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Companies across the U.S. are battling for top talent to transform their businesses, but some of them have more of a tech edge than others.
That’s the case with Google Cloud, the company’s cloud computing division, which has been using AI since last fall to improve its candidate matching and onboarding processes. The company has created its own AI product, Gemini for Google Workspace, which it says has become intertwined with most stages of talent acquisition.
“We’re constantly thinking about organization design for Google at large in recruiting,” Tracey Arnish, head of HR for Google Cloud, tells Fortune. “AI is at the center of every discussion that we’re having, and it’s really changing the way we’re thinking about traditional HR topics for good.”
The HR team first started enhancing the candidate matching process by using AI to parse through the company’s massive applicant pool. Arnish says that Google Cloud has a database of millions of workers who have applied to roles within the past few years, which they sift through to find talent matches for specific positions, and then reach out to the top contenders about job opportunities. By using advanced technology, recruiters say they’re able to source the best match within minutes. Prior to leveraging AI, Arnish says it would take hours to pull the right person. Now, that freed up time is spent elsewhere.
“With some very simple prompts, we can surface candidates that we never would have found in the old world,” she says. “This is allowing us to really think about how we position our recruiters into face-to-face human interactions with candidates that are necessary and will never go away.”
The company also leverages Google Gemini to pull background information on interviewees. When the hiring committee comes together to assess a group of applicants, the tech is deployed to collect all relevant internal feedback on the individuals. Trying to remember candidates’ unique facts and figures can be dizzying—but Gemini consolidates everything for HR workers.
“Based on prompts that I ask it, it will feed me insights from different interview panel members,” Arnish says. “That allows me to quickly summarize what people were sharing in terms of the positives that they saw in a candidate, versus me having to go back and read pages and pages of notes.”
Arnish says the new tech also cuts down employee onboarding time by speeding up the flow of information to new hires. Gemini feeds them the relevant particulars that they need to know in order to make decisions more quickly, which enables them to be productive and present in their positions sooner than before. It also customizes their experience by matching workers to development programs tailored to their career goals.
AI has already upended the conventional busywork of people management teams, according to Arnish, and Google Cloud will continue to look for new tech-enabled efficiencies. For now, everything from sending congratulatory emails to pulling a job candidate’s work history is entangled with Gemini.
“[AI] can change and improve not only the roles of employees, but also our roles,” she says. “We can spend less time on the administrative—which is unfortunately a large part of what HR gets saddled with—to more of the human interactions; the strategic and creative and innovative thinking.”
Emma Burleigh
emma.burleigh@fortune.com
Around the Table
A round-up of the most important HR headlines.
Ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft have won the right to continue classifying drivers as independent contractors in California following a year-long legal battle. WSJ
More than 500 World of Warcraft video game workers—including designers, engineers, quality testers, and artists—have voted to unionize. New York Times
About 60% of job postings on Indeed spotlight at least one worker benefit, a stark jump from less than 40% back in 2020, signaling a shift towards luring candidates with perks. Bloomberg
Watercooler
Everything you need to know from Fortune.
Niche. Mark Zuckerberg weighed in on his hiring strategy, saying that he values skills over certain degrees, and that favorable candidates should be able to “do one thing really well.” —Orianna Rosa Royle
Healthy habits. The U.S. Olympic team is employing a psychologist to support athletes through their mental health struggles and feelings of imposter syndrome. —Lindsey Leake
Battling inflation. Japan will increase its minimum wage by 5%, the biggest jump in baseline pay since the 1970s, in order to support low-income citizens struggling with high living costs. —Erica Yokoyama, Bloomberg
A(I)-Team. Google is rewarding staffers who submit “Golden prompts” that improve their AI products by giving winners golden bomber jackets and bonuses. —Eleanor Pringle
