The best thing technology can do for recruiters is let them get on with recruiting. Happily, it is doing exactly that.
Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) can both transform the industry and give back to recruiters the time they need to perform their essential duties to the best of their ability. They shouldn’t be mistaken for the same thing, of course: the former involves performing routine tasks on behalf of the user, while the latter is about replicating intelligent human behaviour to create efficiencies and drive smarter decision making.
These are distinct concepts with a common goal: to stop the best professionals from wasting their valuable time, and instead allow them to focus on the aspects of their job that actually require human intervention.
But can they achieve this goal – and if so, how?
Time is money
To answer that, it’s important to note that recruiters are already spending less time on trivial tasks thanks to the wide availability of automation technology. The bottom 20% of tasks – repetitive, low value, routine activities such as data entry, sourcing candidates and contacting them by email – are being handled by task bots and applications, and it’s reasonable to expect that even more might be in future. The most important 20% of tasks, meanwhile, will become even more important, and recruiters will have the time they need to get them right.
The implications of this are more significant than mere time-saving, though. Imagine a future where junior recruiters aren’t wasting their formative career years on admin work. Where they can give job descriptions, client meetings, and candidate interviews the proper care and attention they truly need. Where they can attend seminars and industry events to expand their knowledge, instead of filling up spreadsheet cell after spreadsheet cell.
That’s a future of highly skilled, highly capable, strategically-minded professionals who can build rapport and trust with clients and candidates alike – and a future the entire industry should welcome and work towards.
A changing industry
For proof, we need only look at the market: plenty of technology has already changed it irrevocably, and plenty more will change it in the near future. CRM and ATS technology – which most recruiters now can’t work effectively without – has also grown in prominence. These developments have been transformative for the industry in terms of practice and in terms of overall attitude.
The perception that artificial intelligence is just for data scientists and IT managers has long been dispelled. If you have a smartphone, it likely has Cortana, Siri, or some other intelligent personal assistant loaded on it already. When you use email, machine learning algorithms are likely powering your spam filter, teaching it to recognise unwanted communications more effectively every time.
The work currently being done to advance certain fields of AI will soon begin to significantly improve the efficiency of the recruitment process. Natural language processing (NLP) systems, for example, may soon be capable of handling much of the onboarding process for candidates. A chatbot powered by speech recognition technology can gather all relevant candidate information and answer all relevant questions, and all without any human intervention whatsoever. Moreover, according to Gartner, by 2020, 30% of all web browsing sessions will be completed by interfacing with an NLP system. Should this come to pass, the efficiency gains for recruiters – who treat online research as a key activity in the process of sourcing candidates – will be considerable.
Of course, removing human involvement can have the unfortunate by-product of removing human jobs. The Industrial Revolution mechanised a lot of labour, but at the expense of those who were performing it before. There is an argument that, while it made life easier for businesses, it took the livelihood of professionals away. Modern technology naturally evokes similar concerns.
But while these concerns are valid, they’re also somewhat misplaced. AI and automation don’t just take jobs away: they create them, too. Sophisticated technology will always require people to run and maintain it, just as the power loom required power loom operators.
Human intervention will always be necessary on some level: a machine can’t bolster the confidence of a candidate or build trust with a wavering client. There will always be space for traditional recruitment roles: technology will just allow them to focus more intently on building connections with clients and candidates.
But advances in technology will also create space for other positions in the jobs market: software developers and engineers; analysts and researchers; and IT project managers to oversee and implement exciting new innovations. Recruiters will invariably need to become more technical savvy, but this is ultimately a good thing. Machines aren’t going to take over: they’re going to force recruiters to up their game, and drag the industry average up.
Embracing technology, embracing the future
This is something to celebrate, not scorn. Being able to work on what really matters is important for productivity, profit, and morale, and it’s something that AI and automation technologies are uniquely equipped to deliver. Recruiters are naturally wilful and independently minded: they must be the masters of their own destinies, and that’s hard to achieve when they’re spending time on important, yet heavily burdensome tasks.
Recruitment companies must take this into account – and they can’t be half-hearted about it. They can’t embrace technology with one arm and push it away with the other. Engaging with AI, automation, and other innovations should be a priority for 2017 and beyond.
