To find out how to use Recruitment Automation to hire faster, reduce bias and save, we also have a great retail industry eBook on Ai in HR.

AI RECRUITMENT TOOLS

Artificial Intelligence. Machine learning. Chatbots.

While the possibilities of technology always felt like some distant future, there’s no denying that the future is right here and right now.

Every day, technology touches and enhances our lives in ways we rarely even pause to think about. Algorithms, apps and digital automation continue to reshape the ways we shop, connect, bank, get around or even track our fitness and the steps we walk each day.

It’s changed the ways we access customer services and the ways we can connect with our tribes across social platforms. And in the time of COVID-19, it’s enabled ways of efficient remote working that few thought could be possible.

Recruitment and Ai – We’ve only just begun

With the uptake of automation and artificial intelligence (Ai) across every industry sector, it was inevitable that these technologies would reshape the HR and recruitment domains too. Compared to manufacturing automation, service delivery, supply chain management and marketing channels, HR and recruitment might be a little slower on the uptake. Ai tools are now rapidly reshaping the essential functions of hiring.

Ai recruitment tools are used for 3 key functions in the hiring process: sourcing, screening and interviewing of candidates.

Employing the latest advances in Ai, machine learning and big data practices are delivering new efficiencies and better outcomes for businesses, recruiters and candidates alike.

Text and chat interview automation with Ai

Conversational Ai is a type of Ai that lets businesses have dynamic and meaningful conversations at scale with customers, staff, business partners and candidates.

Conversational Ai uses Natural Language Processing (NLP), a sub-field of Ai that’s focused on enabling computers to understand and process human languages. Through machine learning, it aims to get computers closer to a human level of understanding of language.

Conversational Ai uses NLP to discern meaning from both written and spoken word:

• Voice-activated systems ­ – NLP is used in digital assistants you’re probably familiar with: Siri on iPhone, Google Home or Amazon Alexa, for example. These follow instructions to play music, to control connected devices throughout the home, find web-based information and resources and more. On an enterprise-level, you’ll be familiar with voice-driven customer service over the phone.
• Text driven systems – online or on mobiles, chat text discerns meaning in the written word.

How conversational Ai tools are changing the recruitment conversation

Sometimes referred to as chatbots or textbots, Ai-based conversational tools continue to evolve and be applied in new and extraordinary ways.  Through NLP, the ability to read, decipher and understand written and spoken language has evolved to the point that personality traits, sentiment and other inherently human characteristics can be understood from written and conversational exchanges alone. Our own peer-reviewed research shows how personality traits can be accurately inferred from answers to standard interview questions captured via a text chat.

Ai recruitment works best in high volume recruitment such as customer-facing retail or service team roles.  In roles and industries with fewer candidates or more senior positions to fill, traditional recruitment practices are likely to be preferable.

Conversational Ai can be helpful for profiling personalities in candidates or existing employees without the time and costs of conducting lengthy psychometric profiling. Add video into the mix and machine learning can add additional layers of meaning through analysis of facial expressions and profiles, body language and more.

Video interviewing continues to divide opinion as many believe it allows for unconscious (or not so unconscious) bias to remain front and centre of the hiring process. In text-based  Ai interviews, many of the usual bias cues or triggers an be effectively eliminated at the candidate screening stage.

https://sapia.ai/blog/what-texting-language-can-reveal/

Automated interviews support remote working and remote hiring

In a post-COVID or COVID-normal economy, employment opportunities will be competitive. As more people compete for potentially fewer jobs, finding and engaging the best candidates will be even more challenging.

Ai-powered interviews can help recruiters cast their net wider to reach a bigger pool of candidates and find better-qualified candidates.

Mobile-first puts the power in candidates’ hands

People know text and are comfortable with text. So by providing a text chat-based mobile-first experience for candidates, improves the user experience and addresses communication challenges.

Chat-text provides an easier and less confronting interview process for many candidates.

Everyone has a story that’s bigger than their CV and Ai recruitment interviews give every candidate an opportunity to tell theirs. Candidates can choose when and where they complete their interview and standardised interview questions ensure a level playing field for all candidates.

Sapia’s text chat interview automation is blind screening at its best. We’ve removed possible factors that can influence human bias – no CVs, no socials, no videos, no facial recognition and no time limit.  It’s just the candidate and their text answers, providing a fairer and richer experience where candidates feel comfortable just being themselves.

Recommender systems – How Ai supports people making people decisions

One of the most well-known applications of Ai, data science and machine learning is Recommender systems or Recommender engines. It’s how Spotify suggests the track you might like next. Or how Netflix recommends your next binge-worthy series. And how Amazon recommends books or products likely to be of interest.

