By Patti Woods, Sr. Implementation Training Manager, & Chad Getchell, Director of Technical Solutions Architecture & Tech Implementation
Ready or not, AI is coming for the recruiting world. A whopping 81% of HR leaders are already exploring or implementing AI in their processes according to Gartner. That’s a lot of companies jumping on the train with AI for recruiting. And there’s a good reason for it—AI has the potential to make your talent acquisition team’s jobs easier by taking those mundane, repetitive tasks off their plate.
However, not everyone is as excited. We hear from many clients who are overwhelmed with the combination of how powerful these tools are and the ethical and legal considerations that they need to keep in mind while still getting the benefits.
Are you ready to jump on the AI train? Or are you still feeling unsure? Don’t worry, we’re here to cut through the hype and talk about the practicalities of implementing AI in recruiting.
AI for Recruiting: What it Is and What it Isn’t
Artificial intelligence (AI) is technology that can perform tasks that would otherwise require human intelligence. AI can “learn” complex tasks without being explicitly programmed to do them. AI includes the sub-fields of machine learning, speech and natural language processing and robotic process automation.
However, most definitions of AI don’t include the words “ethical” and “responsible.” Because AI lacks emotions, morals, empathy, compassion, historical context and more—things humans are great at. So, for anyone who is concerned about AI taking over their jobs—while we can’t guarantee this won’t happen someday—we want to remind you that humans have an important role to play, acting as the ethical and responsible parties making decisions throughout the recruitment process.
Some other limitations of AI include:
Biased Algorithms: If AI models are trained on biased or incomplete data sets, they can unintentionally perpetuate inequality. It’s important to keep an eye on the outcomes of AI-enabled résumé or CV sifting or sourcing to ensure there’s no bias present.
Lack of Accuracy: Generative AI (GAI) tools, like ChatGPT, are prone to making up statistics and sources—known as hallucinating. Human review is crucial when leveraging GAI tools for creating content and communications.
Data Privacy Issues: Collecting and analyzing extensive candidate information required by AI systems can raise concerns around consent, data protection and ethical usage. Work with your legal and compliance teams to ensure you’re in line with the legal and regulatory requirements in all the areas where you’re hiring.
Disproportionate Impact: Certain demographic groups face higher exposure to the potential harms of AI in recruitment. This can happen because lower income communities often lack access to digital tools which can create an adverse impact during the recruitment process when technology is in place. Analyzing recruitment data, like application and pass rates, will help to identify if any groups or individuals have been adversely impacted.
AI + Humans: The Recruitment Dream Team
Having humans as reviewers and approvers following AI-enabled stages of the recruitment process will mitigate risks that come from these limitations. In fact, AI should not be making decisions on behalf of a recruiter. While AI is great at repetitive tasks, it lacks that special something that only humans possess—context, empathy, ethics and good ol’ common sense. Your recruiters must use their moral compass to make sure the interests of candidates and your company are protected. It’s a critical role, no matter where AI is being used in the process.
AI is just another tool in your belt, but it has the power to elevate the recruiter’s role. It’s about using AI to maximize efficiency, so they can really focus on the human touchpoints that are crucial to the candidate experience. It also lets recruiters spend more time focusing on the parts of the job that are more relational, impactful and enjoyable, making them happier in their roles.
Job satisfaction goes up. Turnover goes down. You get the best of both worlds—the efficiency and computational power of AI that empowers better relationship-building, trust-earning and ethical-hiring. They’re a perfect pair!
Collaboration is Crucial
If you’re feeling intimidated by launching a new AI tool, remember you don’t have to go it alone—and shouldn’t. Your friends in legal, compliance and IT can ensure you’re staying on the straight and narrow. With legal covering your back, compliance double checking everything, IT implementing the solutions, and your recruiting team actually putting it all into practice, teamwork is essential for AI to work.
Consulting with your legal team and external partners is a critical move to ensure you’re being appropriately transparent without overwhelming candidates. They’ll help you navigate those tricky ethical waters and put guardrails in place to make sure you’re compliant with relevant laws and regulations.
Getting Started with AI for Recruiting
If there’s one thing that we want to make sure is crystal clear about our perspective, it is that you can’t take a blanket approach to implementing an AI-based solution. This is why being slow to adoption is totally okay. So, if you feel like you’re jumping in late, you are not. There’s a lot on the line and adoption needs to be carefully vetted, tested and communicated before you go for it.
The key to adopting AI is taking it slow, testing the waters with a pilot and controlled rollout. A great way to begin could be using AI for sourcing support, reviewing that first round of résumés or CVs, or even drafting template communications for your team. Easy wins like this let you get a feel for how AI can simplify your processes without adding too much risk.
While every project is different, when helping clients, we follow this basic five step process for implementing an AI tool:
Identify: Identify the business problem you want to solve or the business practices you want to improve with AI. It could be speeding up the first-round review of résumés or applications. It could be drafting communication templates for a team to use. It’s also imperative at this stage to define what a successful outcome looks like.
Plan: Research available AI tools that can solve your business problem and plan the journey to get started. This should include what metrics you will use to measure success. It’s important at this stage to include representatives from across the business from teams like HR, talent acquisition, IT, legal, compliance, department heads or hiring managers, etc.
Manage Risks: Evaluate the risks that may pop up for all applicable groups and create a plan to address them directly.
Pilot: Start with a small pilot user group and timeline. This might be a particular job family or location. How long do you want the pilot to last? What are the expected results? What threshold must be met for you to say, “OK, the pilot went well. Let’s expand.”? Address issues and iterate as you go until all your stakeholders are comfortable with moving forward.
Manage Change: Here is where you plan to scale your new AI tool and process to more parts of your recruitment program. Develop training materials on how to use the AI tool, the new process and expectations so everyone understands their role—whether they’re a recruiter, hiring manager, IT support or beyond. It’s about putting in place intentional, consistent accountability.
It doesn’t end there. There really isn’t a finish line with AI, or any other technology for that matter. Make sure that you are evaluating on an ongoing basis and measuring progress. It’s an ongoing exercise to ensure you’re finding risks, mitigating them and maximizing the value of your investment.
