Using AI + Executive Search as Part of Your Talent Acquisition Strategy

AI is a valuable tool for organizations, and companies that are not at least exploring how AI-driven tools can help them build efficient and effect talent acquisition strategies will fall behind quickly. In fact, in its State of Generative AI in the Enterprise Quarter Two Report, Deloitte found that of participating organizations, 75% expected the technology to affect talent strategies within two years.

But maintaining the human element in recruiting high-performance talent remains key, and relying too heavily on AI can ultimately result in more work for your team and potentially alienate top talent.

Here are three reasons to consider incorporating AI into your recruitment processes – and how organizations can balance AI with human expertise, like an executive search partner, to achieve success:

• AI helps drive efficiency and competitiveness
  Unlike people, AI tools can manage huge amounts of data quickly and efficiently – from building candidate lists to scanning and sorting resumes based on required skills and experience, AI can drive efficiency throughout the candidate identification phase of a search. In fact, AI-driven screening can be up to 10 times faster than traditional methods, allowing recruiting teams to stay competitive in a fast-paced market. However, human oversight is still needed to ensure that qualitative factors – like behaviours, motivators, and emotional intelligence – aren’t overlooked, and that “out of the box” candidates or high-performers who may be a great fit (just not on paper) aren’t weeded out.

• AI can help mitigate unconscious bias
  The Oxford English Dictionary defines unconscious bias as: “unconscious favouritism towards or prejudice against people of a particular race, gender, or group that influences one’s actions or perceptions.” With organizations prioritizing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEI&B) in their talent acquisition strategies, leveraging AI to help mitigate unconscious bias is a quick win. Not only can AI-driven tools quickly remove identifying and non-relevant demographic information from resumes, they can also support equity in the interview process by helping hiring teams develop standardized question sets and role-specific evaluation criteria that can be used for all candidates.

• AI can support (but shouldn’t own) candidate management
  Tools like chatbots, virtual assistants and automated email communications can support and streamline candidate management (e.g., helping to schedule interviews, reminding candidates about key dates and milestones in the interview process), but this is one area where a human touch remains vital. Companies that rely too heavily on AI for candidate management risk making candidates feel more like commodities than valuable future team members. Your approach to candidate management should also reflect your culture – if you’ve got a people-focused culture, be sure you’re taking a people-focused approach during the recruitment process!

Waterstone Human Capital is helping clients find the balance between human and AI as part of the recruitment process– leveraging AI tools to support the talent acquisition process, while delivering hands-on expertise in hiring top, high-performance talent. Talk to us today about how we can help your organization hire better leaders, build better cultures, and drive better results.