Automation in recruiting has been a goal for years. In today’s fast-paced and competitive job market, time is money. Whatever you can do to speed things up will give your company a competitive edge. But automation in recruiting communication has often been impersonal and clunky – that all changes with Artificial Intelligence (AI) We’ve already discussed in a previous blog how AI is changing recruiting. One company was a very early adopter: Humanly. They have been at the forefront of the AI hiring revolution, and have been using conversational AI to hire more efficiently since 2018. 

Humanly uses AI to create advanced conversations that allow employers to hire at an unprecedented scale. “We’re really excited about how employers can use Humanly for high volume recruiting,” says Bianca Nieves, Head of Demand Generation at Humanly. “If you’re trying to hire many people at once, we can save so much time. We like to think of it as making the recruiter “superhuman.” 

Here’s an example of how it works:  Let’s say an employer is looking to hire multiple positions for content writing. Traditionally, the listings would be posted on multiple job board platforms. Interested candidates would click the listing, then follow instructions and fill out an application and send in their resume. Then a recruiter would have to review each for some basic info before reaching back out to a party. Then they’d have to wait for the candidate to respond. With Humanly, the interested candidate would see a QR code and scan it. This would start an immediate conversation with a sophisticated chatbot that would take care of all the preliminary information – confirming that the candidate has the appropriate work authorizations, qualifications, etc. Instead of days, the candidate can be put in touch with the recruiter for a conversation within 30 minutes.

Feedback from candidates has been overwhelmingly positive. People love the intuitiveness of the feature, and the fact that they don’t need to download another app. They can apply for a job on THEIR time and get an instant response, rather than doing a 20-step application process and then waiting for days for a response from a recruiter. And the results for both employers and candidates show it works: one employer hiring for caregivers for elderly patients found their conversion to hire rate jum from from 1.7 % using traditional job boards like Indeed to 3.5% conversion to hire rate with Humanly. The hires were more qualified and a better fit as well.

Besides speed, conversational AI offers other benefits, such as removing bias from questions and job descriptions. Humanly is also rolling out new AI voice tools. These can also analyze hundreds of job interviews with recruiters to see if recruiters are spending more time or less time with specific genders or age groups of candidates so employers can improve their unconscious bias in hiring.  

Humanly has been recognized as an innovator in the recruiting tech space, and was recently recognized by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). They have been accepted into the SHRM Workplace Tech Accelerator Program. The accelerator, hosted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), is designed to support HR technology startups and empower them to create innovative solutions for the human resources industry. Humanly’s use of AI definitely fits the bill as far as innovative solutions. 

It’s clear all employers need to start embracing AI – Humanly was just ahead of the pack when they launched their platform back in 2018, and continue to refine it. People need to understand that it’s just a tool for people, not a replacement. 

“We’re just at the beginning of AI’s potential,” says Nieves. “We know many people are worried about AI taking jobs, but we will always need the human element.”