An RPO Partner Can Help You Navigate AI for Recruiting
As a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) partner and trusted talent advisor to our clients, we help companies implement AI-enhanced hiring with less disruption and a faster return on investment. PeopleScout has experience implementing recruitment tech like AI software, advising on the best options for your needs, integration requirements, data needs, ethical usage, and workflow design. We do our due diligence with every client to make sure that we’re looking for the right way to embrace any technology, including AI, so that it benefits them based on their unique needs.
If you’re interested in RPO, look for a partner that is moving at your speed when it comes to AI in recruiting. AI solutions are meant to augment—not replace—human decisions in recruitment. Cultivating ethical and responsible usage of AI for recruiting is key when it comes to delivering real impact on talent acquisition.
The information provided in this article does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal or other professional advice; instead, all information, content, and materials available in this article are for general information purposes only. Readers of this article should contact their attorney or legal advisor to obtain advice with respect to any particular legal matter. No reader of this article should act or refrain from acting on the basis of information in this article without first seeking legal advice from counsel in the relevant jurisdiction. All liability with respect to actions taken or not taken based on the contents of this article are expressly disclaimed by PeopleScout, Inc.. The content in this article is provided “as-is”, and no representations are made by PeopleScout that the content is error-free.
[On-Demand] AI in Recruiting: Hype, Ethics & Best Practices
AI in recruitment has been the buzzword on everyone’s lips lately. But while others were just talking, we were taking action helping our clients gain a competitive edge by leveraging AI to recruit smarter and more efficiently. At the same time, we didn’t just jump on the hype train. We dug deep to help employers grapple with crucial ethical questions around AI bias, privacy risks, and lack of human oversight when not implemented responsibly.
Join PeopleScout Director of Technical Solutions Architecture & Tech Implementation Chad Getchell and Sr. Implementation Training Manager Patti Woods in conversation as they separate fact from fiction for AI in recruitment and discuss the ethical implications for talent acquisition leaders. Whether you’re just starting to explore AI or already using it, this is a bite-sized 30-minute webinar to help you wade through the hype of responsible AI adoption.
In this webinar, Chad and Patti tackle:
The Real State of AI in Recruiting: Cutting through the hype to understand AI’s current and future capabilities in talent acquisition
Ethical Implications: Exploring the risks of AI bias, privacy concerns, and lack of human agency if not implemented carefully
Getting Started with AI: Practical tip to help you evaluate and implement AI recruiting tools successfully in your organization
By watching this webinar, you’ll gain a 360-degree perspective on the benefits, risks, and ethical considerations surrounding AI, equipping you with a clear roadmap to navigate the world of AI in recruiting responsibly.
The information provided in this webinar does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal or other professional advice; instead, all information, content, and materials available in this webinar are for general information purposes only. Viewers of this webinar should contact their attorney or legal advisor to obtain advice with respect to any particular legal matter. No viewer of this webinar should act or refrain from acting on the basis of information in this article without first seeking legal advice from counsel in the relevant jurisdiction. All liability with respect to actions taken or not taken based on the contents of this webinar are expressly disclaimed by PeopleScout, Inc.. The content in this article is provided “as-is”, and no representations are made by PeopleScout that the content is error-free.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has captured attention across nearly every industry for its seemingly boundless potential to transform how work gets done—including AI in recruiting. Yet for many talent acquisition (TA) leaders, AI remains shrouded in hype, myths and even fear that “robot recruiters” are taking over.
This handbook sets out to demystify AI tools for recruitment with facts about real-world applications across talent acquisition capabilities and provide guidance on how talent teams can start planning to use AI effectively and ethically. We’ll cut through the hype to bring AI down to earth—focusing on what works, not what’s flashy.
The message we want to reinforce upfront is that AI should not be seen as a replacement for the talent acquisition strategy you’ve already built, but rather a set of tools to make your teams better at tasks both mundane and meaningful.
📌 Before we go any further, here’s a note from our legal team:
The information provided in this article does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal or other professional advice; instead, all information, content, and materials available in this article are for general information purposes only. Readers of this article should contact their attorney or legal advisor to obtain advice with respect to any particular legal matter. No reader of this article should act or refrain from acting on the basis of information in this article without first seeking legal advice from counsel in the relevant jurisdiction. All liability with respect to actions taken or not taken based on the contents of this article are expressly disclaimed by PeopleScout, Inc.. The content in this article is provided “as-is”, and no representations are made by PeopleScout that the content is error-free.
What is AI?
The term artificial intelligence or AI was coined by Stanford Professor John McCarthy, who defined it as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs.” AI is technology with the ability to perform tasks that would otherwise require human intelligence. Data and algorithms enable AI to “learn” how to accomplish complex tasks without being explicitly programmed to do them. It also includes the sub-fields of machine learning, speech and natural language processing and robotic process automation.
Over the last decade, AI capabilities have advanced tremendously due to increases in computing power, the abundance of digital data and improvements in machine learning algorithms. As a result, AI solutions can now match or even outperform humans in certain tasks related to object recognition, language processing, prediction modelling and more.
The disruption delivered by generative AI in particular arrived like a bullet train. In just a few short months, AI went from an abstract concept to a tangible force radically impacting businesses—and jobs—worldwide. With Generative AI (GAI) tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini (formerly Bard) and Microsoft Copilot, AI has gone from expensive and exclusive to an everyday tool accessible by the masses.
The State of AI in Recruiting
Top talent has become increasingly scarce and competitive, while recruiting resources and budgets remain strained. This situation demands that talent acquisition teams work smarter, and AI and automation could represent an opportunity for organizations to enhance human capabilities in recruitment.
According to Gartner, a massive 81% of HR leaders have explored or implemented AI solutions to improve process efficiency within their organization. HR leaders aim to use generative AI (GAI) for improving efficiency in HR processes (63%), enhancing the employee experience (52%) and bolstering learning and development programs. Plus, 76% of HR leaders believe that if their organization does not adopt AI solutions in the next year or two, they will lag behind those that do.
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What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of AI in Recruitment?
