Ashlie Collins
Hello and welcome to Hire We Go where we’re chatting all things talent acquisition transformation. Whether you’re an HR vet or someone who’s simply fascinated by how to find, attract, and engage talent, you are in the right place. I’m your host and director of solutions here at Joveo Ashley Collins and joining us today is Kate Warman. Kate, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us today. To kick things off, I had a question for you.

If you were advising a TA team tomorrow, what’s the first step that they should take to be more transparent about AI in their hiring process?

Kate Warman
Hi, Ashley. Thanks so much for having me on. It’s great to be here. And this is a really exciting topic because it’s so timely with what’s going on right now in the marketplace as companies, TA teams try to keep up with the advances in AI. So I actually believe that in order for us to start with really having transparency for our candidates, w e need to start with our TA teams really understanding what’s going on and how we’re implementing AI in our TA process, right? Because if the recruiters don’t understand what’s going on, how are they going to articulate that to the candidates, right? So recruiters really need to understand how are we using AI in the interview process, or in the recruiting process, right? Are we using it in our interviews, screening, selection, assessments, scheduling, all of the above, right? What does the AI actually do?

Ashlie Collins
Yeah.

Ashlie Collins
Absolutely.

Kate Warman
Thank you.

Keirsten Greggs
during that process, right? And where is human choice still prominent, right? Where can recruiters override the AI decisions? So those are really critical for the recruiters to understand. And I also think we need to baseline and educate our recruiters on the benefits of AI and also the risks of AI, right? Because it’s so timely right now, everyone’s talking about it. It’s easy to think that it’s a silver bullet.

Ashlie Collins
Yeah.

Kate Warman
but it comes with risks, right? And so we need to really make sure that our recruiters understand that. And I think that’s key for starting with the transparency for our candidates.

Ashlie Collins
Yeah, absolutely. And when recruiters are explaining AI to candidates, what should they say and what should they avoid saying altogether?

Kate Warman
Yeah, great question. So I think that they need to educate the candidates on how AI is being utilized as a tool to support recruiters to be able to work more quickly, more effectively, be able to, you know, if a candidate rises to the top, really be able to get them through the process more quickly and create that better candidate experience for the candidate. But they should avoid saying things like,

AI is making decisions because ultimately the decision should still be human led and the AI should just be a supporting tool.

Ashlie Collins
me.

Ashlie Collins
Yeah, absolutely. And where should candidates actually hear about AI use so that it builds trust instead of raising red flags for them?

Kate Warman
Hmm. Yeah, so I think we need to start with just a simple FAQ in human language, not technical jargon, not buried under like tons of legalese at the bottom of your privacy statement, right? I think, you know, there’s, in addition to the AI transparency, we often see, you know, accessibility offerings, right? If you need to be have your application.

Ashlie Collins
Yeah, right

Ashlie Collins
Mm-hmm

Ashlie Collins
Yeah.

Kate Warman
viewed in a different way or having accommodations, sorry, that’s the word I was looking for, have accommodations in your interview process, we need to just be transparent about what’s gonna happen, right? You apply and then what, right? Does it go into a black hole? No, right? There are steps that we have in the background, but candidates don’t know that. So let’s just go ahead and be transparent about the interview life cycle and what they can expect and highlight where AI is used in each one of those steps.

Ashlie Collins
Yeah.

Ashlie Collins
Yeah.

Ashlie Collins
Yeah.

Kate Warman
So it’s really clear for the candidates. We also really need to take care because some companies and some states and some countries are requiring that we give the opportunity to opt out of AI. And if we’re doing that, we need to be equally transparent about what happens to the candidate if you opt out of AI, right? It can’t be something where you go into another black hole because the whole system is designed for candidates who choose AI, right?

Ashlie Collins
Yeah Yeah.

Ashlie Collins
yeah.

Ashlie Collins
You.

Kate Warman
When I implemented this at my company, we wound up having about 30 % of our global applicants opt out of having their application reviewed by AI. So you need to be really clear about what that means. Are you having it opt out of all AI or just AI in certain parts? And your recruiters really need to understand that too and be educated in terms of what they need to do with the candidates who choose to opt out. So I think that those

Ashlie Collins
Yeah.

Ashlie Collins
Yeah.

Ashlie Collins
Yep.

Ashlie Collins
Absolutely.

Kate Warman
Those elements are key to the transparency.

Ashlie Collins
Yeah, and it’s fascinating to see how AI is serving as a catalyst for candidates to receive the level of transparency that they’ve been hankering for for years and years and years. You know, I think there’s been a want to really understand what the process is, what the steps are, where they sit in it. And so that can maybe be one of the unexpected gifts of AI entering the equation is that now they’ll get some.

Kate Warman
Yeah, I mean, that would be an amazing outcome, right? I think that in the absence of transparency, I have heard so many crazy things of people hypothesizing how we’re utilizing AI in our process. And honestly, the pace of AI is going so fast, right? And it takes a long time to implement an enterprise TA system, right? So you might, as a candidate, be assuming that the company has all of these AI tools.

Ashlie Collins
Yeah.

Ashlie Collins
Okay.

Ashlie Collins
Yes.

Ashlie Collins
Mmm-hmm.

Kate Warman
They may not have any AI tools, right? And so we really do need to take a beat and think about how we’re communicating because it’s critical to the candidate experience.

Ashlie Collins
Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for sharing your experience and insights with us today. I know that you will provide a ton of value to our listeners and thank you all for tuning in with us yet again. Until next time.

Ashlie Collins
Thank you.