Power Bite: The Role of AI in Attracting & Retaining Talent

Leveraging AI Technology for Talent Acquisition & Retention

1 Leverage AI To Guide and Support Candidates

In my experience, AI can significantly personalize the candidate experience. Today’s high-volume application processes desperately need a dose of humanity. By serving up individualized prompts and guidance, they can provide ‘less robotic’ assistance as candidates navigate applications and interviews, improving their experience. This can be especially useful given the ease of one-click applications on platforms like LinkedIn where candidates know little about roles or companies.

2 Automate Resume Screening While Avoiding Biases

The influx of applications also causes resume screening to be a top use-case for AI. The ability of AI to quickly screen high volumes while removing human bias is a major benefit. From the point of view of talent teams, this helps to manage the supply and demand for roles. At the same time, AI models that evaluate contextual meaning can look beyond just keywords to assess candidates. In fact, I see the ‘AI game’ as quite different and more intelligent.However, AI models themselves can perpetuate bias, depending on the design of the algorithm. In a recent article from The Economist, the author shares that the future of AI space will be determined largely based on the regulatory environment, which I found to be an incredibly useful perspective. I believe that more important than equality, is the need to build equity into the AI models – that is, a fair chance for people from all backgrounds to have a shot at the role, regardless of their identity. As such, organizations need to have close involvement in building appropriate guardrails around AI tools so as to avoid using AI technology that perpetuates bias.

3 Predict Employee Disengagement via Analytics

Understanding employee sentiment and predicting disengagement allows organizations to proactively retain talent. For example, tools like neuroscience-based surveys and analytics help uncover how employees truly feel about work and leaders.Today, we have impressive tools like Reflection, where a candidate is assessed based on how quickly they answer a given prompt which provides some rich insight into their capabilities. This can come in handy especially as each employee might be in a different stage of life. Extra vacation days or a little bump in the salary coverage for one employee might be valued significantly more than what another employee thinks of the same.

Moreover, monitoring employees’ technology interaction data (without exposing content) can detect changes signaling disengagement. For instance, how quickly they respond over emails, slack messages, or similar tools adds to the insight on employee sentiment. With this data on hand, AI can then aid Talent teams to identify flight risks early.

4 Support Financial Wellbeing & Lifelong Learning

Surprisingly, I’ve found that financial anxiety is widespread and can impact retention. Most organizations have not delved into it as much as employees would like them to. To address this,  AI assistants could empower employees by answering personalized questions on pay, taxes, vesting schedules, and more. Building financial literacy also promotes wellbeing and connection to the company. 

In addition, just like how the military is using AI co-pilots for their fighter jets, organizations like Microsoft are exploring the usage of AI co-pilots to support their employees. Be it a stretch opportunity or imposter syndrome, AI co-pilots act as assistants who sit by your side to provide micro suggestions. These can be aggregated and end up becoming your upskilling or development plans. Therefore, AI-powered personalized learning recommendations also boost skill development and retention.

Key Takeaways

1 Implement AI Thoughtfully

Stay updated on AI developments that help you enhance candidate and employee experiences, while not replacing human interactions and support. Be transparent about tracking and ensure ethical data practices.

2 Prioritize Personalization Leverage generative language models and neuroscience tools to provide tailored guidance to both candidates and employees. From financial literacy to learning recommendations, provide AI support that lets talent thrive.

3 Utilize AI Guardrails Set appropriate controls to combat discrimination by algorithms. Continuously audit outcomes to ensure fairness and equity.

The age of AI offers as many opportunities as it does disruptions. With an ethical framework, forward-looking skill strategy, and steadfast focus on human development, Talent leaders can lead a new era that uses technology to bring out the best in people—and vice versa.