Technology in Recruitment - Combining A.I. with E.I.

Recruitment partners have been established as a core facilitator to the employment process since the mid-1960’s. Outsourcing the candidate search process to agencies comes with many benefits including, cost containment, discreet growth or executive transitions to your leadership team, especially in specialized or highly skilled sectors where the talent pool is shallow. Without the right assets, competitive advantages or active database of talent, an internal search and shortlisting of suitable candidates can be limiting at best and time-consuming or overwhelming if candidates fall well short of the desired leadership outcome. To overcome these obstacles, the recruitment space has traditionally leveraged technology and service advancements such as cloud-based CRMs, business-oriented social media tools, integrated databases and candidate search platforms, just to name a few. Advancements in data-driven technology are helping recruiters find talent faster. There is no denying that networking and sourcing technology has boosted the recruitment practice and identifying unique, hard to recruit talent is becoming a more efficient process. Market trends are predicting Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) as the next big step in recruitment technology. AI recruitment software is evolving to create automated systems such as recruitment chat-bots, interview booking technology and keyword profile shortlisting software, all with the intention of automating high-volume tasks, freeing up recruitment consultants to focus on other items. This is all well and good when it comes to trimming the fat, a consultant then has more time to engage with the strongest prospects for a vacancy. However, there are some issues when considering high volume data driven technology in today’s current markets, especially for those who rely too heavily on the technology. Trepidation About AI Usage AI is only as good as the data we feed it. AI technology is driven by big data and so the more data we ingest, the more AI services learn. However, candidates are not always the best at keeping their online CV or profile up to date - especially top-performing, executive leadership who may not be actively considering a transition. Automation of candidate selection may result in decisions being made on outdated or irrelevant information. To be able to truly qualify a candidate for a vacancy, there must be human interaction, this allows the candidate to discreetly understand the role, function and nuances of expansions or replacements. Custom tailoring one's CV and highlighting unique strengths for a given leadership role is also critical - something a keyword search or automated decision process can't discern!

AI may learn unconscious bias or coincidental patterns – over time, AI technology learns the user’s preferences by acknowledging the candidates they progress with. Should there be any coincidental patterns or unconscious biases in those selections such as: university’s graduated from, geographical locations or has certain hobbies, the software may assume you are only looking for candidates with these necessary traits. Not every vacancy will require the same characteristics or personal traits. Over time the AI software may begin to ignore strong candidates just because they didn’t match an irrelevant trait it believes to be a necessity.

Lack of Human Perceptiveness

We all know that sometimes, what is on a CV or a candidate profile, is not the same as what they truly want in real life. The ability to pick up the phone or sit down with a candidate to judge their level of interest in a role or find out what they are genuinely looking for in their next move can't be replaced by technology. Automating candidate selection may save time in the first instance, but it opens the door for the process failing at a later stage for reasons that should have been picked up in an initial screening conversation. As things stand, human interaction is still the best when deciding if a candidate should be presented for a role, there are many items not present on a CV that can alter a candidate’s suitability. Technology is still a core element of recruitment but choosing to work with an agency that is willing to spend more time engaging with candidates to find strengths not present on their CV, is crucial. JobNectar is proud to be at the forefront of utilizing technology. We have developed our own bespoke cloud-based CRM. While technology has its advantages to attract standout talent, in today's world of fast-pace growth, JobNectar has established a breadth of relationships and human-touch differentiation, client-partner organizations can have confidence we are always looking to stay 'appropriately competitive' when incorporating new recruitment-based technology. With JobNectar, healthcare and technology organizations across many markets and specialties have access to the U.S,'s largest pool of executive leadership or sales talent and a dedicated, uniquely qualified recruitment team aligned to deliver high-pedigree results.