The major news in recruiting for the year 2017 was undeniably AI, and with its increasing adoption this trend is only expected to increase in 2018.

By working with tools like ATS, recruiters have used technology to make their jobs easier, faster, and better or in other words highly efficient. Employees are the company’s most important asset, which makes talent acquisition strategy the foundation for ongoing success.

AI is capable of considering a probable employee for a particular position by looking at candidate’s background and matching up with those workers by identifying certain qualifications, educational history, work experience and other factors that consider a candidate has the background to emulate the top performers at your organization.

According to a study by Harvard Business Review, it was found that 44% of businesses incorporate AI into their IT functions, and 19% use AI to predict their customers’ future purchases and present them with suitable offers. Businesses are also beginning to see the benefits of AI in recruitment. According to Ideal, 96% of senior HR professionals consider that AI can highly leverage talent acquisition and retention.

Here's how AI can help:

1. In Posting Jobs: AI can use programmatic advertising technique which gives the user the ability to place highly targeted ads in front of the targeted audience based on their browsing history, online activity, and cookies. Cookies can be used to track candidates who visit career pages, allowing us to compile records of what other pages they’re browsing and what type of jobs they're looking for.
2. Sourcing candidates: AI, in the form of machine learning, sources, and qualifies candidates online in resume databases such as CareerBuilder, Indeed and Monster for recruiters to follow-up with. The process often uses Sentiment analysis which comprises of the use of natural language processing, text analysis, computational linguistics, and biometrics to systematically identify, extract, quantify, subjective information. It can also help recruiters in creating job descriptions with keywords that attract a more diverse candidate pool.
3. Resume screening: Manually screening resumes is a fairly tedious task, however, by using the machine learning ability AI screening can be automated by learning what existing employees’ skills and qualifications are. By assigning certain rules and triggers, conversations related to specific hiring or job queries and receive instant answers can be automated.
4. Messaging and data collection: Chatbots that use natural language processing to collect data from candidates, in form of screening questions, chat responses, answer FAQs about the job, and schedule an interview. Information from a candidate collected by the chatbots is then fed into a job portal/s or sent directly to a human recruiter to follow up with the candidate. This process reduces the need to respond to emails, phone calls, and text messages without compromising on candidate experience.

AI technology is capable of changing many things. However, it still is not equipped enough to remove complete human interaction. AI can help bypass back-end and repetitive processes, ultimately assisting recruiters in finding the right talent. The technology is here but it is not all-encompassing; conducting face-to-face interviews may still promise a satisfactory match than otherwise. While AI can assist in many parts of the recruitment process, the human involvement remains imperative.

In the very near future, most recruitment models will involve AI. AI is already transforming every business vertical; in medicine, AI is taking the role of a clinical assistant to help physicians make faster and reliable diagnoses. Companies like General Electric & Siemens are using AI for monitoring machine fleets and factories.

Artificial Intelligence is also rapidly evolving in the Staffing industry and is bound to change the game of recruitment. Jobinvote CEO, Dan Finnigan said, “If recruiters and companies can learn to pair themselves with a specific AI, they can train it to understand a particular corporate mission and culture, so that recruiters feel like they leverage these chatbots and other similar technology as extensions of their teams, not as replacements for them”. In the words of Cyberpunk author, William Gibson, “The future is already here, it’s just not widely distributed.”

Cloud is now a basic business requirement; every business in some way or another is harnessing the power of cloud to succeed. Some may choose in-house infrastructure or a private cloud environment, while others prefer public cloud offerings. The fact still remains that companies are relying more on their cloud vendors now more than ever for providing the best services at reasonable rates. However, all too often, that’s not always what’s delivered.

Here are some points to keep in mind while you deal with a cloud vendor in order to get the best deal for your corporate assistance.

1. Review Vendor’s Uptime and Downtime Statistic

Uptime statistics define the time that a cloud service is accessible to its users, those who have subscribed for the cloud provider’s services. Companies often claim that they rarely have outages or they are better in uptime statistics. Don’t let these claims go unchecked. A lot of cloud providers fail to deliver a good uptime, in other words, are not giving to the customer three nines (99.9%) of availability. 99.9% uptime means 9 hours of unscheduled downtime per year which does not count the scheduled downtime that the companies organize for maintenance purposes. Along with availability, it is equally important to have a good response time warranty, i.e., how fast the system is operating when it is up and running. It is of utmost importance to get detailed statistics before signing up with a vendor.

