Kevin Tjon

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As this course draws to a close, I want to use this opportunity to continue my series on AI-based hiring tools and inform you of one other AI-based hiring tool that you may encounter in the near future: HireVue. If you haven’t already, please refer to my first blogpost about Pymetrics for more context on this series.

**Figure 1.** Accenture recruitment process (Via Accenture)

Assuming you have passed the online assessment stage (Pymetrics) in Figure 1, you will now advance to the digital (on-demand) interview stage. Most companies that follow this same structure, will be using the HireVue platform to conduct this interview.

What is HireVue?

HireVue is a software company that provides video interviews for the company you applied to. In this blog we will be focusing on their on-demand interview. In their on-demand interview, candidates are asked pre-determined questions (by the company) using the HireVue platform. Candidates record their answers to these questions, which are consequently submitted to the company.

Here is where it gets interesting: your recorded answers are not evaluated by a human recruiter, but by AI. HireVue uses voice and facial recognition software in order to analyze your answers and assign you a score. This score is then used to rank you amongst other applicants. More concretely, you are ranked based on your facial expressions, eye contact and movements, body language, tone, and keywords in your recorded answers.

How does the on-demand interview look like?

**Figure 2.** Example of a question on the HireVue interview platform (Via Cultivatedculture)

Figure 2 depicts a candidate that is in the midst of recording an answer to one of the pre-determined questions. Prior to a question appearing, a candidate will have 30 seconds to think about what he/she wants to say. The company you are applying to can decide whether they allow for retries (in case you mess up your answer). If they do, the number of attempts is usually communicated in the beginning of the interview (during my own personal experience with HireVue I had three attempts to answer a question).

Hirevue vs. Pymetrics

HireVue was introduced in the recruitment process for reasons similar to Pymetrics: to leverage (faster) AI-driven predictions that allow for increased diversity and mitigated bias when selecting applicants.

However, in contrast to Pymetrics, HireVue’s algorithm has faced large waves of public criticism. AI researchers have frequently voiced their concerns, claiming HireVue’s technology is ‘profoundly disturbing’. The criticism reached its boiling point late 2019, when prominent rights group Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed an official complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, urging them to investigate HireVue and its business practices. In response, HireVue announced in January 2021 that it would stop relying on facial recognition to assess their job candidates. However, they will continue to analyze other biometric data, including speech, intonation and behaviour.

Voice your opinion!

Having read the above, where do you stand in regard to HireVue? Would you welcome such an interview? Especially considering HireVue interviews may be used at the very company you have your sights set on (Accenture, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, etc.).

References

Did this blog pique your interest? Please refer to the used sources below for more in-depth coverage on this topic:

https://www.accenture.com/th-en/careers/local/recruiting-in-the-new
https://www.hirevue.com/blog/hiring/video-interviewing-guide
https://www.topinterview.com/interview-advice/what-is-a-hirevue-interview
https://searchhrsoftware.techtarget.com/definition/HireVue
https://cultivatedculture.com/video-interviews
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/10/22/ai-hiring-face-scanning-algorithm-increasingly-decides-whether-you-deserve-job
https://epic.org/2021/01/hirevue-facing-ftc-complaint-f.html

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By this time next year, most of you will have graduated from the master’s programme and made yourselves available on the job market. In this blog I want to shed some light on a gamified assessment called pymetrics games that you may possibly encounter during the assessment stage of a job application process.

For those of you who are not familiar with assessments or applying for jobs in general, the traditional job application process (as I have experienced it) generally looks something like Figure 1.

**Figure 1.** Traditional job application process (via Sierrasoln). ***Note:*** steps may vary depending on the type of job or sector.

The traditional (online) assessment stage will generally consist of:

ability tests measuring your performance when it comes deductive, numerical and logical reasoning;
personality test (questionnaire)

This is where Pymetrics comes in, a company that specialises in developing gamified assessments for recruitment purposes. Companies have opted to fully replace their aforementioned assessment stage with Pymetrics’ patented pymetric games. Some of the most notable companies being: Boston Consulting Group (BCG), JP Morgan, Accenture and Unilever.

What do these pymetric games entail?

The pymetric games are Pymetrics’ core product. It is an online gamified assessment in which candidates have to play through a series of 12 minigames that take two to three minutes each. The assessment uses neuroscience and AI in order to assess a broad range of 91 different cognitive traits. An example of one of the minigames is depicted in Figure 2.

**Figure 2.** Balloon minigame in which candidates can earn money with every balloon pump. Pumping too much will cause the balloon to explode and make you lose all your money for that respective balloon.

How does it work (in a nutshell)?

Pymetrics creates a custom algorithm for a company by having at least 50 top performers of said company play the pymetric games. Subsequently, this model is used as a benchmark when evaluating applicants’ results. Pymetrics markets its algorithm as entirely bias free, having succesfully subjected the algorithm to extensive AI audits in order to prove their claim.

So what’s the catch?

As my fellow peers Andrew Tan and Tamas Vincze have already explained in great detail: algorithms are inherently biased. In addition, an independent AI audit of Pymetrics’ algorithm found that although it passed the formal checks, the audit itself did not prove that the tool is bias free nor that it actually picks the most qualified candidates for a job.

This brings me to my question: how do you feel about an AI-based hiring assessment being put into practice? Would you much rather prefer the traditional online assessment? Having personally experienced both types of assessment, I am curious to see where my fellow peers stand, especially as you prepare yourselves for your job search.

References

Did this blog pique your interest? Please refer to the used sources below for more in-depth coverage on this topic:

https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/02/11/1017955/auditors-testing-ai-hiring-algorithms-bias-big-questions-remain/
https://digital.hbs.edu/platform-digit/submission/pymetrics-using-neuroscience-ai-to-change-the-age-old-hiring-process/
https://www.graduatesfirst.com/pymetrics
https://hackingthecaseinterview.thinkific.com/pages/bcg-pymetrics-test
https://www.jobtestprep.com/pymetrics-games#balloon-game
https://sierrasoln.com/hiring-process/

AI-based hiring tools: HireVue

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AI-based hiring tools: Pymetrics

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