The AI Applicant Tsunami: Why focusing on real human relationships will win out

A recent news article in the New York Times revealed how AI has entered the job market in a BIG way, bringing with it ‘AI sludge’.

“The number of applications submitted on LinkedIn has surged more than 45 percent in the past year. The platform is clocking an average of 11,000 applications per minute, and generative artificial intelligence tools are contributing to the deluge.” (Credit New York Times).

James Osborne, Chairman and Chief Growth Officer at The Recruitment Network explains: “With a single prompt, ChatGPT can craft a resume tailored precisely to any job listing, embedding all relevant keywords to bypass automated filters.”

And some job seekers have gone further, employing AI agents that autonomously search for and apply to jobs on their behalf.”

This has led to hiring managers being completely inundated with applications, many of these low quality, making it a huge task to wade through the applicants and identify qualified candidates.

What can hiring managers do to cut through the AI noise?

Of course, you can always fight AI with AI! There are tools available to help recruiters screen candidates, sifting out the fake CVs or automated applications. Meanwhile, there are chat bots that can:

• Pre-qualify candidates,
• Handle the repetitive queries,
• And escalate nuanced conversations to employees.

AI interviewing softwares are even emerging, which can analyse interviewees’ answers and ask automated follow-up questions with synthetic voice, in real time – designed to negate the need for a preliminary interview.

While these tools offer efficiency in hiring, freeing up team members from running interviews while providing more flexibility for the candidate – does this present the best view of a company to a potential new starter? Does it say, ‘we care’?

In this modern job market, candidates are also interviewing and evaluating employers – it’s up to both sides of the table to sell their ‘product’. While cutting down on person-to-person time in the hiring process is time efficient, to many candidates, this lack of human touchpoints along the recruitment funnel can act as a red flag for a company’s culture along with their commitment to the employee as an individual – meaning good candidates are often lost along the way.

The answer to boosting efficiency in the hiring process without losing the personal touch is through working with an experienced recruitment consultancy.

This partnership will vastly reduce the workload of a hiring manager; by taking on the laborious screening process, presenting only the candidates who meet your specific requirements, hiring managers will be enabled to best utilise their time interacting with only the qualified candidates.

Not only will a recruiter take over the time-intensive part of the hiring process for you; they also bring other benefits to the table. Their pool goes beyond the LinkedIn AI applications – a recruitment consultancy brings with it their wider advertising presence, extensive network reach and market-specific knowledge.

Authenticity in hiring

Never has being real in recruitment mattered more than now. With automation wreaking havoc, candidates who demonstrate authenticity and creativity will stand out from the bots. Applicants who use AI to keyword-match job descriptions often end up with identical CVs and applications!

And this authenticity goes both ways. While as a company you can use automated screening methods to sift out a lot of the AI noise, maintaining the personal touch, such as with:

• In-person interviews,
• Human-written emails
• And actual (non-AI) phone calls.

All of these methods help to screen and keep in touch with candidates while enabling the hiring company to stand out to candidates in a thriving job market.

This personal touch, in an increasingly automated world, ensures the candidate feels valued and respected – and enables the recruiter to place the absolute best-fit candidate for your company.

CMA’s Managing Director, Neil Phillips, says: “You can tell a lot through a CV but when you’re assessing a person’s fit for a workplace culture, it has to go beyond the keywords. That’s why, at CMA, we meet every candidate. Yes, AI can be helpful in the recruitment search, but it can never replace the importance of the human-to-human relationship in the hiring process.”

Meeting a candidate means that the recruiter can bring their insight to the screening table, and this can only be gained from meeting them person-to-person. Experienced consultants are able to assess the skills and cultural fit of candidates, using the secret ingredient of humanity, all of which helps businesses find the right person for their team.

At CMA, our focus is on meeting candidates in person, so we can cut through a lot of the AI noise for you. If you’d like to discuss how we blend efficiency with the personal touch, get in touch with our team today.