2. Get specifics on Support Levels

Cloud vendors pretty much offer more or less the same support levels with few alterations with names like ‘standard’, ‘essential’, and ‘ultimate’ packages. These packages often do not give detailed information as to how much support each level guarantees. Always remember to ask your vendor a full description of these support levels and specific examples and whether these situations would be covered in the support or not. It is advisable to get the guarantee in the form of an agreement to serve as a record if at all required in the future.

3. Find a point of contact

In case of an issue, you must have a designated point of contact with the vendor, who can resolve it. Many companies try to get past this by introducing a ticketing system. ‘Tell us your problem, and we’ll get back to you when we have a fix’, is an example of a pop-up message and is very common in the industry. A Designated POC would be an ideal alternative to such a message in order to address the issue at hand immediately and to make sure the right people are working to resolve it.

4. Avoid Vendor lock-in and know your Separation Agreements

Cloud vendors may try to get an initial long-term contract with lock-in periods varying from months to years and often levy early termination charges. While choosing a cloud provider it is important to evaluate the Separation Agreements in place. While separation maybe the last thing that comes to mind while choosing a vendor, it is still one of the most important things to consider. It may also be crucial to inquire whether the vendor has the capability to retain your data even after your contract has ended with them, in order to avoid any possible data breaches.

5. Check the Service Level Agreements

SLA is the commitment on availability levels and performance of services offered. There are no specific standards to an SLA and thus it varies from provider to provider. Higher the price of the service, better the performance guaranteed, and this is usually negotiable. It is important to go through the verbiage of an SLA to clearly define vendors accountability and service assurances and choose the best plan according to your requirement with matrices that offer discounts on billing and other penalties if it is breached.

Stay Updated

Last but not least, once you have finalized a provider, do not stop looking for better alternatives. Be up to date with the market and what other providers are offering. If your service doesn’t match with the current market trend, be sure to ask your provider for an updated service and also, for them to inform you about changes in terms and conditions, if any, while your service is still intact with them.

Getting the right cloud vendor is essential for a company’s overall growth. Keeping these checks in mind while evaluating your options will not only help you to find the right cloud vendor but also let you manage your company’s operations unhindered and with peace.

Just like any relationship, the employer – employee relationship is delicate and has the potential of ending badly; it requires the soft touch and a stroke of genius to manage these separations gracefully. It is easy for an ex-employee to create a ruckus when they are laid off. It can be a PR nightmare when a former employee starts bad-mouthing the business online or offline, calling the office repeatedly, or even showing up in-person to cause issues. It demeans the company, its management, and its employees. Terminating or letting the employees go is really stressful and might require some skillful hands.

The first line of defense to manage or avoid such scenarios is the Human Resources department. Proactive assessment of future troubles is hard to ascertain but HR should always perform detailed background checks of their potential employee’s past jobs, their behavior both while on the job and after leaving the organization. These checks can last for almost three to six weeks but play a major role in identifying potential threats before they become a direct concern.

Even though the reason might be right enough to let an employee go and the company might have valid arguments to prove the case in the court of law, that doesn’t necessarily translate to a clean image for the company in the public’s eye, once a conflict arises. The actions may be conceived by the public in different dimensions and hence, it is necessary to have a clear and concise strategy to implement the action safely. Preventive measures are always advised.

Data leakage by disgruntled employees is also a very real problem. Employees, while leaving, often try to take confidential and highly valuable data for malicious intent or financial gain. A study conducted by Ipswitch, a Massachusetts based provider of file transfer solutions, showed that:

• Forty percent of employees admit to using personal email to send sensitive information to themselves secretively.
• More than 25% send proprietary data to their personal email accounts so that they can use that information at their next place of employment.
• Nearly 50% of employees send classified information via standard email weekly, putting payroll info, social security numbers, and financial data at risk.
• Forty-one percent of IT executives use their personal external storage devices to make copies of data.

It is critical that employees only have access to what they should have access to; an ex-employee’s orphaned account should not remain open and accessible after they leave the organization.

How to handle disgruntled employees, here are some Do’s and Don’ts that can be helpful:

Don’t Drop Everything for One Ex-Employee

Don’t let their claims take all your energy, efforts, and your management’s attention. Assign a person to handle the situation, so others can continue with their work.

Keep Calm and Stay Professional

Discrediting the ex-employee or sharing juicy stories seems like a viable retaliation, but it could indeed prove to be bad; studies have shown badmouthing someone has a boomerang effect making the tale-teller look bad. Thus, it’s important to maintain your cool and stay professional.

