Professionals looking for work are having a tougher time in today’s market: It’s taking longer to get hired or even recalled from the heady days of post-pandemic Big Resignations, while large employers are open about their desire to cut costs, even among previously isolated managers and executives.
But in a still-booming economy where consumers are going strong, companies can’t avoid hiring people to meet growing demand. And now Indeed, the largest job search site, is calling on artificial intelligence to make this job easier.
“It takes 50-plus days — you read that right, 50-plus days — on average, to fill a role,” Rajatish Mukherjee, executive vice president and head of Indeed’s employer-facing division, told reporters this week . , unveiling the company’s new offering that promises to use artificial intelligence for everything from filtering candidates for open jobs to writing awareness messages.
“Gone are the days of manually searching and scrolling through a list of candidates,” Mukherjee said.
The system, called “Smart Sourcing”, is designed to identify active job seekers (for example, by surfacing candidates who have recently updated their profiles and clicked on job adverts); provide potential matches for job postings, complete with an AI-generated list of highlights that demonstrate why a person is a good fit; draft awareness messages; and automate planning processes.
Employers can pay between $1,150 and $3,840 per year to use Smart Sourcing (the lower figure is for casual hires). In tests, Indeed said, employers save six hours a week with Smart Sourcing.
Mukherjee has seen the benefits firsthand, saying, “It took me 45 minutes to an hour to create a really good message for a potential candidate, because I really want them to respond.”
The technology couldn’t come at a better time, as recruiters – those same employees tasked with sourcing and hiring new employees to grow a company’s ranks – are themselves being cut at an alarming rate. Google, for example, cut hundreds of recruiting employees in multiple rounds of layoffs last year. Amazon has laid off many contract recruiters, and Meta’s 11,000 job cuts in 2022 have disproportionately affected its recruiting and business divisions. According to data, last year the company itself cut 2,200 workers CNN.
Indeed has a solution for job seekers too, offering an AI tool that will generate a seamless and engaging work history summary for candidates, while improving options to apply with just one click.
Already, 300 million job applicants on Indeed’s platform have agreed to be included in the Smart Sourcing artificial intelligence tool that will make them visible to companies, Indeed said.
Of course, how well it actually works is yet to be seen.
Mukherjee said the tool has the potential to reduce bias in hiring by focusing on candidates’ actual skills rather than factors such as the presence or absence of a college degree, adding that Indeed has a team of “artificial intelligence responsible ” focused on removing bias from the process. . But extensive research has already revealed the potential of artificial intelligence to enhance human biases, rather than remove them. Some AI tools that focus on candidates’ body language or expressions may return nonsensical results that have little to do with actual job performance, while comprehensive screening tools may simply ignore qualified candidates altogether. BBC reported in February. The outlet cited examples of job seekers who were excluded after listing seemingly undesirable hobbies (softball instead of baseball) or entering a birth date that made them appear too old.
Some cities and states are moving to regulate AI in the hiring process: Illinois has allowed job seekers to opt out of tools that evaluate their biometrics, while New York requires employers to use AI-powered decision-making tools to ensure you are free of bias and enable potential hires. abandon by renunciation. But so far, consumer advocates say the laws are weak and poorly enforced.