Generative AI is rapidly transforming the world of work as we know it – and recruitment is no exception. We get it – the click-bait headlines claiming AI will replace human jobs can be pretty intimidating. But in reality, it’s nothing to fear. Whether you’re a seasoned ChatGPT user or just dipping your toe in the water, we’re sharing some of the ways that you can use generative AI in recruitment.
What is Generative AI?
Simply put, generative AI is a category of artificial intelligence (AI) in which computer algorithms are used to generate outputs that resemble human-created content – text, images, music, computer code or otherwise.
It’s based on machine learning processes inspired by the inner workings of the human brain, known as neural networks. Training the model involves feeding algorithms huge amounts of data, which serves as a foundation for the AI model to learn from. Once this has been collected, the AI model analyses the patterns and relationships within the data to understand the underlying rules governing the content. It then fine-tunes its parameters as it learns, improving its ability to simulate human-generated content.
… 50/50 as to whether that explanation makes it sound more or less intimidating!
Generative AI in Recruitment
And Steve Jobs was absolutely right.
If somebody said they could make your role as a recruiter less labour-intensive, more productive, and reduce the time you spent on a number of tasks that are critical to your role – what would you say? You’d bite their hand off.
Recruitment has long been a hotbed for new technology and tooling to help drive efficiencies and effectiveness in the hiring process. And this is where generative AI in recruitment comes into play.
With 65% of recruiters using AI in the recruitment process, it’s clear that the majority of folks in our profession are reaping the benefits already. AI will never entirely replace humans, but now is not the time to fear change and get left behind. Below, we share how you can start to utilise generative AI tools – predominantly the likes of ChatGPT and Bard – in your day-to-day role and empower your work as a recruiter.
1. Optimise Job Descriptions with AI Tools
First impressions really do count. And when you’re building out your team, getting the right people engaged and interested in working for your company is key. One of the main candidate touchpoints you’ll use when recruiting for a role is the job description.
It’s likely when speaking with a Hiring Manager or deciding on the requirements for the role, you’ll end up with a list of desired skills, experience and competencies. As a recruiter, it’s your job to then translate that into a job description that appeals to potential candidates.
Using ChatGPT or Bard, you can create job descriptions and refine existing ones to be more effective at attracting the right talent, eliminate bias and jargon, and attract a diverse group of candidates.
AI-assisted job descriptions are already baked into Linkedin as a product. You can learn more about how to use the functionality here.
2. Create Powerful Candidate Outreach Messages
Candidate outreach and nurture is a core part of your role as a recruiter and if you’re going to do a good job of it, you’ll know it takes time. Using ChatGPT or Bard, you can personalise your outreach sequences according to the role type you’re hiring for, identify new and unique ways to open up the conversation, test different ways to pitch your company, and adapt your writing style depending on the individual you’re reaching out to.
In addition, you’re likely using Linkedin as a way to reach out to potential talent. Data shows that LinkedIn InMails between 0 – 400 characters have a 22% higher than average response rate. Using Bard or ChatGPT, you can shorten your candidate outreach messages to this length, making them more succinct and in turn increasing your response rates and top-of-funnel sourcing conversions.
3. A/B Testing Candidate Outreach Messages
Continuous improvement across sourcing efforts is key to optimising your hiring funnel.
One way to do this is to find ways to A/B split test your approach to candidate outreach. There are multiple elements of candidate outreach that can be tested; from subject lines and opening sentences to using emojis, linking to employer branding collateral, or including on-demand access to your calendar.
You can utilise ChatGPT or Bard to brainstorm new ideas, ask it to come up with different ways of writing and adapt the tone of your messages. Testing these elements can help to improve the performance of outreach and increase your chances of engaging the right candidates for your company.
4. Expand Your Search for Qualified Talent
Looking for great tech talent can be like finding a needle in a haystack. The industry is constantly evolving with new technology, languages, and domains. As a result, it can be hard to keep up.
However, using generative AI in recruitment, you can ask for variations of job titles to help expand your search and consider a wider range of candidates with the right – or similar – skills and experiences.
For example, you might be tasked with hiring a .Net Developer. The below prompt in Bard shows you the many other titles that potential .Net Developer candidates could have and even provides context below the answer into the slightly varying different responsibilities across each. This allows you to make more considered and informed decisions when sourcing candidates for certain roles.
5. Create Boolean Strings for Sophisticated Sourcing
… Whilst we’re on the topic of sourcing! ChatGPT or Bard can be used to create Boolean strings to support faster and more accurate candidate sourcing. Whether you apply these to your search using existing tools or enter it into your ATS to see if qualified candidates are already in your talent pool – generative AI can speed up or serve to inspire the process of building out Boolean strings.
Generative AI in Recruitment Tip 💡 Scede Talent Partner Shay McIntosh shares “Creating Boolean strings is potentially the biggest weakness with AI at the moment. It can work, but it’s often repetitive. I’m quite methodical with building my own Boolean strings out so I have tested it – the version I wrote outperformed the version that Bard wrote, so I think there are still some yards to go in terms of developing this.”