While AI holds tremendous promise, it also comes with some real concerns which talent acquisition and HR leaders must thoughtfully address. AI is largely unregulated and has received criticism for negative impacts on things like privacy, security, bias, and transparency in its decision-making processes. However, with care and diligence, you can establish sensible guidelines at your organization, so this technology enhances your talent acquisition capabilities while respecting human values.
Benefits of AI for Recruiting
AI can help the humans behind your talent program work more efficiently and effectively when used correctly. Applying AI across the various recruiting stages introduces a host of benefits, including:
Efficiency AI-powered tools can shoulder time-consuming tasks like communications and initial screening, allowing recruiters to reach more candidates at scale. AI systems help recruiters to focus their efforts on the most promising prospects, including helping identify passive candidates. This wider reach improves quality by putting recruiters in front of more qualified candidates.
Improved Candidate Experience Tools like AI chatbots and self-scheduling create a seamless 24/7 candidate experience. By fielding frequently asked questions and coordinating interviews, they dramatically reduce time-to-hire. Candidates get quick responses instead of waiting for recruiters to come online, making the hiring process faster and frictionless.
Improved Matching Advanced AI algorithms surface qualified prospects that may have been overlooked. By analyzing candidates’ skills, experience, and other attributes and matching them to open roles, AI systems ensure better candidate-job fit. This improves quality-of-hire and unlocks hidden talent pools recruiters may have missed.
Enhanced Diversity and Inclusion With the right data to learn from, AI reduces unconscious bias from hiring by focusing decisions on data rather than gut instinct. By objectively evaluating candidates’ skills without prejudice, AI-assisted recruiting enhances diversity and creates a more equitable hiring process.
Cost Reduction AI can reduce the cost-per-applicant in some cases. Recruiters can outsource low-impact, repetitive tasks to AI, and spend more time interacting with candidates and hiring managers. This optimization of talent acquisition teams enables resources to be allocated more efficiently, reducing vacancy rates and lowering costs.
Risks of AI in Recruiting
While there are benefits, talent leaders must thoughtfully address common concerns around AI transparency, interpretation of outputs, data privacy and ethics.
PeopleScout POV
PeopleScout is committed to striking the right balance between next-generation technology and maintaining the trust we’ve built with candidates and clients. As our clients’ trusted talent advisors, we do our due diligence and work touphold our standards for quality and compliance when helping clients adopt new technologies like GenAI.
As organizations prepare to capitalize on the efficiencies of AI, they must be particularly discerning about AI when it comes to supporting people decisions. Effectively deploying and scaling AI across talent acquisition functions introduces some common challenges, including:
Biased Algorithms Despite its ability to reduce bias, if AI models are trained on biased or incomplete data sets, they can unintentionally perpetuate inequality. In many countries there are laws prohibiting discrimination in the recruitment process, and the use of AI must align with these laws. Leaders need oversight into data inputs and must remain vigilant when considering recommendations made by AI. That being said, bias in AI can be corrected much easier than bias amongst humans. Proactively monitoring and mitigating possible areas of bias is essential for driving more inclusive, equitable hiring—regardless of whether AI is involved.
Disproportionate Impact Certain demographic groups face higher exposure to the potential harms of AI in recruitment. For instance, if an AI screening system relies heavily on standardized test scores that have racial biases, it could automatically filter out qualified minority candidates. Similarly, lower income communities may lack access to the digital tools and internet connectivity required for AI screening. This digital divide could automatically exclude qualified candidates from disadvantaged backgrounds. Without proactive measures to address these systemic issues, AI recruitment tools risk amplifying real-world inequality. Organizations must consider disproportionate impact with their use of AI in order to improve diversity and reinforce equity.
Lack of Transparency Organizations may experience resistance amongst candidates and employees when there is a lack of understanding of how AI is being used in the hiring process and how AI arrives at certain outputs or recommendations. You can nurture trust through training and effective communication to help recruiters, hiring managers and applicants understand the reasons behind AI-generated outcomes and their role in the hiring decision-making process. Use clear and understandable language to describe the factors influencing decisions and put mechanisms in place to capture feedback and reporting of potential issues. Transparency promotes ethical AI use in recruitment and also reinforces organizational values and establishes a positive reputation in the industry.
Data from Pew Research Center shows that 61% of Americans are unaware that employers are currently using AI in the hiring process. A majority (71%) oppose AI making a final hiring decision, while 41% oppose AI being used to review applications. However, the more people understand about AI, the more they’re in favor of its use in the recruitment process. For example, 43% of those who’ve heard a lot about using AI in the hiring process support its use for reviewing applications, compared with 37% who’ve heard a little and 21% who’ve heard nothing at all.
Lack of Accuracy GAI is prone to making up statistics, sources and even case law—known as hallucinating. There are no safeguards in place to validate the generated content or to check the accuracy or appropriateness of the outcome. Organizations leveraging tools like ChatGPT for recruiting open themselves up to risks. Recruiters must be aware of the importance of the human touch and using their judgement when using GAI tools for creating content and communications.
Over-Automation Heavy reliance on AI also poses risks if the recruitment process becomes overly automated and fails to incorporate sound human judgment as a check. Too much automated communication can feel depersonalized to a candidate. AI should never replace the human touch—rather it should enhance human capabilities. Plus, companies using AI for recruitment must ensure compliance with all relevant regulations. For example, under GDPR, there are strict guidelines around automated decision-making, and individuals have the right to obtain human intervention and contest automated decisions that significantly affect them.
Data Privacy Issues Collecting and analyzing extensive candidate information required by AI systems can raise concerns around consent, data protection, and ethical usage. Any talent data feeding the AI systems must be compliant with regulations, like GDPR and CCPA, that are relevant to your locations. Organizations should create a framework around the usage of AI recruitment tools to provide transparency around what data you’re collecting, gain consent where applicable, and put access controls and encryption in place to protect sensitive candidate information. Your data security team should vet any AI usage to ensure candidate data is not being scraped for other uses.
Workflow Integration Implementing AI recruiting tools requires integrating them into existing systems and processes. Too often, companies adopt AI in isolation, without considering its impact on surrounding workflows. Instead, organizations should evaluate how AI technologies will interface with current infrastructure. For example, your applicant tracking system (ATS) may need API connections to import AI-screened candidates. With careful integration planning, AI can be a seamless augmentation to talent acquisition rather than an isolated add-on.