Bullying for Submission May Have Severe Consequences

Just because he/she is an individual against the might of a company, bullying them into submission can have repercussions. Let’s take the case of an Ex-Tesla employee Martin who claims the company intimidated and harassed him after he was fired, under allegations that he is a hacker and has transferred secret information to third parties. This has caused company goodwill, forming some negative perception among its employees that the company harasses its ex-employees.

Just Being Legally Right Is Not Enough

Last month Home Depot fired their staff member Maurice Rucker, a 60-year-old black man after he reacted to an irate customer who hurled racist expletives at him. He was fired because he failed to follow the protocol “disengage and alert management about a customer confrontation”. It doesn’t matter if the company had proper grounds for his termination, the truth is that Home Depot has been facing serious boycott issues from the thousands of angry supporters of Maurice Rucker. Your bylaws and legal arguments may be enough for the court of law, but it is not necessarily enough when it comes to public opinion.

A Small Gesture Goes a Long Way

A slight concession makes you look empathetic and generous. Loose some battles to win the war, let them win something in a small way, it makes the situation deescalate faster.

Be Quick to Respond to Rumors and Keep Moving Ahead:

Rumors have a way of feeding the frenzy, slurs should be pacified with an accurate and persuasive response. The response should be able to explain the counter-narrative without repeating the insult. It is also important to keep moving ahead - don’t let this clog your wheels, it becomes more essential to keep them turning. Make announcements and plans for the future, restoring the status quo and bringing back things to normal.

And finally, Learn, Adapt and Overcome. Facing such scenarios are inevitable for any business - some terminations will be sour - it comes to learning what needs to be learned and fixing what needs to be fixed, to avoid any problems in the future of similar nature.

For most organizations, human capital is often considered one of their biggest assets. With the rise of gig economy however, companies have been adopting a more flexible and fluid model and have begun to depend more on contingent workers and independent consultants. Now a functional dilemma arises before hiring this contingent workforce - considering the need is for a temporary resource, should it fall under procurement or does the human element make it the responsibility of the HR department?

Since the end of the 2001 recession, hiring contingent talent like freelancers, contract workers and consultants working under temporary agreements, has become an effective strategy for employers, especially during a period of sluggish recovery. Procurement is involved in obtaining quality goods and services for the company. It is the entity authorized to issue contracts, invitations to bid, requests for proposal and quotations in order to procure a certain commodity or service. It also specializes in contracting across the supply chain, managing vendor profiles by selecting them and then undertaking regular and frequent reviews using detailed evaluation methods. Companies usually invest in procurement to modernize the source-to-settle process. However, often the problem is that procurement has very little experience in managing and recruiting ‘people’ and tracking their activities, while HR is historically known to do this job more efficiently, utilizing tools designed for people management. HR professionals are responsible for hiring and administration of the overall workforce. There is a need for unidirectional efforts from both departments in order to make the entire contingent process more successful.

Collaborating and Creating Value

Creating value with temporary staffing is not as easy since it requires an effort in bringing both the Procurement & HR teams together to collaborate. The teams must set up a strong working relationship built with a foundation of mutual understanding that respects one another's capabilities. Procurement and HR teams must interact with one another without one trying to dominate the other. Procurement should understand the requirements of HR, directing them towards temp-to-permanent employee hires or may even support them through strategically sourcing staff members; while, the HR team should learn from procurement on how to properly manage, suppliers, vendors and market intelligence when it comes to temp resources.

An iCIMS study shows that temporary workers significantly contribute to the productivity of the company as they can provide a quick fix for sudden turnover, long-term leaves, and special projects. With the ever-changing business scenario, a flexible working approach may further boost the efficiency of temporary employees; however, it brings with itself more challenges for those concerned with the management of contingent staff, as companies move towards non-traditional styles of working.

Companies should build a collaborative team that is responsive and utilizes the best of what both departments have to offer. It should make sure that both procurement and HR teams are involved in setting parameters and processes which are beneficial for the company. Let them do what they do best, Procurement Team should handle the management of the Staffing vendors and MSPs, while HR team could assist with developing strong and productive relationships with the Contingent staff, utilizing Contingent Workforce Management (CWM) and other tools that are at their disposal. Clear division of responsibilities will ensure that the relationship with staffing vendors and the contingent staff is managed in a productive and workable way, adding value to the firm and enabling smooth running of its operations.