ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN HUMAN RESOURCES

Over the past two decades, the hospitality recruiting process has grown in complexity putting
tremendous pressure on human resource (HR) practitioners to find innovative ways to handle
the recruiting function. Traditionally, hospitality organizations relied on fairly low-tech
methods to attract capable employees. Such hiring practices have resulted over the years in
operational inefficiencies. The recruitment function plays a major role in enhancing
organizational survival and success in the extremely competitive business environment that
exists today. As a result, many organizations have realized the need to implement HR
information systems. Computer-based information technology has introduced a wide variety
of applications that are helping to improve the efficiency and the effectiveness of the HR
functions.

The introduction of these systems has made a strategic contribution to the hospitality
industry. Technology-based recruitment systems are becoming one of the most crucial
innovation in human resources. Recruiting systems aim to help the organization to save costs
by streamlining the hiring process. Recruiting systems are structured to improve the process
of hiring by quick screening, sorting, and storing resumes, and matching those resumes to
available job openings. Thus, managers are capable of finding the qualified candidates in a
quick and efficient manner. Traditionally, there was a direct exchange of the resumes via
posts, e-mail etc. followed by the manual screening which resulted in the wastage of time and
man power.

With the help of Artificial intelligence companies are nowadays using the advanced scanning
and filtering systems. These systems are based on the concept of optical character
recognition. Where it tries to match the resume details with the requirements. More advanced
scanning software enable recruiting staff to search for keywords, rank resumes based on the
number of matches. Once resumes are scanned, then data gets stored in the database for a
certain period of time.

Overall, the use of online applications and screening processes allows industry HR
practitioners to do their jobs better and with more accuracy. Although the resume scanning
systems grew in importance over the past decade but there is lack of academic research from
the resume.
One of the best achievement of AI is Chatbots. During the hiring process, there are a lot of
questions about the company which run in the minds of the new joiners and also the people
who give interviews in the company. It is difficult to get the answers of those questions from
any employee. But now with the help of AI there are chatbots which can help them in
answering their queries.

Talent acquisition is the area where the assistants can tap various data sources to develop a
profile of a candidate, schedule his interview, make decisions etc. Talla is a chatbot designed
to augment the HR processes that source job candidates. It can also provide a set of interview
questions based upon the role, and can even conduct a Net Promoter Score survey following
the recruiting process.

The purpose of artificial intelligence (AI) is making HR positions easier for recruitment,
personnel management, and retention. AI is streamlining the HR process and thus lowering
costs. AI would help the managers for optimal decision making in respect to selection
process, recruitment, job rotation, training, payment system, job classification, evaluation,
and the other personnel operations. AI is a great asset to narrow down the candidate pooling
through resume scanning. Once a resume is received by a scanner, a fax, or an e-mail, an
OCR device converts the scanned material into basic format. Once it is scanned, the system’s
artificial intelligence reads the text and extracts key data, such as name, address, education,
skills, qualifications, and experience. The computer then organizes this information into a
standard summary form dictated by the recruiter. After that, the system compares every
vacancy in the organization and notes the matches. If no match occurs, the information is
kept in the database until an appropriate opening occurs. The resume is kept in the system for
a defined amount of time which cuts back on resubmissions, and the time HR employees
spend rereading the same resume.

In addition, AI could be used to improve HR management by creating teams in the workplace

by pairing members who possess complementary skills and talents. Moreover, AI can also be
used to optimize the retention of HR. This can be utilized by HR management to determine
what their turnover rate is, and who is likely to leave the company because of the constraints
inserted into the AI program. Being able to target these individuals, and trying to raise their
overall happiness with the company, HR managers can lower their turnover rate, therefore
creating a stable work environment.
Furthermore, the AI program can also list common complaints and solutions to those
complaints, as well as possible outcomes of all solutions to the issues. There are many
advantages for using IT to recruit.

In today’s paced and competitive world educators need to be able to prepare students for
opportunities that may be far from where they can conveniently interview in a global
economy. As we know that in the current scenario there is shortage of jobs in countries like
USA, India, Russia etc. This indicates that companies need to find systems that can process
information and extract salient attributes from that information so they are able to respond to
the talent shortage as quickly as possible. Educators need to equip students with the skills to
be successful in a technologically influenced selection process. It creates more efficiencies,
but it is a less personal HR process.

