The Scoop: Recruitment Trends & Industry Insights | September 2019

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Here is your September guide to the latest in recruitment trends, technology and industry insights! Each month, we highlight the biggest news affecting the industry and explain what to expect as new trends continue to emerge.

COULD VARIED DATASETS AND ALGORITHMIC TRANSPARENCY INCREASE CONFIDENCE IN HR AI TOOLS? 

While the HR industry has been slow to invest in new technology — often looking for ROI metrics from first movers — the tight labor market and skills gap may prove a great motivator against risk-aversion. 

New research out of Wharton shines a light on the potential pitfalls of implementing AI to augment HR functions. The challenges that exist with traditional methods used to assess company and job fit can be exacerbated by tools that leverage backward-looking siloed datasets. Effectively, each database holds a clue that sheds light on the question of candidate fitness and allowing the data between these systems to “talk” to each other potentially increases reliability. In other words, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/using-ai-in-human-resources/

As more employers acquire AI-driven tools, underpinned by larger and varied datasets with the goal of a more effective selection process, the need for greater understanding into how those decisions are made — explainable and defensible AI — may increase focus on biases and unintended consequences. 

“To prevent algorithms from carrying harmful biases — like racial prejudice — decision-makers need to carefully assess how diverse their data collection is, and what values it reflects. Building an AI application starts with understanding the objectives, designing a hypothesis and identifying the necessary data to build the right algorithm. Then, in the final step in the process, there’s a great opportunity to identify bias.”

https://www.ciodive.com/news/how-ai-learns-the-biases-of-its-creators/563089/

LINKEDIN SKILLS ASSESSMENT TOOL AND RESKILLING FOR THE FUTURE OF WORK

HR leaders reported a 12% increase in the skills gap last year, due in part to the changing needs precipitated by new tech and the shortage of qualified talent. As a greater number of employers are looking beyond higher ed towards alternative channels of talented candidates who have upskilled themselves, there will be an increased need to substantiate those skills.  

For some time now, LinkedIn has had the skills self-report and endorsement functions as part of their users’ personal profile, but the company recently announced a new assessment tool which seeks to validate skill proficiency and highlight via profile badges.   

https://blog.linkedin.com/2019/september/17/announcing-skill-assessments-to-help-you-showcase-your-skills

The shortage of key talent and a tight labor market have started to impact how employers are strategically investing in current and future talent. 

“Sixty-eight percent of the respondents are planning to hire people with the right skills for emerging technology. In anticipation of shifts in marketing, sales and supply chain jobs, 54% of respondents are reskilling workers, and 52% are revising jobs to get people and machines integrated.”

More employers are considering reskilling employees to account for current and future needs; the challenge will be developing customized learning programs that will also allow a certain level of self-directed autonomy. 

https://www.hrdive.com/news/employer-investments-in-tech-are-shifting-hiring-practices/563244/


WILL 5G MAKE WIDESPREAD VIRTUAL WORK A REALITY? 

Last month, we highlighted Cubic Motion’s new technology that turns human motion into CGI characters and its application to location-agnostic interviewing. Facebook Reality Labs has also created a system capable of animating virtual avatars in real-time.

https://www.roadtovr.com/facebook-expands-on-hyper-realistic-virtual-avatar-research/

Beyond interviewing, avatars may soon show up as stand-ins for SMEs at conferences, as shown during Microsoft Inspire (see the July edition of The Scoop, “The Future of Interviews: Holograms”). And fifth generation (5G) communications networks and its ability to enable the combination of extended, augmented, virtual and mixed reality technologies may hold the key to extending that advancement even further into our work lives.

“Imagine being able to interact with a full-size “digital twin” of every place and thing that exists in the physical world, all from a home office. A plant manager in Seattle can immerse herself in a factory in Vietnam; she can see, hear, feel, even smell the shop floor.” 

https://qz.com/work/1707685/how-5g-will-transform-our-ability-to-work-from-home/

ROUNDING OUT THE SCOOP: PSYCH, SOCIAL, LABOR AND TECH

  • Data Privacy: Selling Mental Health Web Info: While the conversation around GDPR seems to have died down over the past year, new revelations of companies selling ever more personal data to advertisers may reignite concerns. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49578500

About Jahkedda Akbar Mitchell

Jahkedda has many years of experience providing strategic guidance, data, and insights on job-seeker trends in support of Radancy and its clients. She has also worked in-house on the candidate attraction team for a large fortune 500 company. Jahkedda has a passion for psychology and storytelling; understanding why we do what we do and how to change behaviors...only using her powers for good. Jahkedda is a member of Radancy Labs: a design thinking focused innovation lab.

One Response to " The Scoop: Recruitment Trends & Industry Insights | September 2019 "

  1. aish feat says:

    Thanks for sharing this information

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