In September of 2019, Vishal Sikka gave an interview about his new AI startup in which he talked about the ability of AI to amplify human potential—thus elevating humanity. His premise was simple enough: If technology can improve ability and productivity, it frees human employees up to “do more, and be more.”
It’s a theory that certainly carries over into AI recruiting, and strikes at the heart of what Censia is all about.
Freeing Time
A 2018 eye tracking study found that recruiters spend an average of 7.4 seconds scanning a resume. This is up from the previously touted six seconds, but it’s still an exceptionally short period of time. So short that it’s fair to say recruiters relying purely on resume gut instinct are likely dismissing qualified candidates without a second glance.
Of course, who can blame them? When you have 200 resumes in front of you, there’s only so much time you can dedicate to reviewing them. So you look for easy ways to disqualify applicants, even if you don’t realize you’re doing so.
The result is wasted time and an inefficient (and often unfair) elimination process.
Recruiting doesn’t have to be so tedious, though. Reviewing resumes for the top qualified candidates is something AI technology has been doing for years now. Typically within seconds compared to the hours of work the same task would take a human recruiter.
In a recent Ideal report, 33 percent of recruiters said they believe AI recruiting programs allow them to focus on “more human tasks.” Things like conducting phone interviews, spending more time getting to know candidates in in-person interviews, and even establishing memorable connections with top picks.
By eliminating the minutia of recruiting through AI recruitment software, the humans behind these big decisions are able to focus in on the details that matter most in securing a quality hire.
Improving the Applicant Experience
It’s not just the lives of recruiters that are improved by AI recruitment software, though. AllyO reports that automated recruiting reduces the average application time from 17 minutes to 3 minutes, leads to a 94 percent greater application completion rate, and allows 100 percent of applicants to be served and responded to—all of which improve the applicant experience.
It’s important to remember how much that application experience matters, too. The same AllyO report shared that 80 percent of applicants will prioritize job offers from companies where personal relationships were formed in the interview process. Which means that automated recruiting could help to secure your chance of landing that top-tier application who has plenty of offers to choose from.
Eliminating Bias
It’s 2020 and we can’t talk about amplifying humanity without discussing ways to eradicate bias. The research has been clear on this for decades now: when humans are left in charge, bias seeps into the hiring process. Even for those recruiters who talk about the importance of diversity. The most recent study on the subject confirms that nothing in this area has really changed, no matter how much we like to believe we’ve evolved.
AI takes that unconscious human element out of the selection process, though, pulling top-tier candidates based on quantifiable data points, not subjective judgments made within the few short seconds a recruiter happens to look over a resume.
Human beings are susceptible to human error and unconscious biases. AI recruitment technology eliminates those risks, allowing for the best possible candidates to be considered fully by organizations that truly do care about diversity.
