For modern businesses, recruiting and retaining talent has become a high stakes endeavor. That’s because many of the world’s advanced economies have been at or near full employment for a number of years, and for the first time in what seems like forever, job seekers “ not employers “ are the ones holding all the cards. That, in addition to some skills shortages in key industries, is causing businesses of all stripes to have to operate in a near-perpetual state of recruitment that they’re having difficulty adjusting to.
The answer, for many, has been to turn to technology to automate many of the steps involved in the talent acquisition and employee management process. In the last few years, artificial intelligence, specifically, has been making significant inroads into HR departments all over the world and introducing new efficiencies and capabilities that would have been unheard of just a few short years ago. Here’s a look at three ways that AI is transforming HR as we know it.
Improving Recruitment Targeting
With turnover rising and employee tenures shrinking, businesses can’t afford to waste time on potential recruits that aren’t a good fit. The problem, however, is that it’s often difficult for businesses to craft job postings that will attract the right applicants. Now, some of the world’s biggest companies are using an innovative AI-powered system to analyze their job postings and suggest changes that could help attract the desired types of candidates. The results have been impressive “ ranging from Nvidia cutting hiring time in half to Evernote tripling the number of applicants coming from their augmented postings on job board Glassdoor.
Automated Recruiting Processes
The proliferation of resume builder services online now makes it possible for every candidate to present the ‘perfect’ resume to any employer. Those well-crafted documents contain a wealth of data that could help business fill open positions, if only they could warehouse and effectively use it. At first, only companies large enough to afford sophisticated applicant tracking systems that could leverage AI to suggest previous candidates that could fit an open position. Today, however, even small businesses are using such technologies, taking advantage of SaaS solutions like Google Hire, which uses AI to track and suggest candidates with little to no intervention from human HR staff.
Improving Retention
In the current hiring environment, it’s more important than ever for HR departments to make every effort to increase employee engagement and bolster retention. In this area, AI is functioning as a force multiplier, giving HR professionals a whole new suite of tools that help them keep talented employees around for as long as possible. Platforms like Humu Nudge Engine use AI to analyze a variety of engagement data points to provide custom, targeted employee messages that promote desired behavior exactly when they’re needed most. It’s giving HR departments something that’s akin to a personal engagement representative for each and every employee, which would have been cost-prohibitive to ever attempt with human staff.
An AI-Powered HR Future
The rise of AI in HR departments all over the world has already led to some tremendous efficiency gains for businesses trying to keep their talent needs met. What’s most amazing, though, is that all of the AI-inspired innovation in the space has come within the last few years “ meaning that it’s very likely that what we’ve seen so far is just the beginning. Going forward, it’s reasonable to expect that AI will continue to assume a more prominent role elsewhere in the HR space, leading to a complete revolution in the way that employers find, hire, and keep their most valuable employees. In today’s hyper-competitive talent marketplace, it’s a revolution that can’t come soon enough.
