In every organisation  ‘recruitment’  plays a key process comprising the selection of candidates for jobs. It entails the following  7  key steps :  1.  Advertising the position with a clear requirement of skills and capabilities for the position ;  2.  Screening the resume of applicants ;  3.  Conducting preliminary phone interviews where required ;  4.  Conducting face to face interviews where required ;  5.  Making a preliminary assessment of applicants based on requirements and use of any predictive tool  ;  6.  Making reference checks where required ;  and  7.  Testing the candidates’  cultural fit and presenting an offer that is clear about compensation, responsibilities, support, and performance requirements.

           It generally has been a long drawn process involving time, effort, and money.

          With the ever-growing complexity of organisations and the ever increasing competition for improving productivity and profits, the organisations’  need for enhanced focus on saving time while finding the right fit for the right job is becoming  paramount.

          Also, the hard work and traditional skills component needs to be substituted by smart work and new skills, more so at the lower rungs of employee force.

          The chief benefit of Artificial Intelligence application lies in reducing the human burden and bias in the recruitment process by replacing some elements of the process with  ‘data analytics, machine language, and algorithms from AI’. While this is not the panacea for all the shortcomings of the traditional methods, it has proven effective in reducing the time taken by nearly 80% , affording more time for the managers to focus on Strategic and Growth oriented measures in organisations.

          Two examples merit attention here :  1.  The synergistic action of the Swedish robotic company,  “Furhat”,  with the Swedish recruitment company, TNG.  and  2.  PepsiCo’s  “Robot Vera”  that is already in use in Russia.

          1.  “Furhat”  developed a robot which can interview candidates, present job requirements, clarify  candidates’  queries, raise preliminary questions for the candidates’  answers, and assess their status for their progress to the next step in the selection process. The robot is christened the title :  “Tengai Unbiased”. Swedish developers have trained the robot with sets of huge and diverse combination of data for positions from several recruiters so as to avoid the risk of deterring factors likely to be grouped as liabilities. It, however, is not completely foolproof. It may lend itself to criticisms of human involvement (monitoring the robot is a human task);  regulatory oversight that is not yet clear;  and  avoiding discrimination/factors constituting  The Equality Act. Nevertheless, its potential to make the right framework for interviews as the right step in pursuing the course further is never in doubt.

          2.  PepsiCo uses a robot – “Robot Vera” – for interviewing applicants  for the selection of candidates for sales and logistics positions for its factory in Russia. The robot is developed by a Russian start-up,  “Stafory”. It can screen candidates through telephone interviews. About 1500 can be interviewed in 9 hours, reducing the human involvement significantly. The robot uses a speech recognition software for its calls to the candidates  for screening candidates’  CVs with right requirements and can make about 10000 phone calls simultaneously. It can  also answer questions for candidates for clarity. The software can assess if the candidate is really interested in the job and his/her suitability. Transcripts of the interview can be forwarded to the manager for making a decision regarding the next step.  

           PepsiCo used this software for its sales centre in Veronezh, a city in Western Russia, about 500 km south of Moscow and filled 250 vacancies. They sought the candidates’ responses to this introduction which fared highly with favorable Observations like ‘inspiring, interesting, great, novel, and thoughtful’.

   Candidates receiving job applications 1500.         Candidates expressing interest in jobs  400.

   Candidates approved by PepsiCo.              52.       Candidates hired by PepsiCo.                      15.

          PepsiCo concluded that Artificial  Intelligence for recruitment is as significant as human recruitment while taking 80 %  less time overall.

          Conclusion :  In the light of reports that two-thirds of existing jobs, specially at mid level employees space, will likely be replaced ;  recruitment of skilled staff will become a major hurdle in the hiring process because of Artificial Intelligence ;  inequality is likely to become a dangerous consequence in future  –  newfangled techniques and strategies in the recruitment process matching the skills required for productivity and profits of companies will be the major task of management of Companies in future. Artificial Intelligence will most likely emerge as a handy tool in attracting and retaining talent in organisations of the future.

   “Dieu avec nous”

   Saturday, November 30, 2019 –  11.19 a.m. (IST)

   Tidbit :  ” We can fly jetplanes;  Broadcast TV;  Make smartphones, autonomous vehicles, atomic Power ;  Explore planets ;  and Make computers imitate human brain ; but still we are not sure how to recruit, train, and orient our employees.”