The trend toward using scanning software seems indisputable, thus it is incumbent upon
educators to insure that our students are prepared to meet the challenges of applying for
career positions using the most up to date technologies. Knowing that their profile will be
scanned and reviewed using OCR technology means that they will have to imbed key words
from the position announcement in their documents to insure that the query system picks
them from the group of applicants. No longer will humans be looking at the CVs and perhaps
picking that “diamond in the rough” to interview.

The technology will choose from all the candidates and provide the recruiter a list of the ten
“most qualified” based on the information that the system is provided. This may seem sterile
and cold, but it is the future. To be competitive in the future, applicants must be able to
express their skills in methods that have not previously been typical. The world is changing
rapidly and hiring processes are being made on parameters that could not even be dreamt of
20 years ago. Artificial Intelligence is going to help us in the same way, it will allow us to
process candidate information more rapidly and produce short lists virtually without any
human oversight. This would lead to the fair opportunities for a more skilled and talented
candidate.

To meet the challenge, companies must rethink how they hire, train, and reward their
employees, placing those tasks at the heart of their business plans. In doing so, they have an
opportunity to address all these separate problems with a unified plan, rather than wasting
time and resources attacking each of the issues individually.
To assist with the war on talent, it is imperative that companies find ways to handle
applicants in quick and expert ways. Using technological HR applications, organizations will
be able to compete for talent on a global basis. No longer do the applicants have to physically
take their applications to the employer, there are opportunities online for the delivery of
application selection tools. Technology will allow those in search of talent to handle and
process applicant information in a phenomenally faster way. They can also establish certain
response mechanisms that generate communication parameters to applicants that save money.
Simple letter generated responses can cost up a decent amount, thus the savings in a large-
scale employment operation can be huge.

The use of technology does not come without a cost. This cost is not just the systems and
software cost. There is a human cost as well. This is where further research needs to be
performed. By moving the application process to a purely transactional model, do we lose the
analytical touch that a human review could perform?

For example, let us assume that we are searching for a hostel manager or warden for our
Devadan hostel. In our specifications that we provide our scanning system and AI query, it is
said that a college degree is required. A resume comes through of an individual with 15 years
of experience in managing other hostels. In addition, the individual is fluent in Kannada,
Hindi and Malayalam. However, the individual does not have a college degree. Using the
scanning system this resume would never see the recruiter. Had the recruiter seen the
physical resume, it is very likely that the candidate would not receive a telephone interview.

As we move forward, the loss of human oversight of such an important function could be
detrimental. Researchers need to take a look at this issue; especially in the light of the fact
that the global war for talent is going to be one of our biggest challenges as we move forward
into the twenty-first century.

As discussed by the industry practitioners, technology aided resume scanning and recruiting
can be advantageous as it allows applicants from various locations to submit consistent
information. It helps in the smooth flow of information from the applicants to the HR
practitioners in a much quicker manner. It also allows the easy storage of the information.
The electronic resume scanning allows screening for key words prior to submission to the HR
personnel that would then proceed with interviews if needed. Artificial Intelligence can be a
boon to the HR practitioner. The HR professional must be cognizant of both the benefits and
the pitfalls of the technology solution. By removing the human factor from the resume review
process, is HR giving up more than they get? In any event, that question must continue to be
addressed and analysed.

References:

1. http://bigdata-madesimple.com/5-ways-to-use-artificial-intelligence-ai-in-human-
resources/ accessed on 17th July 2018
2. https://www.cmswire.com/digital-workplace/7-ways-artificial-intelligence-is-
reinventing-human-resources/ accessed on 18th July 2018
3. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeannemeister/2017/03/01/the-future-of-work-the-
intersection-of-artificial-intelligence-and-human-resources/#28d5f1aa6ad2
accessed on 18th July 2018
4. https://analyticsindiamag.com/top-use-cases-ai-human-resources/ accessed on
19th July 2018
5. https://www.cio.com/article/3263450/artificial-intelligence/artificial-intelligence-
gives-hr-an-opportunity-to-transform-the-enterprise.html accessed on 19th July
2018