MAKING AI A REALITY

I have been in recruitment and HR for many years and have been a champion of how technology can improve, shape and ultimately change the way we deliver these services. Depending on who you believe or the day of the week, the mood of the commentariat suggests that HR/Recruitment is either at the cutting edge of the ‘so called 4th industrial revolution’ or will be obsolete by the following Weds.

There is nothing worse than another slick tech salesman (and they are usually men) evangelising about the benefits of some obscure technology that in reality is the new look fashion for the old Emperor. In reality, the time taken to implement or will cost more than the tiny gains you might make. Awash with budgets, this might be great window dressing but does it affect your managers, you or more importantly the bottom line? Will the FD laugh it out of court?

It is rare, that a product really does truly impact and has the ability to disrupt. LinkedIn managed it 10 years ago and in years previous to that ATS products reshaped the whole world for In House recruitment and gave resourcing the opportunity to rise above the transactional.

Perhaps my experience (you may say cynicism) means I am cautious about claims and hype within our industry about technology as in reality disruptive technology has to be easily adopted, intuitive and ultimately game changing (money). There are rare occasions when the opportunity arises and recently, the scales have truly lifted form my eyes…

Enter Pocket Recruiter – this very simple (to use) but of kit in very early trials has truly transformed our sourcing activity and outcomes.

In short – this piece of AI replaces the need for legions of resourcers understanding and creating complex Boolean searches, scouring job boards, social media, your ATS etc…This piece of technology does this quickly (Less than 10 minutes). So what?

The clever thing is it learns from your historical ATS data and ranks candidates to where these types have go to before in your process, in addition it will learn (quickly) based the feedback you give it. This machine is like the Alexa of recruitment – sure it doesn’t pick your favourite tunes, or do your kids’ homework but this is a time and money saving device like no other.

Clear example, I was given a mandate for 3 C Suite roles (All ￡150k plus). Of course the instruction was to contact those dinosaurs of recruitment, the search firms. These seem to have been immune to disruption probably because they can offer the personal touch, which frankly a lot of inhouse teams cant because of volume and scale. What this tool enables is for Recruiters to have time to do what we do best – engage personally with candidates, sell the opportunity, and being brand ambassadors.

What did I have to lose 3 roles, 30 minutes, the results speak for themselves

Results were astonishing – within 30 mins I had about 6 quality cvs for each role, of which now 6 are interviewing. The likelihood is that at least 1 if not 2 will get an offer. At this stage of the trial, we didn’t have the integration with the ATS and limited data.

Getting down to the nitty gritty what does this mean

1)     I will have saved well over ￡60k in search fees for these two roles alone

2)     The roles of my recruiters will be more meaningful and purposeful

3)     The ability to keep the team lean on an ongoing basis is almost certain

4)     Roles filled much quicker than any other method

2 out of the 3 the Finance Director can be happy about, the 4th operations save time and money. As a Recruitment Leader I have something truly transformational in my arsenal and we haven’t even properly started yet… this was just a trial.

Now the technology behind the product is very complex and clever, but the idea is simple, clear and easy to use. This is the beginning of a big transformation.

Thanks Pocket Recruiter.