Here’s How AI Enhances The Human Element of Recruitment

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Estimates from Gartner suggest that the business value of artificial intelligence will reach a whopping $3.9 trillion by 2022.

The firm suggests that the majority of this growth will initially be driven by AI’s ability to process large datasets at a blazingly-fast pace and in unique ways. This power continues to open up exciting new possibilities for countless industries.

Recruitment is one of those industries: according to LinkedIn, 76% of recruiters believe that AI will have a somewhat significant impact on our industry.

A subsection of those recruiters wonders whether AI will prove itself as a threat to the recruitment industry. Could machines and unfeeling logic make recruitment less human?

On the contrary, we believe that AI will make recruitment more human than ever before.

Here’s How AI Will Enhance The Human Element in Recruitment

There’s a very high chance that the emergence and proliferation of AI will result in more human-oriented recruitment. Here’s a look at the five ways AI is likely going to enhance the human element:

1. Reduce unconscious bias

Countless studies have shown that diverse workforces are happier, more productive and more innovative. A blend of backgrounds and characters also mean that companies benefit from a potent mixture of skills and experiences.

Unfortunately, unconscious bias in recruitment can make it challenging to cultivate a genuinely diverse workspace. Despite best efforts, the majority of recruitment professionals form unconscious opinions on their candidates based on small amounts of information.

We are social creatures, and we can’t help but demonstrate unconscious biases. Anything from the intonation of a person’s voice to the clothes that they wear will register on some level.

AI is already proving to be a powerful tool in the fight against bias and discrimination, though: several AI-driven technologies can help to surface the most appropriate candidates and assist with blind hiring.

In this sense, AI-driven recruitment is empowering recruiters to eliminate unconscious bias so that they can put together fantastic teams.

2. Free up recruiters’ time

Recruitment professionals often display solid interpersonal skills that they use to put together strong teams. They’ll rely on those abilities to identify future needs, source the right candidates, design job descriptions and much more.

Unfortunately, several repetitive tasks can make it difficult for recruitment professionals to focus on the core job. All too often, recruiters are stuck filing paperwork, fiddling with various job platforms and trying to keep a keen eye on the latest employment laws.

In this sense, AI is a big help. It can take care of repetitive tasks so that recruiters are better able to focus on the human side of their work, resulting in better outcomes for businesses and candidates alike.

3. Personalise learning and development

Companies that offer comprehensive training programs often enjoy a 218% higher income per employee when compared to those businesses that don’t invest in training. Unfortunately, many companies struggle to get the most from training programs. They might find it challenging to get started at all.

Thankfully, AI can offer exciting insights into the skill sets and preferences of candidates, helping businesses to place a strong focus on developing the potential of each employee with catered learning and development courses.

This feature of AI can help recruiters to understand better their candidates and how they might develop in a given role, again emphasising the individual.

4. Increase hiring volume for businesses

According to figures from Workable, the average time to hire is around a month. This will vary, of course, according to factors like the position and region. That’s quite a significant amount of time, though, and it means that recruiters often struggle to fuel their company with quality candidates regularly.

Thankfully, AI can help to expedite the time to hire allowing recruiters access to quality candidates in record time and then do what they do best – work to assess and develop that person’s skill set.

With AI giving recruiters a helping hand, those professionals will find it easier to build large and diverse teams.

5. Drive demand for more human-oriented HR professionals

As we watch AI transform the recruitment industry over the coming years, we’ll be sure to notice how the desired skillsets for recruiters shift. With AI taking care of the repetitive activities and sourcing of quality candidates, we’ll see businesses search for recruiters who have incredibly strong and insightful interpersonal skills.

With AI working away behind the scenes, the spotlight will be firmly on recruiters and their ability to assess the character of their candidates. In this sense, AI will undoubtedly help to bring about the human side of recruitment.

Recruiters will be better able and more free to forge authentic connections with their candidates and help to create more human workplaces.

Unlock the Power of AI-Driven Talent Intelligence with Elevate

Here at Elevate, we’re incredibly excited about the potential of AI to reveal the human side of recruitment. Are you ready to leverage the real power of talent intelligence? Learn more about Elevate AI and how our platform can help you to retain, engage and attract the best talent.

