Ai-Enabled Recruitment and Selection: Challenges and their Impact on Employee Engagement in the Manufacturing Industry-A Study with Special Reference to Chennai

Abstract

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) into human resource activities has greatly changed the way that manufacturing companies attract, assess and choose talent. Although AI-assisted recruitment tools offer the advantages of speed, cost-effectiveness and objectivity, they also bring about problems such as algorithmic bias, a lack of transparency, concerns about data privacy and a decline in the human element of the hiring process – all of which can influence how engaged employees feel when they join the organisation. This study looks at the problems connected with AI-assisted recruitment and selection and the effect of these problems on employee engagement among workers in the manufacturing sector in Chennai. A structured questionnaire was given to 300 respondents selected from manufacturing firms in the Chennai metropolitan area, and the study uses percentage analysis, descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations), independent samples t-test, one-way ANOVA (F-test), two-way ANOVA, exploratory factor analysis and the Kruskal-Wallis H test to look at the challenges that are perceived and how they are related to employee engagement. The results show that concerns regarding data privacy and the loss of the human touch are seen as the most important challenges, that engagement levels differ significantly among different groups based on gender, experience and job position, and that three main factors. Technological and Data Concerns, Human-Centric Concerns, and Skill and Adaptability Concerns account for a large part of the variation in employees' perceptions. The study ends with recommendations for managers on how to design a well-balanced, human-centred AI recruitment framework for the manufacturing sector