The job market has witnessed dramatic changes over the past few years – especially in the IT and engineering sectors. While many organizations are facing critical talent shortages in niches like machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), they are also drowning in a glut of “optimized” applications.
Candidates are fully aware that hiring teams use applicant tracking systems (ATSs) to filter applications based on keywords. To improve their chances of landing an interview, many candidates are turning to AI themselves, using AI tools to write, refine, or even fully generate application materials. The result is applications that are stuffed with keywords and often indistinguishable from each other.
If you’ve been wondering if this phenomenon is unique to your organization, it isn’t. An article on the Korn Ferry site explains:
Newly released data shows that applications on LinkedIn alone have surged more than 45% in the past year. The platform says it is clocking an average of 11,000 applications per minute. Other platforms are seeing similarly alarming jumps, which experts say is a symptom both of the tight job market and AI’s impact on the application process.
This situation is making it difficult for hiring teams to identify real talent. As AI continues to improve and become increasingly ubiquitous, your hiring processes must evolve. New screening processes need to be developed, and expectations must change. Additionally, if you’re not already doing so, it may be time to start working with a specialized recruitment partner.
The Problem: AI’s Impact On Talent Acquisition Pipelines
AI has made job-search tools more accessible – and that’s good news for both job seekers and hiring teams. Highly skilled candidates who might be a terrific fit for your company may have been previously overlooked because of poor writing skills, a lack of confidence in writing, or English as a second language.
With AI, candidates can quickly create polished and tailored applications, enabling them to apply confidently from anywhere in the world. This creates a paradox of opening up your talent pipeline to previously overlooked talent while clogging that pipeline with AI-generated applications that may not be an appropriate fit.
High Application Volume And Unqualified Candidates
The tight job market, global socioeconomic uncertainties, one-click or auto-apply job applications, and evolving AI tools have created a perfect storm for hiring managers. As candidates from around the world scramble to apply for lucrative roles, application volume has exploded.
The Korn Ferry piece states that, “An online corporate-job posting receives, on average, 250 applications, according to one study, and in some cases up to thousands.” But many of those applications may be from unqualified candidates. Polishing or even embellishing resumes is not new. But AI tools make it easier for candidates to present their skills and qualifications in ways that ATSs are programmed to highlight.
According to a report at Resume Genius, 76% of hiring managers believe that AI makes it more difficult to assess the authenticity of a candidate’s application. This often results in a stalemate in the hiring process – which can be costly to an organization’s bottom line as well as the morale and performance of its employees.
The Sameness Epidemic
Although resume formats are largely standardized within the IT and engineering sectors, there was always some degree of uniqueness between applications. Whether it was a candidate’s writing style, familiarity with English, or attempts to stand out by personalizing their resume, there were stylistic differences between applications that helped hiring managers in their decisions.
But resumes that have been polished or entirely generated by AI tools are quite uniform in style. This can make it more difficult for both ATSs and hiring teams to differentiate between candidates who are genuine experts and those who designed a keyword-stuffed application.
Keith Anderson, in an interview with Business Insider, calls this phenomenon a “sameness epidemic,” where almost all applications are “predictable, polished, and forgettable.” This is understandably problematic for hiring teams.
Overwhelmed ATSs And Screeners
ATSs were developed precisely to cut through the noise and pinpoint exceptional talent that would be a great fit for a role. But when most candidates use AI and most resumes look the same, ATSs no longer work effectively.
Since highly qualified candidates are increasingly difficult for ATSs to ferret out, hiring teams need to spend resources weeding through the near-duplicate applications. This results in delays to filling open roles, which has considerable impacts across an organization’s functionality and bottom line.
Concerns About Authenticity And Trust
As mentioned above, 76% of hiring managers believe that AI makes it more difficult to assess the authenticity of a candidate’s application. AI might:
- Exaggerate skills or experience to provide keywords;
- Completely fabricate credentials like degrees and certifications;
- Be used to create deepfake voice or video content for applicant screening; and/or,
- Write cover letters and other communications that aren’t reviewed or edited by the candidate, leaving in inaccurate or misleading information.
In addition to eroding trust, AI generations of this type can create new risks for organizations. For example, a company could unknowingly advance a candidate whose AI-generated resume includes fabricated certifications. A situation like that could create compliance liabilities, safety risks in regulated environments, and potential legal issues.
