Paula’s story
I used to think I was pretty tech-savvy. I had my finger on the pulse when it came to the latest gadgets and trends, and I took pride in the fact that I was always up-to-date. However, I was out of my depth when it came to the new wave of technology.
As the head of recruitment for a busy restaurant group, I knew that it was crucial that we found the best people for the job. Our businesses relied on our chefs and staff to deliver a fantastic customer experience, and it was up to me to ensure we found the people that could deliver.
New and shiny
To summarise, this all began when I was recruiting staff to help in my business. I had heard that according to Business Solution, 24% of businesses are already using AI to hire the best talent and thought this could be a viable option for me too. So naturally, I decided to give it a shot – little did I know that this would soon become “The Recruitment Blunder of 2021”! AI and Machine Learning were topics I vaguely knew about, and I hadn’t taken the time to understand them fully. Like many businesses, I was excited by the possibilities of these new tech tools, and we incorporated them into our processes.
Perfect system
At first, everything seemed all well and good. The automated recruitment software analysed candidates’ resumes quickly and provided me with relevant suggestions. As a result, the process seemed to be running much more efficiently than it had before.
I had so many things I could have done, but I was too content with the system that took care of everything for me. The resumes were looked over, and the candidates were chosen, yet here I am, thinking that there was nothing else to do!
… but is it really?
But as time passed, things started to take a turn for the worse. After weeks of recruiting, I began to notice that all the candidates we were being presented with were exactly the same – they had all been selected by the software based solely on their experience and qualifications.
Unfortunately, this meant that we were missing out on some great candidates who didn’t fit into the pre-set criteria set by our AI recruitment tool; prospective employees with unique backgrounds or excellent personalities who could bring something completely new to our team.
It soon dawned on me: I had made a huge mistake relying too heavily on automation when hiring staff. By using an AI tool, I had allowed technology to fully dictate who got shortlisted instead of using my own judgement. This had huge implications for our business as we were losing out on some superb potential employees.
The new approach
After this lesson, I vowed never to run into this problem again. To make sure that this wouldn’t happen in future hires, we decided to introduce Testlify into our recruiting process. Yes, this is an AI-powered platform. I know what you are thinking, however, it offers a different approach. We now have a library of question types that are designed to test for fit into our company instead of memorizing algorithms, so we are certain to find the best candidates for our business. We could create a role-specific assessment for the applicants to test their skills on the job rather than a simple selection based on experience and qualifications.
To ensure that our team was well-rounded going forward and we weren’t missing out on some incredible hires due to our automation software, we also decided to reach out to universities and target graduates directly – this gave us access to experienced individuals as well as new talent that may not have come up in our automated search criteria.
In addition, we also decided to recruit directly through social media platforms such as LinkedIn and even Twitter, as these allowed us to tap into a much larger pool of potential employees with diverse abilities and experiences. This provided us with what we needed – an extensive range of potential hires with unique backgrounds who could help drive our business forward in many ways!
My lesson
Ultimately, my AI recruitment blunder taught me a precious lesson: never underestimate the importance of using your own judgement when hiring staff. Automation is a handy tool (as proven). Still, it should always be accompanied by manual analysis in order for you to make sure you’re getting the best person for each job role you are looking to fill! That way, you can avoid getting left behind due to technology trends!
Today, we are in the middle of many fabulous technology trends. AI and automation are showing no signs of slowing down. The same goes for machine learning and big data. Especially when it comes to recruitment, these technologies can make the process faster and more efficient. However, just because things are moving quickly doesn’t mean that you should ignore traditional recruitment practices.
As a business owner, it’s your job to know what helps find the best talent for your team.