We’re thrilled to announce that, in a moment of true innovation in recruitment, along with our customer Iceland Foods, we won the award for Best In-House Innovation in Recruitment at the 2021 In-House Recruitment Awards in London.
Established in 2002, the Recruiter Awards gala, a prominent innovation recruitment agency event, is the UK’s largest gathering for the entire recruitment innovation community. It recognises outstanding achievements by agencies and those pushing innovation in the recruitment industry.
The award shines a spotlight on the partnership between Iceland recruitment and Sapia, two pioneers in innovation in recruiting, that saved their store leaders a remarkable 24,000 hours a year by enacting transformational change – even during a pandemic.
With Iceland job interview processes receiving a significant volume of applicants – more than 120,000 per month – the company faced a challenge in 2020: the dual pressures of increased trade and Covid-19 related absences dictated that surge hiring processes needed to be automated without compromising the personal touch.
This innovation recruitment strategy was pivotal in augmenting the time store managers could dedicate to their outlets.
The solution had to be straightforward, ensuring that store managers would quickly grasp and trust it. The candidate experience was envisioned to be swift, inclusive, and personable, embodying the spirit of innovation in recruitment.
The software had to cater to a candidate market as diverse as the general populace. The team unanimously chose Smart Interviewer as their innovation recruitment tool of preference.
Applicants have given a thumbs-up to this technology, with an overwhelming 99% positive sentiment towards the process. Additionally, 77% of candidates are now more inclined to endorse Iceland as a preferred employer.
The returns were impressive: a 5x payback in a mere four months, restoring 8,000 hours to the company and incurring costs of less than £1 for each applicant.
A noteworthy aspect was the complete elimination of gender and race bias, ensuring that hires mirrored the diversity of the applicant pool.
The Judges’ remarks encapsulated the essence of innovation in the recruitment industry: “This straightforward submission met all criteria, showcasing the pivotal role the recruitment division played in their overall business triumph. They also empathetically highlighted the fact that several applicants, due to unforeseen changes in their career trajectories, like those from the aviation sector, were now seeking opportunities at Iceland.”
Read the case study of Iceland and Sapia innovated during the pandemic here.
Iceland Recruitment’s Journey to Excellence
As the innovation in recruitment industry continues to evolve, companies like Iceland and Sapia lead the charge. Their collaboration not only revolutionized their hiring processes but also set a benchmark for recruitment innovation globally.
Pioneering Innovation in Recruiting
The innovation in recruiting practices they introduced stands as a testament to their commitment to excellence. In an era where the recruitment landscape is rapidly transforming, ensuring innovation in recruitment becomes essential. Both Iceland and Sapia understood this and took proactive steps.
Automating for Efficiency with Innovation Recruitment Agency
Their partnership with the innovation recruitment agency ensured that Iceland’s hiring processes were not just automated but also intuitive. This allowed store managers to focus on what they do best: ensuring their stores thrived.
Enhancing the Iceland Job Interview Experience
Furthermore, the Iceland job interview experience was significantly enhanced. By leveraging modern recruitment innovation tools, the entire process was streamlined. From application to onboarding, each step was designed to be as efficient and candidate-friendly as possible.
Recognition at In-House Recruitment Awards
The In-House Recruitment Awards also highlighted the importance of such innovation in the recruitment industry. The accolades received by Iceland and Sapia are indicative of the growing trend towards smarter, more efficient hiring processes. As the world continues to navigate the challenges posed by global events, the demand for innovation in recruiting will only increase.
Feedback and Future of Iceland Recruitment
Additionally, the feedback from the Iceland recruitment initiative provided invaluable insights. The overwhelmingly positive response from candidates showcased the success of their innovation recruitment strategies. Moreover, with a whopping 99% satisfaction rate, it’s evident that the changes implemented were well-received.
