There is a lot of noise around AI and it’s generating a few questions from customers around the impact on the validity of assessments. “.. candidate's ability to “cheat” the assessments using AI...”
Reasonable questions given the hype surrounding AI and its phenomenal capabilities but, it is something we have covered
No one can deny AI has revolutionised some areas of our work and personal lives. It’s made some things that were difficult and even unachievable by us mere mortals, not just accessible but quick, simple and professional. But how is AI really impacting Recruitment and Selection?
Wind-tunnelling the CV - AI is doing for the CV, what wind tunnels did for the car.
For those generations that missed this analogy, it is the effect of aerodynamics, and car manufacturers trying to achieve the best they can, for obvious reasons. Within reason, if you design all cars in a wind tunnel, they will all come out looking the same. You get the idea. AI seems to be the “wind tunnel” for the CV. Each will vary for sure but many CV’s are looking the same now and/or are very well-written..
The Effect? What you have now, are a bunch of brilliant CV’s in your application inbox of which, very few seem to have been written by the candidates. Critically, you are struggling to differentiate between them and this is only going to get worse. It’s not just you battling to differentiate the great, real, stand out candidate; the Candidates themselves will soon, if not already have to work harder to differentiate themselves against a “computer presented candidate”. The well written, well designed and presented CV and cover letter that caught your eye or imagination is now the norm. The small sifting pile is now the “keep” and not the “bin”
It’s not all that bad unless your only recruiting based on a CV. The CV should only be part of the process and only ever a token guide. In the real world, a CV only gave you basic insights; address, companies/industries the candidate has worked and a general educational background. Even the best CV, still only told you what the candidate (or agent) wanted you to know! The rest was for you discover and if not discovered prior to hire with “expert interviewing” and skills assessment, it is often something you later regret or had to suck up and unexpectedly manage or train.
From simple multi-choice to complex simulations, individual communication and management guides to personality types; there are hundreds of assessments available.
How does AI impact these assessments?
Skillsarena has always had a number of inherent Anti Cheating mechanisms built into its solutions. Not just at a system level but down to test and question levels. AI can’t interact with us.
Inherent Design
Our interface and each assessment needs human interaction to navigate through. This applies to the tests and questions for candidates. We remove copy and paste capability, deliver content in a dynamic, and a randomised way, we build fully simulated environments which AI cannot interact with, every test and every question is timed controlled and we have proctoring controls available for you to prove it is the candidate and they have no outside influence. These are just the highlights but, above all we appeal the candidates trust and an honesty agreement and we have designed the assessments to be fair to a candidate. Critically, they are realistic, a true measure of their skill designed to be a “at desk simulation of the task” and NOT a fancy looking memory test, poorly designed and will nothing more than catch them out and will not reflect their true skills!
SA Verify - The ultimate retest.
Still think the candidate may find a way round all this! ? Well, we have 2 thoughts on this for you to digest:
If you have a candidate that has taken that level of initiative to try and circumnavigate all this to better their score, just give them the job. In fact give them ANY job. That type of candidate that will put that level of effort into something to work for you is worth their weight in gold. Grab gold and hold on to it tightly!
If you are worried in any way, retest. Ideally in a controlled environment (such as at interview) but even remotely. Last minute assessment of the same test will give you a comparative score to reference and will be clearly different if something is wrong…. Don’t worry, most of the assessments have randomised questions built in so becoming test smart is another worry mitigated with Skillsarena.
Got more questions or something specific... Were happy to talk it over, contact us to find out more.
