With the increase in AI within businesses, and the increase
in spending on AI within businesses that already have AI projects, comes a
larger number of mistakes.
The IDC predicts that global spending on AI will reach
nearly $120 bn in 2022 and $300 bn by 2026. This means that even if your
company has been putting off moving into the Artificial Intelligence space, it
would be unwise to delay further, especially in coming times of economic
instability when automation, faster processing and mining value from data could
be the deciding factors of your future success.
We have found the biggest three mistakes you could make, so that you can avoid these pitfalls and hit the ground running.
1. Mixing up the terms
If you are to be involved with your organisation’s AI project,
you will need to understand that there is no such thing as an interchangeable
term when it comes to this space. There are a few abbreviations to learn as
well.
AI = Artificial intelligence – tech that can understand
things like a human can
DL = Deep Learning – algorithms that learn to understand
patterns over an extended period of time
ML = Machine Learning – machines running tests in order to
gain an understanding
DS = Data Science – using techniques and tools on large
amounts of data to uncover patterns and find useful information
DL and ML are a subset of AI. DS uses DL and ML to build
predictive models. DL and ML run tests and learn information then feed that
information into an AI system so that it can do its job of sensing, navigating
and executing actions within its environment.
Knowing how these systems and concepts interact helps businesses build great teams
2. Thinking You Don’t Need AI At All
It is a myth that AI is a business luxury. Of course, some companies do not need it. To write it off as a trend that will fall out of fashion is a mistake you cannot afford to make as it is highly likely that, once up and running, it will start returning on the investment within a relatively short period by automating, analysing and generating insight. Once you have made a serious case for the adoption of AI within your business, it is time to build a team.
3. Misunderstanding How AI Works
To sum it up as simply as we can, AI uses algorithms to
study data and use insights to improve itself. Once it is knowledgeable enough
it can be left to decide on issues, each time becoming more accurate. Some
businesses have tech that does the first part but does not do the second part,
which drains resources without giving them maximum returns. Having the best
team means you have people who have experience in what to do and what not to do
in order to make the teaching of the AI not so labour intensive before it
becomes self-sufficient. Quality, pre-sifted data is needed in this task so it
is important that you understand that data experts will be required too. Think
of it as a human reading one badly-researched book. They will take the wrong
lessons from that book and apply that information to make decisions, which will
be wrong. The more you read, the more you learn and the more you learn how to
sort good info from bad. AI is prone to bias, as humans are, so it is important
to ensure diversity of input, which means both the datasets and the people
working on the team.
If you are recruiting for AI, Data, ML, DL or Cloud, it really helps to have a dedicated, specialist tech team building recruitment partner to give advice and find the best hidden candidates.
Curious about how Zenshin Talent can help your organisation? Contact us today for a no-strings conversation about your needs and our experience.
The crisis is currently impacting the UK with the cost of
living at a three decade high. Fuel and energy prices are the main drivers of
this, with food prices also rising to record levels.
With this, the majority of workers are receiving either a
pay rise not in level with the high interest rates, frozen wages or, in some
cases, wage cuts. Businesses with contracts locked to wholesale prices will
start to suffer as spending power decreases.
Some workers are having to make major changes to their
plans, either looking for better paying jobs or moving sectors. Around a third
of workers are reporting that they are looking to move job as their pay is not
rising in line with the cost of living.
At the same time, it is likely that some who had planned to
make a move, find themselves stuck, their savings being drained by bills. Over
three quarters of job seekers worry about how the cost of living crisis will
affect them. Disposable income being impacted was a major factor of their
anxiety. For a lot of workers, they were barely covering all of their expenses
as it was.
Add to this the extra pressure of paying for more energy in
order to work from home, which will also make people reconsider one of the few
positive gains that happened during the pandemic to return to the office. Those
who work in the office and drive to work will be reconsidering their position.
This creates an unusual situation in the job market where
some industries will find a glut of workers hitting the market and others will
find a dearth. It leaves everyone in a sort of limbo: can’t make a move, have
to make a move.
This may also reverse the stances of Younger Millennials
& Gen Z, who have thus far been selecting their roles based not only on
salary expectations but career progression and workplace culture. If this
crisis continues for an extended period of time, those individuals will have to
choose wage over beliefs. It would be extremely sad if that did become the case
as those workers were starting to facilitate the emergence of much more
inclusive working environments.
This brings up a much larger point: will this change the job
market back from being one where the candidates have more options and thus more
power, back to one where the employers have the power? For this to happen,
option of employment would need to shrink.