A Guiding Light in Recruitment Innovation
In conclusion, the partnership between Iceland and Sapia is a shining example of how innovation in recruitment can transform the hiring landscape. Their success at the In-House Recruitment Awards is just the beginning. As more companies look to enhance their recruitment processes, the lessons learned from this collaboration will undoubtedly serve as a guiding light.
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Blog
The AGC Debate: Are AI-Written Interview Answers a Red Flag or Smart Strategy?
Every day, we read stories of increased fake or AI-assisted applications. Tools like LazyApply are just one of many flooding the market, driving up applicant volumes to never-before-seen levels.
As an overwhelmed hiring function, how do you find the needle in the haystack without using an army of recruiters to filter through the maze?
At Sapia.ai, we help global enterprises do just that. Many of the world’s most trusted brands, such as Qantas Group, have relied on our hiring platform as a co-pilot for better hiring since 2020.
Our Chat Interview has given millions of candidates a voice they wouldn’t have had – enabling them to share in their own words why they’re the best fit for the role. To find the people who belong with their brands, our customers must trust that their candidates represent themselves. Thus, they want to trust that our AI is analysing real human answers—not answers from a machine.
The Rise of GPT
When ChatGPT went viral in November 2022, we immediately adopted a defensive strategy. We had long been flagging plagiarised candidate responses, but then, we needed to act fast to flag responses using artificially generated content (‘AGC’).
Many companies were in the same position, but Sapia.ai was the only company with a large proprietary data set of interview answers that pre-dated GPT and similar tools: 2.5 billion words written by real humans.
That data enabled us to build a world-first:- an LLM-based AGC detector for text-based interviews, recently upgraded to v2.0 with 99% accuracy and a false positive rate of 1%. An NLP classification model built on Sapia.ai proprietary data that operates across all Sapia.ai chat interviews.
Full Transparency with Candidates
Because we value candidate trust as much as customer trust, we wanted to be transparent with candidates about our ability to detect artificially generated content (AGC). As an LLM, we could identify AGC in real time and warn candidates that we had detected it.
This has had a powerful impact on candidate behaviour. Since our AGC detector went live, we have seen that the real-time flagging acts as a real-time disincentive to use tools like ChatGPT to generate interview responses.
The detector generates a warning if 3 or more answers are flagged as having artificially generated content. The Sapia.ai Chat Interview uses 5 open-ended interview questions for volume hiring roles, such as retail, contact centre, and customer service, and 6 questions for professional roles, such as engineers, data scientists, graduates, etc.
Let’s Take a Closer Look at the Data…
We see that using our AGC detector LLM to communicate live with candidates in the interview flow when artificial content has been detected has a positive effect on deterring candidates from using AI tools to generate their answers.
The rate of AGC use declines from 1 question flagged to 5 questions – raising the flag on one question is generally enough to deter candidates from trying again.
The graph below shows the number of candidates, from a total of almost 2.7m, that used artificially generated content in their answers.
Differences in AGC Usage Rate by Groups
We see no meaningful differences in candidate behaviour based on the job they are applying for or based on geography.
However, we have found differences by gender and ethnicity – for example, men use artificially generated content more than women. The graph below shows the overall completion ratios by gender – for all interviews on the left and for interviews where the number of questions with AGC detected is 5 or more on the right.
Perception of Artificially Generated Content by Hirers.
We’re curious to understand how hirers perceive the use of these tools to assist candidates in a written interview. The creation of the detector was based on the majority of Sapia.ai customers wanting transparency & explainability around the use of these tools by candidates, often because they want to ensure that candidates are using their own words to complete their interviews and they want to avoid wasting time progressing candidates who are not as capable as their chat interview suggests.
However, some of our customers feel that it’s a positive reflection of the candidate, showing that they are using the tools available to them to put their best foot forward.
It’s a mix of perspectives.
Our detector labels it as the use of artificially generated content. It’s up to our customers how they use that information in their decision-making processes.
This concept of having a human in the loop is one of the key dimensions of ethical AI, and we ensure that it is used in every AI-related hiring product we build.
