Tag Archive: Talent Selection

  1. How Crisis Has Shifted Hiring in 4 Big Industries

    After years of growth and low unemployment rates, there’s no question that the COVID-19 pandemic changed the hiring landscape almost overnight. By mid-April, the number of unemployed reached 22 million, wiping out a decade of gains in just four weeks.

    At the same time, the crisis created a boom in certain pockets of the economy, including essential businesses and businesses that had (or were able to quickly pivot to) an online model.

    Since the crisis began, our data shows a spike in the number of companies using video interviewing software. This tells us two things: that hiring is still happening, and that video is key in supporting the shift to a digital model, one that may stick around long after the outbreak ends.

    Leading the shift to digital hiring are these four industries:

    1. HR and staffing
    2. Manufacturing
    3. Health and medial
    4. Retail

    Graph of video interview adoption by industryOther early adopters include baking and financial services, education, sports, and IT. Here’s a look at what’s happening in the top 4 industries: 

    HR and staffing

    It seems only logical that HR and staffing would be among the first to adopt video interviewing, as they represent a cross-section of industries. Outside of specialized staffing where demand has fallen, companies continue to rely on these services during the pandemic.

    While the staffing industry has shown it’s ability adapt to a digital model, there’s concern about hiring managers, who are in uncharted territory. As Human Resource Executive magazine points out, “Managers typically receive training in the basics, but now, we’re in a whole new world. How do we help them through the nuances of video interviewing, virtually onboarding new hires, building a virtual team?” 

    Getting the right tools in place makes this transition easier, especially as hiring slows in some industries and picks up in others. And should remote work become more popular on the other side, the organizations that took the time to prepare will be well-positioned when the hiring resurgence happens. 

    Manufacturing

    In manufacturing, supply chain disruptions have some companies ramping up production to meet increased demand. Similar to HR and staffing, manufacturing touches multiple sectors, including many on the frontlines.

    Reports USA Today, GE Healthcare is hiring additional manufacturing employees to help meet the need for personal protective equipment like face masks as well as ventilators, CT machines, ultrasound devices, mobile X-ray systems and patient monitors. The same is true of cleaning supply manufacturers and others creating newly necessary items.

    The only problem is, as MarketWatch shares, “In the manufacturing industry, many employers are actually struggling to fill openings because the positions have become more technically sophisticated than they were in past decades.” 

    Here’s where the right recruiting technology solutions can help these organizations source, screen, and assess potential candidates, working to make sure reqs are filled with the right people, even when in-person interviews aren’t an option.

    Health and medical

    Since the U.S. declared a public health emergency at the end of January, health and medical organizations have been working around the clock to find workers to take care of patients.

    The Office of Personnel Management even implemented new guidelines as part of its COVID-19 Excepted Service Hiring Authority initiative to expedite the hiring process. States like California have changed the rules to “free up more doctors and nurses,” contacting those already retired and relying on the support of advanced students.

    The health and medical arena are also in the midst of digital disruption, as telehealth becomes increasingly useful. 

    Between the need for qualified talent and a call to move patient interactions online, video is apt to serve a larger number of organizations in the coming days, weeks, and months. No surprise that a quick Indeed.com search for “healthcare” in the U.S. yielded close to 65,000 openings, ranging from medical assistants to patient care specialists. 

    Retail

    Though retail as a whole isn’t doing too well, with temporary and permanent closures across the country, there are pockets of hiring going on. Most of this activity is taking place in grocery and hardware stores, both of which are considered essential in most states, including the hardest-hit like New York and New Jersey. 

    Convenience store chain 7-Eleven is hiring 20,000 for positions across the U.S. The parent company of Safeway and Acme is looking to hire 30,000 new associates. In March, Kroger was planning to hire 10,000 new workers but ended up hiring more than double that. Tractor Supply Co. and Ace Hardware are following suit, while online retailers like Amazon continue adding to their workforce, hiring 100,000 in March and another 75,000 in April.

    Even for temporary roles, high-volume scenarios necessitate a structured approach to hiring, one that makes it possible to interview multiple candidates in a short time frame. 

    When the pandemic ends…

    It will have changed recruiting and talent selection as we know it. If you’re considering making digital hiring part of your strategy, you’re in good company. No matter what industry you’re in, digital hiring will provide a way for you to continue operating in crisis, or support you on the road to recovery.

