Technophobic no longer, recruiters are embracing the potential of AI to positively impact their workflow.

Fairly or not, the recruiting industry is often branded as tech-averse. However, recent survey findings concerning the future of technology in HR are helping shed this negative stereotype, ushering in an era where TA becomes the poster child for early adoption.

According to Korn Ferry’s latest survey, 63 percent of TA professionals report AI having changed the way their organizations recruit. Not only that, but 87 percent say they’re excited about increasing their AI interaction in the future.

While these integrations are exciting sometimes it’s difficult to get past buzzwords to decipher the real concepts behind them.To gain a better understanding of the possibilities of tech when it comes to recruiting, we did the unpacking for you. Here are four main types of AI and automation technologies and how they’re being implemented in recruiting.

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence is the ability of a machine or computer program to simulate human capacities such as learning, problem-solving, planning, and perception.

AI for recruiting is the application of artificial intelligence in recruitment designed to automate or streamline some part of the workflow, especially repetitive, high-volume tasks.

Let’s get specific.

In recruiting, there are three subdomains of AI techniques being applied:

• Machine learning is a type of algorithm that has the ability to teach itself by analyzing data and automatically improving its solutions through experience. Machine learning is being used to automate sourcing and resume screening as well as analyze candidate fit during digitized interviews.

An example of an innovative organization using AI for their screening is Indigo, a leading retailer that receives more than 2200 applications every week. Using AI to automate manual resume screening, Indigo has been able to reduce their cost per hire by 71 percent, triple their qualified candidates, and improve recruiter efficiency by 3.7x.

• Natural language processing is the ability of a computer program to understand spoken or written human language. One major way natural language processing is being used in recruitment is through chatbots that provide answers to FAQs and feedback to candidates in real time.
  
• Sentiment analysis is the ability of a computer program to determine the subjective opinion, emotional state, or intended emotional effect of spoken or written word. Sentiment analysis is being used to improve job descriptions by suggesting alternative adjectives, for example.

Recruitment chatbot

A chatbot is defined as ‘a computer program designed to stimulate conversation with human users.’

Randstad found that 82 percent of job seekers believe the ideal recruiting interaction is a mix between innovative technology and personal, human connection. According to Allegis, with 66 percent of candidates comfortable interacting with a chatbot, the market seems ready for mainstream adoption.

In recruiting, chatbots are being used to ask candidates qualifying questions, answer FAQs, and even schedule an interview with a human recruiter. A major advantage of using a chatbot in recruiting is its ability to answer thousands of candidates’ questions simultaneously in real time. Information collected by the chatbot is then fed into an ATS or sent directly to a human recruiter for follow up.

Robotic Process Automation

Hand in hand with AI is automation, or more specifically, robotic process automation (RPA).

The Institute of Robotic Process Automation defines robotic process automation as the application of technology that allows employees to use computer software or a machine to capture and interpret existing applications for processing transactions, analyzing data, triggering automatic responses, and communicating with other systems.

RPA is being applied in recruiting in two main ways:

• Candidate outreach such as automated emails or texts to maintain speedy and consistent contact. This outreach can be scheduled as a DRIP campaign for passive candidates, for example.
  
• Interview scheduling is being automated by software that offer time slots when a recruiter is free that candidates can then select without a back-and-forth email, text, or telephone exchange.

Blockchain technology

While blockchain is still in the beta stages, it’s gaining more and more attention this year.

A blockchain is a system of record keeping using an open, distributed digital ledger that records transactions between two parties. Each transaction in the ledger is verified and then recorded permanently across a peer-to-peer network of users. One advantage of blockchain technology is its speed of use — everyone has access to the most up-to-date information regardless of how many people are using it.

For recruiting, the main application of blockchain technology so far is candidate background checks; for example, on their educational or work history. For blockchain technology to work as a tamper-proof record of candidate history, it’s crucial that a credible and reliable source verifies the data in each block. For educational institutions, this is pretty straightforward, but it becomes more ambiguous when it comes to work history.

Even with all this technology making the recruiting process smarter, it remains to be seen how these elements will ultimately affect the business of managing human capital.

