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Hiring Top Talent: Ways AI and Blockchain are Changing the Staffing Game

Blog
May
24

Ask anyone, and they will agree we are in the midst of a digital revolution. Never before in history has technology evolved so quickly as it is doing right now. So, if organizations, corporations and businesses want to stay ahead of the competition, they must keep up with the latest tech and digital tools. Two of the most promising ones are artificial intelligence and blockchain technology. There is one industry that is utilizing both in productive and effective ways – the job staffing and recruiting sector.

A once sluggish process, finding talented workers has now become far less cumbersome, thanks to the use blockchain and artificial intelligence. If you are wondering how the top staffing and recruiting agencies are using these tools, keep reading to get some fascinating insights. Remember, both technologies are not limited to job agencies. The implications for their use continue to grow and spread into many other industries, organizations and places.

All About AI

Applying artificial intelligence or AI for recruiting is not as complicated as it sounds. In fact, it is simply using the problem solving and learning capabilities of a computer in the recruiting and staffing process. Computers can automate specific parts of the recruiting process. Imagine being able to assign your

This new technology is designed to streamline or automate some part of the recruiting workflow, especially repetitive, high-volume tasks. Software can apply machine learning to filter potentially-biased language from cover letters and resumes to auto-screen potential hires. The use of AI software can benefit your recruitment firm because it:

  • Saves Time, Effort and Money: As your recruiting agency grows, your staffing team doesn’t have to with AI. Artificial intelligence allows staffing firms to do more with far less by automating those high-volume processes, such as scheduling interviews and screening resumes.
  • Enables Higher Quality Job Matches: With AI, you’ll be able to quickly match candidates with clients, reducing the all-important time-to-hire cycle. This way, you’ll be able to grab the top talent before your competitors. Artificial intelligence software can quickly and efficiently sort through HR data and use it to standardize matches between your applicant’s education, experience and skills with jobs.

So, how do you adopt AI for your staffing firm? Experts advise taking incremental steps instead of rebuilding your entire infrastructure from the ground up. Start with software that will allow you to automate your most repetitive tasks in your daily workflow and go from there.

Although AI will have a big impact on the recruitment industry, humans will still be an important factor. Client-candidate relationships still require the human touch of a recruiter to link them up. Recruiters will simply have better tools.

Interestingly, large platforms, like Facebook and Google are exploring artificial intelligence for future strategies. Google presented their Cloud Jobs API late in 2016, which enables developers to integrate third party applications with machine learning functionalities. An intuitive job search platform, the Cloud Job API features advanced location mapping, search with acronym and synonym expansion, dynamic recommendations and real-time query broadening.

Artificial intelligence in the staffing and recruitment industry is not only here to stay; it will continue to evolve, becoming an invaluable tool for recruitment agencies and staffing firms.

A Bit on Blockchains

The blockchain is a programmable digital roadmap of actions that can record everything that is relevant or informational. A distributable database, a blockchain can serve as a sort of digital spreadsheet you can duplicate along a network of computers. To understand the blockchain, imagine being able to design this network to update regularly in a shareable database.

So, what’s the big deal with blockchains? They offer a host of benefits beyond the traditional computer network, such as:

  • Transparency: You don’t store a blockchain database in a specific location. Instead, millions of computers can host it simultaneously, so the public, meaning anyone on the internet, can access the data it holds.
  • Hack Proof: There is no specific place that the data lives for hackers to crack open. The network of a blockchain exists it a place of consensus, self-auditing by checking in once every 10 minutes. Each instance of these “check-ins” is a block; hence the name, “blockchain.” Changing even the smallest part of this blockchain would take an enormous amount of computer power to take over an entire network.

You may be wondering what blockchains have to do with human resources and staffing, but the ramifications are important and only growing with time. Blockchain usage is key in the recruitment industry because you can use it for the following:

  • Educational Verification: This is one key example of blockchain adoption. Fraudulent claims of education could be a thing of the past, especially in the outsourcing world. Many institutes of higher learning are creating blockchain databases for their students. The issuing facility will provide them, so they would be certifiable and hard to tamper with, making them easy to validate. This tool will save the time, money and effort of searching through candidate credentials.
  • Employment Timeline: Blockchains can gather data and then store it for firms that may need it someday. For example, a blockchain can track a person from one job to another; offering a quick, reputable way for them to provide their experience and skills to recruiters and HR personnel.
  • Privacy Concerns: Some people worry that following candidates long-term is a privacy violation. The potential to access an applicant’s confidential information without their permission is high. However, as trust in the blockchain grows, it will help recruiters and candidates ensure they have the proper training, work papers and other specific factors for hiring. Other key records include how long the applicant has worked a job, their wages and bonuses and set goals they have achieved for past employers.
  • Smart Contracts: We have smartphones, smart homes, so why not smart contracts? Blockchains can contain specific computer protocols to control the distribution of digital contracts for employees. They can impact benefits, wages, retirement packages and bonuses, for example.

The use of blockchain technology will grow, especially in the job staffing and recruiting industry, because it will reduce costs and increase productivity. This is a win-win for agencies, clients and candidates.

It is clear to see how artificial intelligence and blockchain usage will impact the job staffing industry. As both evolve, their value will only grow as HR professionals find more ways to use them to save time, money and effort while improving the quality of the candidates they provide for clients. The good news is, everyone is on a learning curve together, so there is time to adopt both technologies and learn more about them.