Recruiting, artificial intelligence changes the rules: less selection, more relationship

There is one figure that perhaps more than any other tells the story of the current state of the labour market in Italia: around 10 million people (around 40% of the active population) are currently looking for a job or plan to change jobs in the next three years. It is a picture with sharp contours that taken by the research Changing jobs in Italia: experiences and expectations, carried out by Research Dogma on behalf of nCore HR, an all-Italian company that has been applying artificial intelligence solutions to the world of recruiting since 2019. The study thus returns the image of a dynamic system in continuous movement, in which what is changing (somewhat surprisingly) is also the age profile of those who move: in fact, it is the 45-65 age bracket that leads the turnover, representing 54% of the total. This figure is consistent with the ageing of the workforce and the employment growth of the over-50s already recorded in recent years. The motivations behind the declared desire to find another job remain partly traditional but with new nuances: for a 43% of workers seeking economic improvement or greater security, a significant proportion also point to personal satisfaction (this happens in 32% of cases) and opportunities for growth (25%)

The candidate selection process, in turn, shows lights and shadows. While 43% of jobseekers in the last three years have been hired, there is still a level of dissatisfaction mainly related to response times and the quality of interaction with recruiters. Only a minority declared themselves fully satisfied with the interview, highlighting an experience often perceived as not very effective. In this context, a far from marginal openness towards artificial intelligence also clearly emerges: almost one candidate in two looks favourably on its use in selection processes, trusting in greater speed, transparency and objectivity. The preferred model in any case remains hybrid, where technology and human relations coexist with respect to a balance to be built and consolidated.

And it is precisely on this yet-to-be-modelled balance that the change taking place in the search and selection activity is grafted. According to Enrico Ariotti, founder and CEO of nCore HR, artificial intelligence represents a concrete response to a model that has reached a level of complexity that is difficult to sustain. 'In recent years,' the entrepreneur explained to Il Sole 24 Ore, 'recruiting has become a very high-volume process, in which recruiters and managers are in many cases crushed by excessive workloads, accelerating expectations, and the multiplication of channels. In this context, AI is not a shortcut, but an infrastructure to bring order to the process: the problem is not how fast we can select, but how many people we lose along the recruiting path'. The central issue is therefore not speed, but the quality and sustainability of selection, to avoid the 'dispersion' that generates inefficiency for companies and candidates, with applications that get interrupted, talent that drops out, and procedures that lengthen.

Artificial intelligence intervenes precisely at this critical stage, automating repetitive tasks and reducing downtime, making the entire flow more linear and giving time back to the higher-value functions. 'More and more companies,' Ariotti observed in this regard, 'are not adopting it to do more, but to do better: less operational activities, more room for listening and more conscious decisions. This is not a trivial step, because such a change in perspective and approach affects the cultural aspect and nature of HR work. In concrete words, if in the past the focus was on managing resumes, today recruiting is shifting (at least in its intentions) to understanding people, ceasing to be a sequence of technical steps. This vision is perfectly summarised in the following concept: "We need to move from selection to relationship", summarises in fact the CEO of nCore, indicating a transformation that concerns not only technological tools but the paradigm of the process itself.

However, the technological evolution that will profoundly mark the world of work and selection activities specifically does not eliminate the role of people, but redefines it. Also in the light of the European regulatory framework, which limits the autonomy of machines and always assigns the final responsibility for the decision to the person. "AI intervenes above all in the initial stages of the recruiting process, making the management of data and applications more efficient, but it cannot have the power to recruit," Ariotti confirms in this sense, pointing out that the task of choice and the cognitive and decision-making component remain firmly in the hands of the human being, "and this is the model that we will see consolidate in the coming years.