By Joan Kelly
Exclusively written for atapglobal.org
Is a robot going
to determine whether you get your next job? Probably not yet, but recruiters
are already using AI to make the first rounds of cuts. AI automation tools are
saving both time and money for recruiters with 67% of hiring managers last year
noting how AI was saving them precious time sifting through candidates.
Critics, however, argue that AI can introduce biases, and remove human
accountability and transparency. Executive Director of Global Talent
Acquisition at CSG International, Max Rocha
cautioned that automation for automation’s sake will often create more problems than it does solutions. AI is
still in its nascent stages, therefore, careful consideration should be given
to the extent of control it is given.
Despite this, it is estimated that by the end of
2020 two-thirds of staffing firms around the world will adopt AI-driven
applicant tracking systems, while 79% of
large enterprise staffing firms will have done the same. As such, AI is poised to tackle some
of the core challenges facing today’s recruiters and helps improve the
marketing of open job requisitions, productivity, performance and candidate
sourcing, and matching. Key AI implementations that will have a significant
impact on talent recruiting for staffing firms include ideal “candidate
cloning” to identify similarly qualified candidates, chatbots that improve
communication channels, especially when it comes to Gen Zers and millennials,
and resume harvesting to help firms find internal candidates to fill future
openings.
While recruiters most often use AI to find
talent externally, companies like Google and UnitedHealth Group use AI to help
power internal talent deployment and advancement. To ensure plenty of
experience and new challenges for their employees, Google wants employees to
move around teams, departments, and even global offices. Employees rank their
top choices for deployment while an AI using
Gale-Shapley Deferred Acceptance Algorithm pairs them with a suitable location. The system has been running for three
years now and has provided greater transparency and employees feel more control
over internal deployments.
Another area where predictive AI is used
internally is finding in-house talent. A feature by
Marcus on AI in human resources explains how UnitedHealth Group use an algorithm that
lets the company identify leadership qualities. This is done through leveraging
work data, which allows their executives to identify early on which employees
they want to groom for future leadership roles. AI enables human resources
managers to proactively identify the best passive talent within the company and
refer them to the right department or manager.
But while recruitment and HR departments are
touting AI as the next messiah, critics are warning that AI systems can
inadvertently learn to be racist, sexist and biased in various ways. For
instance, HireVue, a company that produces a job interview video platform using
AI to assess candidates came under fire when lawyers at the Electronic Privacy
Information Center (EPIC) filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission
(FTC). They alleged that HireVue’s system is biased, inaccurate and lacks
transparency, moreover, it could inherently be built to discriminate against
people with disabilities. Professor of organizational behavior at
Stanford, Adina Sterling
also noted how an AI could drive its preferences towards a single type of
candidate and miss a
more unconventional applicant who would nevertheless be a good fit.
In light of this, with the introduction of the
Algorithmic Accountability Act in Congress this year, it grants the FTC
authority to create regulation to check automated decision systems like AI for
bias. But when it comes to hiring, the one thing that people have always valued
is the human connection. In a race to save time and money, hiring managers are
forgetting the most important aspect of hiring – the human element. AI tools
used by recruiters, in large part assess whether a candidate’s skills and
education are a good fit. However, skills can be taught, personality and other
human traits can’t, and as of yet, AI is not smart enough to assess whether a
candidate’s personality is the right fit for a company’s team or culture.
