Automated hiring systems are unnecessarily filtering out millions of highly skilled job candidates, according to a new report.

Researchers from Harvard Business School have a published report focussed on how leaders can improve hiring practices to uncover missed talent pools and close skills gaps.

The paper found that automated recruited systems, which are designed to “maximize the efficiency of the process” by “honing in on candidates” using very specific parameters, are excluding perfectly viable candidates in order to minimize the number of applicants being actively considered.

Around 75% of workforces in America currently use such systems, according to the HBS report, meaning that millions of job hopefuls could be unfairly stricken out of the recruitment process.

The report, titled Hidden Workers: Untapped Talent, found that most systems use proxies (such as a college degree or possession of precisely described skills) for attributes such as skills, work ethic, and self-efficacy.

Most also use a failure to meet certain criteria (such as a gap in full-time employment) as a basis for excluding a candidate from consideration irrespective of their other qualifications, the report said.

Researchers wrote: “As a result, they exclude from consideration viable candidates whose resumes do not match the criteria but who could perform at a high level with training.

“A large majority (88%) of employers agree, telling us that qualified high-skills candidates are vetted out of the process because they do not match the exact criteria established by the job description. That number rose to 94% in the case of middle-skills workers.”

Researchers also found that automated systems represent the “foundation of the hiring process” in the majority of organisations, with 90% of employers in the survey using automated systems to “initially filter or rank potential middle-skills (94%) and high-skills (92%) candidates”.

How can firms avoid missing out on strong candidates?

Shifting from “negative” to “affirmative” filters in an automated recruitment system is a possible solution to the problem, according to the Harvard report.

“An ATS/RMS largely relies on ‘negative’ logic to winnow the applicant pool”, the study said.

“Workers are excluded from consideration due to variables such as the lack of a college degree or a gap in their employment history. While employers may infer that applicants who have those attributes are undeserving of consideration, applying an “affirmative” logic would seem a more logical approach for seeking talent. Configuring systems to identify applicants with the specific skills and experiences associated with fulfilling the core requirements of the role would promise to be more efficient and inclusive.”

The authors concluded: “Leaders can leverage technology to help enable culture change and adopt new ways of working. With active management of what goes into our systems solutions, leaders can monitor for and address bias, manage performance, and scale for adoption.

While technology can make the process easier, the trained eye of a professional will continue to go unmatched. Until technology continues to advance at a point beyond human intelligence, Executive Recruitment should not be overlooked in favour of automation.

HR Grapevine

Liam Soutar, September 2021