    Learn more about the benefits of digital hiring, or use our digital hiring solutions free for 60 days.

  2. 3 Reasons Why Employers Should Care about Accessibility

    When your online experiences aren’t accessible, you shrink your recruiting reach – and the diversity inside your company – by 15%.

    Over 1 billion people around the world have some form of disability, according to The World Bank. That’s 15% of the global population. If you don’t happen to be part of that 15%, you probably haven’t thought much about accessibility. Until now.

    As we enter a new decade, we’re seeing accessibility move closer and closer to a tipping point. Digital natives are gaining influence, and voices on social media are louder than ever. On top of that, diversity has evolved from a conversation to a full blown revolution.

    These things have converged and are all directing out attention to the issue of accessibility. Frankly, it doesn’t make business sense to ignore it any longer.

    According to a recent poll, 30% of HR leaders said they’re making accessibility improvements. Forty-one percent said “I know it’s important and want to learn more,” and 28% said  “Eager to make improvements, just need budget and a plan.”

    Poll results - we asked HR leaders "Where are you in your accessibility journey?"

     

     

     

     

     

    If you haven’t started on your accessibility journey, you’re not alone. But, that’s no excuse to throw it on the back burner. Here are 3 reasons why you should make accessibility a priority in 2020:

    1. Legislation is coming.

    Remember GDPR? When GDPR became law in the EU, companies all over the world went frantic. One day the switch was flipped, and if you hadn’t been proactive about it, you were suddenly out of compliance with data privacy laws effecting a major chunk of the globe. It can happen that fast, or at least it seems fast when you don’t see it coming.

    So here it is. We’re telling you now. Accessibility is following the same trajectory as GDPR, and it won’t be long until we see suggestions and guidelines turn into laws.

    2. Accessibility shows you care.

    At this point, you have to ask yourself, What kind of business do I want to be? What kind of culture do I want to create? Choosing not to be accessible sends a message that diversity isn’t important enough to take action on.

    Picture your logo, stamped with a big red disclaimer that says:

    • People with disabilities may not make it through our application process.
    • People with disabilities don’t have equal access to tools and resources in our company.
    • People with disabilities will encounter barriers that keep them from thriving here.

    The last thing you want is to be ‘found out’ for allowing this to happen. Luckily, no one expects you to achieve a 100% accessibility overnight. As long as you’re taking steps, even baby steps, you’re moving in the right direction.

    A good mantra to follow is:

    “Be better today than we were yesterday.”

    3. Accessibility has a cost. Not being accessible has an even greater cost.

    Beyond the hit to your brand reputation, think about what your losing when you don’t provide accessible experiences. While the war for talent rages on, can you really afford to exclude 15% of the population from applying to your jobs? Can you risk losing 15% of your talent to companies that are more inclusive?

    In a world where innovation is king and curiosity is an employer’s #1 competency, even a small improvement can make a world of difference. Imagine increasing diversity of thought in your company by 15%. Based on research, you can bet you’d see more than a 15% return.

    I’m sold. Now what?

    Since accessibility matters for web apps, mobile apps, digital media, and basically everything your candidates and employees touch, it can feel like an impossible project. Here are some tips to help you get started:

    • Find help. You don’t have to do it alone. There are companies out there that specialize in accessibility. They can provides audits, training, whatever you need. You’ll also want to find an internal champion (or group of champions!) to keep the wheels moving.

     

    • Look for like-minded partners. Because technology operates in an ecosystem, you’ll need to make sure your vendor partners are on the accessibility journey, too. They don’t be completely mature, or even in the same place as you. But they need to be on the journey.

     

    • Follow the guidelines. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is considered the gold standard in accessibility and is used all over the world. This framework provides specific and clear-cut guidance for designers, developers, and anyone interested in creating accessible experiences.

     

    • Start a focus group. Accessibility often involves making changes that are invisible to people without disabilities. How will you know it’s working? There are tools and widgets you can use, but also, get feedback from people with disabilities and people who use assisstive technologies.

     

    • Take a step. Don’t stall the project because you don’t know where to start. Like any big undertaking, you’ll need to prioritize and take a phased approach. Find a place in the business where you think you’ll see the biggest impact from accessibility improvements. Or, find a low-risk place to experiment. What matters most is that you start.

    To learn more about accessibility and how to get started, watch our webinar: How to Get a Win for Diversity & Accessibility in 2020.

