Companies are largely investing in artificial intelligence in order to cut out recruiting costs. This could mean bad news for humans, who now need to convince robots they deserve the job. This one certainly can’t be easier than a face to face conversation where you could win them over with your charm. Unfortunately, charm doesn’t work on computers.
Head psychologist at HireVue, Nathan Mondragon, together with his colleagues helps provide software services for screening over applicants. As according to him, the right choice in any hiring decision if focusing on the little things. Their product has been primarily used by Goldman Sachs and Unilever, where candidates were asked to answer questions in front of a camera.
Little do they know that behind the camera like the equivalent of a team of psychologists taking in every single little detail, such as posture and changes in it, facial expression, eye contact and movement, and vocal tone. Such details are perceptible by the human brain but never to this extent and precision, and it turns a lot of the candidates down due to it.
The future entails less human interactions and more tech-human interactions, even during interviews.
The answers they are provided with are broken down into so data points which are understood by the computer. These are both verbal and non-verbal cues, such as a shift in eye movement, a change in head and shoulder posture etc.
They are all programmed into revealing whether the candidate is the right one for the job. The cues are given scores in the end and compared against one another. It almost scores on a curve as the program is set to compare against current employees who are the top performing ones. The idea behind the program is simple: a high performing current employee’s behavior should match the prospective one they are trying to hire.
With a large influx of applicants, employers are turning to AI to find the perfect candidate.
This approach to hiring has been previously used in police and intelligence, but a clear line of success was difficult to spot. However, Mondragon claims his software has had very high success, as the microanalysis of expressions allows for an assessment of their personality and their ability at the same time. The use of the software has made for far better employment choices, lower turnover rate and happier customers for him.
There are a lot of companies alongside HireVue who are intelligently using Artificial Intelligence in unexpected aspects of our lives. Using it to cut off recruitment costs is utter brilliant, particularly considering this market is worth about $ 3 billions a year.
The UK ran a study in which it concluded that in every low-wage job, there are an average 24 applicants for it. Bigger companies such as Tesco, who is the largest private employer in the country, receive as much as three million job applications per year (as in 2016). The use of AI in this sector is inevitable once introduced in the market. These applications are even further on the rising, therefore employers are not looking back on their AI decisions.
The video captures humanly imperceptible aspects of candidates, both verbal and non-verbal cues such as eye focus shift, or posture.
Another similar software is that of MYA, which has been used by a retailer in hiring warehouse staff. Upon completion of the recruitment process, the company reported a 79% decrease in the time spent filing a position, in addition to a 144% improvement in the productivity of each recruiter. This last one has been achieved certainly through using technology. The benefit from job seekers in this case, as mentioned by the CEO, lies in the guaranteed response from Mya shortly after it has made its decision.
The start of this was the simple automated CV scan who looked for keywords and blurred out the rest of the test. Companies who care about their recruitment have indeed come a long way, as the programmed software now has built-in psychometric tests, quizzes, games, and chatbots who can and do reject applicant just at a very short glimpse of their CV.
Being successful during an AI video interview, candidates must be aware of the things they are being micro-analyzed at, and work towards improving those behaviors
For job seekers, this means they need to be aware of the format the position they are applying for requires. A simple way of indenting or listing your skills could throw off the system as it does not match, and unqualify you for the position.
As if the application process had not been dreadful enough, we now all have to think more about our posture, tone of voice and how much we shift our eye focus. The cues we give off about ourselves are apparently all that really matter in an interview with a robot.