Have you considered AI mis-use when interviewing online?

Sally Fenton

For anyone that interviews online and as the use of AI becomes more prevalent, employers must be vigilant in maintaining the integrity of their recruitment process.

Prospective employee’s/candidates may attempt to exploit AI to assist them into securing a role by using it to craft cleverly tailored cover letters, complete interview tasks or even potentially create a portfolio of work with very little effort! The concern is that this may not reflect the potential employee’s real abilities!

So what do you need to consider when hiring digitally…..

1)Consider your recruitment process and focus on areas where AI assistance would have less impact so setting tasks requiring real-world problem-solving, team work/decision making.

By designing assessments that focus on the human centric skills then you can ensure a more accurate evaluation of abilities and reduce the potential for mis-use/misrepresentation of online tools.

You need to ensure that candidates are assessed based on their genuine capabilities rather than AI-generated content.

2)Distracted behaviour – candidate looking away from the screen or glancing down perhaps consulting their mobile device. From a theoretical standpoint they may provide the correct answer but the deeper understanding in a role or skill set may not be there and could pose long-term issues for you as a potential employer. If you are not careful you could find yourself hiring someone that doesn’t have the skills to work independently and that isn’t fully prepared to handle the complexities of the job.

3)You could consider using methods that can’t be manipulated – perhaps a 2nd interview is an actual face to face interview where possible to eliminate the risk of AI interference and enable you as the interviewers to directly observe candidates skills and communication styles in real time.

4)CV’s may not be ‘the real person’ or ‘authentic’ as they many have used ChatGPT to write it. If what is in the CV is nonsense and can’t be backed up with solid examples in an interview cracks will soon start to appear! You need to train hiring managers what to look out for. For example AI written CV’s are typically quite generic and often lacks specificity or examples e.g. it may say someone is a great team player but not offer any real-life illustrations to support this claim. Through human interaction these things can be teased out. By providing training and ensuring there is human intervention as part of the process will help ensure a more trustworthy process and minimise issues down the line.

Staying one step ahead

Remember it is crucial you stay updated on the latest advancements in AI and continuously adjust your recruitment methods to account for emerging technologies. This will ensure your process remains robust and effectively evaluates candidate suitability for the role and guards you against AI manipulation. AI can time save in some areas so it shouldn’t be dismissed but by using it in conjunction with someone ‘real’ will give you desired outcome.

The good news when working in partnership with Search & Select we are aware of all of the above and where possible always interview the candidate face to face to fairly assess them before submitting them to one of your roles! This will mean a successful long term placement.

To chat to us about your next hire contact us via www.searchandselect.com or recruitment@searchandselect.com

Author: Sally Fenton

It takes two decades of board-level expertise and shed loads of industry passion to make a leader like Sally. Outdoorsy adventure? Try and stop her.