How Artificial Intelligence is changing recruitment
Public Service Commission (PSC) put out a job advert for 151 job vacancies and received 12,639 applicants in a span of one month. This does not only happen for government jobs. The high rate of unemployment has led to the mammoth applications for limited job vacancies yet there are about two human resource (HR) personnel to carry out recruitment in a company.
In addition, the emergence of the coronavirus has shifted many companies from the traditional to virtual method of recruitment.
However, a few questions come to mind; “Are all submitted applications read and scrutinised to the satisfaction of both the job applicant and employer? How long will that process last?
Mr Benjamin Lubogo, leader of a recruitment team at Strategic Engagement Company Limited, says it depends on the human resource manager as well as the recruitment system used at the company.
There are different ways of recruiting talent for companies including computer aided software, the traditional method of emailing and most recently artificial intelligence.
In Uganda, he says, the most common method of recruitment is the traditional emailing method because of its affordability compared to computer aided software and artificial intelligence.
With the traditional emailing system, he says, a company receives applications through an email while computer aided software is automated to notify a company whenever an applications is received with the capability to give job applicants feedback on the progress of their application process.
“We sort through each CV either by a team or personnel. We look through them and that is what a normal HR will do. However, we have heard of situations where people beat the process in that if they get three good CVs, why waste time with all the others,” he reveals adding that there are many cases where non- technical HR personnel practicing human resources do not understand professional standards about a certain profession.
With Artificial intelligence (AI), some of your CVs are not looked at by a person before they are eliminated from consideration. Here, a computer accepts or rejects your application.
In Uganda, AI is mainly used among startups. Founded in 2013 and launched in 2015, Fuzu, an employment link start up, that uses AI to match suitable job seekers to employers.
“Users create profiles using their experience, education, skills, interest and all their other professional information. Thanks to that information, our algorithm is able to intelligently suggest jobs as well as courses and recommendations that are in line with their career aspirations,” Mr Nicholas Hirya, growth manager Fuzu Uganda explains.