Proactively addressing these concerns through governance, oversight and continuous improvement of AI systems and processes is key to managing the risks responsibly. Overall, the use of AI in recruitment is permitted but becoming more and more tightly regulated. Systems cannot make final hiring decisions and must be transparent, fair and accountable. Adhering to data protection laws and anti-discrimination regulations is crucial for the ethical use of AI in hiring. Undergoing regular audits to assess for unintended bias and maintaining the human touch to review, override or contest automated recommendations is crucial.
📌 We recommend you consult your legal team before implementing any AI technologies at your organization.
Use Cases for AI in Recruitment
As recruiting grows more competitive, organizations are turning to smart technologies to gain an edge in attracting and engaging candidates. From chatbots to video interviews and skills assessments, AI-powered solutions are streamlining efficiencies while enabling deeper insights across the hiring funnel. Here are some examples demonstrating AI’s immense potential to boost recruiting outcomes while improving the candidate experience.
How to Use AI for Candidate Attraction and Sourcing
Identifying, contacting and engaging prospective candidates is ripe for AI augmentation. Building a robust pipeline of talent typically involves highly manual, repetitive tasks that can divert focus away from higher-value tasks. Here are some of the ways AI can support you in filling your recruitment funnel.
Building Candidate Personas
AI can pull from the profiles of existing employees and historical hiring data for a given role to surface patterns and common characteristics. These patterns, combined with qualitative data gathered from interviews, can help you to define a persona profile of the ideal candidate for the role.
A persona is a fictional character profile that represents the different types of candidates who would be successful in a role. Personas focus on individual characteristics, behaviors, interests, goals, motivators and challenges. With these in place, you can create alignment across your recruitment and sourcing strategies. Your persona profiles should provide specific guidance about how to find candidates who fit the profile, including targeted messages that will resonate.
Since launching in late 2022, ChatGPT and other GAI chatbots, like Bing Chat, Gemini (formerly Bard) and more, quickly permeated the workplace. These tools mimic human communication and can help with everything from content creation and market analysis to simply writing emails. They can also be used to write job descriptions.
By feeding them with relevant prompts that detail the job tasks and required skills as well as employer brand elements like tone of voice, the GAI chatbot can produce a first draft job description in seconds. The hiring manager and recruiter can then massage this text to create the final posting.
For existing job descriptions, AI can be used to measure sentiment and detect biased language. There are a variety of AI-powered online tools that can highlight biased language—like “ambitious” or “expert,” which are stereotypically masculine—to ensure you’re not turning off a portion of your talent audience.
Previously a manual process, AI can sift through a huge number of online profiles to find candidates with the skills you’re looking for. For example, the AI-powered Affinix CRM tool in PeopleScout’s talent acquisition suite Affinix searches millions of online profiles to find passive candidates with the skills and competencies that match the role. The AI also assesses the likelihood of a candidate being open to a new opportunity by combining the average tenure of each job listed on their profile with the average aggregate tenure of all other candidates in that same role.
Manually identifying passive candidates who have similar titles but may not be actively searching for a job can take hours of dedicated time. AI can reduce manual efforts and massively speed up the recruitment process. Plus, it helps you concentrate on skills, rather than experience, to expand your candidate pool.
Predictive Analytics
Machine learning models can also provide predictive and prescriptive hiring recommendations based on a candidate’s profile. AI can assess genuine interest, candidate motivations, likelihood to accept an offer and even predicted tenure. This empowers recruiters to be more informed for interview prep and can help them personalize outreach messages to appeal specifically to what matters most for each candidate.
Over time as engagement data is captured, AI models continue to improve, learning what messages and channels persuade candidates with various profiles and career trajectories. This creates a positive feedback loop, compounding efficiencies over each recruiting cycle.
How to Use AI for Candidate Screening & Interview Support
Manual candidate screening based on résumés and CVs alone can be an imperfect, biased exercise. With AI lending a “second pair of eyes,” you can ensure quality candidates are not being overlooked. Here are some elements of the process that AI can enhance.
First Sift
Natural language processing tools can ingest thousands of résumés and CVs, and analyze the content, context, and trends across the talent pool within seconds. AI tools can be trained to recognize specific skills, experiences and competencies that are required for open roles and then score and rank applicants automatically against your ideal candidate profile.
Look for tools with a dashboard that highlights the “cream of the crop” candidates that demonstrate the closest alignment, enabling you to reach out or pass the most promising applicants to hiring managers quickly.
Real-Time Screening
Intelligent chatbots, like text and SMS screening tools, create a conversational experience for candidates using natural language processing. These mobile-friendly, text interview tools automatically screen candidates using predetermined questions that gauge their interest and qualifications. Based on the responses, the chatbot can instantly determine the next step for each specific candidate.
AI is also leveraged for pre-employment assessments. New tech platforms can test and measure candidates for skills mastery, personality traits, and cognitive abilities to ensure qualified candidates are advancing through the recruitment process. All results should be reviewed by a human to ensure compliance with relevant regulations around automated decision-making. Leveraging AI in skills assessment helps ensure recruiters and hiring managers can focus on priority candidates most likely to succeed in the role, increasing equity along the way.
Want to learn more about how AI can boost your recruitment processes?
AI-powered candidate engagement tools help you create seamless, personalized experiences at scale—boosting candidate satisfaction, accelerating the hiring process and freeing up recruiters to focus on relationship building—where they add the most value.
Personalized Candidate Communications
For several years now, organizations have been leveraging candidate relationship management (CRM) technology to automate communications with candidates throughout the hiring journey. Automated email drip campaigns deliver the right information at the right stage in the journey to keep candidates informed of next steps and engaged with content that is relevant to them. This helps you build personalized engagement at scale.
More recently, recruiters are using GAI platforms like ChatGPT to help them with drafting one-off emails to candidates. Leveraging the appropriate prompts, a recruiter can get a first draft from ChatGPT which they can then review and edit to fit for specific candidates. This has the potential to save hours’ worth of work each week for your talent acquisition team.
