Canadian HR Reporter

THE NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT December 2019 www.hrreporter.com PM41261516 FACIAL SCANNING FACES SKEPTICS Use of AI software in recruitment raises questions about accuracy, bias BY SARAH DOBSON J ust over a year ago, Amazon found itself un- comfortably in the spotlight when it aban- doned an artificial intelligence (AI) recruit- ment tool that turned out to be biased against women because the system had basically taught itself that male candidates were preferable. Fast forward 12 months and Unilever is now in the hot seat as news spread that the consumer goods giant is using facial scanning software in its quest for good candidates. is particular technology analyzes the language, tone and facial expressions of people when they are videoed answering a set of job questions on their cellphone or laptop. Made by HireVue, the software includes game-based assessments to collect tens of thousands of data points that are inputted into pre- dictive algorithms that determine a job candidate's employability. It has been used for 100,000 inter- views in the U.K., says HireVue, and worldwide, de- livers one million interviews and more than 150,000 pre-hire assessments every 90 days. But the path to robotic screening may not be go- ing as smoothly as planned. For one, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) in the United States recently filed an official complaint calling for the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Hire- Vue, saying the company's use of AI is an unfair and deceptive trade practice. "e harms caused by HireVue's use of biometric data and secret algorithms are not outweighed by countervailing benefits to consumers or to competi- tion. HireVue has failed to demonstrate any legiti- mate purpose for the collection for job candidates' biometric data or for the use of secret, unproven algorithms to assess the 'cognitive ability, 'psycho- logical traits,' 'emotional intelligence' and 'social ap- titudes' of job candidates," said the complaint. Good and evil AI can be used for good and for evil, says Arran Stew- art, co-founder of Job.com in Newport Beach, Calif. "Video interviewing and analyzing body language, After-hours email ban may have negative effect: study 'Broad-based recommendations might be doing workers a disservice' BY JOHN DUJAY THERE HAS been plenty of press over the past couple of years calling for bans when it came to after-hours emails. In 2017, France went so far as to establish a "right-to-disconnect" law requiring employers to establish hours when workers should not use email. But a recent study out of the U.K. suggests these kinds of restrictions might actually cause psychological harm to some employees. "Despite the best intentions of a solution designed to optimize well-being — such as instructing all employees to switch off their emails outside of work hours to avoid being stressed — this policy would be unlikely to be welcomed by employees who prioritize work performance goals and who would prefer to attend to work outside of hours if it helps them get their tasks completed," says Emma Russell, lead author and senior lecturer in human resource man- agement at the University of Sussex in Brighton, U.K. For those employees who have "high levels of anxiety and neuroti- cism," not allowing them to access emails after hours would hinder their overall work performance, she says. "People need to deal with email in the way that suits their person- ality and their goal priorities in or- der to feel like they are adequately managing their workload." Background Using mixed methods across two studies with knowledge workers who use work email, the research- ers examined whether individual differences in personality can ex- plain why there is a "goal paradox" of email actions. In the first study, interviews of 28 people uncovered 72 email ac- tions that impact goals related to work, well-being, control and con- cern. e second study involving 341 people addressed whether personality traits could predict email activity directed toward Credit: Ivan-balvan (istock) HOW > pg. 10 EmploymentLawToday.com STAY UP TO DATE, AND OUT OF COURT. 'Age-ready' for future of work Leveraging older workforce 'next frontier' for HR Pg. 2 HR Vendors Guide Directory featuring top vendors, suppliers Pg. 15 Hailed as efficient and fair, facial scanning software is facing some criticism when used for recruitment. EMPLOYERS > pg. 8 Focused on innovation We talked to five CEOs to find out how they're excelling when it comes to innovation in the workplace Pg. 21 Cannabis at work Insights, best practices for employers one year after legalization Pg. 5

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