    Title slide to webinar - How to Get a Win for Diversity & Accessibility in 2020

  3. 3 Ways to Get Creative With Video Interviewing

    Video interviewing sounds self-explanatory, right? It enables recruiters and hiring teams to screen candidates remotely rather than in person. But, there’s much more to it than meets the eye!

    As you look deeper into live and pre-recorded video interviews, you’ll begin to see opportunities far beyond what a basic video chat can provide. Then factor in scoring and collaboration, and the technology becomes even more powerful, driving the selection process from scheduling to decision making and everything in between. But that’s not all video interviewing is capable of – in fact, it’s not limited to selection at all!

    Depending on the source, anywhere between 49 and 60 percent of employers rely on video interviewing, which means that roughly half of hiring teams have the technology at their disposal. So, it comes as no surprise that companies are thinking outside the frame and finding innovative uses for video interviewing, beyond interviewing.

    Really, the applications are limitless. Here are a few ways we’ve seen companies get creative with video interviewing:

    Connecting mentors and mentees

    One early adopter of video interviewing almost immediately identified a unique use case for the platform. In addition to using on-demand interviews in place of time-consuming phone screens, this organization also uses the technology to match its high potential employees with mentorship opportunities.

    It works like this: Using the video interview platform, hi-po’s answer a few questions about themselves, in essence, generating a personal profile, which HR then shares with its executives for selection purposes. Doing this, the organization sees higher engagement and a faster response rate from mentors. At the same time, hi-po’s are given a touchpoint with senior leaders and the support they need to advance their careers, which in turn boosts employee retention and satisfaction rates.

    Getting instant feedback after onsite interviews

    Another organization, focusing on the onsite candidate experience, set up video interview ‘stations’ to collect feedback from candidates immediately after their onsite interviews. Previously, this hiring team relied on surveys to measure sentiment about its onsite interviews, sending these out to candidates after their meeting. To avoid any delay, this organization began using live video interviews to capture how candidates feel before they leave the building. Thanks to video, candidates are given the chance to fully express themselves while the onsite experience is fresh in their mind.

    For candidates, this reinforces the organization’s commitment to them while offering an immediate outlet for any thoughts following an interview. At the same time, the organization benefits from an increased completion rate on feedback forms and an additional reference point for each candidate – all in all, improving both the candidate and recruiter experiences.

    Introducing candidates and employees

    There’s always the opportunity to innovate within the selection process, too, as we’ve seen happen at several forward-thinking organizations. One in particular, with a two-person campus recruiting team, uses video interviewing to introduce current employees to student job seekers.

    To do so, they have various employees – from hiring managers to custodians – share their role and a little about themselves before recording an interview question for the candidate to answer. When these interviews are sent out, they deliver an inside look at the organization that showcases the breadth and diversity of its workforce. So, in a seven-minute interview, candidates get to ‘meet’ seven different people in seven different positions and really get to know them – and the organization – better. This is especially important in today’s candidate-driven market, where many job seekers have their pick of potential employers.

    Finding your use

    Until the advent of video, it was tough to get creative with interviews (outside of asking odd-ball questions like, “If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be and why?”) Now, with technology fueling the way, interviewing has become inventive and immensely flexible, opening up a host of use cases.

    As a platform to pitch community outreach ideas or help keep remote workforces engaged, video is the best medium for connecting with an audience, whether that’s job seekers, employees, or both. And, if you’re already using video interviewing, or considering it, why not share the love with other parts of the business and get as much value from the tool as possible? There are no hard and fast rules with this technology, and the best part is, it’s incredibly easy to implement, adapt, and experiment.

    Where you go with video interviewing is completely up to you. It all depends on what you’re looking to accomplish – and how creative you want to get!

  4. The Benefits of Video Interviewing in Recruitment

    Winning the best talent in a tight labor market calls for new and innovative recruitment tactics. What worked even a few years ago doesn’t work anymore. Manual touches from recruiters are slow and unscalable, while fully automated processes feel cold and robotic. You need faster ways of filling openings, and better ways to engage candidates – not to mention a clearer, more consistent path to hiring the right people for your company.

    If you’ve started using online tools like pre-employment assessments, you’re on the right track. These tools can help streamline your recruiting by instantly shortlisting top matches for the job. Newer, next-gen assessments are beautifully branded with sleek user interfaces, helping you stand out as innovative to potential hires.

