AI to play a key role in hiring, but aspirants prefer human contact: Mint-Shine.com report
Use of AI-based tools can help reach more candidates, reduce bias, find a better match for specialized roles
Mumbai: Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) will play a key role in both recruitment and essential talent in India Inc. The use of AI based tools is getting popular in reaching out to a larger pool of candidates, reducing biases and finding a better match for the organization.
A Mint + Shine.com ‘Talent insights’ report, which studied responses from 291 job seekers and 215 companies, found that AI will play a significant role in getting the best candidate in competitive sectors.
Over half (53%) of the companies interviewed in the study believed that AI could play a “big role" in supporting recruiters’ jobs in the near future and 35.8% see “some role". However, just 8.4% said AI could completely replace recruiters, and 2.8% of the companies believed that AI won’t support recruiters in the near future.
Interestingly, insurance companies have turned out to be the early adopters of AI and chatbots in recruitment processes. Max Life Insurance Company is implementing AI and chatbots to streamline and automate key stages of recruitment process.
“We also leverage AI for the initial screening of candidate profiles. By utilizing AI algorithms, we can efficiently evaluate candidate profiles based on predefined skill sets and identify the most suitable talent for further consideration," said Shailesh Kumar Singh- senior director and chief people officer, Max Life Insurance Company Ltd.
However, expunging human intervention in candidate selection may not be preferred. On the respondents who saw only “some role" of AI in HR-related tasks, the study report said AI’s support for recruiters was acknowledged by companies, but they also consider “human involvement essential for nuanced judgment and relationship-building".
Meanwhile, around 58.1% of the candidates in the survey said they would want to interact with a human HR professional for initial job-related inquiries, and 38% would be okay with a mix of both human and AI. Only 3% would be okay with just AI.
In fact, the study highlighted that human programming introduces the potential for errors and biases. ‘Relying too heavily on AI without maintaining human interaction can lead to a feeling of disconnection in the work environment’.
Companies are coming up with AI driven tools to upskill their workforce. This comes at a time when hiring laterals is expensive and companies prefer to utilize existing workforce across roles.
Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance said its Learning Experience Platform (LXP) sends out nudges to employees on recommended learning journeys based on their skill sets, experience and choices through an AI driven engine.
“The HR and Tech team is also in processes of exploring to integrate ChatGPT with the Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance HR BOT...to give faster and more accurate response to complex employee queries on a lot of stuff including HR policies and processes," said Santanu Banerjee, chief human resources officer (CHRO) Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance.
Banerjee pointed out that in the insurance company last year, more than ten thousand skill-based assessments were implemented as part of their hiring process.
“We also went a step further by monitoring the early productivity levels of frontline managers and saw that the candidates who scored high on these assessments demonstrated a remarkable productivity level that is twice as high," said the CHRO.
Corporates also have to reinforce that while many roles and profiles will be substituted by AI based tools, there will be jobs created, for different skillsets.
“It’s a similar fear that was expressed earlier about Computers taking away the jobs or robots taking away the jobs. All these new tech tools have further unlocked and unleashed the human potential," said Amit Sharma- vice president, head - People and Culture, India, Volvo Group.
According to HR executives interviewed for the study, 25% of employers say that AI/ML has become a fundamental pillar in the tech industry. This is followed by sales skills (13%), data science skills (12%), and business management skills (8%) to get a competitive leverage.
Evaluating performance of candidates and recruitment were rated as ChatGPT’s greatest utility in HR-related tasks. Around 29.8% each of respondents picked the two options when asked about this. The other two options---support and maintenance, and onboarding got 22.3% and 18.1% votes each.
“If you see the larger picture, it’s important for us to recognize that AI is creating multiple new job opportunities and avenues enabling employees to focus on strategy while AI can handle daily routine tasks," said Akhil Gupta, chief executive officer at Shine.com.