In hiring, Recommender Systems use predictive modelling to recommend the most-likely best matches of applicants for a role.

Recommender systems guide decision-making by using machine learning to analyse all the data available through the HR lifecycle. From job advertising and clicks, through interviewing and hiring, to employees’ job satisfaction and tenure, data can be analysed to reveal predictive patterns and insights.

Data can find connections that humans don’t, providing valuable insight into what an ideal candidate looks like or where you’re likely to find them.

Predictive intelligence draws a picture of your ideal candidate

Recommender systems can cut through the ‘noise’ by providing a shortlist of top-ranked candidates. This is without burning time, sorting and reviewing potentially hundreds or even thousands of applications. Predictive intelligence shares additional insights on candidates’ values, traits, personality and communication skills. It helps to simplify the selection and guide faster talent decisions.

Machine learning is not infallible.  One important consideration is questioning whether the data being used is not inherently biased. If, for example, machine learning models are built around data from a workforce that historically skewed towards male, the recommendations will inevitably have a male bias. Machine learning should only guide a decision not to make it and, ultimately, it’s always important to have real people making decisions about people.

Interviews – it’s not where you finish, it’s where you start

Reviewing CVs of all candidates can be the most time-consuming part of a recruiter’s job. Especially for large-scale briefs such as retail or customer service teams. In defining a shortlist of potential candidates to proceed to the interview stage it can be hard to differentiate between CVs. It’s also easy to make decisions that may be based on personal biases.

But what if you could start the hiring process with all the benefits of an interview process, without investing your time in them? And what if in the time it would take to properly review just a handful of CVs, thousands of candidates could be screened by interview?

With Ai recruitment tools you can.

Five top ways conversational Ai tools are changing the recruitment game

When it comes to recruiting and hiring, the ability to read the mood as well as the words is a game-changer in candidate assessment. Here are our top five benefits for your business:

1. Reducing time to hire, improving the quality of candidates

Without even having to consider CVs upfront, an upfront screening interview reduces time to hire by providing a shortlist of candidates with the best fit to move forward.

Ai interview automation looks beyond the CV to assess the skills, traits and temperament of candidates. Based on past hires, Ai learns what a successful candidate for your business looks like and joins the dots to find others that match that profile.

Recruiters and hirers can save time reviewing and assessing CVs. With the ability to complete briefs faster, build teams sooner and achieve business metrics, you can be on to the next job sooner. Or free yourself to concentrate on what you do best: building relationships, delivering a better hiring experience or enhancing the onboarding process.

2. Reduce bias & build diversity

Ai-enabled interviewing helps reduce the effects of unconscious bias – the inherently human prejudices, personal preferences, beliefs and world-views that shape our assessment of others. Our biases can easily have a negative impact on candidates and mean you’re potentially missing out on the best candidates for the job. It can also mean employers are missing the opportunity to cultivate workplace diversity and all the benefits it delivers.

Diversity improves employee productivity, retention and happiness. Time and again, research shows that diversity – of background, gender, experience and more – improves employee productivity, tenure and job satisfaction. In 2020, global management consulting company McKinsey confirmed that “The most diverse companies are now more likely than ever to outperform non-diverse companies on profitability”.

3. Cut costs of every hire

Companies that have automated part of their candidate screening and interviewing are not only reaping the benefits of a more streamlined and stress-free process but report an immediate pay-off in time and efficiency savings.

Get your time back quickly and reallocate budgets towards higher-value investments and automation in other areas of recruiting.

Calculate your RoI on interview automation

Use Sapia’s free calculator to:

• Calculate your costs of hiring
• Calculate the costs of your annual turnover
• See the financial benefits of using automation for hiring
• Avoid unnecessary revenue losses

4. Increase the productivity of every recruiter and hirer

Everyone has one part of their job that they could do better if they had more time. Like managing stakeholders. Improving business partnership skills. Or networking to improve talent pools with a focus on those high-end and hard-to-fill roles. Whatever yours might be, interview automation can give you back time to focus on high-value tasks.

Reviewing CVs and managing interviews might not be the biggest challenge in your role, but they are likely to be the most time-consuming. Automate those upfront interviews using the tools and process of Ai recruitment and you can focus on the bigger picture of finding the best fit for every role and meeting every brief with confidence.

5. Give candidates a better experience

While this one’s last on our list of the benefits of Ai interview automation, it could equally be the most important.

