Currently, applying for a job includes editing your CV, write a good application letter and hope that you will be invited for an interview. Some businesses are developing another way of how they choose candidates: they use artificial intelligence-driven ‘Hiring Intelligence’ technologies.
A problem which may occur during the hiring process is that most managers and recruiters have unconscious biases. Unconscious biases include making opinions about a candidate’s capability based on gender, ethnicity, voice, education and appearance (NOS 2017). Next to that, according to sociologist Bram Lancee (2019) from the University of Amsterdam, there is still a lot of discrimination during the hiring process: “the possibility that an applicant with Dutch background is approached is 30 per cent higher than that for candidates with a migration background.” (Van der Schrier 2019). Hiring Intelligence could therefore be a solution, which is an AI-powered platform that helps to wipe out the human bias during the hiring process.
There are several AI-based interview platforms that work with AI, like sentiment analysis, facial recognition, video analytics, neural language processing, machine learning and speech recognition. One example is of the startup VCV, which is an AI-powered platform which helps to wipe out the human bias during the hiring process in four steps (VCV n.d.). First, VCV Search Bot match resumes with job requirements. In this way, recruiters save a lot of time and biased choices of the preselection (VCV n.d.). Second, VCV involves a Chatbot which communications with job candidates, for example, to make an appointment for an interview. In the third step, the VCV conducts Voicebot for a phone interview (VCV n.d.). This Voicebot is capable of asking customized and screening questions (VCV n.d.). The last part is a video interview with voice recognition and video recording. VCV is capable of indicating the candidate’s non-verbal signals which guarantees fairness (VCV n.d.). There are already some clients of VCV, like PWC, L’Oreal, Danone and Mars (VCV n.d.).
Another example of the ‘hiring intelligence’-development is an unbiased interview by a robot named “Tengai” developed by Stockholm’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology (KTH RIOT). The first robot executes the job interview without unconscious biases, it prepares all questions in an identical way and typically in the same order, without chit chat (TengaiUnbiased n.d.). According to KTH RIOT, this creates an interview which is fairer and more objective (TengaiUnbiased n.d.). After the interview, the recruiters or managers receive a transcript which supports them in choosing candidates based on the job interview results (TengaiUnbiased n.d.).
In my opinion, Hiring Intelligence could be supportive in making a pre-selection based on the AI-based interview platform and be supportive during the hiring process, but Hiring Intelligence should not dictate the hiring process. Recruiters will have less work due to the functionality of the Hiring Intelligence. The Search Bot will contribute to make an unbiased pre-selection. I think the functionality of Chatbot of VCV could be useful for companies because it saves a lot of time for the recruiters and managers in coordinating interviews and communicate with the candidates. But in my perception, the phonecalls and interviews should be conducted by humans. I think that the VCV Voice Bot should suggest questions to the recruiter, but the recruiter should be able to ask other questions as well. I would feel uncomfortable and even more nervous if I would have an interview with a VCV Voicebot or a “Tengai”. The VCV should signals if there is a high result of negative non-verbal signals, but still, in this part of the hiring process, is it important for recruiters to follow their sense.
Bibliography:
VCV (n.d.) [Online] How much time do you spend recruiting one person? [Online] VCV Digital Recruiter. Available at: https://vcv.ai/ [Accessed Oct. 14 2019].
Van der Schrier, M. (2019) Nog volop discriminatie bij sollicitaties: inhoud cv maakt nauwelijks [Online] AD. Available at: https://www.ad.nl/ad-werkt/nog-volop-discriminatie-bij-sollicitaties-inhoud-cv-maakt-nauwelijks-uit~a7567cc9/ [Accessed Oct. 14 2019].
TengaiUnbiased (n.d.) Thanks for helping develop tngs interview robot Tengai. [online] Available at: https://www.tengai-unbiased.com/thanks-for-helping-develop-tngs-interview-robot-tengai/ [Accessed Oct. 14 2019].
NOS (2017) Hoe een computer straks over je baan beslist. [online] Available at: https://towardsdatascience.com/your-next-job-interview-may-be-with-an-ai-robot-34dbf4da6340
[Accessed Oct. 14 2019].
Dear Julia,
What an interesting read! I also believe that Hiring Intelligence would be an excellent support in assessing whether a candidate would have the required competences or educational background without discriminating.
However, is the robot also able to determine whether the candidate has the right soft skills or whether the candidate has the personality or interests that would fit your team/company best? I believe that these robots are perhaps not there yet, but that they will be the future.
Take a look for example at Equalture, which is a platform that uses AI algorithms and predictive hiring to find out what kind of employee would fit your company best, i.e. ‘what person would be a good hire’. With the use of predictive hiring, which is finding patterns in historical data and using these findings to predict future outcomes, they are able to increase the quality of a hire, augment hire efficiency and therefore earn more money.
https://www.equalture.com/blog/resumes-are-killing-your-hiring-predictability-and-this-is-why/
Hi Julia,
Thank you for an interesting article! Also, an interesting perspective on the hiring automatization and the use of artificial bots in the recruitment process. I would like to also comment on the negative sides of the AI use in the hiring process. As you mentioned, not only does it save time and money, but also it increases efficiency and is unbiased towards the applicant. However, the current technology may have its own pitfalls. Many times, the automation tools are far from being perfect and when dealing with non-standard format of resume, it may fail. Moores (2017) points out, that the applicants may have unusual work experience, which can be a good fit for the job position and the company, however can be undetected by the automatic mechanism the company uses. Besides, Moores (2017) demonstrates, that once you know the hiring robots’ mechanisms, then you are able to trick the system to show you are a good fit, while you still are not.
Finally, in my opinion the applicants do not like to be assessed by a non-human. It may show a lack of respect towards applicants, literally meaning ‘we do not have time for you, so therefore we use AI for it), but also shows that the recruiting company may have weak interpersonal relations, therefore being afraid to deal with candidates face-to-face.
Nevertheless, I truly believe, that AI may help in recruitment process, however I believe it needs to be used more carefully (e.g. on the initial stage) to keep showing the respect to the applicants.
Reference:
wethetalent.co/experience-at-work/pros-and-cons-of-recrutiment-automation