Chatbots
Chatbots leverage natural language processing to manage various high-volume, repetitive inquiries from candidates. Whether answering frequently asked questions (FAQs) about application status, the interview process, the company or the job role, chatbots provide consistent, accurate responses 24/7—especially relevant when recruiters aren’t working. This improves candidate satisfaction while enabling recruiters to focus on higher-value activities.
Intelligent messaging platforms can initiate one-way communications at scale to nurture candidates. Using data on the prospect, role, process stage and more, AI writing assistants dynamically generate personalized, thoughtful messages. This level of personalization improves candidate engagement, advances candidates quicker through the funnel and strengthens employment brand affinity.
Calendar management bots can take over the time-consuming back-and-forth of scheduling interviews, assessments, site visits and more. By integrating with hiring manager calendars, only convenient time slots are shown to candidates. Candidates automatically receive confirmations and reminders, eliminating this task for recruiters and increasing the likelihood of candidates attending interviews.
How to Get Started with AI in Recruiting
Your steps into AI should focus on exploration rather than big integrations. AI in recruitment is fast-moving and receiving more and more scrutiny from law makers, and an RPO (recruitment process outsourcing) partner can act as a strategic advisor on your AI recruiting journey. RPOs have experience implementing recruitment tech like AI software for clients and can advise on the best options for your needs, integration requirements, data needs, ethical usage, and workflow design.
By leveraging RPO expertise, companies can effectively implement AI-enhanced hiring with less disruption and a faster return on investment. Look for a partner that is moving at your speed when it comes to AI in recruiting. They’ll help you identify areas for quick wins, and help you expand this success through experimentation and testing.
Here are some ways an RPO partner can help your explore AI for recruitment:
Change Management: RPOs can ease the transition to automated processes and drive adoption through training and ongoing support. They can also develop training programs to upskill your in-house recruiters on using AI tools effectively and ethically in accordance with your internal AI policies.
Process Design: RPOs can redesign recruitment workflows to integrate AI tools. For example, PeopleScout’s Talent Diagnostic examines your talent lifecycle, evaluating your employer brand and your attraction strategy, as well as looking for ways to optimize the candidate experience through technology usage.
Ongoing Optimization: RPOs can continuously monitor and evaluate AI outputs and fine-tune processes. These insights will help you improve outcomes over time.
Compliance Monitoring: RPOs stay current on regulations affecting AI in recruiting to advise on lawful and ethical usage in conjunction with your internal legal team.
AI in Recruiting: Potential and Responsibility
AI has demonstrated tremendous potential to transform talent acquisition. As this handbook outlines, it’s no longer just hype, rather it’s delivering real impact across sourcing, screening, interviewing and candidate engagement.
The results you’ll experience from AI depend heavily on factors like data quality, transparency, integration with existing systems and processes, and governance to ensure responsible usage. AI solutions are meant to augment—not replace—the human touch in recruitment. Recruiters are invaluable when it comes to relationship building, coaching and negotiation, and AI can’t replicate what makes them uniquely human.
Looking ahead, the use of AI recruiting technology to connect people to purpose will only continue expanding. Cultivating an ethical, inclusive and values-based recruiting culture remains key when it comes to attracting employees who align with your organization’s mission. With human stewardship over AI in recruiting, the future of talent acquisition looks bright.
By Simon Wright, Head of Global Talent Advisory Consulting
We are in one of the most transformative periods in the history of work. Between technological disruptions, societal shifts and global events, the talent landscape five years from now will likely look very different than it does today. However, even in times of uncertainty, we can discern key trends that will impact the way organizations source, recruit and retain talent.
As a leading talent solutions provider, PeopleScout has a unique vantage point to view the forces shaping the future of work. Based on our experience and industry insights, we believe there are eight core areas talent acquisition leaders should embrace in 2024 to up-level their strategic importance within the business.
1. Talent Leaders Will Look to New Models to Ride the Economic Waves
The power balance has now shifted back to the employer amidst a tight labor market, fewer vacancies and a cost-of-living crisis. But if you think it’s time to pause investment in your talent programs, think again.
Talent acquisition teams shrunk during COVID-19 and then grew quickly as part of the bounce back only to shed jobs again this past year. With continued uncertainty, TA leaders must showcase the value they bring to business by minimizing the impacts of economic fluctuations.
It’s time to leave behind the boom and bust and embrace agility through a strategic approach to workforce planning and forecasting. Talent solutions like recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), including modular RPO solutions, offer responsiveness to help stabilize operational delivery amidst unpredictable economic waves.
2. Business Transformation Will Shape the Workforce
The specific skills and capabilities companies need are shifting rapidly, which means the jobs and roles employers need to fill are changing too. According to McKinsey research, one-third of new jobs created in the U.S. in the past 25 years were types that barely existed previously, particularly in high-demand areas like data analytics, software development and renewable energy. According to Totaljobs, despite a general slowdown in hiring, the demand for green jobs continues to go up, skyrocketing by 677% between 2019 and 2023.
However, this business transformation is being hampered by the lack of talent and relevant skills. Economic, social and labor market changes are evolving faster than workforce training and development systems can keep pace. There simply aren’t enough workers with experience in emerging fields and new technologies.
TA leaders must work proactively to build the reputation and influence of their employer brand with potential talent now—ahead of the hiring they need to do in the future. This means being able to recruit the best talent in the market, not just the best talent in your pipeline. Investing in candidate nurturing and employer branding strategies now will ensure organizations can hire first—and fast—when the time comes.
3. Employees Will Continue to Reevaluate Their Relationship with Work
TA leaders must be the eyes and ears for their organization, tuning in to the candidate market and shaping the employer value proposition (EVP) to meet the changing needs and expectations of candidates. Today’s employees are demanding more, and the one-size-fits-all EVP approach must evolve to keep up.
Organizations that refresh their EVP with a more human-centric approach that recognizes employees as people, not just workers, will go beyond traditional offerings to provide exceptional life experiences that match employee needs. Delivering a positive emotional connection will be crucial for improving retention, overcoming the productivity vacuum and attracting quality talent in 2024.
