How AI Can Take Advantage of Voluntary Turnover to Engage Top Talent
Is AI something that could be utilized in the recruitment process? How will this impact the need for the human contact?
This week, Keith and I cover this topic during a great conversation with our guest, Robby Gulri, CMO of Engage Talent, an AI-assisted recruitment support company.
With the recruitment process going through a technology metamorphosis, AI has found its place in the echelon of the biggest players and change makers in business tech. Robby Gulri describes Engage Talent as “Recruitment Science. We map the relationships between people,roles, companies, and dynamic markets using purely external data.”
Robby describes the situation this way. Many companies are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit qualified candidates. Traditional sourcing methods aren’t working including “head-hunting” and cold-call-messaging using networks like Linkedin. With historic lows in unemployment and high demand for skills, employers need a better way to identify employed candidates who might consider switching companies for the right opportunity and offer. Engages uses AI to identity leading indicators of voluntary turnover such as company events, market demands, changes in management and labor trends.
Engage Talent’s algorithm also recognizes that sometimes a potential candidate and a company are just not a good fit. Now, this isn’t necessarily the individual or the company’s fault. Engage Talent believes that an improper pairing can be avoided by identifying potential candidates’ personal and professional interests to see how these interests and skills align with the open position. In short, Engage seeks to pair recruiters with candidates that have the statistical possibility of becoming long-term, effective, and content employees.
By providing the recruiter with candidates who meet the above criteria, the Engage team shows their client how to use this information to pique the interest of said potential candidates. With this information, they create custom, personalized messages catered to the individuals, instead of just sending them those cookie cutter emails that we all receive and usually discard without a moment’s glance.
I asked Robby about about how far AI can go and concerns about privacy, confidentiality, and the loss of human touch during recruitment.
He stressed how the human element in HR is essential, and how humans can not and should not be replaced. “AI is simply a way to gain a ‘leg up’ in the recruitment process by narrowing down the funnel that potential hires come through”. With the insights that Engage Talent’s AI algorithm provides, recruiters are able to focus their energy on the candidates that might be willing to talk about a new opportunity. Instead of spreading their net out over the masses and holding their breath to see what they pull in, they are able to target specific candidates whom they already know are right for the job and have a keen interest in the possibility of pursuing it.
Robby also shared the importance of safeguarding data, protecting it from non-ethical use and ensuring that it continues to flow through the proper channels. Robby’s team is dedicated to such safeguarding. That being said, I agree with his closing statement – “In terms of AI and recruitment technology, my feelings are nothing but jazz and excitement.”
If you’d like to read more about Engage Talent or talk to Robbie, you can contact him at,
- robbie.gulri@engagetalent.com
- Engagetalent.com
- Linkedin: Robby Gulri
- You can also hear more on his podcast – Masters of Modern Recruiting