Mitigation Strategies For Hiring Teams, HR, And Talent Acquisition
AI-generated or -enhanced applications can wreak considerable havoc for hiring teams, HR, and organizations. However, there are many practical strategies that companies can employ to deal with this situation.
Create Ultra-Clear Job Descriptions And Screening Criteria
Job postings with detailed, specific requirements are an important first step in combating the glut of AI-generated resumes. Vague job postings are an invitation for irrelevant applications.
When creating job descriptions, job postings, and screening criteria, include:
- Must-have and nice-to-have hard skills;
- Minimum experience thresholds;
- Required certifications;
- Screening questions that are specific to the role; and,
- Short, mandatory tasks or questions to help determine if the applicant fully read the job posting and/or used AI to generate their application.
These steps should help filter out auto-applications and those candidates who apply for any positions, regardless of their qualifications.
Use Advanced ATS and AI-Screening Tools
Newer ATS tools have been developed to detect AI-generated applications. These applications analyze sentence structure, tone, and content to determine if the candidate used AI.
Some systems are more sophisticated and also evaluate behavioral indicators, such as how a candidate answers short screening questions or how consistent their writing style is. There are also ATS tools that can incorporate coding tests, problem-solving prompts, or other challenges that allow the system to evaluate a candidate’s skills on the spot.
Implement Structured Interviews For Human Verification
Structured interviews, which use standardized, competency-based questions to assess a candidate’s skills, are critical in evaluating applicants. AI and ATSs cannot yet replace the human assessment done during an interview.
As explained at Indeed:
A structured interview is a method of assessment that measures how competent a candidate is by presenting them with hypothetical cases or situations that pertain directly to the job position in question…Interviewers typically ask every candidate the same questions.
Structured interviews are a way to evaluate a candidate’s problem-solving, technical/hard, and communication skills. They also provide a chance to assess a candidate’s real-world experience and authenticity. By having a human being verify the candidate’s qualifications for the role, any discrepancies created by AI-generated applications can be noted.
Use Analytics To Identify Hiring Bottlenecks
By examining certain metrics – such as interview-to-offer ratio, time-to-fill, and qualified candidate volume – you should be able to identify where the glut of AI-generated resumes is causing issues.
Once you know which job postings or hiring processes are problematic, you should take steps to refine job descriptions, adjust source strategies, evaluate screening processes, and/or seek specialized support.
Incorporate Risk Management And Verification
Because AI is known to embellish or completely fabricate “facts,” it’s more important than ever to verify a candidate’s qualifications and suitability for employment with you.
While screening candidates, hiring teams should take the time to:
- Confirm certifications;
- Verify degrees;
- Check references;
- Flag applications that are too similar in style and/or content; and,
- Ask for writing samples to review.
Taking a few simple steps proactively can prevent your company from encountering risk or even litigation at a later date.
Create A Communication Strategy For Candidates
One tangential problem that AI-generated applications create is the attrition of qualified candidates. As ATSs and hiring teams wade through hundreds of applications, top talent may tire of waiting for news about their applications.
To ensure that you retain access to top talent, create a communication strategy. Set up automated acknowledgement emails; provide quick feedback and hiring timelines; and establish organization-wide communication timelines. Candidates are more likely to honor their applications if they are in communication with you.
Partner With A Specialized Recruitment Or Staffing Agency
Rather than dealing internally with a flood of AI-generated applications, organizations should consider partnering with a specialized recruitment or staffing agency. These firms offer several valuable services that can ultimately benefit a company’s functionality and bottom line.
Specialized recruitment firms can help by providing:
- Pre-screened talent pools in which candidate skills, credentials, and references are already verified;
- Deep domain expertise within the firm, allowing their recruiters to accurately assess hard skills; and,
- Strategic talent advice regarding compensation benchmarking, emerging talent trends, and passive candidate outreach.
Ultimately, specialized agencies use their industry knowledge to heavily screen and filter candidates before referring any to you. They commonly present a narrow list of highly-qualified candidates, which can significantly expedite your hiring process.
Conclusion
In an ironic twist, AI hasn’t helped organizations solve talent shortages – instead, it has created an oversupply problem that’s difficult to solve due to overwhelming application volume, the sameness epidemic, embellished and/or fabricated information, and increased risk.
Organizations can mitigate the issues caused by this oversupply by refining their hiring processes. As well, partnering with a specialized recruitment or staffing agency can provide a strategic advantage.