Ji-A Min is the Head Data Scientist at Ideal, AI recruiting software that automates time-consuming tasks such as sourcing, screening, and messaging. She has a Master’s in Industrial­-Organizational Psychology and her interests include data-based recruitment, HR tech, and diversity. Find out more about Ideal in the SmartRecruiters marketplace here.

Excited about the potential of blockchain recruiting? You should be. But now let’s get down to brass tacks and harsh truths.

Blockchain—the decentralized ledger technology behind Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies—is positioned to flip the recruiting industry on its head.

For the uninitiated, blockchain technology promises a new reality where companies can confirm the authenticity of a job applicant’s credentials without having to contact former employers or pay for background checks.

Candidate information stored on a blockchain is both verified by the peer-to-peer network and immune to tampering—a game-changer in a world where up to 85 percent of job applicant resumes contain false information.

In other words, blockchain recruiting promises a lot. The question now is: When will it deliver?

Not anytime soon, if Gartner research is any indication. According to “Predicts 2018: Top Predictions in Blockchain Business” (available to Gartner clients), only 10 percent of enterprise businesses will achieve radical transformation with the use of blockchain technologies through 2022.

In fact, blockchain recruiting will not become a small and midsize business tool until at least 2025, due to factors such as limited resources and a lag in technology awareness compared to their larger brethren.

These predictions aren’t meant to rain on the blockchain parade, and they’re not meant to dissuade you from acting. On the contrary, recruiters that stand idly by and wait for this disruptive technology to reach their doorstep will not be ready to adopt when it’s time.

Here are three key obstacles recruiters should pay attention to before implementing blockchain recruiting in their business, along with tips on how to prepare today for this disruptive technology.

Obstacle #1: Government Entities and Academic Institutions Are Lagging

Think of each ‘link’ in a person’s blockchain-powered job application as a single event in that person’s career. When a person gets a promotion, it’s verified by their employer and added to their blockchain. Performance review? Add it to their blockchain.

That’s the beauty of this technology for recruiters: It’s a single source for verified candidate information. The problem is that there are significant chunks of important candidate information that don’t come from employers.

Take a candidate’s college degree(s) for example. Forward-thinkers like Australian University and MIT are currently experimenting with offering graduates digital diplomas powered by blockchain, but it will be a while before the rest of academia catches up:

Then there’s the government. From criminal records to social security numbers, recruiters still rely on government entities for background checks.

And, while the current administration is beginning to consider blockchain in the wake of the Equifax data leak, there are still more than a few regulatory roadblocks, between getting legislation passed and figuring out how to transfer old paper records, before identifiers such as birth certificates start going digital. Sadly, the United States isn’t as agile or forward-thinking as countries such as Estonia, which started adopting blockchain-powered ID cards for its citizens in 2002.

All that to say, it won’t matter how quickly the private sector jumps on the blockchain recruiting bandwagon if other important players in the hiring process lag behind. Until you can get the whole picture of a candidate through blockchain, you should wait to embrace this technology.

Obstacle #2: Legal and Security Concerns Still Exist

In theory, blockchain is an impenetrable record of data. Not only are all transactions on blockchain immutable and irreversible, but to be recorded in the first place, every computing device (or node) on a specific blockchain must agree to the transaction. Short of a nigh-impossible ’51 percent attack’ (where one party controls a majority of the nodes on a specific blockchain), any job candidate information on blockchain is hack-proof.

In practice, however, a number of costly incidents have proven that blockchain isn’t foolproof yet:

• In July 2017, a hacker exploited a flaw in the Ethereum blockchain network and made off with $31 million.
• In January 2018, the largest crypto hack in history on the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, Coincheck, resulted in a loss of $534 million.
• That nigh-impossible 51 percent attack? It already happened.

Compounding these security concerns are legal ones. What if candidate data logged on a blockchain is incorrect or infringes on someone’s rights? The irreversible nature of blockchain means courts can’t just go in and change the record. Giving legal bodies a skeleton key would also negate one of the key benefits of blockchain: decentralization.

