This story is from June 17, 2018

Planning to quit? Your company may already know it

Startups are using artificial intelligence to change and simplify the way companies screen, hire and manage employees, even predicting the likelihood of their leaving
Planning to quit? Your company may already know it
Startups are using artificial intelligence to change and simplify the way companies screen, hire and manage employees, even predicting the likelihood of their leaving
CHENNAI: Filling forms for leave, reimbursements and annual appraisals are among the more tedious chores at work. Instead, some companies are experimenting with chatbots and games to get employees through these essential tasks.
Technology — more specifically, artificial intelligence — is changing and simplifying the way companies screen, hire and manage employees.
From identification of potential candidates based on social activity to automation of recruitment to personalised on-boarding and career mapping, AI has the potential to transform human resource functions, says Rajiv Jayaraman, co-founder, Knolskape, an HR tech startup.
Hyderabad-based Darwinbox, founded in 2015 by Chaitanya Peddi, Jayant Paleti and Rohit Chennamaneni, applies AI to match and rank CVs based on the role as well as predict attrition rates. “Our AI engine analyses a job description and candidate profile, and uses keywords to arrive at a ranking metric,” says Peddi, who is product head at the startup. So, if there are 400 applicants for a job, the system will shortlist 10-15 for the recruiter to talk to. “Cost saving, increased productivity, better talent acquisition and higher talent retention has resulted in 40% return on investment for our clients,” says Peddi.
For hiring managers, sifting through piles of CVs to find qualified candidates is one of the hardest tasks as the number of resumes received usually outstrips the positions available. According to HackerRank’s 2018 Tech Recruiting Report, regardless of company size or role, hiring managers say finding qualified candidates is the most difficult and time-consuming part of tech hiring — and getting that right solves every other business problem.

Companies such as Bengaluru-based Talview use video to cut interview time by half. “We conduct video interviews and our tools assess behavioural traits to evaluate culture fitment, communication skills and learning abilities,” says Sanjoe Jose, CEO of the five-year-old company that has partnered with tech giant Microsoft and launched a chatbot Qton.
Algorithms are written to emulate human behaviour. For instance, Darwinbox’s algorithm can be tuned to assign weightage to various criteria like education in IIT/IIM, work experience at a large MNC, and pick only resumes where the match is over 90%. “Some companies get close to 5,000 resumes in a week for one or two openings. In all likelihood, recruiters won’t look at most of these because it’s humanly impossible. This way, they can actually scan every resume, increase efficiency and reduce scope for error,” says Peddi.
In a sense, an automated process gives candidates have a better chance. Since the resumes are scanned by a machine, it can intelligently identify and “redirect” those who are suited for other roles. Every time there is an opening, the recruiter can select from the database of CVs, which means older resumes get a second chance. Peddi says often candidates simply drop their CVs even when there is no opening.
AI also aids background verification of employees, a difficult proposition when it comes to blue-collar workers. BetterPlace, founded in Bengaluru in 2015, does background verification, financial management, onboarding and skilling of blue-collared workers. “We use chatbots in vernacular languages to help skilling of blue-collared workers and AI/ML to optimise other aspects. This workforce is very informal, does not use technology, and lacks career progression and financial services. Use of data helps bridge the gap,” says Anupam Bonanthaya, chief marketing officer, BetterPlace.
The HR tech industry in India is worth $1 billion and is set to grow with investments this year. Traditional channels like job boards are not equipped to help recruiters with diversity efforts simply because there are fewer women candidates actively looking for new opportunities. In interactions with several companies, Belong found that hiring teams are actively looking for more women to balance gender ratios. To expand the pool of women employees, companies use Belong’s algorithm to find candidates based on public data. “HR startups are going beyond simple descriptive analytics to predictive and prescriptive analytics,” Rishabh Kaul, co-founder of Belong, says.
Another area within HR that has seen an uptick is skilling. Bengaluru-based Knolskape uses AI to understand learner profiles and assess leadership skills. Its video-based platform creates situations for employees to tackle. An AI layer picks up insights based on 15 parameters, including choice of words and tone of voice. As the employee plays the game, responses are recorded to judge aspects like leadership style, and used to train professionals for different roles.
Analytics and AI can be used to predict attrition too — as Darwinbox is doing with multiple pilots for clients. “For instance, it is typically those who are planning to quit who visit the page that has details on exit procedure. Typically, they do this two weeks before they put in their papers. Just tracking the number of hits the page gets and who visits the page can help correlate it with attrition,” says Peddi.
Karthik Reddy, managing partner at Blume Ventures, is betting big on HR tech. The early-stage investor has funded about half a dozen companies working on various aspects of HR. “When you are hiring in thousands, a talent map can offer a lot more predictability. With enough data, it is much easier for machines to do it. We are excited about the space,” says Reddy.
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