    But this is only part of the solution. Next, top matches need to be reviewed, phone screened, and interviewed, which can be a very time-consuming leg of the process. What if you could make all this faster and more collaborative, while still creating strong connections with your candidates?

    With video interviewing software, you can! You’ll not only enjoy increased collaboration and efficiency, you’ll also benefit from greater consistency across interviews, as well as flexibility in reviewing candidates anywhere, anytime. This allows your teams to recruit the best talent, faster.

    By adding video interviewing to your recruiting process, you will…

    Increase candidate engagement

    With video interviewing, your teams can design pre-recorded and live interviewing experiences to better engage with candidates. Companies can share branded content like welcome videos, connect with candidates and team members anywhere, and deliver a consistent message. Everything from the look and feel of the interview to the questions that are asked align with your company’s core values and are showcased to potential employees, giving them a one-stop introduction to your company.

    Identify the best talent faster

    In a tight job market, you need to identify the best candidates and recruit them before your competitors. With video interviewing, candidates can respond to an interview quickly, because there’s no need to take time off from their current job or travel in. Hiring teams can watch candidate videos as soon as they’re complete and select their top recruits right away, rather than waiting for phone screens, which could take days or weeks to get done. Instead, you’re on to secondary interviews without wasting any time!

    Save recruitment costs

    Meeting more candidates virtually means you can save onsite interviews for your most qualified finalists – which is especially important when you factor in travel expenses. But even without travel, you want your hiring teams focused on top contenders so they can make the right hire faster. Video interviewing helps drive efficiency, which reduces time to fill and productivity loss. On top of that, a better screening process will improve interview-to-hire ratio and overall quality of hire.

    Reduce bias

    Video interviewing is a great way to create consistency in your screening process and level the playing field for your candidates. Every candidate applying for a position is given the same questions, the same time to think, and the same time to answer. This makes apples-to-apples comparison easy and provides much-needed structure in place of unguided conversations that often veer off course. Hiring teams then score responses against pre-define criteria, which keeps evaluations fair and gives all interviewees an equal shot.

    Improve collaboration

    With video interviewing, you’ll meet more qualified candidates earlier in the process. Not only that, recruiters and hiring teams will be more connected, even if they’re not in the same location, thanks to increased collaboration and transparency. Pre-recorded and live video interviews can be shared, scored, and commented on immediately, so teams won’t waste any time tracking each other down for feedback. Since evaluation is collaborative and real-time, hiring teams will make better decisions faster.

    Learn more

    Read more about how video interviews work, or watch our 3-minute tour!

  5. What Is a Digital Interview & How Does It Work?

    A digital interview is an interview that’s set up online by an employer and sent to out candidates. In a digital interview, candidates can chat live on their webcam with members of the hiring team, or record themselves answering questions for the hiring team to review at their convenience.

    Growing your team and bringing new people into your company is exciting. But, reading resumes, phone screening, interviewing candidates, and debriefing with colleagues afterwards might soon consume all your work hours.

    What if, instead, you could find your top candidates faster, and then spend this time building stronger relationships with them?

    Traditional interviewing is costly and time consuming for a company, and for the person being interviewed – because at most companies, the interviewing process is unstructured and inefficient. One-to-one meetings are typically unscripted, inconsistent, and wholly dependent on the skills and bias of the interviewer. Without real scalability, companies are wasting time and resources on a process that doesn’t always lead to great hires.

    This is why more companies are exploring digital interviews as part of their hiring strategy.

    What is a digital interview?

    Digital interviews come in two forms: pre-recorded and live.

    In a pre-recorded (or on-demand) video interview, employers select questions from a question library or an interview guide and ask candidates to record their answers. Candidates are usually given a minute or two to think, and then a few minutes to answer. Candidates can complete their recording whenever and wherever they’d like. Some employers go the extra mile to record themselves asking the questions to candidates, rather than simply showing the question in text on the screen. This gives the interview a two-way feel and is a great way to introduce candidates to your brand, culture, and people.

    A live interview can be any kind of two-way chat over video. You can use the same video conferencing tool you use for meetings, but a video interview solution will give you extras, like the ability to create branded interviews, plus record, share, and leave feedback.

