Is Being Efficient What Recruiting is All About?

A New Look at Efficiency vs The Human Element

We hear a lot about efficiency. Elan Musk’s DOGE is supposedly all about making the government more efficient, but at what human cost? We also hear that recruiting needs to be more efficient. The drive for efficiency seems to have become an omnipresent mantra, particularly with the rise of artificial intelligence in government, recruiting, and workforce management.

I have been a proponent of recruiting efficiency and have encouraged clients and readers to use automation and data-driven processes to streamline operations, reduce costs, and enhance overall performance. I still am, but with some caveats. Most recruiting processes are full of redundancy, unnecessary procedures, and bureaucracy that needs to be eliminated. However, using AI to reduce human aspects may not be wise.

What does efficiency mean to candidates? What does it do to quality and the candidate's experience? As I think about this more closely, I believe we may be focusing too much on automation and efficiency. History and human experience remind us that sometimes, systems that appear inefficient on the surface can be more resilient and effective in practice.

Operational efficiency is important, but its relentless pursuit can strip away the human elements that make organizations innovative, adaptable, and empathetic. In his book Small is Beautiful, the economist E.F. Schumacher argued that systems should prioritize resilience and human dignity over sheer output.

The Value of the Human Touch in Recruiting
Recruiting is not merely a numbers game. It is a human endeavor that involves understanding motivations, assessing cultural fit, and building relationships. For a long time, candidates' experiences with recruiters have been terrible. Has our focus on automation and efficiency improved it?

While AI-driven systems are good at screening resumes for predetermined information, scheduling interviews, and conducting preliminary assessments, they fail to recognize the intangible and intuitive qualities defining a great hire. The human touch in recruiting builds trust, fosters meaningful connections, and ultimately leads to better long-term employee retention.

Great thinkers have long cautioned against overreliance on efficiency. As the philosopher Aristotle once stated, "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts." In the context of recruiting, this means that while AI can process vast amounts of data with impressive speed, the insights derived from human judgment often include qualities such as empathy, creativity, and integrity—essential for organizational success.

The Inefficiencies That Foster Innovation
It is worth noting that many of the world’s most successful organizations did not achieve their status through rigidly efficient systems alone. Often, it is in the "inefficient" processes—those that allow for serendipitous encounters, unexpected ideas, and creative problem-solving—that true innovation emerges. For example, Silicon Valley’s culture of open office layouts, informal brainstorming sessions, and unstructured meeting formats might seem inefficient compared to tightly scheduled agendas and rigid processes. Yet, these seemingly inefficient systems have fostered creativity and innovation, reshaping entire industries.

A similar phenomenon can be observed in the world of recruiting. Traditional methods, which may appear slower or more cumbersome than automated systems, often allow recruiters to better understand candidate personalities, motivations, and potential cultural fit. These qualitative insights are difficult to capture through algorithms alone and are crucial for roles that demand a high degree of interpersonal interaction and adaptability.

Balancing AI Efficiency with the Human Element
In the current era, AI-driven efficiency is inevitable. Integrating machine learning algorithms and data analytics in recruiting has transformed the talent acquisition landscape by enabling faster processing, reducing human bias in preliminary screenings, and providing predictive insights into candidate performance. However, this technological shift does not mean the human element should be abandoned.

A balanced approach is required—one that leverages the strengths of both AI and human judgment. AI can be a powerful tool for handling the routine, data-intensive aspects of recruiting, thereby freeing human recruiters to focus on relationship-building and strategic decision-making. For instance, while an AI system might efficiently sift through thousands of applications to identify potential candidates, the final stages of the hiring process should involve human interactions, where nuances such as motivation, cultural alignment, and emotional intelligence can be thoroughly evaluated. This is the intent of the recently enacted EU AI Act.