Experts use the term robo recruiting to refer to algorithmic systems that are used to help recruit personnel. They analyze the job market in advance, filter applications and can even conduct chat conversations with potential applicants. However, this requires sufficient preliminary work by humans. More about the advantages and disadvantages of this process now.
Robo Recruiting uses algorithmic systems to simplify personnel selection for companies in this way. The systems are designed to make advance decisions about whether an applicant is a good fit for a company. Of course, they don’t do this on their own. The systems have to be programmed by people. And they have to think carefully about the selection criteria they use as a basis. Ethical factors play just as important a role as personal motivation, commitment and so much more. This is an opportunity to link human decision-making factors with machine-based action structures. If they are understood and recognized as such.
Recognizing Robo Recruiting as a Chance
Basically, it’s hard to make important decisions on a rational basis all by yourself. This is especially true for a job interview. Here, many factors often play a role in the selection of an applicant, such as his or her professional expertise, but also his or her personality, social environment, willingness to learn new things, and much more. Some of the points can be filtered out in advance by robo recruiting, others make it difficult. A machine makes decisions purely rationally, it has no gut feeling or can work outside its prefabricated structures. This makes it easy to at least filter out applications in advance according to the desired characteristics in the applicants and thus save the time of doing everything yourself.
Resolve conflicts of conscience
On the other hand, it is easy for errors to creep in, which are primarily rooted in the human being himself. His prejudices, even if he is not obviously aware of them, can then be part of the algorithms and as such favor decisions that were not planned at all. Therefore, it is essential not to reproduce human prejudices, but to neutralize them as far as possible. One way to do this would be to bring several decision-makers on board and only then program the system accordingly. Here, a lot actually helps a lot. In addition, there are now self-learning chatbots. Where they reach their limits, they can learn to overcome them themselves and perform their work better and better. Again, of course, always within the limits of what is possible on the technical side.
Does robo recruiting create more fairness?
Doubters are unsure whether robo recruiting actually creates more fairness than human decision-making processes do. After all, they do not involve any personal feelings; instead, they strictly follow the facts. This makes their work efficient and consistent. But in the end, it doesn’t work without human resources managers. The robo-decision makers do the pre-selection. Only then do supervisors receive a list of potential candidates who meet the specifications that were decided on beforehand. The actual interviewing and hiring decisions phase is then made by humans in face-to-face interactions. According to Tobias Knobloch and Carla Hustedt from the collaborative project “Algorithm for the Common Good” from the New Responsibility Foundation, this approach gives managers more time for really important decision-making processes and can therefore offer clear advantages.
In this respect, it seems no wonder that in the future more and more companies will want to use robo recruiting to find new employees. On the other hand, many applicants do not even know what robo recruiting actually is and that they have long been part of it. Once it is pointed out, the majority of applicants would rather be selected by humans than by machines for the new job. Experts on the market dare to doubt whether this trend can be curbed, the opportunities of robo recruiting are too great.
Image copyright: Isabelavoliveira