4. Data Will Be the Key to Overcoming Talent Scarcity
The labor market has shrunk due to the retirement of Baby Boomers, and companies face an enormous brain drain of institutional expertise. Not only is the upcoming population smaller and not replacing the Boomers who are leaving the workforce, but they lack the some of the soft skills of the departing generation. With this double depletion at play, organizations will need to work hard to attract and train Gen Z in order to keep their workforce development on track for the future.
Additionally, long-term illness, including lingering complications from COVID-19, has sidelined many working-age adults. The latest ONS data shows that the number of people economically inactive because of long-term sickness is now over 2.5 million in the UK alone.
The key to reducing the impact of talent scarcity in 2024 is data. It’s time for TA leaders to treat talent intelligence as business intelligence, bringing it to the C-suite to drive decision making and inform strategy. Organizations must leverage data to understand both internal and external talent pools, maximizing ROI on talent attraction and retention efforts.
5. Skills-Based Practices Will Take Center Stage
In order to keep pace with changing roles and dwindling talent pools, leading organizations are taking a proactive and holistic approach to adapting their workforces. They are investing in upskilling and reskilling programs while also leveraging RPO partners to find professionals with the most in-demand and future-proof skills.
More organizations will look to expand candidate pools and tap into diverse skill sets through skills-based recruitment. To do this, organizations must evolve their candidate assessment practices to focus on skills rather than credentials or pedigree. We’ll see more organizations follow the likes of Google and drop their university degree requirements. This will have the added benefit of promoting greater diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) in the workplace.
6. Internal Mobility Will Receive Big Investment
More than a third (36%) of HR professionals surveyed identified employee retention as a priority in 2024. Internal mobility will become the key to retention as well as filling open roles and skills gaps. Focus will shift from building external talent pools to internal talent pools, putting methods in place to identify transferable skills that can be boosted to support business transformation.
We saw an uptick in labor hoarding in 2023 talent trends. In 2024, organizations must invest in transforming the skills of the workers they’ve kept on board in order to ensure they’re ready for what’s on the horizon.
In 2024, career moves won’t take a linear path but will weave across departments and disciplines, providing workers with variety and rewarding work. Organizations must train hiring managers to look at candidates, not just for their fit for a specific role, but for the value they can bring to the organization.
Organizations will look to capitalize on AI-powered features to do the heavy lifting so their teams can focus on more valuable recruiting activities. TA leaders should look to technology to augment human touches throughout the candidate experience, to identify opportunities for streamlining through automation, and to help them better interrogate data for a more agile resourcing model.
This is also an opportunity for TA leaders to demonstrate they can deliver digital transformation and deliver ROI from these investments. This has been a criticism of talent acquisition and HR in the past, and it’s time to dispel that narrative.
8. AI Fever Will Hit an All-Time High
And finally, it wouldn’t be a 2024 talent acquisition forecast without a mention of AI. Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) tools, like ChatGPT, were on the tip of our tongues in 2023. As organizations grapple with the ethics of AI, most will succumb to the transformative potential and begin to test and experiment with how AI can benefit their workforce and operations in 2024.
The role of technology will keep evolving within talent acquisition, but it’s primed to have a pivotal role in streamlining recruitment tasks and improving efficiency in everything from screening to assessments to interview scheduling.
Organizations should take a principled approach to leveraging AI and automation to augment recruiting, while ensuring human oversight and care for people remains central. Starting with a small project or two will clear the mist so you can see clearly where AI will add value to your recruitment tech stack and candidate experience.
The Importance of the Right Talent Partner to Help You Ride the Waves
The future of work holds exciting potential, but also some uncertainty. However, while individual trends are difficult to predict, TA leaders that embrace agility, skills practices and tech innovation will find themselves in a strong position to prove their value in driving business performance. As your talent partner, PeopleScout will be ready to support, challenge and inspire you for whatever lies ahead.
By staying on top of key shifts like these and working with an expert talent solutions provider like PeopleScout, companies can build workforces with the skills, mindsets and diversity of experiences to thrive in the next era of business.
A candidate relationship management (CRM) tool is at the center of any strong recruitment process, but I can almost guarantee that you aren’t making the most of yours. According to Aptitude Research, only 2% of companies use all of the functionality of their recruitment CRMs, and more than 60% of employers spend more on their CRM than on their applicant tracking system (ATS).
Most likely, your CRM could be doing more to improve your recruiting process and candidate experience, and 2023 is the perfect year to optimize it. That’s because you can add functionality without additional budget — a key benefit in an uncertain global economy. With your CRM, you can:
Appeal to the 70% of candidates who are not actively looking for a job, but would move for the right position.
Provide that consumer-like candidate experience that has become the cost of entry for employers.
Share your employer value proposition more effectively with candidates of all backgrounds.
Below are three ways you can improve your own processes and the experience candidates have when they interact with your brand.
1. Appeal to Candidates From Underrepresented Backgrounds & Supercharge Your Diversity Initiatives
Whether you’re looking to increase the number of female employees in a male-dominated industry; fulfilling your commitment to helping veterans; or building a team that reflects the diversity of your customers, issues around diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) remain a focus for talent acquisition leaders. Fortunately, many CRMs feature the ability to create microsites, which let you share your employer brand more effectively with candidates from underrepresented backgrounds that you want to target.
Sometimes called landing pages, these microsites drive diverse traffic to your careers site and showcase your DE&I initiatives. Of course, diversity means something different for different employers. Therefore, consider building a microsite for each target group that contains messaging and content of interest to them. With a recruitment marketing campaign that showcases the representation that already exists in your organization, in addition to a targeted microsite, you can boost your DE&I recruitment outcomes.
At PeopleScout, our AffinixTM microsites are fast and easy to set up—and they also yield results. For example, one client was looking to increase its percentage of female hires from just 7%. By building a landing page and campaign that featured the stories of real women who love and are excelling at their jobs, PeopleScout was able to increase that number to 18%.
2. Provide a Consumer-Level Application Experience & Reduce Candidate Fall-Out
If you’re seeing a lot of candidates falling out in your application process, that’s a sign that your candidate experience isn’t meeting expectations. In 2023, a mobile-first application that only takes a few minutes to complete is essential. If you’re missing that mark, you’re missing out on top talent.