Interested in the science behind it all? Download our published research on developing the AGC detector 👇
Research Paper Download: AI Generated Content in Online Text-based Structured Interviews
Blog
Joe & the Juice Partners with Sapia.ai, Scaling an Exceptional Candidate Experience and Cutting Time to Hire
Read the full press release about the partnership here.
Joe & the Juice, the trailblazing global juice bar and coffee concept, is renowned for its vibrant culture and commitment to cultivating talent. With humble roots from one store in Copenhagen, now with a presence in 17 markets, Joe & The Juice has built a culture that fosters growth and celebrates individuality.
But, as their footprint expands, so does the challenge of finding and hiring the right talent to embody their unique culture. With over 300,000 applications annually, the traditional hiring process using CVs was falling short – leaving candidates waiting and creating inefficiencies for the recruitment team. To address this, Joe & The Juice turned to Sapia.ai, a pioneer in ethical AI hiring solutions.
A Fresh Approach to Hiring
Through this partnership, Joe & The Juice has transformed its hiring process into an inclusive, efficient, and brand-aligned experience. Instead of faceless CVs, candidates now engage in an innovative chat-based interview that reflects the brand’s energy and ethos. Available in multiple languages, the AI-driven interview screens for alignment with the “Juicer DNA” and the brand’s core values, ensuring that every candidate feels seen and valued.
Candidates receive an engaging and fair interview experience as well as personality insights and coaching tips as part of their journey. In fact, 93% of candidates have found these insights useful, helping to deliver a world-class experience to candidates who are also potential guests of the brand.
“Every candidate interaction reflects our brand,” Sebastian Jeppesen, Global Head of Recruitment, shared. “Sapia.ai makes our recruitment process fair, enriching, and culture-driven.”
Results That Matter
For Joe & The Juice, the collaboration has yielded impressive results:
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33% Reduction in Screening Time: Pre-vetted shortlists from Sapia.ai’s platform ensure that recruiters can focus on top candidates, getting them behind the bar faster.
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Improved Candidate Satisfaction: With a 9/10 satisfaction score from over 55,000 interviews, candidates appreciate the fairness and transparency of the process.
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Bias-Free Hiring: By eliminating CVs and integrating blind AI that prioritizes fairness, Joe & The Juice ensures their hiring reflects the diverse communities they serve.
Frederik Rosenstand, Group Director of People & Development at Joe & The Juice, highlighted the transformative impact: “Our juicers are our future leaders, so using ethical AI to find the people who belong at Joe is critical to our long-term success. And now we do that with a fair, unbiased experience that aligns directly with our brand.”
Trailblazing for the hospitality industry
In an industry so wholly centred on people, Joe & the Juice is paving the way for similar brands to adopt technology that enables inclusive, human-first experiences that can reflect a brand’s core values.
If you’re curious about how Sapia.ai can transform your hiring process, check out our full case study on Joe & The Juice here.
Blog
Sapia.ai Wrapped 2024
It’s been a year of Big Moves at Sapia.ai. From welcoming groundbreaking brands to achieving incredible milestones in our product innovation and scale, we’re pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in hiring.
And we’re just getting started 🚀
Take a look at the highlights of 2024
All-in-one hiring platform
This year, with the addition of Live Interview, we’re proud to say our platform now covers screening, assessing and scheduling.
It’s an all-in-one volume hiring platform that enables our customers to deliver a world-leading experience from application through to offer.
Supercharging hiring efficiency
Every 15 seconds, a candidate is interviewed with Sapia.ai.
This year, we’ve saved hiring managers and recruiters hours of precious time that can now be used for higher-value tasks.
Giving candidates the best experience
Our platform allows candidates to be their best selves, so our customers can find the people that truly belong with them. They’re proud to use a technology that’s changing hiring, for good.
Leading the way in AI for hiring
We’ve continued to push the boundaries in leveraging ethical AI for hiring, with new products on the way for Coaching, Internal Mobility & Interview Builders.