Questions over who has jurisdiction in international transactions are also largely unanswered. If a network in Spain approves a blockchain transaction in the U.S., is it subject to GDPR, the new E.U. data privacy law? Most experts agree blockchain technology and the new law are at odds.

With highly sensitive applicant data on the line, these issues should be addressed before you consider switching recruiting processes over to blockchain.

Obstacle #3: Blockchain Technology Is Expensive

One of the primary reasons businesses are excited about blockchain is the possibility of greatly reducing or even eliminating transaction costs. That’s the main sell for how blockchain recruiting will achieve a positive ROI in the long run: Instead of paying $20 to $30 per candidate for a third-party background check provider, recruiters pay a fraction of that amount to gain access to a candidate’s data themselves.

In order for the numbers with blockchain recruiting to work out positively though, initial costs need to come down. It doesn’t matter if it’s an application purchased through an outside vendor or a proprietary tool built in-house. Simply put, SMBs don’t have the budget for blockchain implementations in their current state, when you consider these three sources of high cost:

3 High Costs Associated With Blockchain Applications

• Finding blockchain talent. Blockchain application developers are rare and expensive, demanding at least $150,000 a year.
• Powering blockchain transactions. Blockchain transactions require a ton of computational power to take place. Cryptocurrency miners currently face high costs largely because of this need.
• Storing blockchain data. Remember, blockchain transactions don’t disappear. As more and more candidate data is added onto a blockchain—even one with a ton of nodes that share the burden of storage—costs will soar.

As a result, 80 percent of blockchain applications done at the enterprise level through 2020 in an attempt to save money will fail to do so, according to Gartner’s Predicts 2018. In order for blockchain recruiting to become feasible for everyone, costs related to the creation and maintenance of these platforms need to fall dramatically.

How You Can Prepare for Blockchain Recruiting Today

Yes, it’ll be a while before blockchain recruiting becomes a tangible reality for your average business. That being said, here are steps you can take right now to prepare for blockchain recruiting:

• Learn more about what blockchain is, and what it isn’t. When companies can simply add the word “blockchain” to their name and see their stock price skyrocket, it’s safe to say there will be more than a handful of software vendors that claim to leverage the technology, but really don’t. Seek out resources and learn more about blockchain to avoid being duped: Gartner is a great source on this topic; so is MIT Technology Review.
• Find alternative solutions in the interim. Here’s an interesting stat: According to Gartner’s “Blockchain Primer for 2018” (available to Gartner clients), 85 percent of projects this year that have “blockchain” in their title will deliver business value without actually using a blockchain. These projects jump-started by the desire to implement blockchain will ultimately arrive at alternative solutions. Instead of waiting around for blockchain to come to fruition, consider a different approach to improve recruiting processes (e.g., switching background check providers).
• Talk to software vendors about their plans for blockchain. Talk with your recruiting software vendor to learn about their plans for blockchain implementations or partnering with other blockchain applications. Oh, and if you don’t have recruiting software, fix that. It’ll improve your organization today and suitably prepare it for the tech of tomorrow.

Want to learn more about how software and technology can improve recruiting processes and hiring outcomes? Check out more helpful articles on Software Advice.

As more individuals pivot into freelance and self-employed work, companies are rethinking how to attract and retain independent professionals.

Corner offices and pensions are no longer the end game for many working professionals, and—as usual—you can blame millennials. As of 2015, millennials are the dominant demographic of the American workforce, and the white collars of this up-and-coming generation have a new career priority in mind: independence. It’s the gig economy, but for professionals, and it could be the answer to the talent shortage currently squeezing the tech sector.

By 2020 it’s predicted that 27 million American will transition to self employment, nearly tripling the number from 2015. And it’s a mistake to think those numbers are coming mainly from entry-level task apps like Uber, Postmates, or Task Rabbit. In fact, task workers only account for 10 percent of the 15 million full-time independent workers in the US according to an annual report from the accounting service FreshBooks. The study, which surveyed 2700 full-time independents, found that 43 percent of individuals desire more control over their careers, with an additional 43 percent planning on completely switching their careers once self-employed.