    Of the 9,000 talent leaders and hiring managers surveyed in LinkedIn’s Global Trends Report, 18% said they have mostly or completely adopted new interview tools, and 56% rated new interview tools as an extremely important.

    What are the benefits of a digital interview?

    Efficiency

    Hiring teams can review at least 3 pre-recorded interviews in the time it would take to conduct one 30-minute phone screen. These teams can easily collaborate on hiring decisions with access to the same real-time technology and data across an organization, improving efficiency and filling positions with the best candidates faster.

    After adopting video interviewing, Adidas reduced initial candidate screening time from 60 minutes to 20 minutes. Virgin Atlantic improved recruiter efficiency by 3X, and Retailer Bealles reduced overall time to hire by 56 days.

    Flexibility

    Not only do hiring teams have the flexibility to review interviews when and where it best fits their schedule, candidates are able to complete a digital interview from any location, any time. This is critical in a tight talent market where most candidates are already employed and not available during normal business hours.

    Diversity

    Digital interviews help companies cast a wider net and reach a larger, more diverse pool of qualified candidates. By eliminating the need to travel to or even live in a certain area, digital interviews give more candidates the chance to tell their story and show who they are beyond their resume.

    Quality

    Digital interviews create a consistent, structured interview format that leads to improved hiring outcomes. Research shows that consistent interview questions leave less opportunity for unconscious bias, and scoring systems create much-needed structure and accountability in interviews, resulting in better quality hires for your organization.

    Innovation

    All companies want to attract the best candidates. With digital interviewing, companies not only showcase their innovative approach to hiring, but also engage potential talent from across the globe. Just as candidates’ videos bring the resume to life, companies can leverage video to illustrate the best elements of their culture and brand.

    To learn more about digital interviews, download The Ultimate Guide to Video Interviewing.

  6. Looking Candidates in the Eye: Compliance in Video Interviewing

    Before video interviewing software, everything from the initial phone screen to the live interview was a low-tech operation. Now, thanks to interview technology, we have efficiency, and we have options. Options for candidates to interview during off hours from the comfort of their own space. Options for recruiters to review candidates throughout the day, rather than in predetermined time blocks. Options for hiring teams to collaborate and share feedback in real time.

    Of course, with these options come questions: Do video interviews promote bias? What does compliance look like? How do employers ensure it? And what does all this mean for candidates? We’ve seen these questions come up repeatedly over the years, especially as the technology continues to advance, incorporating new features around AI and facial recognition. So let’s get to the bottom of bias and compliance.

    The truth about the B-word

    Bias is something organizations are taking big steps to avoid, and for a good reason. Besides being bad for your reputation, more than one study points to the benefits of a diverse workplace, including one that shows a 20% increase in innovation. Still, when it comes to interviewing (or anything), change makes people uneasy – especially when we’re talking about inserting a piece of technology that will influence a hiring outcome.

    The question of how to avoid bias in video interviewing first came up about ten years ago, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) responded by offering the following guidance: “Before using video resumes and other video screening devices, a covered entity should proactively formulate and communicate to selection officials how the video resumes can assess specific qualifications and skills that are necessary for success in the position. Additionally, a covered entity could require that several people assess each video resume in relation to the stated job requirements.”

    In the years since, video interviewing has come to provide much-needed structure and alignment for everyone involved in hiring. So much so that today’s solutions are likely less biased and more defensible than traditional, unstructured interview methods.

    Keeping up with compliance

    Like bias, compliance is another area of concern, and somewhat of a moving target for employers. What does it mean to be compliant? The answer to this question keeps evolving, in light of recent legislation. Following the 2010 EEOC letter above, the commission revisited video interviewing several times, most recently in 2018. Here, the EEOC explored video (or “digital”) interviews in the context of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Again, the EEOC reiterated that interview technology, specifically digital, does not violate any existing legislation, going on to recommend that employers include language inviting candidates to contact them (the employer) with any concerns.

    With the enforcement of GDPR and newly passed Illinois Artificial Intelligence Video Interview Act, compliance goes even further and now includes the candidate’s explicit consent. Unlike in-person meetings or even phone screens where consent is implied in the invitation, under these laws, scheduling a video interview requires a candidate’s permission before moving ahead. That’s first and foremost.

    Then, there’s the even larger topic of AI and the underlying logic that’s being used for selection decisions. With hiring algorithms and facial recognition software being built into video interviewing platforms, legislators have called for greater transparency, prompting solution providers and employers to re-think any black box methods they have in place.

