Win the Talent Race with Automated Acquisition

Machines can now automate most business processes, but talent acquisition remains a largely time-intensive endeavor and not always for the best of reasons.

Too often, old fashioned and ineffective recruitment processes dominate our ways of working. To become more agile, but remain deeply human, recruitment requires radical improvements. And it appears that the time is right for change; 83 percent of recruiters report that the power in job search has shifted to the candidate (1), but three months after application, 47 percent of candidates are still waiting for a response (2). The new hope on the horizon is cognitive computing. Almost three quarters (70 percent) of high performing companies believe that cognitive computing can add value to talent acquisition (3).

Automation in talent acquisition can improve time to fill, cost per hire and HR impact on operations and engagement. Cognitive technologies directly impact the way HR can build an end-to-end positive employee experience. Here’s how:

1- Dynamic content supports employer branding

Your career site presents content and messaging that should resonate with your targeted applicants at the right moment. With a cognitively-driven your candidates experience a personalized interaction impressing top talent and converting them into active and engaged potential hires.

2- Immediate responses to candidate queries

Candidates around the world can now engage with your ‘recruitment assistant’ chatbot to have common queries answered real-time. Natural language interfaces combine with a large volume of data about organizational culture, HR policies and practices, job requirements and skills to save you time and enhance the candidate experience. Even more impressive, these cognitive assistants learn continuously as candidate interactions build, so they get better and better. [See video of a chatbot]

3- Automated resume screening

Resumes and social profiles can reveal skills, experience, expertise and personality traits. Cognitive systems are able to extract the insights you need from huge volumes of data. Job description matches appear instantaneously. Talent pools can now be continuously mined to reduce cost and time of hiring. [See how IBM Watson Recruiter reads instantly all your CV and social candidates’ profiles for each requisition]

4- Video interviews powered by artificial intelligence

Interviewing remains the most time-consuming and biased part of the hiring process. Cognitive capabilities read interview videos within seconds. They translate, extract concepts, assess personality traits and rank your best matches. This enables recruiters to focus on building relationships. [See how VideoBio analyzes automatically your candidates’ videos]

5- Rule-automated management

The demands of back and forth interaction with thousands of candidates can be time consuming, if not chaotic. Automated rules improve status communications, test assignments, and follow-up. Once programmed, conditions and triggers operate a high volume of redundant interactions in a systematic and personalized way.

6- Predictive analytics in seconds

Calculating correlations can be long and hazardous. With cognitive analytics, your data speaks immediately. It brings your predictive recruitment to life. The machine analyses the data and suggests the most significant and valuable insights. The efficiency of the process enables the recruiter to focus on interpreting insights and influencing decisions. Maximizing talent acquisition strategy becomes their core business. [See video of cognitive analytics]

HR`s role is not simply to guide business transformation but to drive it. This transformation starts with a streamlined hiring process and a unique experience that capture the best talents faster and easier.

(1) Ere Media — The Power Has Shifted to the Candidate, So Current Recruiting Practices Will Stop Working (2014)

(2) Talent Board 2016 North American Candidate Experience Research Report. http://www.thetalentboard.org/cande-awards/cande-results-2016/

(3) IBM Institute for Business Value IBM Smarter Workforce Institute. Extending expertise: How cognitive computing is transforming HR and the employee experience (2016).

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Jean-Baptiste Audrerie is organizational psychologist, M.B.A, executive advisor for IBM Kenexa & Watson Talent in Canada and author of a HR blog. He guides clients into digital and cognitive transformation for talent attraction, acquisition, development, and engagement.

JeanBaptist Audrerie

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Organizational Psychologist. Executive advisor at IBM Kenexa & Watson Talent. Attraction, Engagemen, HR Analytics in era of digital and cognitive systems.

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