As a result, the labor market is now experiencing a talent vacuum, and employers are desperately seeking to fill a record number of openings. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that employers posted 6.6 million available jobs in March 2018, up from 5.6 million the previous year. With 6.3 million people currently unemployed in the US, there is a now surplus of open positions in the job market, allowing more individuals to lead their own charge in the war for talent, and command a premium price for their services.

A 2017 report from MBO Partners identified 3.2 million full-time independents who made more than $100,000 annually, up 4.9 percent from previous years. As a whole, 43 percent of full-time independents said they earn more money working on their own and experience greater job security than traditional work. Top earners in the freelance sector include: programmers and software developers, web designers, content marketers, and graphic designers—and companies are paying top dollar for their work.

Though higher incomes and more stable careers are attractive byproducts of self-employment, many next wave workers value the emotional and psychological payoff of work more strongly than previous generations. Quickly becoming the “work to live” generation, 51 percent of millennials with traditional jobs say more flexibility is an advantage of becoming an independent worker or starting your own business, compared to 42 percent of Gen Xers and 40 percent of Baby Boomers. Meanwhile, 44 percent of millennials with traditional jobs say pursuing a passion or interest is an advantage of working independently, while only 32 percent of Gen Xers and Baby Boomers say it is a factor.

While new independent workers value the flexible and emotionally rewarding lifestyle that self-employment provides, the transition is not without its challenges, albeit ones that millennials are willing to embrace. Independent work often demands longer hours with less availability for time off, even extending the age of retirement beyond the traditional 65 cutoff. Yet, 62 percent of millennials surveyed don’t expect to stop work after age 65, and will continue working as a choice rather than a necessity.

Delaying retirement also seems to have an effect on workers’ overall career satisfaction. Employee satisfaction in a traditional job typically diminishes as the age gap increases, but the FreshBooks report shows that self-employment has an upward trend the longer independents keep working. Despite more time spent working, many self-employed workers report that they experience a better work life balance, better health, and higher incomes, with a vast majority (97 percent) of current independent professionals electing to stay self-employed rather than return to traditional work in the future.

TA professionals also seem to struggle with sourcing and hiring great talent for permanent positions, as a 2018 study from Upwork revealed that 39 percent of hiring managers felt hiring was harder in the past year, citing difficulty in accessing candidates with specialized talents as the biggest challenge. As new technological innovations in fields such as robotics, AI, and blockchain further disrupt the industry, training workers to stay abreast of new technologies will become a high priority for many companies.

In response, hiring managers are now tapping into the independent workforce to fill open positions on a contract basis. Gene Zaino, President and CEO of MBO Partners, highlights how an increasing number of companies are hiring more independent workers over permanent employees as a way to stay flexible and agile in the swift modern economy. “If you are in a very high-change environment,” he says, “making full-time commitments is a bigger decision than just paying someone to get a project done.”

Independent workers may also have a positive effect on team dynamics. Jeff Christofis, VP & Practice Lead of KellyConnect at Kelly Services sees an increase in employee satisfaction and productivity thanks to their remote hiring practices. “Embracing the remote work environment has proven to be a highly effective approach to not only attracting talent,” he says, “but allowing companies to achieve higher levels of productivity, and gain efficiencies while providing employees with greater work life balance.”

It’s no secret that respected and valued employees are prepared to deliver their best work, and independent workers are no different. More companies are realizing the need to become the “clients of choice” for freelancers, and that includes treating them as a more than replaceable and inexpensive labor tools. Including independent workers in the company culture or offering services that promote their growth and success—such as job boards with new opportunities, training programs to expand their skills, and networking events with employees—can be foundational in building strong relationships with freelance workers.

The independent professionals of the future workforce are poised to be some of the best educated and highest paid contract workers in the modern economy, and companies will soon need to adapt their hiring practices and team structures to accommodate them. This shift in the American workforce hails a profound change in the American dream: Rather than climbing the corporate ladder, the next wave of professionals want to be their own bosses.

Where technology and recruiting intersect, industry expert Lisa Hu sees room to rejig the status quo.