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The Future of Work: Will Jobs Exist in 2050?

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Technological breakthroughs and shifting cultural attitudes towards work mean that these are turbulent yet exciting times for the world of recruitment.

As we find ourselves amidst a sea of change and on the cusp of recruitment 4.0, now is the ideal time to take stock of where we are and try to see where we might be going. This type of exercise can help us all to steady the ship and prepare for the future of work.

What Work Will Look Like in 2050

By now, we’ll all have seen several studies that suggest automation could upend many industries and result in mass unemployment. Those studies offer conflicting numbers, though, and we’ll only see the full impact of automation as it makes itself known.

Whatever the extent of the disruption, we can be confident that jobs will indeed exist in 2050. But what will the labour landscape look like by then?

Together, let’s imagine what the world of work might look like in 2050. We’ll wade through some trends and try to grab some of the highlights. Here are some of the key trends that might define the world of work in 2050:

1. Workers will be selected mainly for their decision-making skills

As automation takes hold and manual labour positions are displaced over the coming years, we’ll see countless businesses scramble to find talented decision-makers.

Those professionals will have the necessary tools and abilities to leverage great sets of data to make critical decisions for those high-tech businesses. The skills and techniques of those professionals will empower them to guide enterprises through new territory with confidence.

Wayne Stottler of Kepner-Tregoe suggests that in the future, the skills and techniques of those specialists will need to be replicated across the broader workforce. This will help businesses to solve several unique and diverse business problems better.

2. Team members will adopt multiple roles

Bernard Marr suggests in his Forbes piece that as we move closer to 2050, we’ll see positions become more fluid within organisations. Strict organisational charts will disappear as project-based teams take the spotlight.

This more fluid structure will help businesses to morph and quickly respond to new challenges that emerge over the coming years.

As the concept of a “job for life” continues to recede into the past, Marr expects that we’ll more frequently see professionals work with a host of businesses as a contractor or freelancer before moving onto another role.

3. Unforeseen jobs and opportunities will emerge

A couple of decades ago, it would have been hard to predict the recent exponential rise of small, labour-intensive services. This yearning for small products and experiences that deliver a personal touch mainly came about as a response to mass production.

Interestingly, this piece by Timothy B. Lee over at Cox explores how automation is making human labour itself a mark of luxury. There’s a good chance that as automation continues to take hold, we’ll see novel trends and professions emerge as a result.

New opportunities will also emerge in light of automation. We can expect for robotics engineers and technicians to be in high demand in the coming years, for instance. Mechatronics – the intersection of electrics, mechanics and computerisation – is an exciting field that is projected to experience serious growth.

4. The volume of manual jobs will waver

As automation takes hold, we can expect several manual roles to be replaced. In its future of work in manufacturing report, Deloitte outlines a number of ways that those roles might be restructured or adjusted as we move forward.

Back in 2016, Dan Collier, Director Of Sales Strategy at Elevate, outlined his thoughts about the future of labour in a roundtable discussion hosted by The Guardian about the future of work.

In the discussion, Dan explained that not everybody could be a “knowledge worker”. This means that there will inevitably be lots of unemployment and a “division between the few jobs that need humans, and those that can be automated.”

The future of work and the displacement of workers is currently a pivotal challenge that we all face. Over in the United States, Andrew Yang is bringing attention to this challenge with his “Freedom Dividend” policy. This universal basic income would aim to provide a foundation to protect against mass unemployment.

5. Corporate alumni networks will become a precious resource

“Job-hopping” used to be perceived negatively by some employers, but it’s now becoming the default for many workers. As automation takes hold and businesses employ project-based teams, we can expect this trend to continue.

With workers dipping in and out of different companies, we predict that many businesses will develop robust corporate alumni networks. Those networks will become a valuable resource for companies that will have to rehire outstanding performers with specific skills.

If you want to learn more about corporate alumni networks, we’ve put together these resources for you:

Prepare for the Future with Elevate Direct

As the nature of work continues to evolve, the recruitment industry will need to adjust in parallel. There are exciting times ahead that will undoubtedly be filled with unique challenges and opportunities for forward-thinking recruitment professionals.

