1. As a job candidate, would you prefer your CV be reviewed by a machine or a human? Why?

2. As a job candidate, would you prefer to be interviewed by a robot or a human? Why?

I received a total of 20 responses.

And here are the results:

About half (50%) of the respondents preferred HUMANS for both questions.

 

About 25% preferred Machines to review their CVs but Humans to interview them.

 

5% preferred Machines for both.

 

The rest (20%) seemed non-committal (or their answers were not quite intelligible).

From the results of this straw poll, it seems most people still prefer to deal with Humans and not Robots.

I was actually hoping for more HR Professionals to respond and give their views, however only 3 out of the 20 who responded were from HR / Recruitment.

And the reason why I was hoping for more responses from the HR community is to understand what they themselves would prefer as candidates – by virtue of the fact that they are employees means they would be candidates too.

So I wanted to get a feel of what their own preferences were as candidates when they are looking for a job – would they want their own CVs to be reviewed and filtered by Robots or would they prefer Humans to review their CVs.

But what is clear from this Straw Poll is that most of us still want to deal and interact with real people.
And this is not at all surprising to me because we humans are basically social creatures.

We were built this way.

We need and sometimes crave social interactions – simply because we as homo-sapiens require that basic emotional connection with the parties we come into contact with.

Some of the respondents commented that they preferred Robots to review their CVs so as to eliminate bias.

But here’s my question:

How can you be sure Robots are not biased?

Robots run on algorithms.
Algorithms are programmed by people.
And you can be sure those programmers / algorithm developers have their own unconscious biases too.

And here’s the danger:

Most of us using these systems (aka Applicant Tracking Systems or ATS) do not question the validity of these algorithms. We take them as Gospel truths. We assume the algorithms and the filters these Robots apply in sieving out the CVs are not flawed and that they are correct.

So how sure are you the Robots are not biased?

(just think about the frequency and the number of patches and updates are required just for your PC to stay updated. If these systems are flawless, then they don’t need to be patched and/or updated at all)

Now don’t get me wrong.
I’m not against technology.
I’m all for it.

What I’m trying to point out here is that we need to be more discerning and more circumspect when we decide to rely wholly on technology to perform tasks where the algorithms have not yet been perfected – such as reviewing CVs and conducting job interviews.

Because if the algorithm is not perfect, and we automate it, all it means is that we commit to making the mistakes faster!

What do you think?
What’s your take on this?

About the Author

Steven Lock is the Founder of FutureTHINK! Training & Consultancy LLP. He is an Author, Facilitator, Consultant and a Coach. Steven brings with him 20 years of corporate experience.

Steven is passionate about helping organisations transform their teams into high performing teams. He does that by first helping organisations identify and hire the right people, and then training their leaders and managers on how to manage and lead their people to achieve peak performance consistently.

Steven is the developer of The CAAP® High Performance Model. The model focuses on Culture (cultural fit), Attitude, Aptitude and Personality dimensions of their employees and job candidates. It is a highly practical, effective and proven approach.

Steven believes that for organizations to be truly successful and perform at their highest levels, they need to shift their mind-sets to having the RIGHT people on-board – and not necessarily the best or the brightest.

Steven is the author of two books:

• “Hiring for Performance: The CAAP® Model to Hiring and Building High-Performance Teams.”
• “The Right Talent: The Agility-Focused Interviewing Approach to Hiring the Right Candidate Every Time.”

He is the developer of The Leadership STYLE Report that is based on Dr. Daniel Goleman’s research on leadership styles.

Steven has been interviewed twice on MediaCorp’s live radio show The Breakfast Club on 938FM, and has contributed numerous articles to Singapore Business Review, ST Recruit, SHRI Human Capital, LinkedIn and other publications.

His comment on Team Collaboration has been quoted in the Harvard Business Review OnPoint Magazine.

Steven is certified in MBTI® (Step I & II) & DiSC® Personality instruments.

The host of the Mind Your Business segment was Howie Lim and we had a good chat on why businesses should start looking at hiring the RIGHT people for their organisations, rather than the best.

In the interview, I cited the work of Professor Boris Groysberg, a Harvard University professor, who did a very extensive 10-year study of Star Performers in various organisations.

What he found was that when Star Performers moved from one organisation to another, their performance levels drop substantially.

The drop in performance could be anything from 20% to 70%!

Why is that so?

Listen to the podcast to find out why and more…

Some say you should include your photo in your Resume; but some say don’t.
Some say you should include your Race / Religion; but some say never.
Some say to include your age and date-of-birth; but some never ever do that.

Yes, it can get quite confusing reading all of the different advice from different people all over the world. All you need to do is Google on what you should include in your Resume and you get an endless list of references and advice from so-called consultants and Resume gurus.

So what should you really do?
Should you include your age, gender, race and/or photo?

Here’s the answer: It Depends.

It depends on where you are located.
It depends on the prevailing economic conditions in which you are sending out your Resume.
It depends on which organisation you’re applying to.

Inlcuding a photo of yourself in your Resume is not encouraged in the western countries such as the US or some parts of Europe – as they say that a photo encourages bias.

Age, race and religion are no-nos in most western countries and Europe.

However most of these practices are not frowned upon here in many parts of Asia.
Here in Asia, Resume are sent out complete with photos, age, race and religion. (Some of you readers from the western countries would probably cringe in horror reading this).

It also depends on the circumstances you find yourself in sending out your Resume.
How so, you may ask? Let me explain.

Although it is said that you should not include your age in your Resume, the current economic circumstances may just require you to do so. If you are a worker who has just been retrenched, and you are already in your forties, it would make sense to include your age when submitting your Resumes to prospective employers.

And here’s the reason why:

You’d rather state your age up-front and get rejected by age-sensitive / age-biased employers at the Resume stage, rather than having to go through an interview with them and then get rejected because of your age. You would have wasted all your effort and the trip down to the prospective employer’s office. And worst still, you get your hopes up and then you get cold water thrown in your face – all just because they don’t want to hire a more mature worker like you.

I would rather you include your age – and all related details – down on your Resume, and present all of these details to the prospective employer upfront. So if the prospective employer is not ready to hire a more mature worker, you save yourself a wasted trip.

Whether you like it or not, and whether you admit it or not, ageism still exists. Excluding your age in your Resume does not mean you’re immune to ageism. The same goes for race and religion.

So do you need to include your photo, age, race and religion in your Resume when you’re applying for a new job?

It depends.