How Artificial Intelligence is changing 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. 

Artificial intelligence

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.

From the employer front, the system recommends the top 1,000 candidates whose profile in terms of submitted information fits the position the best. They are ranked from the best fit to least fit.

Whereas flexible businesses are embracing AI, traditional businesses and small and medium enterprises are yet to embrace the technology which is where Fuzu will draw its attention in the near future.

The advantage with AI, Hirya states, is that it allows a company’s human resource practitioner to focus on other duties aside from recruitment. 

“Processes that take between eight to 10 weeks of the hiring cycle can be reduced to two to three weeks because you are not looking at cover letter by cover letter. The system has already done everything for you so your role is to do a final check so that you are saving time to look into the HR strategy and personnel development,” he advises.

He adds that it is also critical in cost-saving as you hire productive and efficient employees. 

Shortcomings

Even with its proficiency, AI has been castigated for bearing algorithms prone to eliminating people on different biases including race, health status, age and gender among others.  There are also systems built with sophistication to determine one’s fitness for a job based on cognitive or psychological responses to different life scenarios. 

Mr Hirya admits that those shortcomings exist especially with impression based systems as opposed to a merit based system.

“An impression based system is one where if you wanted to hire male candidates as opposed to females, then you would have a bias for that but with a merit based system, all impression based biases are eliminated so it is purely on criteria directly related to performance of the candidates,” he expounds. 

Despite being an intelligent system, issues such as poor submission of information on the CV could lead to elimination of a qualified applicant from the system. The efficiency of the system can also be affected by less qualified candidates who deceive on the platform to get opportunities they would otherwise not be qualified to attain.

However, AI has not yet been fully accepted by Ugandan employers. 

Mr Dan Okanya, head policy and research, Federation of Uganda Employers attributes the slow adoption of AI in job recruitment to costs. 

“The costs associated with setting the software are still high and not every employer can afford. Our technological enhancement has also not yet grown to that level which explains why the costs are still high. There are so many innovations in other countries with several innovators which are doing that which could lead to a reduction in cost,” he explains.

Mr Japeth Kawanguzi, founder of Innovation Village, reiterates that AI is still very nascent in Uganda because adoption of technology is still very slow.