Ever since job boards hit the market, recruiters have been inundated with candidate applications. While that’s been good news for potential employers as well as recruiters, it’s not so good for candidates.  Too often candidates make the effort to apply for a position, but then due to the sheer volume of applications they never hear a thing from the recruiter or hirer.  It’s called “ghosting” for obvious reasons.

Ghosting is not just a bad look, it can be bad for business. Candidates can easily share a negative experience on social media. They may also be less inclined to apply again or accept a job offer now or in the future.

With interview automation, you can turn every candidate engagement into an efficient, empowering and enjoyable experience.

About Sapia

Sapia’s award-winning interview automation offers a mobile-first, text chat interview.  At scale, it delivers an engaging and relatable, in-depth interview, followed up with personalised feedback for every candidate. Here’s how Ai automation provides a superior experience to a traditional interview process:

• A familiar and accessible, mobile-first text experience
• No confronting questions or videos
• Candidates can be themselves, completing questions related to role attributes where and when it suits
• Blind-screening at its best with no gender, age or ethnicity revealed
• Candidates are motivated by personalised feedback, insights and coaching tips… and the opportunity to provide their feedback on the process

Find out more about Sapia’s Ai-powered recruitment tool and how we can support your recruitment needs today.

You can try out Sapia’s Chat Interview right now, or leave us your details to get a personalised demo

To find out how to interpret bias in recruitment, we also have a great eBook on inclusive hiring.

What is workplace diversity?

While workplace diversity might once have been considered a ‘nice to have’, today it’s a ‘must-have’ for employers who recognise the value it brings to their organisation.

The idea of workplace diversity is that the people in any organisation’s team should reflect the society in which we live – that is people of different genders, different ages and different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. That seems logical and simple enough, yet achieving diversity is still a struggle for many. 

What does diversity look like?

Today, workplace diversity is not just about increasing female representation and employing team members from different cultural backgrounds. While these are great goals, true diversity is about so much more.

Diversity can be broadly sorted into two categories:

Inherent – effectively the defining traits and characteristics we are born with – gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, socio-economic background, religious and cultural backgrounds.

Acquired – reflecting our experience of the world around us and covering things like education, life knowledge, learned values and skills, socio-economic mobility, political beliefs.  These are developed, earned or achieved over time.

It’s the combination of inherent and acquired traits that make people and societies diverse. This holistic view of culture, background, life experience, education, values and perspectives is a top priority for recruiters and employers alike.

What is diversity hiring?

Diversity hiring simply describes the processes of recruiting that supports diversity in the workplace.

Diversity hiring is not about increasing workplace diversity for the sake of diversity. Diversity hiring is all about giving every candidate an equal opportunity, regardless of their background. It’s about identifying and removing any steps in sourcing, screening and shortlisting candidates that may allow discrimination against candidates and personal characteristics that have nothing to do with their ability to do the job such as gender, age, religion, sexual orientation and so on.

By removing biases against individuals or groups of candidates, the process of finding the best candidates to be considered for the role can be based on merit and all the qualities identified as essential for the role and the organisation.

A fairer path to recruitment considers the experience of the candidate at every single step.

From discovering an opportunity through to offer. It addresses bias, inclusivity and fairness. And ideally, it makes recruiters’ lives easier. This is explored in the Inclusive Hiring e-Book here > 

Why do you need diversity? 

Diversity is embraced by companies who understand the value it brings to their business.

In their 2018 report Delivering through Diversity, McKinsey&Company found that:

• Companies in the top-quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 21% more likely to outperform on profitability and 27% more likely to have superior value creation. 
• Beyond gender, companies in the top-quartile for ethnic/cultural diversity on executive teams were 33% more likely to have industry-leading profitability. This diversity included traits such as age and generation, international experience and LGBTQIA+ representation.

While McKinsey’s study was focused on US global companies, their findings are reflected in other studies, white papers and shared experiences of organisations all around the world.

They confirm that workplace diversity impacts a wide range of business metrics:

• better performance and productivity
• business growth
• improved problem-solving abilities
• increased creativity and innovation 
• a sense of belonging that  boosts employees’ health and wellbeing 
• fewer incidents of discrimination or harassment in the workplace
• improved employee retention and tenure
• enhanced reputation as an employer 

It’s what employees want too

Unsurprisingly, diversity in the workplace can be a deal maker or breaker for millennial and GenZ job seekers. Deloitte found that 83% of millennials are more engaged when they can know a company fosters an inclusive culture. 

But it’s not just the next generations. A recent survey by Glassdoor found that 67% of all candidates say it’s an important factor when considering employment opportunities while more than 50% of current employees want their workplace to do more to increase diversity.

