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How to mix tradi,onal hiring methods and the use of new technologies?

Louis Brochet

Double Degree EDHEC Business School – Ecole Centrale Lille

Managing Human Capital

Mar<n Jungst

February 9, 2024

Jeff Bezos stated that “[he] would prefer interviewing 50 people and hiring nobody
rather than hiring the wrong person”. It shows to what extent the hiring process is a crucial
strategic maSer for companies. Indeed, hiring the wrong person, because the person does not
correspond to the company’s values, because he or she does not have some necessary ability
or a plenty of other possible reasons, would cost a lot in the future. During all the <me spent
by the person, it generally means wasted <me and/or underperformance. Furthermore, to
subs<tute the person, a new expensive hiring process must be started. Consequently, the
current technological breakout, giving new opportuni<es to assess and an<cipate the
performance, to analyze an unprecedented quan<ty of data, could be give powerful tools to
op<mize the hiring process. However, the former CEO of Starbucks – Howard Schultz – stated
that “hiring is an art, not a science, reading one’s resume will not teach you about the person’s
ability to integrate the corporate culture”. Knowing that hiring processes can be improved, that
quote can lead to think about the limita<ons of those new technologies. What are the aspects
where new technologies should be used during the hiring process? Are they already able to
outperform all the weaknesses of the tradi<onal methods? In which way, could we combine
the strengths of tradi<onal methods and the new possibili<es offered by such technologies?
First, we will see those new technologies, especially the ones analyzing big data, can be
powerful tools to assess the poten<al of candidates and help to improve the hiring process’
efficiency. However, it would be a mistake to reject the tradi<onal methods fully because some
human biases can be amplified by the ar<ficial intelligence, which is also not able to make a
deep analysis of somebody’s mo<va<on. Finally, we will study how to struggle against human
and “technological” biases, companies should try mixing tradi<onal hiring methods and
methods born with the recent technological breakout.

A- New technologies, especially the ones analyzing big data, can be powerful tools to
assess the poten<al of candidates and help to improve the hiring process’ efficiency.

One of the most interes<ng aspects of ar<ficial intelligence is the possibility offered to
improve the quality of the job analysis, which is at the heart of the first step of the hiring
process. Indeed, one of the main strengths of ar<ficial intelligence is its ability to collect,
analyze and organize a large amount of data. Using a large database, it uses resumes, job
descrip<ons and other documents to establish the researched profiles, especially the
knowledge, the abili<es, and the skills the company is looking for. Natural Language Processing
techniques will be used to iden<fy synonyms, context, and the lexical field to make the
research more accurate. There is a great gain of <me, more coherence in the job descrip<on
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and a lower risk of omissions and mistakes. Human resources manager also has the possibility
to configure the criteria to make the job analysis more specific if some requirements are due
to a par<cular sector or to a certain corporate culture. Opportuni<es offered by ar<ficial
intelligence in the job analysis redac<on can be seen through the development of some
companies which are specialized in such business. For example, Wonderlic AI proposes its
services to help other companies hiring more efficiently using ar<ficial intelligence.

Second, new technologies can also be really useful during the recrui<ng phase. When a
company is looking for external candidates, new technologies, which have become daily for
some years, revolu<onized the external recruitment with the appearance of professional social
networks, including the most famous one, Linkledln, which gathers 1 billion people around the
world. Therefore, it gives an unprecedented visibility to job ads. Going back to more
sophis<cate and recent technologies, the development of ar<ficial intelligence led to the rise
of matching algorithms. The matching algorithm enables, in a similar way (NPL techniques) to
what was presented before, to iden<fy suitable candidates using the selected criteria. Thanks
to machine learning, more the algorithm is used, beSer the results will be. Ar<ficial
intelligence also permits more personaliza<on because it can take into account interests and
preferences of each person to op<mize the probability of matching with the corporate culture
and other specific features of the job. To select a more precise pool of candidates before in<al
screening, predic<ve analy<cs also enable recruiters to eliminate candidates. It leverages past
data and paSerns to an<cipate how well a candidate might perform in a specific role, aiding
employers in selec<ng the most suitable individuals for interviews or employment. To sum up,
automa<ng the hiring process offers numerous advantages, including cost reduc<on, faster
recruitment cycles, enhanced quality of hires, decreased risk of errors, and the capacity to
manage a larger influx of applica<ons. By streamlining tasks through automa<on,
organiza<ons can save both <me and money while simultaneously improving the efficiency
and effec<veness of their hiring opera<ons. Indeed, a report by Glassdoor found that
organiza<ons using automated recruitment technologies experienced a 23% decrease in <me-
to-hire, indica<ng notable improvements in recruitment process accelera<on. According to a
survey conducted by LinkedIn, companies leveraging automa<on tools reported a 34%
increase in the quality of hires.

