Revolutionising SME recruitment and workforce planning with AI

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Securing top talent is one of the key issues keeping the modern business leader up at night. Attracting and retaining top talent, aligning employee goals with business objectives, and succession planning is a ‘must have’ to succeed. AI-enabled technology offers SMEs an unprecedented opportunity to super-charge their recruitment processes, and by harnessing the power of new technologies, SMEs can compete on a global scale.

Democratising recruitment through technology

The latest developments in technology are levelling the playing field for SMEs. AI and talent intelligence platforms have effectively dismantled the barriers to entry that once separated SMEs from their larger counterparts. These powerful engines are democratising capabilities that were previously only possible for organisations with huge budgets.

Take Blockbuster and Netflix. Netflix leveraged data and analytics to personalise content recommendations, while Blockbuster clung to outdated models. AI and Talent Intelligence (TI) are reshaping traditional paradigms of recruitment and workforce planning, enabling companies to identify, attract, and retain top talent with newfound efficiency.

It’s good news for SMEs, which have been feeling the strain. The weak economy and higher energy prices have piled on the pressure. Added to these challenges are significant people issues: SMEs face widespread skilled labour shortages, and the workforce has become increasingly transient. But data and analytics offer a real opportunity for SMEs to jump ahead, to think more strategically and focus on the value-add.

Leave the mundane jobs behind

Recruiters spend an estimated 30% to 40% of their time on low-value administrative tasks, from scheduling to putting together interview notes, writing recommendations to hiring managers and creating job descriptions. Imagine liberating that time to focus on higher-value jobs, such as marshalling a candidate through the candidate journey, or having impactful strategic conversations with business leaders.

At Instant Impact, we’re already using data to improve our clients’ recruitment and enrich the recruitment process from the beginning. We're looking at where AI and automation can save time and act as a co-pilot, to make sure that everything's done to as high of quality as quickly as possible.

You need to adopt a strategic approach that leverages technology where it excels, and taps into human input where it shines brightest.

Combining AI with the human touch

It’s true that AI is no replacement for the human touch. In recruitment, functions or activities that are people-preferred will remain, even if the technology exists. Working with hiring managers, having difficult conversations, salary negotiations, and helping people to develop their career. They're all areas where even if there was an amazing technology that could do it, you still want a human piloting it. The guiding principle is simple yet profound: AI technology can replace tasks that demand precision and analysis, but there is still a need for human insight in areas requiring empathy, creativity, and strategic thinking.

Our team’s biggest skill set is relationship building, and understanding which people will be a best fit within different roles. We see technology as a tool to free our people to tackle higher-value work. For example, if we are taking a brief from a hiring manager, AI takes notes so we can focus on understanding the role and building a relationship with the with the hiring manager.

Creating value through data

While AI is changing the scope of roles, particularly for lower-value tasks, TI allows SMEs to better understand the dynamics of talent so they can compete effectively. Our recent research shows that 75% of HR professionals and business leaders believe TI will play an even more crucial role in the recruitment process within the next five years, as well as contributing to broader business strategy.

Tools such as Stratigens or Horsefly, empower HR, recruiters and the business with data-driven insights that foster meaningful dialogues with leaders: understanding competitors' hiring trends, identifying prime tech talent hubs for potential expansion, and skills that companies should future proof. When Apple started hiring data engineers and AI engineers, and the speculation mounted about the launch of its AI tool.

TI also delves into the dynamics of talent markets and illuminates the motivations of potential candidates, aiding SMEs in constructing compelling employer value propositions tailored to each segment, and helping organisations become more attractive to candidates. Using Talent Intelligence (TI), we create ‘competitor battle cards’, which gives our clients intelligence on where their competitors are hiring and their business strategy.

There’s no doubt that future of SME recruitment and workforce planning lies in combining data and human expertise. There's much good that modern technology can bring to the recruitment process, and business leaders and their HR teams need to start thinking about how they can use it to their advantage. Embracing AI and TI will empower SMEs to challenge larger counterparts, helping to drive innovation and growth, and secure a competitive advantage.

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