Recently, in an interview, Eyal Grayevsky, the founder of Mya Systems, talked about how his own experience of the recruitment world was the catalyst for one of his company’s product developments.
It seems that once, when he was looking for work, he applied for some 40 jobs but only heard back from two possible employers. It led him to claim that ’85% of candidate applications fall into a “black hole”, and never receive a response’.
As a result Mya Systems have developed some Artificial Intelligence (AI) to deal with the ‘perceived, problem. ‘Mya’ is a robot – or more precisely ‘chatbot’ who ‘talks’ to candidates, leading them through key questions such as ‘Can you work in the evenings? Are you comfortable with the pay range? Do you have forklift experience? How soon can you start?’
The idea is that recruiters, drowning in cv’s and applications, will use the ‘chatbot’ and its AI to give recruiters back their time by reducing the load and streamlining the process.
It’s not without some take up, or success, but in reality we’re a long way off a world where robots run recruitment agencies and all human contact is lost.
(Any comments on that last statement will be treated as ironic and probably require legal advice!)
To most of us of course all of this sounds like science fiction. But wait. It’s well within living memory that a recruitment agency’s systems centered on cardboard folders, carbon paper and an endless supply of ball point pens. The mention of computerised systems not just being available, but the industry standard, would have been laughed off. As science fiction.
With things progressing as rapidly as they do nowadays, the AI driven recruitment agency may well be nearer than we think.
That said, the current technology is an issue in itself for those wanting to start up a recruitment business. Take a typical recruitment consultant who is perhaps disenchanted by working for someone else. (Perhaps they think the company is run by robots. You know you were going to say it!). Experienced and ambitious they decide to start up on their own.
Even after they’ve formed a company, sorted out finance, premises, staff, a website, marketing and branding there’s the vital bit about finding clients and candidates to do. And all of that is without setting up the IT and systems needed to be fully compliant and operational from day one.
That technology is expensive. And being prudent can backfire because operating systems are rife with false economies. They tend to need updating quite often too. And here’s a double edged sword to juggle with; the harder you work, the faster you grow, and as you add more clients and candidates your business gets bigger still. Which means as your hard earned rewards from being your own boss start to come in – they go out again to buy bigger systems to run your bigger business. Doesn’t seem fair does it?
Let’s rewind for a minute. Go back to those first steps.
We specialise in helping recruitment professionals start up their own businesses, and at The Recruit Venture Group we have a team who will help you incorporate a company, find premises, sort out your marketing strategy and even build your website.
All of that comes with our custom designed, specialist recruitment start up package that includes – in fact it’s based on – 100% risk free financial backing for you.
You’ll have shares in, and dividends from, your own company. You’ll be the boss.
And if that level of support isn’t peace of mind enough you’ll have the opportunity to really focus on what matters most. Getting on with recruitment. How? Because, able to pay yourself a salary you’ll be free of the worries that all too often hinder an entrepreneur.
So far, so good then. All of those initial worries are taken care of. But this is where we fast forward. We still haven’t addressed the question of the systems. The technology.
That’s sorted too with us. We’ll give you access to our complete back office systems. From candidate management to invoicing you’ll have road tested, up to the minute technology driving your new recruitment business.
Because we invest heavily in our own business – as well as yours – we keep those systems up to date. So, not only is it efficient and cost effective at the outset, we bear the costs of the upgrades and replacements as they become available and realistic. And when the time comes we’ll be ready to acquire AI, so that it’s there for you to use.
Of course, right now, and hopefully forever, it’s all about people really.