Then, in the ini<al screening phase, AI-driven chatbots or virtual assistants can handle
preliminary screening interviews with candidates, posing per<nent inquiries and evalua<ng
their fit for the posi<on to save valuable <me for all actors. Furthermore, ar<ficial intelligence
offers a beSer analysis of the results of the different tests, such as work samples or job-
knowledge tests, taken by the candidates. According to the Harvard Business Review,
assessments conducted by AI are reported to be 25% more reliable than those performed by
humans. It can be explained by the machine does not have some biases. Indeed, a recruiter is
exposed to many of them making objec<vity more difficult to reach. First, there is the contrast
effect. The evalua<on of somebody’s performance risks to be impacted by the preceding and
the following ones. There are other biases which can threaten the quality of the hiring process.
Leniency is the tendency to favor top rankings; strictness is the opposite whereas central
tendency is the tendency to put everyone near the middle of the scale. Furthermore, as the
hiring process is going on or even more if it is an internal candidate, the results of preceding
tests make that the recruiter develops an opinion on the applicant which can have effects on
the analysis of his or her results. Indeed, if it favors the applicant. It is a halo error. Otherwise,
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it is a horn error. The use of ar<ficial intelligence also prevents other biases from appearing
such as physical aSrac<veness. To conclude, we can note that such new technologies do not
only enable to improve tradi<onal hiring methods. It can also bring massive innova<on. It is
the case of web scraping which consists in analyzing people’s ac<vity on Internet and social
media to study their job poten<al and to what extent they fit the job. According to scien<fic
tests, it improves the accuracy of IQ and personality tests by 50%.

B- However, limita<ons to the use of such technologies in hiring process can appear
because it cannot fully understand human nature and can reproduce, or even amplify,
some human biases.

However, for human resources departments, Covid-19 crisis got unexpected and significant
effects on the rela<onships of many employees to their job. Currently, the feeling that his or
her job must be meaningful is stronger than before. Such a major change does not only
concern the hiring process, but it must be considered. Indeed, in the United States, since
August 2021, more than 4.3 million Americans have len their jobs, that phenomenon is onen
referred as “The Great Resigna<on”. It can be coupled with “silent resigners”, which is the
denomina<on for employees performing the minimum required and the recent difficul<es to
hire execu<ves. Those phenomena cost a lot to the companies and underline the importance
of understanding someone’s values and interests during the hiring process, what motors his
or her mo<va<on. If a weakness is detected at this level, even if the person has the good profile
in the short-term, it seems less likely in the long-term. Consequently, it seems that the sanitary
crisis had paradoxical effects on the development of new technologies in the context of work.
Indeed, it has triggered the populariza<on of remote work. However, because that crisis also
led to enhance the importance of being useful to the society through his or her work, it
reinforces the necessity to understand somebody’s mo<va<on to avoid unexpected
departures in the coming year, forcing the company to restart a hiring process which costs a
lot of <me and money. Here are the limita<ons of the ar<ficial intelligence, even for a human,
analyzing and fully understanding somebody’s mo<va<on remains one of the most difficult
tasks. During the hiring process, excessive use of ar<ficial intelligence can lead to the leaving
of some applicants because they do not feel considered enough. Con<nuous communica<on
with candidates regarding their applica<on status and basic inquiries can strip away a
considerable degree of human interac<on from the recruitment process, detrac<ng from that
exchange that should facilitate mutual discovery between a candidate and their prospec<ve
colleagues. There is a high risk of mistakes during the hiring process if interac<ons with
applicants are excessively done with AI-driven chatbots. During an interview, a human
interviewer has the possibility to assess social skills of the interviewee and to analyze his or
her non-verbal to measure beSer his or her interest for the job and the roots of the mo<va<on.

Second, we should keep in mind that ar<ficial intelligences remain human crea<ons which
do not necessarily go beyond human capaci<es. They can even reproduce some human biases,
or even amplify them. It would be a mistake to think that ar<ficial intelligences always perform
beSer than humans. There are mul<ple risks. First, we saw the significant gains of <me and
money through the automa<on of some repe<<ve tasks, such as resume screening, it could
favor a keyword-based sor<ng which could penalize really good candidates who not op<mize
their resume enough. Second, we evoked the predic<ve analysis based on historical datasets
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to es<mate an applicant’s poten<al and his or her likelihood to succeed but, currently, it does
not integrate enough some factors like corporate culture or the personality to consider those
analysis as fully relevant and reliable. Third, it is proved that ar<ficial intelligence tends to
reproduce some unconscious biases of humans. The most known case happened in Amazon.
One of the ar<ficial intelligences, used for resume screening, tended to reinforce sexism by
favoring resumes of male applicants. That risk, beyond the fact it could lead to a lawsuit for
hiring discrimina<on, is especially important because, currently, many companies want to
diversify the recruited profiles.

