More than nine in 10 schools are finding it difficult to recruit, according to a recent survey, with heads warning that educational standards may be “at risk”.
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) surveyed 766 school and college headteachers and found that 95% were experiencing difficulties when recruiting staff while 43% said the problem was “severe”*. Artificial intelligence could be the solution to this, as it can help massively in carrying out in-depth analysis and sorting within the recruitment process.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is defined as the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings.
AI tools are being used more and more by employers in multiple areas, such as recruitment, customer service, data analysis, etc. Employers should therefore be aware of potential claims in relation to AI.
Some examples of AI use in the workplace include:
• Recruitment: Employers can use AI algorithms that have the ability to look through CVs, application forms and perform online searches for prospective employees. AI can also be taught to imitate intelligent human behaviour, including the use of image recognition, which assesses individuals’ tone or facial movements. This can be used in video interviews or online tests to reduce cheating, etc.
• Customer service: You will have most likely come across this if you have ever shopped online. Chatbots are now huge part of most websites and are one of the most common AI features you will see. These are the bots that answer ‘FAQs’ and can direct you to a customer service assistant if needed.
• Data analysis: Employers may use AI to categorise data and find correlations between data sets. This could be useful for predicting whether employees will meet their targets, potentially leading to capability proceedings or dismissals.
AI can be a huge benefit within the workplace as machines can make decisions a lot faster than a human can and they can also carry out actions a lot quicker. Due to this, AI can lead to the following benefits:
Enhanced Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is often the make or break of an organisation, even in schools. If parents aren’t happy with the quality of education their children are receiving or the level of communication from the school, then it can have a critical impact. Many organisations use AI tools to provide better services to their customers and keep them happy (such as chatbots, mentioned above). AI often leads to faster service, especially with the small queries such as forgetting a password or looking for a web page, which are the areas that often frustrate customers the most.
Reduce Employee Turnover
Employee turnover can adversely affect the profits and productivity of a business due to things like hiring costs and the loss of knowledge when an established employee leaves. By using AI, organisations can decrease stress levels as workload can be decreased, leaving more time for employees to focus on the most important and meaningful tasks. This will in turn lead to a better work-life balance for employees and a happier workforce which are less likely to leave their jobs.
FACE-Ed, our recruitment software, is a great example of AI in the workplace. FACE-Ed uses automatic application scanning which reduces the risk of unsuitable recruitment. It also includes various other automated functions, such as automatic reference requests and checking and automated responses to successful/unsuccessful candidates, which both help to speed up recruitment whilst keeping the process secure.
To learn more about how FACE-Ed can automate and streamline your recruitment processes in education, request a demo today.
If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to give us a call on 01924 907319 or leave your details here and one of the team will be happy to help.
*Source: Evening Standard