In particular, look for a recruitment CRM with a quick-apply feature that allows candidates to submit only the most important information. While you’ll likely need more details from the candidate, you can gather that later in the process. As an added benefit, CRM features—like on-demand assessments and text questionnaires—can also keep candidates more engaged as they move through the interview and assessment stage faster.
Additionally, a shortened application is a simple change that can have a profound effect on your recruitment outcomes. As an example, one PeopleScout client went from a long application with a 30% conversion rate to one that took less than 10 minutes to fill out with an 80% conversion rate. It also shaved eight to 10 days off their time-to-fill.
3. Find Candidates Who Don’t Realize You’ve Posted Their Dream Jobs & Fill Your Most Challenging Roles
When you post a new job opening, somewhere out there is that perfect person for the role: There’s a chance your open position is someone’s dream job, but do they even know it exists? Realistically, there’s a very good chance that they don’t, and they won’t come across your posting on their own. So, it’s up to your recruiting team to find them and pitch the job that they’ve been waiting for.
Some recruitment CRMs have automated talent matching that search candidate databases to find qualified candidates for any role. These are then ranked by how closely they fit the role requirements, how likely they are to leave their current position, and their average tenure. Unlike a manual sourcing process, an automated talent matching feature like this can help fill the top of your funnel in seconds.
Notably, in PeopleScout’s Affinix CRM, Talent Finder is one option for automation technology that can find and filter qualified candidates. Our Diversity Boost feature also amplifies diverse candidates to help you reach your DE&I goals. Then, once you find that perfect match, you can bring them through the process and provide a good candidate experience—if you’re getting the most out of your CRM.
Keep in mind that this list only scratches the surface of what your CRM could bring to your recruitment process if properly optimized for your organization. While candidate expectations continue to shift, at the end of the day, they’re looking to build the right relationship with the right organization. It’s up to you to start that relationship off right.
[On-Demand] Candidate Relationship Management: How to Get the Most out of Your CRM
Candidate relationship management tools are a critical component of any recruitment process, but very few employers actually use the software to its full potential. Could your organization be doing more with your CRM?
When properly deployed, a CRM can help you attract and engage candidates from underrepresented backgrounds, source strong passive candidates and increase application rates. With so much power in one tool, talent acquisition teams that leverage the full suite of features will be more competitive in a difficult talent market.
So how can you tap into the power of your CRM? Join PeopleScout Senior Product Manager Brittany Taylor for the newest Talking Talent webinar, Candidate Relationship Management: How to Get the Most out of Your CRM, available now on demand.
In this webinar, Brittany covers:
The full range of CRM capabilities
How your CRM can supercharge your diversity initiatives
Proven strategies for decreasing candidate fall-out in the application process
Simple methods to fill the top of your recruitment funnel
Real-life examples of how implementing these changes helped employers reach their talent acquisition goals
Digital transformation has hit HR, and the world of recruitment has rapidly evolved with the growth of mobile apps, big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics. Candidates now expect a tech-enabled recruitment experience, and building a talent acquisition tech stack has gone from a nice-to-have to a critical part of a global recruitment strategy for any enterprise. However, with the influx of new talent acquisition technology—from foundational platforms like an ATS to point solutions for sourcing, interviewing or recruitment marketing—it can be hard to navigate the recruitment technology ecosystem and know where to invest your budget.
In this article, we’ll help you make sense of all the available talent tech and how each recruitment system can benefit your business. You’ll learn some important things to keep in mind as you build your tech stack. Plus, we’ll provide some details on what features to look for as you evaluate solutions.
Working with a Tech Capable RPO Partner
One of the biggest value-adds that RPO brings is experience with the latest talent technology innovations. In fact, in 2021 PeopleScout saw new RPO engagements with technology included increase from 40% to 67%. An RPO partner can help you assess talent acquisition software to address all aspects of your recruiting process, from identifying talent to creating a more efficient candidate experience. Your provider can show you how emerging technologies like AI, machine learning and predictive analytics can boost your ability to attract top talent.
In addition to consulting, some RPO providers are investing in proprietary technology solutions including application tracking systems (ATS), candidate relationship management (CRM) tools, analytics platforms and automation tools. This can come in the form of a single platform or as a set of integrated systems, providing a modular approach that lets you add and remove solutions from your tech stack as your needs change.
Integrate Recruitment Technology for Seamless Operations
Any new recruitment tool you consider should integrate with your current talent acquisition and HR systems. Not only does integration let you benefit from existing investments and grow as your needs change, but it also helps you streamline operations by eliminating the need for manual data entry—saving time and effort.
When evaluating any solution, ask about built in integrations. If one doesn’t exist for one of your existing systems, evaluate the vendor’s ability to support you through an API. An application programming interface, or API, is a connection between pieces of software. Open APIs let you build a custom solution by connecting your talent acquisition technology systems with each other and with your other HR systems—boosting the flow of data and improving operational and cost efficiencies.
A Word on Security
Any technology you do add to your talent tech stack must comply with data privacy regulations in all regions where you’re recruiting. Pay attention to any rules about where data can be stored, like those stipulated by the GDPR. Look for tools that are SOC 2 certified, which shows they maintain a high level of information security.
Building Your Recruitment Tech Stack
Now that we’ve covered some important things to keep in mind when evaluating software, here are some tech solutions to consider when building your talent acquisition tech stack.
Applicant Tracking System (ATS)
An ATS is the foundation upon which you will build your tech stack. This platform acts as the system of record for your talent acquisition program. As a repository for applicants, it helps you manage the hiring process for all your requisitions and satisfies compliance requirements for record keeping.
Some ATS systems let you create branded career sites and landing pages where candidates can learn more about your company, search jobs openings and even apply for a role. Look for a platform with a “quick apply” feature that lets candidates apply in a few clicks even via mobile devices—which has been proven to increase application conversion rates. ATS platforms may also support the candidate selection process through AI-powered keyword scanning and other automated features like approval workflows, candidate and hiring manager notifications, offer letter generation and more—all with the benefit of reducing time-to-fill and streamlining the candidate experience.
