Recruitment, as part of the Human Resource industry has moved towards a more automated processes with Artificial Intelligence. Snehil Sharma (2021) listed AI and Automation
as the number one hiring trend of 2021 with a list of pros to follow their choice however with the
pros there is of course a few cons to cover as well. Is this more automated process more effective
in the Human Resource Industry or just another trend?
Pros
Sharma’s (2021) article outlines the positives that make AI and Automation the number one trend of hiring for 2021, mentioning items like efficiency of looking through hundreds if not thousands of job applications looking for those keywords and buzz phrases that separate the candidates on the search for the perfect fit. This process takes the time-consuming process and narrows that down with a click of a mouse. This allows recruiters to be more available for other processes like setting up interviews and processing on boarding. Another form of AI and Automation that Sharma mentioned is the use of Chatbots. Again, allowing the recruiters to use automated responses to popular questions to be forwarded to candidates that emailed questions about the position, instead of responding to inquiries that may have the same redundant questions. Recruitment automation also allows for improved quality of new hires. This process, as outlined on TalentLyft.com (2021) will identify potential candidates from large pools of prospective users from job searching websites to match with an organization’s open position instead of attempting to match with someone after they have seen the job posting. This eliminates the potential of candidates “fluffing” their resumes as Ben Forstag (2022) mentions as
one of the 8 Resume Mistakes that instantly land you in the “No” Pile. Ben mentions that adding additional items to previous work experience and skills that seem out of place will land your resume in a rejection status, and as a recruitment professional one less resume that will need to be looked through. The last pro of AI and Automation in recruitment practices is equality in screening of resumes. When the process of reading through resumes is left up to AI a fair and balance prospective is used instead of humans who may have preconceived ideas about candidates and can lead to misjudgments about the potential job seeker. Mona Bergeron (2021) mentions in her article for talent.com that using AI to blindly screen resumes allow an organization to treat all resumes the same and is judged by the merit of their resume. This practice can also flag candidates’ skills and experience and keep them on record for other positions and cut down on the finances needed to fill another position where the candidate may not have or yet applied for Bergeron further mentions. Cons
The first con of Automation in recruitment is cost. An article written by Dhwani Bhatia (2019) outline the positives and negatives of Human Resource Management mentioned that the overall process of set up and maintenance of an Automated recruitment and HR system processes
can be costly over time, which depending on the size of the organization utilizing such a tool can
be detrimental. Additional costs are associated with the training and IT departments that would be needed to operate this function of the recruitment process. Although the automation of blind reading resumes was listed as a positive earlier, a New York Times article by Ifeoma Ajunwa (2019) identified an instance when automated resume searches would discriminate their candidates from filling out their application, where applicants
