Transforming Recruitment Processes with AI and Power Platform using Cognitive Search

I am Pascal Burume  Learn Student Ambassadors (microsoft.com), a Microsoft MVP and Gold Microsoft Student Ambassador with an unwavering passion for Artificial Intelligence, Power Platform, and data visualization research. I excel in finding new challenges and opportunities to push the boundaries of knowledge in these domains. I am curious and visionary, aiming to make a lasting impact with my research. I stay at the forefront of the field and use innovative methods to achieve transformative outcomes.

As a part of a program hosted by The Global Power Platform Bootcamp Nairobi in partnership with Cloud Advocate at Microsoft Julia_Muiruri.  The Bootcamp was completely free and was driven by the Power Platform user group and Dynamics User Group in Kenya and communities from around the world. During the event, we had the opportunity to attend hands-on sessions and labs that were led by experts and community leaders who had a wealth of knowledge and experience working with the Power Platform.

Scenario

In today's highly competitive job market, effective recruitment is essential for organizations to attract and hire the best talent. The quality of hires can have a significant impact on the overall success and performance of the business. However, traditional recruitment methods, such as manually reviewing resumes and conducting in-person interviews, can be inefficient and time-consuming.

These outdated recruitment techniques can lead to missed opportunities and delayed hiring decisions, which can harm an organization's competitiveness in the job market. Organizations that rely solely on these methods risk losing out on top candidates to competitors that are using more modern, efficient recruitment strategies.

To stay ahead of the competition and attract the best talent, organizations should consider adopting modern recruitment methods that leverage technology and data analytics. By doing so, they can streamline their recruitment processes and make better hiring decisions more quickly, leading to improved business outcomes and a more successful organization.

To overcome these problems, we proposed our HR recruitment process project with Microsoft services and technologies.

Solution
With the rapid advancements in technology, organizations can now leverage various tools and platforms to optimize their recruitment processes, improving efficiency, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness.

Our project aimed to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the HR recruitment process using Microsoft's Power Platform. To achieve this goal, we employed Power BI to track essential recruitment KPIs such as cost per hire, time to hire, and recruiter efficiency. Additionally, we created a Frequently Asked Questions resource using Power Apps to provide quick access to HR process-related information for HR managers and other users. Additionally, we utilized Power Automate to automate the task of requesting information from Azure Cognitive search and filling it into Power Apps to respond to queries.

This integration ensured that users could access accurate and helpful information quickly and easily, ultimately leading to a more efficient and effective recruitment process.

Features

• Power BI report to track the recruitment process. This report includes a record of all the CVs received, the number of CVs accepted and rejected from various sources. Additionally, we have included KPI measures to monitor the performance of each recruiter. This report provides valuable insights into the recruitment process and helps in making data-driven decisions. 

• Secondly, we track the cost per hire for each employee hired, to monitor the amount of money spent on recruitment efforts. This KPI helps organizations to optimize the recruitment budget and identify areas where we can reduce costs without compromising the quality of hires. 

• FAQ in Power Apps, this feature will help HR managers and other users in the HR department to quickly access information about HR processes and procedures. 

• To enhance the search process and provide relevant answers, we have integrated Azure cognitive search, a smart search engine that uses natural language processing and machine learning to provide relevant search results.
  
  Technical Overview
  
  
  

  
  Language Studio
  

  To seamlessly integrate an interactive question answering app into your Power BI report, we will leverage the capabilities of Azure's Cognitive Services. Among the Language APIs provided by Cognitive Services, there is a convenient and efficient option for creating and managing a question answering service.
  Language studio

  
  The question answering service proves to be invaluable when we aim to eliminate the need for users to sift through extensive textual documents and visuals. Instead, we strive to provide a user-friendly and intuitive approach for obtaining answers to queries.
  
  What better way to achieve this than by enabling users to ask questions naturally, just as they would when seeking assistance from a colleague?
  