AI Sourcing Tool
AI-powered sourcing tools review, sort and rank talent on the open web using sourcing criteria you’ve previously specified like current or past job titles, companies, diversity attributes, industry experience and more. Algorithms crawl resumes, social media profiles and other sources of data to find candidates that match your job requirements. This increases your potential applicants while speeding up your search and reducing the manual repetitive tasks for recruiters.
AI sourcing can also help reduce bias as it only looks for what you’ve specified and disregards other factors like race, gender or age. It can also be applied to internal candidates by screening the existing employee profiles within an organization to find strong matches for current open positions.
When designed correctly, AI can help you create a better candidate experience. However, there are dos and don’ts when it comes to automation. Proper testing at each stage coupled with human oversight will go a long way to catching biases or negative hiring experiences, so you can pause and reconfigure your strategy.
Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) Software
Many analysts believe that 70-80% of the recruiting process could be handled by the CRM, so it’s worth looking into complementing your ATS with a candidate relationship management (CRM) system. This recruitment marketing platform helps recruiters create talent pools based on geographies, level of interest and skills. With a CRM, you can differentiate your organization by nurturing these candidates through automated recruitment emails, SMS messages and more—whether to keep them informed during an active application process or to keep them warm until a suitable position opens up. Communications can be personalized to the candidate for a more engaging experience.
A whopping 89% of candidates think mobile devices play a critical role in the job-hunting process. So, meet your candidates where they are, and look for solutions that are mobile-first and create a consumer-like experience your employer brand deserves. Other features to consider are custom landing pages and careers sites as well as event management tools to support specific recruiting goals.
Recruiting Chatbot
Consider adding a chatbot to your careers site or investing in an ATS that offers this functionality to modernize your candidate experience. As a conversational interface, chatbots leverage natural language processing to screen candidates, answer candidate queries and schedule interviews. Some even offer candidates the ability to check the status of their application. This reduces the burden on recruiters and hiring managers by taking on some frequently asked questions from candidates, freeing them to focus on other things.
In addition to process efficiencies, chatbots can also be a great way to bring your employer brand to life. We implemented a chatbot for The AA, a UK-based motoring association offering roadside breakdown assistance, as part of their reimagined careers site. Candidates could ask AAbot questions and were served with information tailored to their interests. Not satisfied with a run-of-the-mill experience, we gave AAbot a big personality, reflecting the organization’s playful employer brand. As a result, we boosted career site traffic by 60% year-over-year and applications by 275%. We even used AAbot in recruitment marketing campaigns and social media posts.
Modern candidates expect a hiring experience to be personal, quick and convenient. Rather than just leveraging video meeting tools, look for dedicated virtual interview tools that offer multiple options for virtual interviews, including on-demand phone interviews, text interviews as well as live and pre-recorded video interviews. Additional features, like self-scheduling tools and automated candidate advancement tools, help dramatically reduce time-to-hire and enhance the candidate experience.
Virtual Assessment Tool
Speed up the candidate review process by investing in virtual pre-employment assessment tools. Modern options include AI that can evaluate writing samples, phone and video interviews and skills test responses. Digital assessment solutions examine the candidate’s aptitude, personality and skills using predictive analytics and machine learning, ensuring you hire the highest quality talent. This also has the added benefit of reducing bias, as the AI focuses on the content of the responses not the candidate or what they look like.
Platforms range from those providing code evaluations for software development roles to language aptitude tests. Make sure you look at the assessment experience from both the candidate and hiring manager experience before committing to a tool.
Recruitment Analytics
With data flowing across your integrated systems, investing in a recruitment analytics platform offers you a single source of truth for understanding your end-to-end recruitment process. Whether you’re hoping to track time-to-fill, DE&I efforts or overall talent acquisition performance, these tools will satisfy your C-suite’s hunger for insights into your recruitment program.
Look for a tool with interactive dashboards that make it easy to visually monitor trends and slice and dice the data to identify areas of opportunity—and gain the full value of your recruitment data. Modern analytics tools leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to highlight insights, anomalies and predictions so you have the data you need to drive informed decisions.
New analytics advancements mean cutting edge tools can now provide the ability to query your data via natural language processing. For example, our Ask Affinix feature, powered by Amazon’s QuickSight Q, lets you ask questions of your data in plain language and receive accurate answers with relevant visualizations in seconds.
Onboarding Tool
The new employee onboarding process is an essential element of creating a positive employee experience. Not only should it get new hires up-to-speed on your company and their role, there’s also crucial paperwork steps for payroll, taxes, benefits and more. Consider implementing an onboarding software to automate and support the onboarding process—especially if you’re doing a lot of remote hiring. Checklist features guide your candidates and hiring managers through the first days on the job, so they don’t miss any important steps. Self-service tools let new hires work through all those first tasks and training modules at their own pace. They won’t miss any crucial policies or compliance training, and you’ll have a record of when they completed it in the event of an audit.
Look for tools that let your new hires upload documents online like signed employment contracts, tax forms and right-to-work documents to speed up your payroll procedures. It’s also imperative that this integrates with your ATS and HRIS platforms to keep your employment records up-to-date and eliminate any manual steps which are prone to human error.
Internal Mobility Software
It’s no secret how important career pathing and development are for retaining employees and saving on sourcing costs. In fact, a study of LinkedIn users showed that employees who were promoted within three years of being hired have a 70% chance of staying with the company and those who made a lateral move have a 62% chance. Meanwhile, those who didn’t make an internal move only have 45% chance of staying.
An internal mobility platform lets you share vacancies internally first and helps you identify existing employees who may have the skills and experience to move laterally or vertically into a new role. Look for a tool that offers a seamless experience by letting you post to internal and public job boards and view internal and external candidates together in one place, with internal candidates uniquely identified. The system should feature automation like automated invitation emails to qualified internal candidates to speed up time-to-fill and reduce administrative burden.
Conclusion
The recruitment technology landscape is complicated, with new solutions being added all the time. It can be confusing to plan a talent acquisition tech stack but selecting the right tools can boost access to data and help you create both operational and cost efficiencies. Employers should work with a talent partner who can help them customize a technology ecosystem that meets their needs now and prepares them for what’s next.
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