Artificial Intelligence Imperfections: Why Human Touch Matters in Recruiting

Like many other industries, Recruiting has adopted a number of automated processes over the last few of years to ensure the hiring process is efficient as possible for candidates, hiring organizations, and staffing agencies alike. Particularly with the utilization of Applicant Tracking Systems (“ATS”) some automation, through the use of tools, has become standard for use throughout the entirety of the recruiting process.

Some in the industry take this a step further, using Artificial Intelligence-based systems to ‘fully automate’ the recruiting process and narrowing the number of resumes and applicant profiles for recruiters to review. However, at QED National the process maintains its ‘human touch’ to ensure quality assurance and to not mistakenly pass on qualified candidates who often times would be eliminated from consideration by A.I. due to minor typos and/or formatting issues in candidate resumes.

“While there are definitely certain benefits in using A.I. for the recruiting process,” says Jessica Gary, QED National’s Director of Recruiting, “It’s imperative that we keep our team members actively involved in the review of resumes and in speaking with candidates to gain a better sense of whether they are the right match for given positions.”

With A.I. being trained to look for certain keywords and formatting to evaluate candidate qualifications, mistakes happen more often than anticipated. Members of QED National’s recruiting team always review job requirements and candidate resumes before speaking with applicants. This provides significantly less ‘false starts’ for the firm by eliminating unqualified resources. Speaking with candidates also gives recruiters a chance to evaluate the candidate’s skillset, and highlight the most relevant experience in their resume if not already prevalent. This thorough process ensures each qualified candidate has a fair chance of being selected if they are properly qualified and compatible with the role. Particularly in a competitive job market for IT candidates, if solely reliant on A.I. systems, even the most qualified candidates may easily be eliminated from consideration.

“By approaching the hiring process with real expert recruiters as part of the decision-making process,” Jessica Gary says, “We ensure to our clients that the best possible choice from the pool of qualified candidates will always be made available to them.”