Smaller businesses have reported record energy bills with
projections looking to be 10 times what the same businesses paid last year. If
this comes to pass, a lot of business will be going out of business. The UK
government is promising help but time will tell what exactly that will be and
just how helpful it will be.
If all of those businesses go to the wall, the job market
will shrink. If the job market shrinks, there will be more unemployment and
with that comes a more desperate workforce willing to take less in pay in order
to secure a job.
This could be the start of very desperate times. Employers
should demonstrate a duty of care to their employees by allowing them to
express their fears. HR departments should be doing their best to listen to
those under their care and communicating this information to upper management
as sensitively as possible. The best thing a business can do right now, apart
from boost wages which we understand is becoming harder, is to treat their
staff like human beings.
On the business side, if a company has not yet streamlined its hiring practices, which is something we have been advising for years, this is the time to take a serious look and break down those bottlenecks which cause the hiring process to grow wildly over budget (in terms of both resources and time). If you need help, look to specialist recruitment partners.
Curious about how Zenshin Talent can help your organisation? Contact us today for a no-strings conversation about your needs and our experience.
We’ve all been there, especially on Linkedin, when you
receive a generic recruitment message or email, that you know has been sent out
in a scattershot manner in order to capture some candidates who may be possibly
interested in leaving their current position for pastures new.
Why does this happen? Well, as we have previously mentioned in our blogpost Why Don’t Recruiters Have Anyone ‘On The Books’ Anymore? we pointed out that with the modern state of recruitment, the days of having files on prospective candidates are gone and the majority of recruitment happens via targeting jobseekers on job boards.
The world has moved on in the decades since the 1970s, with
job security low, worker turnover high across industries and the internet and
automated technology meaning that connections can be made without face-to-face
contact.
The acceleration meant that people were more accepting of
impersonal communication. The pandemic flipped the power from the employers to
the employees and with that, some of their pet peeves are now being pushed back
against.
Even though people tolerated being treated like just one in
a group of prospects, they did not enjoy it. A recruiter working for a
recruitment firm will be set targets in terms of the amount of people they
contact and ultimately how many they place in jobs. In the 21st
century everything must be measured and these metrics are how a recruiter is
measured. Somewhere along the way, the candidates and their feelings got lost.
Yes, recruiters need to reach out to multiple people at a time, but it is not
about the ‘why’, but the ‘how’ of it.
The focus should always be on quality rather than quantity.
When a recruiter sends out one of those messages, they know
for certain that the vast majority who receive it will not be happy to see it.
And they know if the ones who do reply back, most, if not all, will not
progress to the next stage. There is a major fault in the thinking surrounding
these messages. There is an inefficiency to this process. It wastes everyone’s
time for the possibility of possibly one candidate proceeding.
There needs to be quality, not only in the candidates but in
the communication with said candidates.
Viewing the candidates as a faceless mass and also as an
infinite resource is the biggest fault here. When targeting these candidates it
is so important to understand that they are the most important part of the
process.
Candidates have work histories, soft and hard skills,
stories to tell. There are few who could realistically fit the job spec exactly
so it is worth taking the time to consider where you may find ones not actively
looking on the job boards who may be looking to switch for the right
opportunity. Those individuals will not take kindly to being ‘finessed’ with a
totally generic and frankly cold message.
Prospects can see a mass email a mile away but it is not
necessarily the only reason they will not wish to deal with that recruiter.
Many of us have been left out of the loop when it comes to the progress of
their application. How many recruiters have seemed to fall off the face of the
earth after a positive phone conversation? It does seem that contingency
recruiters imagine that candidates have insurmountable amounts of positive
energy but it will wear even the most positive person down.
Relationships need to be built. Trust needs to be renewed.
Credibility needs to be earned, or at least borrowed from an expert recruitment
partner.
Businesses should bear some of the responsibility for not
moving away from the idea that millions of prospects is the best way to do
things. They are set in their ways and that needs to change. Someone who knows
what they are doing will provide five perfectly selected candidates. Throwing
those candidates into a meat grinder situation with dozens sourced by other
recruiters who are vying for the same commission cannot work. The process must
be refined and it must respect the candidates.
The funnel systems are failing so now it is time to look at the situation soberly and commit to finding the best, with the best help, and making it about relationships again.
Curious about how Zenshin Talent can help your organisation? Contact us today for a no-strings conversation about your needs and our experience.
