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AI recruitment tools are “automated pseudoscience” says Cambridge researchers

<p>AI is set to bring in a whole new world in a huge range of industries. Everything from art to medicine is being overhauled by machine learning.</p> <p>But researchers from the University of Cambridge have published a paper in <a href="https://link.springer.com/journal/13347" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Philosophy &amp; Technology</em></a> to call out AI used to recruit people for jobs and boost workplace diversity – going so far as to call them an “automated pseudoscience”.</p> <p>“We are concerned that some vendors are wrapping ‘snake oil’ products in a shiny package and selling them to unsuspecting customers,” said co-author Dr Eleanor Drage, a researcher in AI ethics.</p> <p>“By claiming that racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination can be stripped away from the hiring process using artificial intelligence, these companies reduce race and gender down to insignificant data points, rather than systems of power that shape how we move through the world.”</p> <p>Recent years have seen the emergence of AI tools marketed as an answer to lack of diversity in the workforce. This can be anything from use of chatbots and resume scrapers, to line up prospective candidates, through to analysis software for video interviews.</p> <p>Those behind the technology claim it cancels out human biases against gender and ethnicity during recruitment, instead using algorithms that read vocabulary, speech patterns, and even facial micro-expressions, to assess huge pools of job applicants for the right personality type and ‘culture fit’.</p> <p>But AI isn’t very good at removing human biases. To train a machine-learning algorithm, you have to first put in lots and lots of past data. In the past for example, AI tools have discounted women all together in fields where more men were traditionally hired. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/oct/10/amazon-hiring-ai-gender-bias-recruiting-engine" target="_blank" rel="noopener">In a system created by Amazon</a>, resumes were discounted if they included the word ‘women’s’ – like in a “women’s debating team” and downgraded graduates of two all-women colleges. Similar problems occur with race.</p> <div class="newsletter-box"> <div id="wpcf7-f6-p218666-o1" class="wpcf7" dir="ltr" lang="en-US" role="form"> </div> </div> <p>The Cambridge researchers suggest that even if you remove ‘gender’ or ‘race’ as distinct categories, the use of AI may ultimately increase uniformity in the workforce. This is because the technology is calibrated to search for the employer’s fantasy ‘ideal candidate’, which is likely based on demographically exclusive past results.</p> <p>The researchers actually went a step further, and worked with a team of Cambridge computer science undergraduates, to build an AI tool modelled on the technology. You can check it out <a href="https://personal-ambiguator-frontend.vercel.app/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.</p> <p>The tool demonstrates how arbitrary changes in facial expression, clothing, lighting and background can give radically different personality readings – and so could make the difference between rejection and progression.</p> <p>“While companies may not be acting in bad faith, there is little accountability for how these products are built or tested,” said Drage.</p> <p>“As such, this technology, and the way it is marketed, could end up as dangerous sources of misinformation about how recruitment can be ‘de-biased’ and made fairer.”</p> <p>The researchers suggest that these programs are a dangerous example of ‘technosolutionism’: turning to technology to provide quick fixes for deep-rooted discrimination issues that require investment and changes to company culture.</p> <p>“Industry practitioners developing hiring AI technologies must shift from trying to correct individualized instances of ’bias’ to considering the broader inequalities that shape recruitment processes,” <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13347-022-00543-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the team write in their paper.</a></p> <p>“This requires abandoning the ‘veneer of objectivity’ that is grafted onto AI systems, so that technologists can better understand their implication — and that of the corporations within which they work — in the hiring process.”</p> <p><img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=218666&amp;title=AI+recruitment+tools+are+%E2%80%9Cautomated+pseudoscience%E2%80%9D+says+Cambridge+researchers" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em>Written by Jacinta Bowler. Republished with permission of <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/ai-recruitment-tools-diversity-cambridge-automated-pseudoscience/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cosmos Magazine</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Image: Cambridge University</em></p>

Technology

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10 ways New Zealand employers can turn the ‘great resignation’ into a ‘great recruitment’

