Modern technology has brought major changes to the way the Human Resources department operates, helping managers to streamline their hiring protocols and find the best suited candidates for every position. This raises an interesting question, however. Can you rely solely on artificial intelligence? Are HR departments at risk of becoming obsolete? Not anytime, that’s for sure. Here’s a look at the pros and cons of integrating AI software in the workings of Human Resources departments in Australian companies.

To AI or not to AI?

Artificial intelligence is rapidly entering the business world and Human Resources worldwide are leading the way. It might come as a surprise to many, but it’s not the financial departments that are making the most of AI software, but Human Resources, especially in large companies where they need to keep track of hundreds or thousands of employees. It’s not a question of whether to use AI or not but rather how fast can you integrate digital tools in the Human Resources sector.

At present, HR departments use artificial intelligence software for recruitment, training, performance analysis, or employee retention analysis.

Screening candidates through AI programs

One of the most time-consuming tasks HR agents are faced with is reading through dozens or hundreds of resumes they receive each time they post a job opening. As most HR people would tell you, in most cases they only skip through the CVs, sometimes looking just for a couple of seconds at the document. It’s not ideal, but it’s inevitable when you’re dealing with a huge pile of documents on your desk.

Or that’s how things used to be, before AI came to the rescue. In today’s digital world, few companies, if any, ask for a paper-based CV. In the vast majority of cases, candidates are required to send their resumes in digital format. Going through all the emails would still take a lot of time and this is where AI software tools come in handy. Why would an employee waste hours checking resumes when they can let AI deal with the task? You can tweak a software tool to sift through the data and select only the candidates that meet certain requirements, such as qualifications, job experience, additional skills and whatever you might think of.

A task that would take a recruiting agent hours can easily be performed by AI tools in mere seconds or minutes.

The human component compared to AI

Are we close to the time when we’ll have a program decide ‘You’re hired’? Not so fast, as AI tools are not capable of making character judgments. They might tell you if a candidate has the desired work expertise, but not what sort of person he or she is. That’s up to the HR managers to decide, mostly through traditional face-to-face job interviews.

Obviously, no HR manager would base their decision solely on personal impressions. There’s still need to have each candidate subjected to a background check, which ironically is also done online nowadays. Take for instance the National Australian Character Check, an accredited agency that provides national police checks to leading Australian businesses. The character check service is also making use of AI themselves by using AI to verify identification documents with a central database and prevent identity scam. Their website link is https://www.australiannationalcharactercheck.com.au/. When you sift for information in the police databases in all Australian states and territories to check on a person, you do need to use AI software. However, there are cases when the AI is stumped, especially when dealing with people who have common surnames like Jones or Smith. In such cases, it’s still a human employee who will need to make sure it’s the right Jones or Smith.

Using AI is certainly of great help to the HR managers, but we’re nowhere near letting software tools in charge of hiring and employee management.