Ready to prepare yourself for whatever comes? Be sure to learn more about Elevate and how our AI-powered talent intelligence can help you keep pace with a shifting recruitment landscape.

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Four Reasons AI-Driven Recruitment Will Benefit Charities

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These are challenging times for charities in the UK. While the need for their services is rising dramatically, only 18% of charitable organisations have the appropriate resources and tools to meet that demand.

This challenge is being compounded by the fact that the long-term impacts of Brexit have yet to manifest, the proportion of people giving money to charity saw a steady decline between 2016 and 2018 (69% to 65%) and budgets continue to tighten.

Among other challenges, this blend of factors means that many charities are understaffed. 88% of local charities have fewer than five full-time employees, while 55% have no full-time employees at all.

Could the development and adoption of AI-driven recruitment technologies help UK charities to unlock new efficiencies and address their staffing challenge?

Let’s take a look at what these AI-driven platforms can achieve and how they might benefit UK charities.

What Are AI-Driven Recruitment Platforms?

These powerful nascent platforms can automate critical recruitment tasks, such as:

  • Talent sourcing
  • CV screening
  • Candidate outreach
  • Candidate qualification

By helping with such tasks, those platforms can elevate hiring results and make hiring managers much more efficient.

Those platforms are growing in prominence, too: an impressive 96% of senior HR professionals believe that AI has the potential to enhance talent acquisition and retention significantly. In comparison, 55% of HR managers see evidence of AI becoming a regular part of HR within the next five years.

How AI-Driven Recruitment Will Benefit Charities

Here’s how we will see UK charities make the most of these platforms:

1. Reduce recruitment costs

According to findings from Glassdoor, the average cost of recruitment for a new employee in the UK is £3,000. That’s a significant amount of money for any private sector organisation, let alone a public sector charity.

In trying times, it’s critical that UK charities work as efficiently as possible and leverage new technologies to reduce that cost.

AI-driven recruitment tools are a great opportunity from this perspective.

These recruitment tools can help hiring managers within charities to automate critical tasks, unlock new efficiencies and find talent quicker. Using an AI-driven tool, for instance, hiring managers within charities will be able to access a wider pool of talent and sort through it much faster.

Those types of features can help drive down steep recruitment costs and protect the budgets of cash-strapped charities.

2. Free up valuable time

As we touched on earlier, charities often have very small teams. This means that multidisciplinary team members will usually wear several different hats – recruitment and hiring might prove to be a distraction from other more primary work.

AI-driven recruitment tools are going to liberate the time of charity workers, who’ll be better able to focus their attention on other areas. With more time on their hands, charity workers will be able to focus on crucial areas like fundraising and essential administrative tasks.

As AI-driven recruitment tools continue to mature, we’ll be sure to see teams within charities do great things with their newfound time.

3. Slash time-to-hire

The average time to hire in the UK lasts 26.8 working days. This is often longer within the public sector, too, owing to a lack of candidates and resources.

This presence of unfilled roles can negatively affect charities, given that it can cause significant operational challenges. Without the right team members, charities find it difficult to operate and place a considerable strain on existing team members.

AI-driven recruitment tools can help to expedite the time to hire, though, and give charities the power to find the right candidates within a reasonable timeframe.

4. Uncover appropriate candidates

It’s critical that charities are able to attract the right talent. Potential team members need to exhibit desirable personality and character traits that will set them up for success within a charity environment.

The process of finding sourcing those candidates according to those factors is never easy, however. It takes a lot of time and effort, which results in more expensive hires and a protracted sourcing period.

AI-driven tools are giving hiring managers new ways to sort and select their talent. These new functionalities can provide hiring managers within charities the ability to sort talent and source the perfect candidates to fill their essential roles.

Closing Thoughts

We’ll be sure to see AI-driven recruitment platforms mature over the coming years, and we’re very excited about how their application might benefit the many hard-working charities in the UK.

Here at Elevate, we’re delighted to play a part in discovering the potential of AI-driven recruitment technology. We look forward to helping charities across the UK and beyond unlock all of the benefits outlined above.

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