Navigating the Dark Side of AI Technology Used to Screen Job Applications
Key Highlights :
The use of AI technology to screen job applications has become commonplace in the modern job market. But there is a well-documented dark side to this technology, and sometimes being qualified is not enough to get your application seen by human eyes. The use of applicant tracking systems (ATS) is prevalent, and according to a Harvard Business School study, 99% of Fortune 500 companies and 63% of surveyed countries across Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom use ATS when looking for new hires.
Unfortunately, AI technology can perpetuate discrimination, even when it's designed to do the opposite. According to Kerry McInerney, a Research Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge, "One of the claims that companies make about AI-powered hiring tools is that, unlike a human recruiter, an AI-powered tool doesn't see gender and doesn't see race or other characteristics about us."
Joseph Fuller, a Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School, adds that ATS systems "don't think. They don't reason. They're not smart in the way humans think of intelligence." This means that they can reject applicants because of lengthy and wordy job postings, or because of things like large gaps in their resumes.
In 2018, Amazon realised the hiring software it was developing was scoring qualified female candidates below their male counterparts. The reason for this was simple. The AI was trained on the company’s previous hiring track record, and since men dominate the tech industry, it decided that male candidates were preferable to female ones.
In an effort to bypass this hurdle, some people have tried ‘white fonting’, or copying and pasting a job post into their resume in small font and hiding it from the human eye by changing the colour to white. Unfortunately, this is more "myth" than fact. Fuller suggests that hopeful employees look at LinkedIn profiles of people already doing their desired job at the relevant company and replicate how they describe their skills and position.
For the some 27 million 'hidden workers' in the US and the other five million in the UK and Germany, Fuller recommends that they could try to get past the AI bots by closing the gap in their resumes. For example, he suggested they could return to the workforce by finding gig work, part-time employment or by studying for a course while they look for a new job.
Some regions and countries are trying to address this power imbalance by moving to regulate this ever evolving technology. European Union officials are working on groundbreaking rules to regulate AI that could become the de facto standard for global countries because of the size of the 27 nation bloc and its market. In the United States, New York City is working on a law that would require employers to disclose when they are using AI technology to screen job applicants.
Navigating the job market in the era of AI technology can be a daunting task. But understanding the dark side of AI technology used to screen job applications and taking steps to address it can help applicants increase their chances of success.
