How AI is changing recruitment and retention in 2022

Moreover, a recent survey from CIPD, reveals the top benefits of using recruitment technology are increased accessibility, improved candidate experience, and speed.

Needless to say, there’s significant value in using AI to find the right candidate fit in today’s competitive market. Likewise, there are many ways technology can be leveraged to retain current employees and create a positive working environment. Today’s automated tools can now source candidates, administer assessments, schedule interviews and help employees avoid burnout.

With the global human resource technology market projected to grow from $24.04 billion in 2021 to $35.68 billion in 2028, companies that don’t embrace AI recruitment tools in the near-future, are likely to lose out to the competition.

Let’s take a closer look at how AI is changing recruitment and retention in 2022:

Predicting talent needs

AI can help recruiters and HR departments prioritise their hiring needs by analysing company data around skillsets and current vacancies.

For example, talent management software company, iCIMS, uses a AI as part of its recruiting analytics product to learn from employer and job-seeker activity. The tool analyses data from more than 4,000 customers and hundreds of millions of data points across job openings, applications and hires to provide companies with detailed insights into their talent gaps.

AI-powered systems like iCIMS provide HR departments with information quickly and effectively and provide insights into trends that may not be immediately obvious. When used in combination with machine learning, these recruitment tools can continually ‘learn’, and adapt to provide more accurate insights through time.

Recruiting from more diverse talent pools

Hays’ Diversity and Inclusion Report 2020 reveals that 61% of employees would consider only applying to a company with a public commitment to diversity and inclusion. In the current climate, it’s important that companies foster inclusive cultures to broaden their tech talent pool and inspire talent of all ages and genders in order to cope with the increased demand for tech skills.

Smart tools, such as Equality Boost, use a unique blend of data science that enables recruiters to pinpoint when, where and how to reach talent by demographic, location and interest. Equality Boost uses display advertising to attract both passive and active tech candidates, increasing application numbers and showcasing company brands in an authentic way.

The tool monitors campaign performance with real-time data and insights, and measures its success to improve campaigns over time.

Prioritising skills over background

Skills-based hiring focuses on a candidate’s skills rather than their qualifications or industry experience. Traditional hiring processes often overlook a candidate’s talent by focusing too heavily on their background and how they perform in face-to-face interviews.

Adopting skills-based assessments can help hiring managers reduce time-to-hire, fill roles quicker and improve diversity. They help remove bias in the recruitment process by focusing on potential rather than face-to-face first impressions.

AI software like CWJobs’ Instant Candidate Recommendation tool can suggest highly relevant and active candidates based on their skills and match to the role. The technology, which has been designed by a global team of data scientists, uses real recruiter data to match candidate skills to roles. The tool has a very high conversation rate with 94% of monthly invites sent resulting in visits to job advertisements.

Tackling gender bias

A study from our sister site Totaljobs analysed 76,929 job adverts to assess the frequency of gender-coded words in UK recruitment. The study found that of these job ads, 478,175 words carried gender bias, which is an average of 6 male-coded or female-coded words per ad.

Unconscious bias is inherent in being human. However, it can lead recruiters to make hiring decisions based on factors other than ability. It’s also part of the reason that many companies are struggling to recruit from diverse talent pools.

Tools like the Gender Bias Decoder from Total Jobs uses AI to help recruiters identify gendered words in job descriptions and emails. The insights can be used to make adjustments to recruitment materials to ensure that gender-neutral language is used.

Improving employee engagement

AI-based engagement tools can help companies better connect with candidates and employees alike. Through data collection and analysis, AI-powered chatbots can identify trends in the needs expressed by employees, and address the most common issues expressed by potential candidates and new hires.

For example, retail consulting firm, RetailCo streamlined its recruitment process in just five weeks by using an AI-powered chatbot. By asking candidates five carefully-designed questions, the chatbot helped reduce the company’s time-to-recruit by half, while reporting an 89% candidate satisfaction rate, and a 99% question completion rate.

Likewise, conversational artificial intelligence tools such as Mya can help increase applications by 50% by providing jobseekers with an interactive experience that guides them to the right opportunities in the most efficient way possible.

The technology draws conclusions from talking to candidates and then suggests suitable jobs via text message, WhatsApp, or onsite chat. As the platform learns, both candidates and businesses benefit from improved matching and a higher quality of relevant candidates.

AI-powered internal survey assessment tools like Qualtrics Employee XM, provides feedback on how employees are feeling, and can identify the early stages of burnout, enabling companies to take action.

Similarly, AI software offered by companies like Tribal Habits can be used to better understand the training needs across an organisation and create internal upskilling opportunities.