    Best practices going forward

    We know from years of video interviewing that structure reinforces the process (and the results!) This differs immensely from phone screens and face to face interviews, where hiring teams are unlikely to ask the same questions of every candidate, letting impromptu conversation guide the way instead. With video interviews, each candidate gets the same questions, the same time to think, and the same time to answer. When reviewing responses, your panel uses an evaluation form to identify core competencies, values, and so on. This approach reduces bias, and ultimately liability, when compared to unstructured methods.

    That said, newer technologies in video interviewing, particularly those leveraging facial recognition software, demand continued conversation and consideration. That’s why states like California are considering limiting use until vendors can guarantee the purpose and efficacy of these features. While we wait to see where legislation and innovation take us, it’s in the best interest of hiring organizations to arm themselves with knowledge and resources, which can then be passed on to candidates. Following EEOC guidelines might mean you err on the side of over communicating the purpose and intended use of any technology used for hiring. This will help eliminate any lingering doubts and ensure compliance all around.

    For a deeper dive into bias, compliance, and best practices when using AI, watch: AI, Algorithms, and How to Make Great HR Tech Investments.

  7. Nontraditional Talent Pools & How to Tap Into Them

    No matter which way you look at it, recruiting is hard work – especially in 2019. The jobs are plenty, the job seekers are few, and diversity is top of mind at many organizations. So it’s no surprise that gaining traction with potential candidates requires careful thought combined with a whole lot of action. 

    As a result, recruiters need to revisit their strategies, expand their reach, and tap into new or otherwise nontraditional talent pools. Of course, adding this to your current workload might feel like a second job, but thankfully, there are programs and tools that help facilitate the process. Here are three to consider adding to your existing toolkit:

    Returnship programs

    ‘Nontraditional’ applies to a wide variety of job seekers, including those out of the workforce for an extended period. Maybe they served in the military, spent a few years taking care of a loved one, or decided to pursue an advanced degree full-time. No matter the reason, a returnship offers these people the opportunity to slide back into the world of work.

    Felicia Fleitman, who manages strategic pipelines at Verisk, a data analytics company, explains the returnship experience as “an intern program for mid-level professionals returning to work.” Recognizing that returnees need help in specific areas, Verisk provides access to training, development, coaching, and mentorship resources designed to restart their career and get them up to speed. Sometimes this leads to a job offer. Sometimes their return isn’t the right fit – and that’s OK too.  

    In terms of recruiting, adding a returnship program provides direct access to countless candidates, who might go overlooked in an ATS. At the same time, you’re giving returnees the chance to get their confidence back while contributing to your organization. A win-win, all around. 

    Video interviewing

    Maybe you’re not in a position to implement a new program, such as returnship. Luckily, there are other ways to tap into nontraditional talent without building something from scratch. For a quick win, take a look at some of your most time-intensive recruitment processes. The administrative workload associated with scheduling and screening candidates is probably not the best use of your recruiters’ time. That workload, coupled with pressure to move fast, forces recruiters to stick with what they know and avoid looking outside the traditional mold. 

    With a tool like video interviewing to automate and streamline, recruiters are able to review more candidates in less time, while continuing to collaborate with hiring managers and other stakeholders. 

    As far as nontraditional talent goes, this technology enables all types of candidates to interview when and where they’re able to – rather than simply at the behest of the organization. Be it pre-recorded or live, video interviewing emphasizes convenience – an important factor in a tight job market, especially with so many job seekers either actively employed or else unavailable during office hours. Video interviewing is also mobile friendly, allowing you to reach candidates in different cities, looking to relocate, or those with mobility issues who can’t necessarily travel with ease. With this type of solution in place, you’re able to cast a wider net with fewer strings attached. 

    Soft skills assessment

    When it comes to finding and engaging new talent, you might still need to think outside the box – or in this case, your industry. Sure, it’s great when candidates fall into your lap having the exact resume and experience you’re looking for. But how often does that happen in 2019? Instead of limiting your search to candidates who’ve done the job before, you can use assessments to find people with transferrable skills that will work well in your industry. 

