HR Managers Need To Be Wary Of Interviewing Process Changes – AI
How AI is Playing an Important Role in the Recruitment Process
The fact that robots are hiring humans for certain companies seems to be the new trend in the HR world. HR managers who are taking the call to go for such an arrangement need to be careful here. According to the news, these robots can detect the “true personality” of the interviewee from his facial expression changes and tone of voice. It’s a great start to incorporating the applications of artificial intelligence in the world of people processes. But the factors being considered by such software are incomplete. Without a holistic approach to understanding and incorporating the entire nonverbal communication of candidates, if technology adapters are offering solutions, it can backfire heavily. Here are a few details of how the software being used by leading companies in India can be flawed in actually understanding the candidate:
- The software mentioned in the article written recently in one of the leading newspapers, as stated above, supposedly uses facial expressions and tone of voice to understand people. Experts in the field of nonverbal communication would tell you two things –
- It is impossible to know a person merely by observing his facial expressions. One would have to look at their entire body to know how the person is thinking, feeling, or intends to do which is generally derived from nonverbal communication.
- The popularity of micro-expressions has floated the concept that micro-expressions can help understand what a person is truly feeling. To clarify this terminology, micro expressions are those expressions that flash on an individual’s face for a very very brief moment in time. This is correct, that micro-expressions do leak a person’s true intentions. But micro-expressions themselves are very very rare in occurrence. So even if one were to train software to observe others closely, it is flawed to assume that the person will necessarily leak what he is feeling through micro-expressions.
- Feedback from the interviewer would be missing in the process being used for the interviews. This new automated process is driven by a question and answer handled between the robot and the human. As humans, when we encounter another human, be it in face-to-face interviews, over video interviews, or a telephone call, we rely on the feedback received from our counterpart to take the conversation forward. This comes in the form of what is known as “emotional mimicry”. Good interviewers are able to connect with their interviewees, and in turn, the interviewees are able to provide better answers when they are able to connect with each other through this feedback system. If the candidate giving the interview is not given a chance to provide or get this feedback, then his body language or even facial expressions during the interview are not similar to the ones you would observe in an actual interview. Analysis of this behavior would thus be under artificial circumstances.
These are but a few examples. I just wish to highlight the fact that when a new technology is used to replace an age-old method, it needs to be tried and tested prior to becoming the trend. Those in HR roles responsible for taking these decisions are ultimately responsible for the efficiency at an organizational level.
The author of this article is Khyati Bhatt, founder and lead consultant at Simply Body Talk, one of the few companies in the world to specialize in nonverbal communication. She consults companies and offers solutions to their requirements by tapping into nonverbal science. Specific to interviews, Khyati conducted special workshops for the heads of organizations on how to remove biases during the interview process by focusing on body language.
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