At the SHRM23 conference earlier this year, we spent a good bit of time chatting with HR and TA pros about ChatGPT, the seemingly sudden rise of AI, and the ways it might impact recruiting and hiring. Concerns that ChatGPT could be used as a tool for candidates to cheat their way into a job were raised more than once.
As using AI applications like ChatGPT becomes more common for job-seekers looking to spiff up their cover letters and résumés, prep for interviews, or ace employer assessments, recruiters and TA professionals are still working out the kinks on how to assess candidates.
“There’s always a chance that somebody [using AI] can squeak their way through, but it’s better to ask open-ended questions specific to the type of work and outcomes that you’re looking for in the role,” said Rachel Cupples, senior recruiter at Textio. “So, if someone cannot speak to or explain how they’ve done something or their experience doing something, then they’re likely to be eliminated.”
The issue of embellished résumés isn’t new, and candidates showcasing the best version of themselves on paper to land a job is pretty commonplace.
“Hiring managers already know that the résumés they are reviewing may very well have not been written by the person presenting it,” Stacie Haller, chief career advisor at ResumeBuilder, told SHRM in February. “Résumé writers, job coaches, and online tools exist for this, and this new technology is only today’s version."
But with the rise of ChatGPT and other tools, candidates can now borrow from AI or use it to downright lie on their application in a way that perfectly aligns with an open position.
“As much as recruiters would love every job-seeker [to] only apply for jobs that they’re qualified for, there’s so much misinformation on the internet directed at job-seekers telling them the opposite,” Cupples said. “It’s super unfortunate because—my time aside—it’s literally wasting job-seekers’ time.”
Takes one to know one. Glider is an AI skill intelligence platform that helps companies find and hire the right candidates based on skills. The tool helps companies with skill tests, pre-hire assessments, and secure video interviewing, and even uses built-in tools to help detect the use of AI.
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“We’re able, through AI, [to] identify any suspicious behavior,” said Joseph Cole, Glider’s VP of marketing. “Our AI can track facial movements, eye movements, whether someone’s using another screen, someone’s using their phone, and it can survey the room around them, as well as the audio and visual aspects of the room, so then it knows with certainty that okay…there’s something suspicious happening here.”
Cole pointed to a Glider analysis that found 23% of candidates engaged in some form of assessment malpractice, including a 92% increase of fraudulent test taking since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“At the end of the day, it’s a recruiter’s job to know how to build the right recruitment program, from start to finish for every open role and work very closely with the hiring manager,” Cupples said. “If an organization is having problems hiring fraudulent folks, there’s so many other places where checks can be put in place.”
It’s why Cupples emphasizes a good relationship with the hiring manager and really understanding the needs of the position before writing the job description. She also said employment verification and references are important checks to know if the candidate really is up for the job.
Work with ChatGPT. Erik Schluntz, co-founder and CTO at Cobalt Robotics, told the Wall Street Journal in March, “Giving a problem to someone that ChatGPT can solve doesn’t assess someone—it just assesses ChatGPT.”
Instead, lean into the tool as you assess a candidate’s skills, whether in an interview setting or in a skills assessment.
“Give [candidates] a question to where they need to use this tool, related to the job,” Cole said. “Like, ‘Here’s the challenge, use ChatGPT or whatever generative AI tool to find the solution or problem for this job. Now, based on the ChatGPT response…what’s your perspective?’”
This way the candidate is showcasing their ability to analyze the AI based on their own critical thinking, skills, and expertise.
“It’s all about asking the right questions and really knowing what we need and sticking to the requirements,” Cupples said.