    Take sales, for example. The ability to sell isn’t contingent on years of experience in a sales position. It’s about having the soft skills and behavioral traits necessary to be productive. Using a pre-hire assessment, you can identify candidates with the highest potential for success, even if their background doesn’t correspond exactly. In fact, nontraditional talent may even outperform other hires because they’re a stronger match – and you won’t know until you assess. 

    It’s tough to say if and when the job market will change, but for now, it’s a candidate’s game and recruiters need to play through. To get candidates from those nontraditional talent pools you haven’t recruited from before, you need to shore up your resources and dive in head first. 

    Written by Greg Moran,
    CEO of Outmatch

  8. AI – What’s Next for Video Interviewing Software?

    Video interviewing software has taken Talent Acquisition by storm, and the market is buzzing with excitement about future capabilities.

    Early adopters of specialized recruiting tech found a secret weapon in video interviewing software. Finally! Interviews could be done in a structured and scalable way, in less time, across a broader and more diverse candidate pool.

    Today, more than 60% of companies use video interviewing, according to an OfficeTeam survey, and adoption is on the rise. Hiring teams are jumping at the chance to connect with more candidates, and put the more time-consuming, monotonous screening methods behind them.

    Jose Alcantara, HR Manager at MSX International, says thanks to video interviewing,

    “We’ve found the solution to our high-volume recruitment challenges!”

    Rosie Alonso, Director of Talent Acquisition at Tech Data, echoes this excitement, saying,

    “I could not imagine recruiting in today’s environment without it!”

    While video chat and video conferencing make it easy to meet virtually, even more powerful is the ability to do pre-recorded video interviews. Hiring teams can review at least 3 pre-recorded interviews in the time it would take to conduct one 30-minute phone screen.

    That’s an efficiency boost of 3X! But, employers know that today’s technology can do more than boost efficiency.

    Enter AI

    Technology that can accelerate outcomes is good. Technology that can anticipate and influence outcomes is even better. That’s what makes AI such a powerful tool.

    So what’s the future for AI and video interviewing?

    According to a Harvard Business Review article, AI algorithms are being used to mine data – including tone of voice, gestures, and facial expressions – from video interviews to make predictions about a candidate’s job potential.

    Humans are constantly interpreting body language and social cues, and in just a few seconds, we can learn a lot about a person’s communication style. AI is taking it even further in an attempt to tie these cues to other aspects of job performance.

    The goal of using AI in this way is to solve the age-old struggle of talent identification, which continues to be a challenge for organizations everywhere. Just ask Amazon: they tried to solve this problem with an AI recruiting tool that turned out to be biased against women.

    Critical questions

    Before employers allow voice and facial recognition in their talent selection tools, there are three critical questions to answer.

    1. What’s the connection to job success?

    Experts can train algorithms to recognize anything, including voices, gestures, and facial expressions. In doing so, they have to train the algorithms on what these cues mean, either explicitly or by letting the AI learn through data sets that are fed in.

    Here’s the problem: the market does not have a shared understanding, or even a hypothesis about how these cues are connected to job success. What does it mean if someone looks down, speaks quickly, or pauses to think? Do these behaviors make someone more or less capable of doing the job?

    What if, due to a disability, a candidate doesn’t emote like others do? And what about candidates from different cultural backgrounds, where different expressions mean different things?

    Using AI to help answer these questions is fine, but until there’s a clear job-relatedness link, we’re not ready to deploy algorithms that evaluate candidates in this way.

    2. Will AI reduce bias in hiring, or perpetuate it?

    It’s true that AI does not have an ego or agenda, but that doesn’t make it error-proof. In fact, the biggest advantage of AI – that it’s not influenced by human moods or emotional whims – is also its biggest weakness. Humans, at least, can gut-check each other. AI is completely unaware when outcomes are unfair.

    Also, for AI to learn, it needs humans to tell it what to learn from. We feed data in, and our human biases go in with it. If a training set includes mostly white male faces and voices, for example, then the algorithm will likely favor this demographic. Which could be why Google’s speech recognition is 13% more accurate for men than it is for women.

    So scratch the assumption that AI will free us from bias. Without careful oversight, AI will be just as biased as humans, and on a frighteningly larger scale.

    3. How will candidates react to us data-mining their expressions?

    The best HR tech on the market is not only transformative for internal teams, but it also makes the company look great to the outside world. Sleek, beautifully branded experiences say to the  candidate, “We care about you and want you to feel at ease.”

