Tata communications turns to AI for hiring
The Economic Times, India’s business newspaper of record, ran a short but significant article last Friday. Titled “Tata Communications Turns to AI for Hiring,” the story covers Tata’s enthusiastic embrace of AI and how this technology is an effective engine for talent acquisition, retention, and diversity.
The lead paragraph mentions a Bay Area startup that’s been instrumental in Tata’s program. We are that startup. And the details behind Tata’s achievements are impressive.
Tata Communications owns the world’s largest fiber optic network. Their global operations encompass more than 10,000 employees. Tata uses Eightfold’s Talent Intelligence Platform to create a unified platform bridging multiple ATS, HRIS, and CRM systems.
By linking these disparate applications through Eightfold’s AI-based solution, Tata doesn’t just process massive numbers of applications. It also employs deep matching with natural language search capabilities to quickly surface high-level candidates with the skills and projected career trajectories to meet the organization’s ambitions hiring goals.
Creating the best experience possible for both candidates and hiring managers
Tata’s Eightfold deployment recruits from millions of talent profiles across public sources and the company’s extensive internal employee and applicant records. Recruiters and HR staff, freed from the time-intensive and redundant parts of building a talent pipeline, concentrate instead on creating the best experience possible for both candidates and hiring managers.
Besides finding quality candidates faster, Tata reduces time-to-hire by better matching relevant skills and other more intangible factors throughout the selection process. For example, Eightfold’s masking capabilities help Tata meet diversity goals, automatically hiding information that might hint at a candidate’s gender, university affiliation, or other criteria that might lead to either implicit or accidental bias.
The company now targets 35% of global hires through these diversity programs. Diversity overall has improved by 5%.
Other relevant stats, based on the 62% of hires driven directly by Eightfold, include:
- 91% of discovered candidates are qualified – and it only takes six resumes to generate a job offer, down from the previous 12
- Each recruiter now has an extra 4-6 hours per week – time previously spent on resume and applicant database research
- Since appropriate candidates represent a far higher percentage of the mix, the company needs 50% fewer internal meetings to fill a position
The article also covers Tata’s aggressive use of Eightfold to develop internal talent. The AI helps recognize employees who might feel stale in their current positions. It also provides employees with job openings that match their skills and ambitions.
More importantly, Eightfold helps Tata’s employees see how well they align with position requirements – and supports employee career goals by indicating which training programs might be needed to reach that next level. Almost 28% of Tata’s entire hiring now comes from internal mobility.
Yes, these results reflect well on Eightfold. This is, after all, an Eightfold blog post! However, there’s a broader message here.
An AI-based Talent Intelligence Platform delivers powerful and tangible results. It generates, in the words of a senior Tata manager, “a radical change from the past… We are literally taking our HR services to employees rather than them having to go looking… The quality of work, the quality of outcomes and stakeholder experiences are getting better with these solutions.”
As Talent Intelligence Platform deployments deliver real-world benefits, more of the talented individuals who companies want to hire will know about the capabilities of this type of AI. In turn, this top-tier talent will seek companies who use this technology to build their teams. In time, those organizations willing to adopt Talent Intelligence Platforms will gain a distinct competitive advantage over the competition.
There’s a better way to find, develop, and retain talent. We’re proud to be at the forefront of that movement, excited to continue working with Tata, and thrilled to see their hard work and success receive the notice that it’s due.
