A new age in hiring: How AI facilitates international talent acquisition

4 min read
abstract of icons lit in blue; AI international talent acquisition concept

Organizations are no longer constrained by geographical boundaries to find talent. The rise in remote work has opened up more possibilities for companies to cast a wider net for talent on a global scale. AI international talent acquisition is a major competitive advantage in the war for talent.

By sourcing talent globally, employers expand their talent pools and increase their chances of finding the right talent with the right skill set, notes Prashana Samaraweera, CEO at ExroAsia. “As companies look to hire workers with the skills of the future, broadening your search across the world can keep you ahead of your competition.”

AI enables companies to acquire top talent on an international scale by giving HR teams data-driven insights. This information helps them better understand the roles and skills needed in their organizations and allows them to move more quickly through the hiring process.

AI helps HR better understand roles and skills requirements

Roles are changing, and effective hiring starts with understanding the roles within an organization as they are now and as they will be in the future. That’s one of the reasons it’s important to make HR a strategic partner in an organization, which was a point of discussion in our talent summit, Cultivate ‘22.

At the event, Ted Patchet, partner, senior client manager and technology industry leader at Mercer, says HR teams need a seat at the table so they can understand business objectives. With that knowledge, they can then define the roles needed to achieve those goals.

Once HR teams have a deep-level understanding of what the roles in their companies are, they can identify what the skills actually are needed for those roles, explains Jon Barney, partner and head of aerospace, defense, and national security at Odgers Berndtson, during a panel discussion at the same summit.

Through predictive analytics, AI helps HR define those roles and identify those skills. Talent intelligence tools analyze historical data, identify patterns in the data, and then use that information to make predictions about the future. Those insights shed light on the skills necessary for defining a role.

abstract of person choosing employee icons; AI international talent acquisition concept

AI international talent acquisition enables HR to find hidden skills

Skills-based hiring is the new normal for companies competing for employees in a tight labor market. To really find the best talent, it’s critical that hiring managers “do more to understand people’s skills,” says Barney.

AI-powered technology allows HR teams to do this by creating a space where hiring managers can think less in terms of college degrees and role-specific experience and more in terms of the skills needed to succeed in specific roles. This better understanding of skills will in turn lead them to find what Patchet calls the “hidden workforce.” These are the people, he explains, that may not have degrees but do have the skills the company is looking for.

Often, neither employers or employees have a good understanding of the skills each individual has. According to a study commissioned by the Consumer Industries of the World Economic Forum, people list an average of 11 skills they have while AI identifies about 34. Those “hidden skills” as Patchet labels them, are the ones that help hiring managers choose the right person to hire.

AI-powered technology speeds the hiring process

In today’s hiring market, “you need to be able to move nimbly and you need to be able to move quickly” when you find the right hire, says Patchet. “Moving quickly matters,” Parker McKenna, senior vice president of HR at healthcare organization Mosaic, “because the employer that moves fastest often gets the hire.”

AI is critical here because it enables HR to move more quickly through the hiring process by:

  • Handling administrative tasks.
  • Scanning resumes quickly and creating a short list of potential hires.
  • Matching skills to roles to ensure the right person is hired.
  • Answering questions and setting up interviews around the clock through chatbots.

AI does all of these things faster than humans can, which frees HR up to make decisions and get offers out swiftly, sometimes in days or weeks instead of months. “We’ve accelerated the talent acquisition process from two months to two weeks,” Barney notes.

Talent acquisition has become far more challenging as the labor market has tightened and remote work has expanded. That’s why more companies have started seeking out candidates from other countries. AI helps HR teams sift through these expanded talent pools to quickly find and hire candidates with the right skills to fill open roles.

Images by: wrightstudio/©123RF.com, sdecoret/©123RF.com

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