Diversity hiring laws

While there’s no doubt that diversity hiring is good for business, for any organisation that doesn’t embrace diversity, the opposite can also be true. Apart from missing out on the benefits that diversity brings to productivity, employee satisfaction and business reputation, employers also risk breaking the law.

Within Australia, diversity is supported by national and state laws that cover equal employment opportunity, human rights, and anti-discrimination in the workplace. It’s essential that all employers understand their own responsibilities and the rights of employees or job candidates. The cost of non-compliance can be severe while the damage to an organisation’s reputation could be matched by irreparable damage to sales, business contracts and their employer brand. 

In Australia, it is unlawful to disadvantage employees and job seekers in any way because of their:

• race
• colour
• gender
• sexual orientation
• age
• physical or mental disability
• marital status
• family or carer’s responsibilities
• pregnancy
• religion
• political opinion
• national extraction (place of birth or ancestry)
• social origin (class, caste or socio-occupational category)
• industrial activities (such as belonging to a trade union)

Unconscious bias  – it’s a human condition

Whether innate or learned, everybody is capable of unconscious bias. Reinforced by our own personal experiences, cultural background, beliefs and world view, bias is how we feel about something – a person or group of people, an idea, a thing – and how we use those feelings to make judgements and decisions about those people or things, often instantaneously. 

Psychologists and researchers have identified over 150 types of bias that impact the way we engage, assess and interact with others. In the recruitment process that’s 150 ways that otherwise suitably qualified candidates can be overlooked, ignored, put aside or deliberately discounted. You can read more about unconscious bias in our article here.

Algorithms do the job humans can’t

Because unconscious bias is a universal and inherently human condition, it’s a problem that can’t be solved by any amount of bias training or awareness.

So if humans can’t solve the very human problem, what can be done? Sapia has solved the issue of unconscious bias in hiring by taking humans out of the process for top-of-funnel interview screening through an Artificial Intelligence enabled chat interview platform. It’s an easy way to implement data-driven decision-making with a structured and automated process that provides a level playing field for all candidates.

Six more ways to build your diversity hiring capabilities

Adopting Sapia Ai-enabled decision-making to remove bias from the early interview process is one of the easiest ways to get diversity hiring working for you. Here are some further ideas from Sapia’s team to help increase diversity in candidate sourcing, screening and, ultimately, hiring.

1. Agree your diversity priorities and goals

More female graduates in technical roles? A better cultural spread across the organisation? More women in middle management? Without understanding how diversity hiring supports your business plans, how would you ever know you’re making progress? Diversity hiring strategies and initiatives should be agreed by your leadership team, documented in HR plans and socialised among all stakeholders.

2. Develop your employer brand and policies that support diversity

Developing a reputation as an employer who values and nurtures diversity starts with your own people. Talk to your people to hear what’s important to them and understand if they think any policies (or attitudes) are holding diversity back. Talk to your team about diversity and the benefits it can bring.

Think about policies that may support more diversity in your workplace. Beyond hiring, it may be providing extra time off for community events or religious festivals, or simply providing workplace flexibility and freedom for employees to be comfortable being themselves.

The more your team buy into policies that support, value and celebrate diversity, the more your reputation as a diversity employer will organically grow. And the more it grows, the easier diversity hiring will become… as candidates who value diversity will be lining up to work with you.

3. Use your ATS to build diverse talent pools

Sapia’s automated interview platform is designed to integrate seamlessly with leading Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). Even before the interview process, use screening tools in the ATS to filter and sort candidates on skills, qualifications or experience alone. This blind screening to identify candidates with the best potential adds an additional layer of bias-free screening to your diversity hiring.

4. Mind your language and rethink your screening factors for diversity

Undertaking a review of past job ads can help you see where bias may have crept into your recruiting process. Is your language inclusive? Would all candidates feel they could apply regardless of age, gender or cultural background? While being careful not to actually be biased, your words can talk more directly to the candidates you want to attract and explain why they’d be a great fit for your team.

While you’re reviewing the way you reach out to candidates, also consider whether you’re screening or interviewing for the qualities you actually value most or you’re unconsciously guiding the process towards certain types or profiles. Sometimes you need to ask others to check your own bias.

5. Add some diversity into your candidate sourcing

Is it time to fish for candidates in a different talent pool? If you’re relying on the same sources and same screening factors, you’re likely to keep cultivating the same type of candidate.  Think about where and how you can connect with a more diverse candidate pool.