  To use Azure custom question answering, you need to do these steps:

  1. Create a language resource with the custom question answering feature enabled in the Azure portal.
  2. Sign into the Language Studio with your Azure credentials and create a new question answering project.
  3. Add your data sources, such as URLs or PDFs, and edit the questions and answers extracted from them.
  4. Test your project and check the responses in the Language Studio.
     
     Custom question answering
     Once we finished, we can deploy the project and get an endpoint URL for our project.
     
     Get prediction URL
     
     The Overview HR 
     

     In this first Overview, we have information about Power Apps application and information about HR recruitment process. This allows you to welcome the users.

     
     Overview HR
     

     Ask a question visual It is the Power Apps application, which is integrated into Power BI, this component It allows user to ask questions about HR recruitment process, this allows to get answers about frequent ask questions about HR recruitment quickly. The Apps use a smart search engine with Azure Cognitive search and combine with Power Automat, to automate the action between Power Apps and Azure Cognitive search.

     
     Ask Question
     
     Adding Power Automate to call the question answering service 
     To seamlessly integrate Power Apps with the question answering service, our approach involves utilizing Power Automate to establish a streamlined workflow. This workflow will encompass an HTTP request, allowing us to transmit the user's query to the question answering service's prediction URL and receive a corresponding answer in return. From a technical standpoint, our objective is to initiate the workflow whenever a user selects the designated button within the Power Apps app to obtain an answer. The workflow will retrieve the contents of the input text field and include it in the body of the HTTP request.
     
     Subsequently, the output of the workflow will consist of the matched answer, which will then be displayed in the Power Apps app below the button, providing a clear visualization for the user.
     Power Automate
     
     Performance KPI
     

     Performance KPI, give a metric about HR recruitment process, such as Cost-per-hire which is the total cost associated with filling a job opening, including job postings, recruiter fees, background checks, and other expenses. Recruiter efficiency which is the number of qualified candidates sourced per recruiter and combine with average percentage of percentage pour candidates who rate the recruitment process positively, including factors such as communication, transparency, and fairness.

      

     Performance KPI
     

     
     Quick summary
     A quick summary, give an overview of different fields according to average and sum. This allows to reinforce the decisions based on visualization according to the observation of some metrics.

      

     
     
     Question and answer
     

     Question and answer, this last report give a possibility to a user or HR manger, to ask questions and get an insight visual based on data sources, we have too a graphic which shows time-to-hire that refers to the average time it takes to fill a job opening, which includes the time from posting the job to when a candidate is offered and accepts the position or rejected.

      

      Question and Answer
     Summary
      In today's competitive job market, organizations must adopt efficient recruitment methods to attract top talent. Traditional techniques like manual resume reviews and in-person interviews can be time-consuming and inefficient, leading to missed opportunities and delayed hiring decisions.
     
     To stay ahead, organizations should leverage modern recruitment strategies that utilize technology and data analytics. Our proposed HR recruitment process project with Microsoft services and technologies addresses these challenges. By leveraging Microsoft's Power Platform, we aimed to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the recruitment process. Key features of our solution included:
     
     
     • Power BI reports: Tracking essential recruitment KPIs such as cost per hire, time to hire, and recruiter efficiency. These reports provide valuable insights into data-driven decision-making.

      

     • Cost per hire monitoring: Tracking the amount of money spent on recruitment efforts for each employee hired. This helps optimize the recruitment budget while maintaining the quality of hires.
     • FAQ in Power Apps: Quick access to HR process-related information for HR managers and other users. This feature streamlines access to crucial information.
       
       
     • Integration with Azure Cognitive Search: Utilizing natural language processing and machine learning to enhance the search process and provide relevant answers.
     
     
     By leveraging these features, our project aimed to streamline the recruitment process, improve efficiency, and enable better decision-making. Ultimately, this would help organizations attract and hire the best talent, leading to improved business outcomes and a more successful organization.