Finally, the use of ar<ficial intelligence poses ethical and legal risks as we have already seen
with Amazon’s discriminatory ar<ficial intelligence. It is also interes<ng to go back on a new
hiring method, whose popularity has risen since larger datasets can be analyzed, the web
scrapping. Through that method, applicant’s digital footprint gathers informa<on that they
accepted to share on Internet. However, it also includes comments, videos, photos or other
content posted by the familial, professional or friendly environment. Some companies even
ask candidates to share the password of their social media. Web scrapping has already gone
so far that the prac<ce is banned in 23 American states.

C- To struggle against human and “technological” biases, companies should try mixing
tradi<onal hiring methods and methods born with the recent technological breakout.

Generally, the use of new technologies in the hiring process is cri<cized because it leads to
a certain dehumaniza<on. However, some uses of new technologies do not necessarily
conduct to that effect and s<ll enable to gain a lot of <me. First, there is a simple way to mix
tradi<onal hiring methods and new technologies. Even if remote interviews are becoming
more and more popular, some companies remain aSached to in person interviews. However,
even if in person interviews have some advantages such as giving a first opportunity to
applicants to discover the company’s site, since COVID-19 has occurred, more and more
people are looking for greater flexibility in their professional life. Such a trend is facilitated by
the development of many online video plaporms such as Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and
others. It can facilitate the hiring of some applicants by showing the importance of flexibility
in the corporate policy. It can be a game changer to hire an interes<ng and rare applicant in a
<ght job market. According to survey by Météojob and Cleverconnect, it is not only
appreciated by candidates, but it also improves recruitment <me by 54%. Second, as we saw
before, ar<ficial intelligence use is onen cri<cized because people do not feel considered and
the experience is not personalized enough. However, it can be used to personalize each
applicant’s experience all along the hiring process by enabling to personalize communica<on
and feedback all along the hiring process. The candidate feels unique and there are s<ll
significant gains of <me.

One of the main dangers is not the use of new technologies, it is the excessive use,
especially for AI-driven services where there is a great tendency of overconfidence with their
relevance and reliability. Especially, when there is a large number of applicants, ar<ficial
intelligence remains interes<ng to gain <me on some specific tasks such as the extrac<on of
data from resumes and job descrip<ons (+ management of the seman<cs) or the planifica<on
of interviews and other appointments. On the other, the candidate evalua<on, the resume
scoring, and the predic<on of success are ac<vi<es that cannot be delegated to ar<ficial
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intelligences, or with parsimony. To execute those hybrid methods, some tools have been
developed. An applicant tracking system (ATS) is a sonware applica<on that enables
businesses to manage their recruitment processes efficiently. ATS streamlines the hiring
process by automa<ng tasks such as job pos<ng, resume parsing, candidate screening,
interview scheduling, and applicant communica<on. These systems help recruiters and hiring
managers to organize large volumes of applica<ons, track candidates' progress through various
stages of the hiring process and collaborate with team members involved in the recruitment
process. Addi<onally, ATS onen includes features like candidate rela<onship management
(CRM), repor<ng and analy<cs, and integra<on with other HR systems, enhancing overall
recruitment effec<veness and helping companies find the best-fit candidates for their open
posi<ons. Many companies develop such plaporms such as Workday, Bullhorn,
SmartRecruiters.

Con<nuous learning and adapta<on in recruitment prac<ces are essen<al for staying
compe<<ve in today's dynamic job market. With advancements in recruitment technology
constantly reshaping the industry landscape, it is crucial for organiza<ons to remain abreast of
these developments. For instance, leveraging ar<ficial intelligence (AI) and machine learning
algorithms can enhance candidate sourcing, screening, and matching processes, leading to
more efficient hiring outcomes. According to a survey by LinkedIn, 67% of talent professionals
believe AI will become a standard tool for recrui<ng, highligh<ng the importance of staying
updated with such trends. Addi<onally, regularly evalua<ng and refining hiring processes
based on performance metrics and feedback loops can help organiza<ons op<mize their
recruitment strategies for beSer outcomes. By embracing a mindset of con<nuous learning
and adapta<on, companies can posi<on themselves to aSract top talent and maintain a
compe<<ve edge in the ever-evolving recruitment landscape.

In conclusion, the integra<on of new technologies into tradi<onal hiring methods

represents a powerful opportunity for organiza<ons to enhance the efficiency and
effec<veness of their recruitment processes. While new technologies offer numerous
advantages such as improved job analysis, streamlined candidate sourcing, and enhanced
predic<ve analy<cs, it is essen<al to acknowledge their limita<ons, including the poten<al
reproduc<on or amplifica<on of human biases and the challenge of fully understanding human
mo<va<on. Therefore, a balanced approach that combines the strengths of both tradi<onal
methods and new technologies is necessary to op<mize the hiring process. By leveraging tools
such as applicant tracking systems (ATS) and maintaining a con<nuous learning mindset to stay
abreast of advancements in recruitment technology, companies can adapt their hiring
strategies to meet the evolving demands of the job market and aSract top talent effec<vely.
Through this integra<on, organiza<ons can navigate the complexi<es of recruitment while
fostering a more personalized and human-centric approach to talent acquisi<on.

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