6. Standardise Responses to Candidate FAQs
It’s very likely that you’ll answer the same questions from candidates multiple times a day – whether in a live interview or through email follow-ups. It’s important to not only be informative in your responses but ensure these are standardised across everyone to eliminate bias or varying information across your candidate pool.
Using ChatGPT, you can create standard responses to these frequently asked questions and build out a database for both yourself and your hiring managers to refer to. This reduces your need to come up with an answer every time, allowing you to communicate with candidates in a clear, effective and timely manner no matter what other tasks you’re balancing at the time.
It can also drive consistency in messaging – no matter who the interviewer is.
Want to go a step further? Using ChatGPT or Bard, you could turn these FAQs into a document or guide that’s shared with candidates ahead of their interview or as a follow-up. Big wins right there across both the candidate experience and engagement, as well as delivering efficiency in the hiring process.
7. Deepen your Knowledge and Understanding of Roles Quickly
As a recruiter, you might be stretched across a number of different role types. Whilst you might have hired a Data Scientist before, you could be thrown a Data Analyst role and want to quickly understand the key differences between the two before cracking on with your search or speaking with the hiring manager.
Using ChatGPT or Bard, you can discover the typical skills and competencies associated with different roles. Don’t be afraid to ask the tool questions just as you would a person to prompt deeper discovery. In doing so, you can receive instantaneous answers with detailed responses.
This doesn’t have to be limited to roles either. Whether it’s a new industry, tool, tech language or tech stack you want to gain greater knowledge in, generative AI can fast-track your access to this information. Doing so means that you can have more informed, accurate conversations with potential candidates and have meaningful, knowledgeable conversations with your hiring managers too.
Generative AI in Recruitment Tip 💡It’s best practice when asking generative AI for information or facts to double-check for accuracy. One way you can automate this when you submit your prompt to ChatGPT or Bard is to request the sources for the information that it shares. This way you can validate that this source is trustworthy and keep it on hand in case you need it in the future.
8. Amplify your Employer Brand
You don’t have to be a whizz of a marketer to help amplify your employer brand. Using generative AI tools, you can optimise content across your careers page, more effectively communicate the benefits of working for your company, and highlight compelling aspects of your employee value proposition (EVP). This can then be utilised across your company’s social media profiles, and even baked into articles that you ghost-write for your hiring managers using Bard or ChatGPT as a starting point or source of inspiration to do so.
Generative AI can also be used to quickly produce social media posts to promote new or priority roles, ensuring the role is effectively communicated in an engaging way that reflects your brand tone of voice.
This can help you to stand out against your competitors in a noisy space.
9. Amplify your Personal Brand
A professional and powerful personal brand can work wonders when it comes to improving your InMail response rate on Linkedin. It goes without saying that in order to build trust with candidates, your Linkedin profile should be up-to-date and engaging – but even more impactful is when you share a piece of your personality, illustrate that you’re knowledgeable in your space, and post valuable content.
Finding the time to do this as a recruiter, however, is tough.
But using generative AI tools, you can quickly brainstorm post ideas, input a perspective on a topic and have it transformed into a digestible format, and adapt the tone of your writing to make it more social and engaging. This allows you to build your personal brand on a more regular and consistent basis.
10. Summarising Notes, Proofreading and Adapting Tone
One of the big questions of our generation – do you write or type your notes?
Some people stick to a trusty pen and paper. Others rely on Apple’s “Notes” app or Evernote. If you’re the latter and take notes throughout your interviews or hiring manager meetings, generative AI can help to tidy these up and provide “TLDR” summaries for quick reference. This is particularly helpful for recording interview feedback, ensuring this is added to your ATS and accurately shared with candidates where relevant.
Another big advantage of generative AI is its ability to quickly check and correct the grammar, spelling, and tone of your content – whether it’s a job description or an email to your hiring manager. The tools can effectively detect and adapt tone according to your needs – for example, you might ask ChatGPT to make your message more empathetic, or persuasive – helping you to communicate more effectively and build stronger relationships.
Bard in particular also highlights the changes it has made so that you can take those learnings and bake them into your future communications.
Replace Recruiters? AI Don’t Think So!
Of course, using Generative AI in recruitment is not a magic bullet. It’s important to understand the limitations of tools such as ChatGPT and Bard, and to use these alongside your own human judgement.
Absolutely key in using these tools, is making sure your prompts are sophisticated and as detailed as possible. One formula is to outline the role of the person you want the tool to act as – i.e. the hat you want it to wear – the goal you’re trying to achieve, and the desired format and tone of the response. And also ask it to write in a non-AI way!
In short – there always needs to be an element of human direction, refinement, or logic applied when using generative AI tools. Nate Roadway, Talent Partner at Scede put it well in a recent “Fast and Curious” learning session internally; “I use it to enhance my own approach, process, and drive efficiency. We can continue to provide an exceptional service with a human touch, by integrating its learning and language skills with our own skills.”
Disclaimer: No AI was used in the making of this article. Aside from the below suggestion to make the article “humourous” … which we left out of the main article body for obvious reasons 👀
“What do you call a recruiter who uses AI? A robo-sourcer!” ….
If you’re a startup, scale-up or games studio looking to explore the use of Generative AI in Recruitment, don’t hesitate to get in touch. It’s a topic we’d be happy to share our initial learnings on.