For most people, their daily interactions with Augmented Reality rarely extend beyond a few encounters with Pokémon Go players haplessly navigating crowded sidewalks and staring at their phone screens. However, according to John Hanke, CEO of Niantic, the creators of the popular mobile game, Augmented Reality will soon have widespread applications. For now, it is finding footing in the modern tech space.

“The potential for Augmented Reality is much bigger” he said to audiences at the GamesBeat Summit in California earlier this week, before he quoted Arthur C. Clarke’s adage, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Pushing the boundaries of technology requires testing, and for Hanke, the video game industry is the ideal space for experimentation, as gamers, Hanke claims, “are willing to put up with some glitches and imperfections in tech.”

For Lisa Hu, senior-vice president of Blippar, the front lines of the Augmented Reality proving ground are supermarket shopping aisles. To demonstrate, Hu launches her company’s new mobile app by aiming her phone camera at a bottle of Heinz ketchup.

The squishy receptacle of red goo springs to life: colorful animations, playful sound effects, pop-up recipe suggestions, all flitting in sequence across her roving screen. Her point being, that even the most unassuming – to say nothing of sickly delicious – everyday objects can trigger Augmented Reality interactions.

For the uninitiated, Augmented Reality (AR to the initiated) is a composite view of the real world and computer-generated visuals, sounds, or other information, brought to life on your device screen. 

First developed by the US Air Force in the early 90s, AR was designed to improve human performance in direct and remotely operated tasks. Now, companies like Anheuser-Busch and Fidelity Investments are experimenting with AR for consumer marketing and brand messaging. Given the relatively easy integration onto your smart device – a feat inconceivable in 90s consumer terms –  there’s been a resurgent interest in AR.

But is this trend-heavy fascination just another marketing ploy? Through applications like Blippar, consumers can pull interactive, custom digital content straight to their phones through the camera lens. While scanning objects in the grocery store aisles for hidden digital content seems like nothing more than marketing fodder, AR has proven to be hugely effective at engaging users. And by Lisa’s accounts, these interactions are genuine and insightful.

Sure, AR is ideal for targeting consumers in today’s digital age, but with much of the technology still unexplored, we may soon see AR play a role in areas as specific as talent acquisition and candidate experience. As it stands, AR has only just tapped into the commercial market, but Lisa, who spent the last five years working in the AR industry, sees great potential in recruiting alongside other promising tech like Artificial Intelligence.

From the candidate’s perspective, AR can connect them to businesses aligned with their career trajectories. “Companies can digitize brochures, advertisements; it can be anything,” says Lisa. “It’s a new way to learn about a company, and there’s value in that.”

For employers, AR offers the opportunity to engage with candidates, while also collecting valuable analytics about those with whom the tech interacts.

“We can track the journey of a candidate throughout different stages, from the interview process to hiring,” she explains. “You can create ongoing experiences throughout that journey for a candidate turned employee, and it can be dynamic.”

These experiences can be as simple as employee testimonials hidden in company literature, or, citing a recent example from Fidelity Investments, a ‘family tree’ composed of various company teams or departments, outlining their roles and functions to the overall business.

The biggest challenge facing Augmented Reality in the future? Misinformation.

“In the whole AR space there is a lot of noise,” says Lisa, breathing a sigh of slight disappointment. “You have all these different and great ideas being turned into products, but the problem is, there’s a bit too much conflicting information that might confuse people about what AR is.”

Lisa champions the notion that companies looking to implement AR must define their goal and purpose before implementation. Is your company targeting specific customers as part of a digital marketing strategy? Does AR allow your business to execute interactive campaigns with significant ‘wow’ factors? The answers to these questions will ultimately determine whether or not Augmented Reality can help your business.

Embracing AR as a means to achieve successful hires can be well worth the effort and financial investment. However, new technology does not guarantee business success without a clear sense of company brand and values. Even with new innovation, HR remains a ‘people’ business.

Companies that invest in AR without defining their business goals will not succeed, as technology only enhances existing strategies and structures; it does not create new ones.

“Technology can be one part of that,” she argues, “but what is it that’s going to make candidates feel a difference as to why they want to work at that company — Tech or no tech?”