Recruitment and AI: where do the boundaries lie?

We know that the use of AI is growing. ChatGPT has grown its userbase to over 200 million users, and McKinsey note that organisations are reporting a 72% adoption rate. Within recruitment that trend continues too. According to recent research undertaken by Arctic Shores with a group of 1,000 students and recent graduates, 59% of candidates have used or plan to use GenAI in a recruitment and selection process in the next 12 months. Similarly, in a survey of professionals with over three years’ experience, 47% of respondents claimed to be using AI tools when applying for new roles.

It’s not just survey data that supports this trend. As a recruiter, I have seen the use of AI in our recruitment and selection processes. Everything from the obvious cut and pastes from ChatGPT (where candidates leave in the parentheses designed to let you personalise the response, or worse, “From ChatGPT” at the beginning of an answer), to overuse of phraseology, look alike answers and robotic sentences. It’s not hard to spot.

In specific circumstances, we use AI. We have an applicant tracking system (ATS), which manages our applications – allowing us to manage them securely, in line with GDPR regulations, and giving candidates the power to manage how and when we contact them. Our hiring team managed over 2,200 applications in 2023 and using an ATS means we can, and do, communicate with every single applicant. For some roles we might also use a video interviewing platform as a shortlisting tool too. In addition, we sometimes use AI tools to ensure fairness and equality in job adverts (for example, linguistic gender bias tools), or to improve how we reach diverse audiences.

Where we don’t use AI tools is within the assessment and selection process. A member of the team assesses each application individually, using a role-specific scoring matrix to evaluate skills, experience and qualifications, as well as evidence of core competencies. This is based on their CV and an individual’s answers to application questions. We don’t use AI tools to sift CVs, or shortlist based on phraseology, key words or standard skills. Our approach to hiring is unique and personal, and we apply that to the candidate experience too. At any point in the recruitment process you can ask us questions, or have a conversation. We genuinely love to get to know people who are interested in our work.

We support the use of AI, methodologies or tools that help you, as a candidate, put your best self forward and maximise your chance of being hired. As recruiters we are on your side – we want to see your best self, hear about your achievements and experience, and get to know you to understand if you will be the right fit for our organisation, culture and the role you are applying for.

Nothing makes us happier than finding that person who can be successful, happy and fulfilled in a role at ForrestBrown. But sometimes overuse, or use of AI tools in the wrong way, can hinder that process. In these circumstances, it can give the impression that you might not be applying an individual and thoughtful approach to your applications or that you are just applying for any role, with any business. More importantly, it can also create a barrier to us getting to know you in a genuine and authentic way.

Yes, you can. AI tools are extremely powerful and can be used to enhance your approach to recruitment processes but shouldn’t be used to replace them, or to try and “gamify” an application. Here are some top tips on how and when to use them successfully:

• Do use AI tools in your research. It’s important to get to know the business you are applying for – what they do, their approach, client base, culture, and how their employees feel about working there. There are lots of sources of information about that, which can be time consuming to read. AI tools can enhance this by enabling you to access wider source material, investigate deeper analysis of a business and its clients, give you an overview of a business, show you alternative sources of information and even create questions to ask, in a more time efficient way.
• Do use AI tools to proofread your application, including your CV. Use them to check spelling, grammar, tighten sentence structure or make your own thoughts more concise. Use these tools to make sure you get the basics right.
• Do use AI tools to refine and develop your application. But start from a point of originality: what do you think, how would you communicate, what do you want to say? Then use AI tools to help develop your lines of thought, and polish your final version.
• Don’t use AI to write answers that replace your thoughts and thinking. We want to know what you think, feel, understand and can communicate – be original and authentic.
• Don’t use AI to try and second guess what we are looking for in the recruitment process – we don’t use AI to create our shortlisting criteria, or our assessment methodology. Let your application reflect you and what you can bring to an organisation, not what Chat GPT or other tools think you should bring.
• Don’t use generative AI tools to produce model answers to use in either written application questions, or in video interviews. They won’t come across as original, or thoughtful – just scripted.

“Solutions not suits” is a key pillar of ForrestBrown’s ethos – how we see ourselves, and what’s important to us. It reflects that we are not afraid of change, and if we see a better way of working then we embrace it. We are not stuffy, or overly corporate and embrace our own original style. That approach applies to technology and the way we encourage use of it, as well as what we want to see from applicants.

Embrace tools that enhance who you are and what you have to say not replace it. Use tools to find ways of working that free up time for higher quality research, deeper understanding, or personal interaction. Show us who you are. Ask questions. Be curious.