Fewer talent pros felt automation changed hiring in 2023, as compared to 2018

If your perception of time is as warped as ours following the pandemic, it may be hard to believe 2018 was five years ago. And since then, the recruiting game has changed a lot.

One-half of HR pros surveyed by people insights company SHL said they felt automation changed their hiring processes in 2018. By comparison, just 17% felt that way in 2023.

So, what’s changed?

Old news. In 2018, HR processes were starting to be automated, Sara Gutierrez, chief science officer at SHL, told HR Brew, so talent pros saw the tech change recruiting in real time. Five years later, much of what recruiters do—from how they search for candidates to how they structure interviews—has been automated, so there’s not much change to observe.

“There’s less potential perceived improvements that they feel automation can drive,” Gutierrez said. “It’s no longer: ‘Wow, we’re going to decrease these processes from three weeks to four hours.’ Because we’ve already seen that built in, and there’s less room for improvement to come.”

Don’t get it confused. The sentiments expressed by talent pros in SHL’s survey shouldn’t be confused with how they view AI, Gutierrez said. Generative AI, she expects, will change the game again—it’s just too soon to see how.

“Generative AI is still so new to so many within our field that [we] don’t have that vision yet of ‘what can I do with this?,’” she said. “It’s up to all of us in the industry to help paint the picture that things could get a lot easier if we incorporate [AI] tools into our processes.”