AI for Recruiting: How to Create a More Efficient Hiring Process

More and more companies seeking to streamline recruitment processes and prioritize inclusive hiring are turning to AI for recruiting. Two main motivations for companies to use AI are improving the candidate experience and creating a more efficient hiring process.¹

According to SHRM, 85% of employers that use automation or AI save time and/or increase efficiency.² 

Specifically, companies who leverage AI for hiring can see benefits such as:

• Faster hiring timelines to avoid missing out on qualified candidates
• Time-saved from automated processes to focus on more important tasks
• Eliminated unconscious bias to be more inclusive of all candidates
• And more

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Benefits of AI for Employers

Faster Hiring Process

Identifying, vetting, interviewing, and hiring candidates is a common, time-consuming challenge. It often takes companies an average of 44 days to hire.³ Leveraging AI for hiring can help companies speed up every step of the hiring process. 

Below are some ways AI helps create a faster hiring process:

• Instead of having your HR team spend hours manually reviewing resumes, companies can leverage AI-assisted review systems to check resumes for target keywords and phrases in just seconds.⁴ Our recent LinkedIn poll found that finding talent is the top way companies use AI for recruiting.
• Employers can even take AI to the next level by asking for interview question recommendations tailored to their candidates’ specific skills and experiences.⁵
• Companies can also ask AI for onboarding recommendations to speed up training.⁵

Eliminate Bias

Unconscious bias can cause employers to unknowingly create job descriptions and other assets that aren’t inclusive to all candidates. AI for talent acquisition helps eliminate bias when finding candidates and developing job descriptions, and around 70% of recruiters agree AI will help remove bias in recruiting.⁶

Below are strategies to use AI to help eliminate bias:

• Promote fairness through unawareness. An experiment by Northeastern University found candidates find companies more trustworthy if their hiring algorithm is designed with “fairness through unawareness” in mind. They’re also more likely to apply to open jobs and have a positive view of the company.⁷
• To be more inclusive, employers can tell AI not to choose candidates based on gender, race, or age.⁴
• AI can help create unbiased job descriptions, whether reviewing your existing job descriptions and making adjustments as needed or giving you a starting point to work from for new job descriptions.

Automate Manual Tasks

Tedious and mundane recruiting tasks can consume a lot of an HR team’s time. AI can automate and complete once-manual recruiting tasks in seconds, freeing the HR team’s time for more meaningful tasks.

Below are examples of how AI can help automate manual recruiting tasks:

• Automatically post job descriptions online instead of manually sharing them to save time.
• Respond to basic candidate questions via chatbot or email. Almost 50% of people find not getting feedback the most frustrating part of applying for a new job.⁶ Using AI to provide feedback can help prevent candidates from having negative hiring experiences that could lead to online reviews that harm your company’s reputation.
• AI can help automate the tedious parts of the candidate communication process, such as scheduling interview times and sharing relevant information about your business through email or chatbots.⁵

Additionally, these are some more out-of-the-box ways AI can help create a more efficient hiring process⁵:

• Quickly research your competitors’ hiring strategies
• Generate data-driven reports on new hire performance
• Forecast future growth and hiring needs
• Predict candidate success in their roles
• And more 
  
  

Benefits of AI for Candidates

AI for hiring also has benefits for the candidate. Ninety-five percent of HR professionals think AI could help with the candidate application process.⁶

Below are a few examples of how AI recruiting tools can benefit job applicants:

• Understanding what keywords employers look for on resumes can help candidates better know if they’re a good fit. Employers just need to watch out for candidates who try to cheat the system by including target keywords irrelevant to their experience and skills.
• AI speeding up the hiring process means candidates know within days if they got the job versus waiting weeks.
• AI eliminating bias from the recruiting process can attract more applicants to the open positions and help them feel more accepted.
• AI chatbots and emails paired with human interaction can help candidates get answers faster and stay in the loop during the hiring process.
• For candidates looking to switch career paths, AI can help them identify transferable skills on their resume and recommend alternative jobs.⁸
  

Best Practices to Follow When Using AI for Recruiting

When using AI for recruiting purposes, you should always follow these best practices to stay compliant and human:

1. Anything AI helps create should always go through a layer of human touch. AI isn’t always accurate, so you want to have a human review it for any necessary changes and to add human emotion.⁴ Ultimately, you should view AI as an assistant, not a replacement for humans.⁵ 
2. Address candidates’ privacy concerns. Be transparent about how you’re using candidates’ data and how your company uses AI in the hiring process. Also, stay current on the latest data privacy rules for AI to ensure you’re compliant.⁵
3. Train your team. AI is constantly changing and evolving, so you need to stay up to date. Regularly train your team on AI best practices and recommend educational courses and resources for staff to review.⁵

Ready to Get Started with AI for Recruiting?

AI for recruiting can help create a more efficient hiring process for everyone involved. It can help employers speed up hiring, eliminate bias, and automate tasks. It can also help candidates find jobs faster, have a better hiring experience, and identify transferable skills. Just make sure to follow AI best practices, including always having a human touch, addressing privacy concerns, and regularly training your team.

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Sources

1. https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/talent-acquisition/how-ai-will-change-hiring 

2. https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/technology/report-recommends-transparency-using-ai-hiring

3. https://www.shrm.org/executive-network/insights/transform-culture-page-website

4. https://communicationmgmt.usc.edu/blog/ai-in-hr-how-artificial-intelligence-is-changing-hiring

5. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhenkin/2023/10/23/transforming-talent-acquisition-with-ai/ 

6. https://www.tidio.com/blog/ai-recruitment/

7. https://news.northeastern.edu/2024/07/16/ai-hiring-blind-algorithms/

8. https://www.businessinsider.com/artificial-intelligence-hr-hiring-recruitment-benefits-2023-12