The Sydney-based Christian Not For Profit has reduced its time to recruit – and halved its vacancies – in the last 12 months.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is proving to be a game changer for recruitment across all sectors – now it is aged care's turn.

Just over 12 months ago, Anglicare – which has 4,000 staff and 2,000 volunteers – introduced Sapia.ai, a Victorian-based AI tool that bills itself as the world’s first AI Smart Interviewer.

Utilised by companies, such as Qantas and Woolworths, its technology screens and interviews candidates via text chat and creates a shortlist.

With a 15% vacancy rate and an average of 45 days to hire, Anglicare was keen to reduce these rates.

“The whole aged care industry has a challenge around getting enough candidates, so we wanted to try and create the best candidate experience for them through that process,” said Michael Eichler, General Manager of People Projects.

The platform has been used to assess over 1,800 candidates for its food and beverage roles, lifestyle and recreation roles and its Registered Nurses and carers in the residential aged care and home care space.

How does it work?

Working closely with Sapia.ai and a job psychologist, Anglicare developed questions to identify candidates that have the suitable skills and values to fit with the organisation.

Candidates answer questions through a chat process which uses an AI algorithm to determine whether they will be suitable for the role and receive instant feedback via the tool.

The result?

Anglicare’s time to hire has dropped to 13 days – a significantly faster turnaround time that benefits the organisation and the candidates.

“Given the current climate with cost of living, candidates are trying to find a suitable role as soon as possible,” said Michael.

“The faster we can get that turnaround for them, the better that process is for them.

“We are now receiving a happiness score from our candidates at 9.1 out of 10, and we have also seen improved diversity inclusion and equity outcomes because it helps avoid issues like unconscious bias.”

HR team not being replaced by technology

And despite some concern about being replaced by AI, the tool has been a positive experience for the talent acquisition team.

The endless calls to candidates, resulting in voicemails or no responses, are over.

“The team have been very positive about being able to get into some more value-added opportunities versus a pile of administration,” said Michael.

“They have been able to get more interaction with hiring managers and qualified candidates who are actually getting to that stage of interview process where you can get that personalised service.”

Employee turnover at its residential aged care sites has also dipped.

‘Old-fashioned’ referrals also delivering new staff

Anglicare is now moving to the next level of the platform where prospective nurses and carers that pass the first stage will receive link to do a video where they will answer a series of questions designed around the job.

This will then be sent back to the hiring manager to view and decide about whether the individual should progress to either a face-to-face interview or an instant offer.

The organisation is looking at other opportunities to use AI to recruit for non-frontline roles such as finance and IT and introducing chatbots for its careers website.

So, could AI replace traditional recruitment in aged care?

Michael notes that Anglicare’s biggest source of new staff is still ‘old-fashioned’ referrals from other team members promoting the provider as a great place to work – the provider has just increased the bonus for staff members who have a successful referral to $1,000.

Perhaps not then – but it can make a big difference to staying ahead of the competition.