    This is where video interviewing software shines. Through video, candidates get to showcase themselves in a way that’s not possible on paper or over the phone. And with each interaction, they get to connect with the people and teams they might soon be working with.

    But what happens when candidates find out they’re being evaluated by AI, not on the content of their answers, but on how well they speak and what their faces look like? You can bet this will create more nerves and awkwardness on camera. Some candidates may try to beat the algorithm by playing to what they think the AI is looking for.

    For candidates who agree to complete this type of video interview (because opt-outs will soon become a requirement), they probably won’t show their real, authentic selves. And what good is that in your screening process?

    The right solution

    The HR tech market will continue pushing the bounds, and AI will surely be a player in solving the talent identification problem. But, is voice and facial recognition the right solution?

    It depends on how you plan to use it. If you allow AI to screen out candidates based on a black-box analysis of voice, gestures, and facial expressions, then you could have a moral dilemma on your hands. Do you know how the AI is making decisions and what the adverse impact is?

    While AI may be able to place your next grocery order or recommend a show you’ll love on Netflix, job decisions are a high stakes game. A flaw in the underlying logic of a talent selection tool could derail countless lives, preventing qualified people from getting jobs they deserve.

    Wherever AI takes us, humans will still play an important role in the evaluation of candidates. After all, interviewing exists so that people can get to know each other before working together. AI, then, shouldn’t replace us, but be used to sharpen our skills, scale our efforts, and make our interactions more productive.

  9. Machine Learning vs. Predictive Analytics: What HR Should Know

    If you thought machine learning and predictive analytics were one and the same, you’re not alone.

    Though the terms ‘machine learning‘ and ‘predictive analytics‘ aren’t interchangeable, they are complementary – less like apples to apples and more like apples and caramel. Excellent apart and unstoppable together.

    Food metaphors aside, in today’s hyper-competitive landscape, the only way to get ahead is to be future-ready. To predict things before they happen so you can put your business in a favorable position. Luckily, with all the data that’s available to HR, you don’t have to be a soothsayer to answer questions like:

    • Which candidates in our applicant pool will become top performers?
    • Who on our staff has the greatest growth potential – and who is at risk of turning over?
    • When will I experience my next staffing shortage?
    • What will my expected time to fill be in next year’s economic climate?
    • How will projected business growth effect employee engagement?

    Machine learning and predictive analytics can work together to answer HR’s most burning questions.

    How does it work? Think of predictive analytics as the what and machine learning as the how.

    Predictive analytics is a practice that attempts to quantify possible future events. Predictions are made by finding patterns in current and historical data, often through sophisticated mathematical and statistical models.

    Fun fact: Predictive analytics dates back to World War II when it was used to decode encrypted German messages.

    Machine learning is a way to apply AI to predictive analytics so that predictions can be made without human guidance. Machine learning gives us a superhuman edge because its algorithms can analyze massive amounts of data and identify every possible pattern (and remember – patterns are key to predictions!)

    While predictive analytics can be done without AI, machine learning unlocks new predictive power. Free from the constraints of human analysis, machine learning can use continuous data streams to make real-time predictions, then analyze the outcomes and improve its own performance.

    How can your HR team bring machine learning and predictive analytics into practice?

    As other arms of the business (looking at you, Marketing, Finance…) sharpen their predictive intelligence, the expectation is that HR do same. But where to begin?

    If our peers can predict buying patterns and market trends, then the same capability should be available to HR. And it is! In fact, it’s built into many of the tools that your team is using today, or will be using in the near future.

    Modern pre-employment assessments, for example, are really predictive analytics tools using machine algorithms to identify the highest potential candidates in your applicant pool. You’ll also find predictive analytics and machine learning in resume screening software, recruiting chatbots, and video interviewing platforms, which are beginning to use speech and facial analysis to predict job performance.

    Whatever tools you chose, make sure they’re tied to the questions you’re trying to answer (Who are our high potentials? Where are our risk areas? What resources will we need…?). Implementing predictive analytics or machine learning without a defined purpose won’t do you any good. It can even get you into trouble.

    So go! Explore the brave new world of HR and become the strategic player you’ve always wanted to be. But also, be smart and don’t succumb to everything that’s shiny and new – especially when it comes to AI.

    For help cutting through the hype and investing wisely in new tools…

    Download the HR Buyer’s Guide: How to Evaluate HR Tech in the Machine Learning Era.