The AI Recruitment Chess Match: Employers vs. Job Seekers
To subscribe to my newsletter on LinkedIn, copy and paste this in your browser https://bit.ly/3ZwsrZF
Employers and job seekers are locked in a cat-and-mouse battle, each side leveraging AI to outmanoeuvre the other. Recruitment is beginning to look like cybersecurity where hackers and software builders constantly try to outwit each other.
As someone who has spent several years recruiting talent at all levels, automating some tasks is easy to understand. I would want to spend my time building long term relationships with high potential talent and top thinkers, promoting the employer brand, and doing high value tasks. Companies like Thermo Fisher Scientific are already using AI to enhance their recruitment processes, with impressive results.
This number of employers using these in recruitment is growing every day
Using AI in recruitment is changing the decision-making process itself with software. In the high-stakes game of recruitment, AI has become the ultimate weapon. Let's break down the moves and countermoves in this endless game.
Employer's Opening Gambit: AI-Generated Job Descriptions
Companies like Mastercard, Electrolux, and LinkedIn are using AI to craft perfect job descriptions, automate job postings, and screen resumes. But this move has a dark side: fake jobs and layoffs during periods of hypergrowth.
Applicant's Counter Move: AI-Powered Resumes & Mass Applications
Job seekers are fighting back with AI-crafted resumes and cover letters, optimized to trick algorithms into seeing them as ideal candidates. They're using bots to apply to hundreds of jobs in a single day, exploiting the weaknesses in the hiring process.
Employer's Next Move: Chatbots and Automated Interviews
Companies respond with chatbots and automated interviews, filtering out weaker candidates with programmed questions. Efficiency rules, but humanity takes a back seat.
Applicant's Counterattack: Automated Mass Applications
Job seekers throw everything they can at employers, hoping to slip past the screening algorithms. It's a standoff, with no progress or checkmate in sight.
The Hiring War Resembles Cybersecurity
This battle is starting to resemble cybersecurity, with employers trying to patch vulnerabilities and job seekers finding creative ways to exploit them. It's an endless loop, a stalemate.
Breaking the Stalemate
Be Transparent: Post realistic job descriptions, be upfront about layoffs or business challenges. Job seekers respect transparency.
Use Targeted AI: AI should help build relationships, not break them. Employers can use AI to nurture talent through personalized feedback or help candidates improve for future opportunities.
It is time to rethink the game
Balance AI with human-led final interviews and human-generated feedback. A good conversation beats an automated rejection any day. There is no doubt that the candidate experience is very poor. While AI is terrific at making the hiring process more efficient, 89% of even the Fortune 500 companies score poorly on this. While 95% of the career sites are mobile friendly, 87% have well-crafted job descriptions, most don't offer an intuitive job search and apply process.
If employers can use AI to discover great talent and reach out to them then they owe it to the candidates to give them specific feedback that will help them find their next role. By combining AI with transparency, targeted automation, and a human touch, we can break the stalemate and create a more effective, more humane recruitment process.
The game is on. Who will make the next move?
Read: The State of the Candidate Experience from Phenom
Read: The Talent Acquisitions Trends Report 2024 by Korn Ferry