<p>Internationally, and especially within the US, there has been a lot of talk about the so-called “<a rel="noopener" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/great-resignation-accelerating/620382/" target="_blank">great resignation</a>” – the trend seeing large numbers of workers leaving their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, having reevaluated their priorities or simply because there are more opportunities than ever before.</p> <p>While there isn’t enough firm data to confirm this is happening in New Zealand yet, there is little doubt a <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/457103/skills-shortages-top-challenge-facing-company-bosses-survey" target="_blank">chronic skills shortage</a> has given workers more bargaining power. Perhaps not surprisingly, <a rel="noopener" href="https://news.aut.ac.nz/news/the-great-resignation,-nz-style" target="_blank">research</a> shows more and more workers are at least thinking about either changing or quitting their jobs since last year.</p> <p>But this phenomenon – defined as “turnover intentions” – could also fuel what we’re calling the “great recruitment”. After all, as physics teaches us, for every action there is a reaction.</p> <p>Calling it the great recruitment is obviously related to the sheer volume of recruitment activity that logically follows a great resignation. But it is also a reference to the related importance of a positive – great – recruitment experience for potential employees.</p> <p><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435205/original/file-20211202-25-bujsov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="" /> <span class="caption"></span> <em><span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></em></p> <p><strong>Not a negative trend</strong></p> <p>Classic supply and demand principles tell us that if more workers are seeking greener employment pastures, there will be more ready-to-hire talent in the marketplace. For that reason alone, we urge organisations not to consider the great resignation a negative trend in the job market.</p> <p>Of course, to be successful the great recruitment must be supported by businesses that prioritise the recruitment process, from candidate care to the vetting and hiring team, to the use of technology and protecting the organisation’s reputation and brand.</p> <p>However, there are many practices that not only undermine but entirely defeat the positive potential of a great recruitment, including:</p> <ul> <li> <p>“<a rel="noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2021/02/17/a-new-study-by-indeed-confirms-that-ghosting-during-the-hiring-process-has-hit-crisis-levels/?sh=7bdd556599c4" target="_blank">ghosting</a>”, where candidates apply for a role but get no response or experience a sudden silence part way through the process</p> </li> <li> <p>posting vague or corny job descriptions – “customer services expert” anyone? – that do nothing to excite or provide context for potential applicants</p> </li> <li> <p>relying too heavily on quasi-scientific personality profile tests and asking questions that are at best tokenistic, at worst discriminatory.</p> </li> </ul> <p><strong>Making recruitment great</strong></p> <p>We also see recruitment processes stumble at the last hurdle by engaging in Game of Thrones-style salary negotiations, where candidates feel like they’re challenging a noble family. This is particularly disadvantages <a rel="noopener" href="https://hbr.org/2020/07/stop-asking-job-candidates-for-their-salary-history" target="_blank">women</a> and <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.employeenetworks.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/Pou-Matawaka-Final-Report-Ethnic-Pay-Gap-March-2019-for-release-.pdf" target="_blank">ethnic minorities</a>.</p> <p>How then to ensure your organisation is capturing the talent potential released by the great resignation and maximising the employment potential of the great recruitment? Here are our top 10 tips:</p> <ol> <li> <p>Choose your words carefully: write inspiring, authentic job advertisements. If your recruitment team can’t do it, get someone who can.</p> </li> <li> <p>Be realistic: create reasonable candidate specifications – wanting extreme levels of skill, attitude and experience is likely put off good candidates.</p> </li> <li> <p>Canvas others: when designing employee value propositions, get input from recruiters and current employees.</p> </li> <li> <p>Remember glass houses: recognise there is no such thing as perfect behaviour when using behavioural-based interview questions, especially given the organisation itself may be questionable in some of its conduct.</p> </li> <li> <p>Consider the context: give due consideration to reference check results – if a candidate’s last boss says he or she was disconnected in the end, perhaps it’s because they were already in a high state of turnover intention.</p> </li> <li> <p>Go back to the future: be open to hiring past employees. Initiatives such as alumni programmes can be used to connect with and recruit former employees.</p> </li> <li> <p>Know your team: be open to conversations about the attributes and attitudes of the person a successful candidate will be reporting to, and the team they will be working with.</p> </li> <li> <p>Be technology wise: use automated recruitment technology (such as SnapHire, JobAdder or QJumpers) to enhance – not replace – an integrated people-oriented recruitment experience.</p> </li> <li> <p>Provide <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/salary-most-important-part-job-ad.aspx" target="_blank">clear pay ranges</a>: if an applicant knows what the pay is from the outset, it saves everyone valuable time and energy.</p> </li> <li> <p>Be gracious: formally thank all candidates for applying – this can help ensure you retain them as future applicants and/or customers.</p> </li> </ol> <p><strong>Great expectations</strong></p> <p>With more talent in the market, those in recruitment will need to sharpen their games. Given much recruitment activity is outsourced and many recruiters will be booming in the current climate, organisational clients should have great expectations of recruitment professionals, too.</p> <p>Employees face enough challenges in their working lives without having to endure a recruitment experience that is anything less than great.</p> <p>Finally, the great recruitment must also account for future talent. Before we know it, the <a href="https://www.webwise.ie/parents/explainers/explained-what-is-roblox/">Roblox</a> generation will be hitting the workforce, already adept at digital creation and collaboration, and expecting similar things from recruiters.</p> <p>If we get it right, the great recruitment is a chance for employers to recast the great resignation as an opportunity for everyone to do better – now and into the future.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172952/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><em><a rel="noopener" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/candice-harris-611631" target="_blank">Candice Harris</a>, Professor of Management, <a rel="noopener" href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/auckland-university-of-technology-1137" target="_blank">Auckland University of Technology</a> and <a rel="noopener" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jarrod-haar-521652" target="_blank">Jarrod Haar</a>, Professor of Human Resource Management, <a rel="noopener" href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/auckland-university-of-technology-1137" target="_blank">Auckland University of Technology</a></em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a rel="noopener" href="https://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a rel="noopener" href="https://theconversation.com/10-ways-new-zealand-employers-can-turn-the-great-resignation-into-a-great-recruitment-172952" target="_blank">original article</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p>

