Technology, especially, artificial intelligence — is changing and simplifying the way companies screen, hire and manage employees.
From identification of potential candidates based on social activity to automation of recruitment to personalised onboarding and career mapping, AI has the potential to transform human resource functions, says Rajiv Jayaraman, co-founder, Knolskape, an HR tech startup.
Hyderabad-based Darwinbox, founded in 2015 by Chaitanya Peddi, Jayant Paleti, and Rohit Chennamaneni, uses AI to match and rank CVs based on the role as well as predict attrition rates.
“Cost saving, increased productivity, better talent acquisition and higher talent retention have resulted in 40% return on investment for our clients,”
says Peddi.
For hiring managers, sifting through piles of CVs to find qualified candidates is one of the hardest tasks as the number of resumes received is usually a lot more than the positions available.
How does AI help in hiring the right candidate?
- Algorithms are written to emulate human behaviour. For instance, Darwinbox’s algorithm can be tuned to assign weightage to various criteria like education in IIT/IIM, work experience at a large MNC, and pick only resumes where the match is over 90%.
- An automated process gives candidates have a better chance. Since the resumes are scanned by a machine, it can intelligently identify and “redirect” those who are suited for other roles. Every time there is an opening, the recruiter can select from the database of CVs, which means older resumes get a second chance. Often candidates simply drop their CVs even when there is no opening.
- AI also aids background verification of employees, a difficult proposition when it comes to blue-collar workers. BetterPlace, founded in Bengaluru in 2015, does background verification, financial management, onboarding and skilling of blue-collared workers.
- Hiring teams are actively looking for more women to balance gender ratios. To expand the pool of women employees, companies use Belong’s algorithm to find candidates based on public data.
- Another area within HR that has seen an uptick is skilling. Bengaluru-based Knolskape uses AI to understand learner profiles and assess leadership skills. Its video-based platform creates situations for employees to tackle. An AI layer picks up insights based on 15 parameters, including choice of words and tone of voice. As the employee plays the game, responses are recorded to judge aspects like leadership style and used to train professionals for different roles.
- Analytics and AI can be used to predict attrition too — as Darwinbox is doing with multiple pilots for clients.
“For instance, it is typically those who are planning to quit who visit the page that has details on exit procedure. Typically, they do this two weeks before they put in their papers. Just tracking the number of hits the page gets and who visits the page can help correlate it with attrition,”
says Peddi.
Investors are also in favour of using artificial intelligence to hasten the hiring process.
“When you are hiring in thousands, a talent map can offer a lot more predictability. With enough data, it is much easier for machines to do it. We are excited about the space,”
says Karthik Reddy, managing partners at Blume Ventures.
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