If you are targeting more women in specific roles, for example, find relevant interest or networking groups online or within platforms such as LinkedIn and talk to candidates directly. Ask your female employees to recommend their own connections or former colleagues and share job leads. The same principle applies to reaching out to any particular demographic or skill set and employees appreciate having their opinions and recommendations heard and valued.

6. Consider some affirmative action

Especially when you’re starting your diversity hiring journey, you may want to help things along with specific diversity programs that could offer an internship or traineeship to candidates of specific backgrounds. Consider working with local schools, colleges or community groups to make connections and target the appropriate up and coming candidates. It can also be a great way to engage and motivate your own team in supporting diversity hiring goals.

Sapia: Blind screening at its best

Sapia solves bias by screening and evaluating candidates with a simple open, transparent interview via a text conversation. 

Candidates know text and trust text and questions can be tailored to suit the requirements of the role and the organisation’s brand values. Unlike competitors, Sapia has no video hookups, visual content or voice data. No CVs and no data extracted from social channels. All of which can be triggers for bias– unconscious or otherwise.  

Sapia’s solution is designed to provide every candidate with a great experience that respects and recognises them as the individual they are. People are more than their CV and candidates appreciate the opportunity to tell their story in their own words, in their own time. Sapia is the only conversational interview platform with 99% candidate satisfaction feedback. You can read more about blind screening in our article here.  

Find out more about Sapia’s AI-powered interview automation platform and how we can support your diversity hiring goals.  

You can try out Sapia’s Chat Interview right now – here – or leave us your details to get a personalised demo

Frontier technology that puts people at the heart of their recruitment solution is rewarded for its ground-breaking approach that also solves for bias and reduces recruitment costs.

Melbourne, Australia, September 21 – Sapia, a text-based AI recruitment solution has been recognised globally for its commitment to creating a hiring experience that is empowering and motivating to the individual and which enhances your company’s brand.

The TIARA Talent Tech Star, awarded to Sapia, honours the most exemplary businesses globally in the talent acquisition industry.

Selected from a group of international finalists as a bold and innovative startup, Sapia was deemed top of the class. All for having demonstrated the value and impact of their solution at a time when agency and in-house recruiters are embracing technology and new ways of working.

The Candidate Experience Solution of the Year Award recognised Sapia as

“a matching solution that could fundamentally change the way
candidates experience recruitment, delivering valuable insight to both the
employer and the candidate whether they are recruited or not.”

The judges included the Head of Search & Staffing UK&I and EMEA at LinkedIn, Sales and Marketing Director of ManpowerGroup UK, and  Head of Innovation and Transformation at PwC.

Sapia awarded for solving a core pain point

Sapia CEO Barb Hyman said the team was honoured to receive industry recognition for their candidate experience solution which was a core pain point that the company solved along with bias and recruitment costs.

“For far too long as an industry HR has failed so many jobseekers by not giving everyone an equal chance to prove themselves and then ghosting those who do make it through to interviews,” Hyman said.

“With Sapia, everyone gets a chat interview and is treated equally by replying to text-based questions on their phone, without any demographic data being used to make hiring decisions.”

She said the company’s goal around candidate experience is to be recognised as the most inclusive recruitment solution at scale. The team has done extensive testing on how different groups respond to chat-based interviews. This includes a range of candidates from a multitude of gender, race and language backgrounds. For these groups, the experience has been transformative. For candidates who might otherwise feel intimidated by a video format feel safe and comfortable interviewing by chat.  The demographics collected on this front are only used in reporting for HR leaders against DEI targets, and not in any hiring decisions.

“We hold ourselves to incredibly high standards when it comes to creating an inclusive product, and ultimately it’s placing people at the core of what we do, that sets us apart from others, and makes our solution so successful for our customers.”

The Qantas Group, the Iceland Group, Telefonica, Bunnings and other trusted consumer brands have seen dramatic improvements from applying Sapia to their hiring/ promotion decisions.  

About Sapia 

Sapia (Formerly PredictiveHire) is a frontier technology solution which solves for three pain points in recruiting: bias; candidate experience, and efficiency. With only five free-text behavioural questions taking around 20 mins, and using over 80 features extracted from the candidate responses, our predictive models assign a “suitability” score to each candidate. To date, 400,000 candidates looking for roles in retail, healthcare, customer service, hospitality, contact centres and graduate roles across 34 countries have experienced Sapia with positive feedback averaging 99%.

Media Contact | Barb Hyman, CEO  barb@sapia.ai

Have you seen the 2020 Candidate Experience Playbook?

Finally, if there was ever a time for our profession to show humanity for the thousands that are looking for work, that time is now.

Download it here.