The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week

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13th December 2024

The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week

In a recent edition of his Future of Talent Weekly newsletter, industry leader Kevin Wheeler surfaces some of the issues recruiters are having with AI-generated applications from a sea of underqualified candidates:

“One recruiter mentioned an applicant who gave an impressive response on an assessment,” Kevin writes, “but failed to answer even basic questions during a live interview. Another recruiter noted how several candidates copied exact phrases from the company’s job description into their cover letters — something likely done by an AI tool.

“The problem,” he continues, “wasn’t just wasting the team’s time. It also discouraged genuine candidates who felt overlooked in a sea of spam applications.”

So what are recruiters to do? To find solutions, Kevin spoke to the head of one talent acquisition team to see how they’re rebuilding their recruitment process to better surface qualified candidates for their open roles. Here are just some of the steps that the team took:

Adding more complex, context-specific questions to the application process.
Building real-time skill assessments into the interview process.
Developing training materials to help recruiters identify potential red flags during applications and interviews.
Ironically, using AI tools to identify AI-generated applications from underqualified candidates.
Asking candidates to record a short video introduction answering a simple question, such as “What excited you about this role?”

After implementing these changes, the team saw a 40% reduction in irrelevant applications. But perhaps most important of all, Kevin writes, “the team emphasized empathy. The goal wasn’t to punish AI users, but to focus on identifying and supporting authentic talent.”

To learn more about how to combat spam applications in the age of AI, be sure to check out Kevin’s newsletter at the top of our list below of must-read articles for talent professionals. And further down our list, you can also find out why some talent leaders are considering giving candidates a second chance during the interview process; why recruiters may want to feel bullish about their industry in 2025; and how talent professionals can prioritize Gen Z’s development as a win-win for both the business and the individual.