AI recruitment start-up nabs Hudson as a customer

Melbourne machine learning start-up PredictiveHire has secured recruitment giant Hudson as a customer.

PredictiveHire CEO Barb Hyman.

Melbourne-based machine learning start-up PredictiveHire has ­secured recruitment giant Hudson as a customer.

PredictiveHire CEO Barb Hyman said algorithms could be the answer to erasing inherent ­biases in the recruitment process.

Hudson is the second big partnership secured by PredictiveHire, whose artificial intelligence platform is also being made available through local talent management software-as-a-service PageUp’s partner marketplace.

Ms Hyman, who joined the start-up last year, told The Australian the traditional recruitment industry was finally waking up to the potential of AI in not just driving efficiency but also matching the right candidates to the right jobs.

“AI has been a very confusing buzzword … it’s been very noisy, but when an old school business like Hudson gets involved in it that’s a sign that thing are changing,” she said.

“AI is about data and the challenge is to deliver the best decision based on that data. So far there have been a lot of claims about what’s under the hood but it’s ­really important to filter out the noise.’’

Ms Hyman, who formerly held roles at REA Group and Boston Consulting Group, is confident PredictiveHire’s approach of combining data science, ­behavioural science and machine learning offers a unique hiring ­solution.

“The recruitment process has always been loaded with biases, and video interviews are not useful … they don’t mitigate bias and take up too much time,” she said.

“We ask candidates to answer questions via text and create a personality profile; there’s no CV, no names or bio data.”

A text-based survey for candidates, built by PredictiveHire using the historical performance data from inside the organisation conducting the hiring, provides the first level of screening for job applications.

According to Ms Hyman, the survey is designed to showcase the traits an organisation is looking for in candidates and the success rate of 88 per cent has been encouraging.

“People are an organisation’s most valuable asset and we empower hiring managers to clearly pinpoint those soft skills that can determine success in any role,” Ms Hyman said.

Since launching in 2013, the platform has helped hire more than 8000 people in Britain and Australia.

Hudson CEO and managing director Mark Steyn said assessment platforms like PredictiveHire could improve the accuracy, speed and fairness of selection processes.

“When coupled with a diverse sourcing pool, well-designed ­assessment questions and explicit controls for bias, this can help reduce managers’ risk of both false positives — hiring people who present well at interview, but may not be a good fit in the longer term — and false negatives — not giving candidates a fair go due to the manager’s human tendency to favour candidates with similar traits or competencies to their own,” Mr Steyn told The Aus­tralian.

He said AI tools would need to be used with care, because the technology could just as easily succumb to biases.

“If AI-driven screening and ­selection tools are not monitored and controlled for emerging biases, they can learn the wrong things to look for from hiring managers,” he said.

“However, it is possible to control these biases: a number of statistical techniques are accepted for this purpose by, for example, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.’’

PageUp chief product owner Dayne Nash said that while AI platforms were not immune to ­biases, the efficiency that they delivered were undeniable.

“HR practitioners still split their time between activities that add significant value and rudimentary, laborious admin tasks,’’ he said. “Many of these tasks can be either automated or optimised by proven AI capabilities.”

Ms Hyman said PredictiveHire, backed by VC firms Rampersand and Capital Zed, now had 20 customers in the US, Britain and Australia and was potentially looking to secure some more capital this year.

More importantly, buoyed by the Hudson and PageUp deals, the company was aiming to reinforce its position as an enabler in the recruitment market.

“Now that we have secured a number of big clients, we will look to launch a recruitment-as-a-service offer in the second half of the year, Ms Hyman said.