Tech & Tools: September/October 2024
Implementing AI in hiring
While the discussion and debate around the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in recruitment will rightly continue for years to come, we are now starting to see substantive information being released that can help recruiters from a practical standpoint to implement AI in recruitment processes.
In July, the Better Hiring Institute (BHI) released the Artificial Intelligence in Hiring toolkit, a UK first that contains resources and advice organisations can use to apply AI. BHI worked with Lord Holmes, and other members of Parliament, as well as Reed Screening, Future Work, Arctic Shores and Lancaster University to lead the conversation on raising awareness and harnessing AI in hiring.
The guide has been well received, says Keith Rosser, director of Reed Screening and director of group risk, and chair of the BHI, describing it as an important collaboration between recruiters, wider industry, legal firms, academics and Parliament. “That doesn’t happen very often so we are delighted we achieved it for this work and provided a free-to-use guide to everyone,” he says.
The recently launched International AI Maturity Model and associated ‘Trust in AI’ report published by the British Standards Institution (BSI) reveals that the UK has progress to make in areas such as investment, training and supplier engagement. BSI said the emerging and developing economies of China and India have a greater level of readiness to smoothly integrate AI into their operations, prepare employees for resulting changes to work, and leverage it as a force for good than countries such as the UK, Japan and the Netherlands.
BSI’s model assesses and weighs a suite of measures including organisational confidence and readiness for AI adoption among businesses globally. On all measures, China and India led the way, with the US in third place, followed by Australia. The analysis identifies the UK and Japan to be less mature relative to others, potentially influenced by factors including policy direction or media narratives focused on risk rather than opportunity.
Perceptions and attitudes are, of course, all important as AI takes its next steps in the recruitment world. Recruitment technology firm HireVue recently took a pulse survey on HR professionals’ and workers’ perceptions of AI in hiring. It surveyed 3,100 workers and 1,000 HR professionals across the US, the UK and Australia. It reports it found several tensions in how both groups are feeling “tucked between” an appreciation for the efficiencies AI can bring on one hand and concern for how it’s used on the other. Almost three-quarters (73%) of HR professionals say they trust AI systems to make candidate recommendations and 70% use or plan to use AI in some capacity in the next year. When it came to worker perceptions, three in four are opposed to AI making final hiring decisions, 79% want to know if the employer is using AI in hiring when they apply for a job and almost half (49%) believe AI could help the issue of bias and unfair treatment in hiring.
Craig Bines, CEO of The CareerWallet Group, which provides a range of recruitment technology solutions, is among those who remains concerned about AI tools causing an increased bias in job applications and removing the human touch from recruiting.
While it is encouraging to see that many candidates believe AI tools will be fair and many HR leaders trust AI systems to identify qualified candidates, he stresses that we must approach this trend “with caution”.
Resources
AI in Hiring toolkit https://www.betterhiringinstitute.co.uk/resources-hub/artificial-intelligence-in-hiring
HireVue 2024 Global Guide to AI in Hiring and survey https://www.hirevue.com/resources/report/ai-in-hiring-report
“The integration of AI into recruitment processes presents significant opportunities, but it also carries potential risks,” Bines says. “AI systems can inadvertently perpetuate or even amplify existing biases if not carefully managed and regularly audited.
“As we embrace these technological advancements, we mustn’t lose sight of the human element in hiring and ensure that AI serves as a tool to enhance, rather than replace, human judgement.”
As a provider of jobseeker traffic globally, Bines reports that CareerWallet is seeing how AI can impact this traffic with the increased use of this tech reducing the quality of traffic. It is also working closely with the Institute of Job Aggregation (IJA), the industry body for recruitment traffic, to help combat the issue.
Ultimately, regulation may be the key to tackling such issues. Rosser reports that since the UK general election, Lord Holmes, who wrote the foreword to AI in Hiring, has been actively campaigning in both Houses of Parliament on the need for AI regulation so watch this space.
“These issues are certainly not going away,” concludes Rosser.
In brief
Fiverr transitions to hiring
The freelance services marketplace Fiverr is transitioning to a hiring and recruiting platform, and says it is continuing “to weave AI” throughout the platform. The new platform has extended the Fiverr Neo dataset into the search experience, which uses AI to help employers find the right talent, while AI Briefs will draft briefs to help customers quickly articulate project needs.
Gen AI tool added to IRIS platforms
IRIS Software is launching a generative AI chatbot and automation features within its Networx recruitment, Cascade HR and Staffology payroll platforms to streamline workflows and increase operational efficiencies. Recruiters can use the new tool in Networx to build full job descriptions. Meanwhile, Cascade HR users can take advantage of a 24/7 chatbot to answer employee queries and IRIS is streamlining payroll management with a range of automated features.
Tech companies team to build AI-powered employee agent
Salesforce and Workday have announced a strategic partnership to deliver a personalised AI-powered employee service agent. The combination of Salesforce’s new Agentforce platform and Einstein AI with the Workday platform and Workday AI aims to create a number of use cases in areas such as onboarding and career development.
Companies team for AI-powered social recruiting
Social media recruitment platform Socially Recruited has rebranded to Gaia after joining forces with Soccialy, another social recruiting platform. Earlier this year, it also acquired the education recruitment consultancy TJS Education. The mergers mean Gaia can accelerate its expansion into public sector recruitment, as well as target a broader range of other industries. Gaia’s development aims to automate talent searches on digital media with smarter, generative job ads and precision targeting. GaiaAttract, GaiaPages and GaiaChat are available now with GaiaMatch and GaiaTrack coming soon.
Image credit | Shutterstock
