” Bayireddi revealed. “This is where recruiters have to help the [AI] model get trained in an effective way.”

The takeaway here? Technology shouldn’t be treated as a “set it and forget it” virtual assistant — in order for it to truly help and adapt, it needs to learn. And we play an important role in ensuring that happens.