{"text":[[{"start":8.18,"text":"As soon as Michael Kienle becomes accustomed to one use of AI, jobseekers think up improbable new ways to sneak it into the application process."}],[{"start":19.46,"text":"“We know they’re using it to write their CVs, their application letters,” says Kienle, global vice-president for talent acquisition at L’Oréal. But recently candidates have become more brazen. One of his recruiters told him a jobseeker had used AI in a video interview, simply repeating answers the bot would provide. The deception was spotted because “the answers didn’t come naturally”, explains Kienle."}],[{"start":48.04,"text":"Candidates reading AI-generated answers in interviews is just one of the unforeseen consequences employers are reporting as the technology rips through the jobs market. As vacancies shrink, the ease of making applications has left employers overwhelmed with candidates, but often deprived of meaningful information to identify promising hires from AI slop submissions."}],[{"start":75.78,"text":"The din and distrust are prompting some companies to reassess their approach to hiring and training, introducing hidden difficulties in application forms, practical testing and banning online exams to prevent cheating, as well as increasing their own use of AI screening tools."}],[{"start":96.68,"text":"“I think AI has actually pushed the interview process back to being more human focused,” says David Brown, chief executive of recruiter Hays Americas. “Employers are struggling with deciphering between resumes, because now it’s a lot easier to submit en masse and they all look like great fits. From a candidate perspective, it’s how do I stand out?”"}],[{"start":122.18,"text":"In response, L’Oréal decided to “sanctuarise the interview” as a first principle, says Kienle. Beyond a basic transcription tool — which candidates can opt out of — he says AI is not used in interviews. “It will be in person, person to person . . . 45 minutes or one hour . . . that is an AI-free zone.” The second principle is to ensure all candidates have at least one face-to-face interview before they start at the company."}],[{"start":153.81,"text":"Kienle says he meets each of his 200-person team of recruiters and puts them all through two years of training focused on L’Oréal’s particular recruitment needs. “If you have good recruiters, experienced recruiters, they do not ask the typical questions,” he says. “It’s all about authenticity — if you just repeat things that AI told you it’s not authentic, it’s not you. [The recruiters] have to know the personality, who they are talking to.”"}],[{"start":185,"text":"While accounting firm EY encourages applicants to use AI to help them prepare, “when you’re in an interview and assessment we want to hear the real you and [it] is really not permitted”, says global head of talent acquisition, Irmgard Naudin ten Cate. EY is prioritising in-person interaction and has trained more than 20,000 interviewers to “stress-test candidates’ thinking”, spotting answers that may have been prepared by AI without independent thought or real knowledge."}],[{"start":218.93,"text":"Recruiters can identify AI answers if they “probe correctly” says Naudin ten Cate. “We don’t want to know what you’ve done, we want to know how you think, how you make decisions, how you handle conflicts . . . It’s that type of question . . . [where we can] detect rehearsed answers.”"}],[{"start":237.37,"text":"February data from Deel, an HR platform, showed more than 40 per cent of employers had extended probation periods as they were finding it harder to assess people’s true skills during the application process. Around three-quarters of surveyed senior HR leaders had noticed a steep rise in AI-generated applications, and a similar proportion deemed CVs and cover letters less reliable than two years ago."}],[{"start":266.1,"text":"“AI has widened the gap between how candidates present themselves and how they perform,” says Matt Monette, UK&I lead at Deel. “Employers are telling us they can only understand real capability once someone starts the job.”"}],[{"start":281.88,"text":"The issue is also extending beyond hiring. The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, the world’s largest accounting body, said last year that it would require candidates to sit assessments in person, ending the online exams that have been running since the pandemic, as AI has made it harder to combat cheating. "}],[{"start":305.02,"text":"Rigorous testing does not mean excluding AI, however. Some employers want would-be hires to prove they can use it. Consultancy McKinsey is running a pilot that asks candidates to use its AI tool Lilli to analyse a case study as one of the tasks testing aptitude, curiosity and judgment during the application process. Mayank Gupta, chief executive of CaseBasix, a company that prepares McKinsey candidates, said in January that other firms such as Boston Consulting Group and Bain were likely to incorporate AI into the training process."}],[{"start":344.02,"text":"Many candidates say they have turned to AI partly in response to the use of it by recruiters. A rise in automated screening means many jobseekers find applications are quickly rejected with minimal human interaction, prompting them to send even more, in a vicious circle of AI applying and screening."}],[{"start":364.96999999999997,"text":"Employers admit AI will play a role in filtering applications. But some are holding back on rolling out tools more widely, in part due to concerns about whether they can adequately assess candidates or conform to legislation that demands protections against bias, and sharing or unnecessary processing of personal information. "}],[{"start":387.66999999999996,"text":"Recruiters are also starting to make candidates jump through more hoops in the early stages of recruitment in an attempt to weed out the least serious. "}],[{"start":397.09999999999997,"text":"Advertising agency VML, for example, was typically receiving about 400 applications for an entry-level role, but finding only 10 per cent fitted the brief. Last year, after it asked candidates to create a 60-second video saying why they were a good fit, 40 per cent dropped out, according to Graham Powell-Symon, talent acquisition director."}],[{"start":421.45,"text":"“Trying to decipher whether they’re actually viable candidates for the role is very time consuming. You have to be more rigorous,” he says. “Anybody who’s got the commitment to make a video likely has some degree of commitment to us as a business.”"}],[{"start":438.74,"text":"VML and other employers including Virgin Group are also asking candidates to use new tools developed by start-ups such as Vizzy, to create profiles that showcase professional achievements that would typically be on CVs, alongside richer details such as psychometric test scores and portfolios. Sarah Lock, recruitment lead at Virgin Group, says the tool helps inform interviews, which now “place more emphasis on real-world thinking and values” and take a more conversational approach."}],[{"start":473.09000000000003,"text":"“We’re seeing more applicants than ever before, but less real differentiation,” she says. “It helps us cut through the sameness [so] by the time candidates reach interview . . . we already have a much more rounded view of who they are. That allows interviews to go deeper.”"}],[{"start":492.63000000000005,"text":"Some employers are looking to other ways to engage candidates. For example, L’Oréal’s Brandstorm, an international competition where participants compete on real-life business scenarios to win a work placement, has been running for decades, but in the past three years registrations have tripled to 4,000 in the UK. “It’s a very important source of recruitment,” says Kienle. "}],[{"start":517.6300000000001,"text":"EY has created virtual job simulations, where would-be applicants can practise online role plays setting out what consultants do and what it might be like to work at EY, and which it says about 50,000 students have completed."}],[{"start":534.2200000000001,"text":"Naudin ten Cate notes that 88 per cent of applicants who participate in the simulation say they are confident during their interview as a result. For EY, it has the benefit of engaging would-be hires early on, so anxious young jobseekers are more likely to make targeted rather than scattergun applications. "}],[{"start":557.2100000000002,"text":"“We engage with the person . . . guiding someone through it versus having this whole big funnel at the top,” she says. “There’s less noise in the system, and for the [applicant], it’s a better experience.”"}],[{"start":579.6700000000001,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1775351043_7511.mp3"}