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Police release "world's most entertaining recruitment video"

<p><span>In a bid to attract more applicants, police have released a clip they're calling the "world's most entertaining police recruitment video".</span></p> <p><span>Sporting <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www-alpha.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/celebrities/89731679/taika-waititis-best-moments" target="_blank">Taika Waititi-esque Kiwi humour</a></strong></span>, the fast-paced clip showcases the many different facets of police work; from the air, sea and land. </span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/f9psILoYmCc?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" gesture="media" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <p><span>The Armed Offenders Squad, dive and dog squads, Eagle helicopter crews and frontline officers pull the heavy lifting in the video, demonstrating day-to-day police work.</span></p> <p><span>Meanwhile comedic relief is provided by the likes of the police's own pipe band, a police cat in uniform and <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.instagram.com/w_cribb/?hl=en" target="_blank">Feilding internet sensation William "Waiirua" Cribb</a></strong></span>. </span></p> <p><span>More than 70 police staff put their hands up to be involved in the two-and-a-half minute clip.</span></p> <p><span>It features top ranking Police Commissioner Mike Bush all the way down to one of the newest recruits, Zion Leaupepe, who opens and closes the video.</span></p> <p><span>"NZ police are striving to increase our overall staff numbers over the next three years to meet our objective of being the safest country, and to deliver on the Government's signalled staffing increase," Bush said.</span></p> <p><span>He said the video was targeted at 18- to 24-year-olds, women, Māori, Pacific Islanders, and people from all other ethnicities and backgrounds "to better reflect the communities we serve".</span></p> <p><span>We also need recruits who are happy to be based in the Auckland area."</span></p> <p><span>Police posted the video on their national, recruitment and district social media channels, which have more than one million followers.</span></p> <p><span>The campaign would also run in cinemas, on television and on-demand, and outdoor posters.</span></p> <p><span>"We want to attract people who bring their own skill set, like problem solving and working in a team, and who are fit, or prepared to get fit," said Karen Jones, deputy chief executive of public affairs. </span></p> <p><span>"There are more than 30 different career paths within NZ police and it was really important to demonstrate the range of options for people who may be considering joining us.</span></p> <p><span>"Most importantly we want people who care about making our communities safe," Jones said. </span></p> <p><span>What do you think of this hilarious recruitment video? Let us know in the comments below.</span></p> <p><em>Written by Nicole Lawton. Republished with permission of <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Stuff.co.nz</span></strong></a>.</em></p>

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