Intelligent Automation in Talent Acquisition

Organizations looking to optimize their recruitment function through use of digital technologies often get to hear terms like Intelligent Automation (IA) or Smart Automation (SA) from marketing honchos and are promised the world through leverage of these technologies. However, most of the leaders are no wiser after hearing these market pitches and some of them even waste millions of dollars in implementing these technologies without low or no success.

The issue lies in the limited understanding of these terms, what does they entail and what should be the nature of use and implementation which can result in ultimate success of these automation initiatives. Intelligent or smart automation can be considered as a set of new and emerging technologies such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning. These different set of related technologies combine to achieve IA. IA can be leveraged across different parts of the recruitment function to automate transactional tasks and improve candidate and hiring manager experience. While the benefits offered by IA are humongous, it is important to understand how IA works to implement it effectively and achieve the intended benefits.

The first technology in the IA set includes RPA which is a software code that automates transactional tasks such as copying data between ATS and HCM software, accessing emails and documents, etc. These are basically rule based tasks which require no judgement. Other technology which deeply enhances the practicality of IA technology set is NLP which enables task such as resume screening, developing job descriptions, etc. Another related technology includes cognitive agents which are generally customer facing bots which can interact with candidates and hiring managers and keep stakeholders engaged through out the recruitment process.

While the technologies discussed till now can certainly improve recruitment operations and experience, one key component of the IA tool set is machine learning which can be categorized as the brain with the ability to learn from past data and improve the output in future iterations. Machine learning has found great use in predictive analytics in recruitment to successfully identify candidate characteristics which makes them a good fit in the organization. Last but not the least is the smart workflow tool which enables the orchestration of these IA technologies amongst themselves as well as the human agents. It basically shifts the process flow to the different agents (whether robotic or human) involved in carrying out a particular process.

While all the technologies discussed above can work independently as well and can help recruitment function achieve optimal operations, one example which illustrates the disruptive nature of the complete set of IA technologies is as follows – Imagine the leverage of a machine learning platform to run advanced analytics by feeding in data through NLP and sharing the insights with the relevant HR leaders to take decision on that pending candidate hiring and propelling the recruitment machinery into motion in real-time based on the underlying decision.