Yobs’ Bar Ilan Creates AI That Refines Hiring Process
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It used to be that the only way to hire someone was to conduct a job interview in a conference room filled with various high level executives who ask an inane amount of questions to try to get a sense of the applicant’s skills and personality in order to determine if they would be a good match for the job and company culture. The interviewers are put into the awkward position of being psychoanalysts and behavior experts, in addition to lie detectors, since almost everyone has lied or tried to inflate their skills in a job interview
While some companies continue that practice, several have transitioned to using an artificial intelligence software that records a video of the applicant and then uses a complex algorithm to analyze that person’s answers, facial expressions, and even predict if that person is right for the job. This kind of AI technology is used by such name brand companies like Unilever, IBM and Dunkin Donuts.
Yobs Technologies is one of the companies that is leading the way for this incredible AI software, and at the head of their team, is Netanel Bar Ilan. Trained by Mamram, the prestigious school of engineering of the Israeli Defense Force, and Matzov, an elite tech unit that specializes in encryption and information security, Bar Ilan began his career in Israel as a lead software engineer at an algo-trading startup and the “facebook for work” enterprise, Jive Software. His talents were quickly discovered and he relocated to the United States to lead Yobs Technologies. “It’s been an incredible journey and I’m so proud of the work we have accomplished,” says Bar Ilan. Since taking the position, Bar Ilan was one of the first in his field to lead the development of such platform.
While there is competition out there with similar AI softwares, Yob’s technology is unique because it is based on science. It examines the Big Five Personality Traits, which are correlated with future job performance, by video analysis of facial points to measure a huge range of psycholinguistic, prosodic and emotional points on a face that reveal a person’s personality traits. All of this data is then combined to produce an “Insight Score” that predetermines if an applicant is right for the position and the company’s culture. Given that one study shows that 89% of new hires fail and that it can take over a month to fill a position, Bar Ilan’s software is more than just revolutionary. It can potentially save companies up to $161.7 Billion in time spent hiring, training and firing employees. In fact, since starting to use this type of AI software, Unilever’s hiring has increased from 840 entry level positions, to an incredible 2,600. That’s more than triple the amount of people getting jobs and making an income to support their families.
It may sound like the perfect solution, and it is for many. However, technology has been known to glitch and even fail. So, companies that use this AI run the risk of missing out on good, qualified employees simply because a computer told them to do so. There’s also the possibility of humanity interfering, meaning that as human beings, we can be unpredictable in our moods and facial expressions. The AI might read someone’s face and interpret them as being angry, while in fact they were merely nervous because they were at a job interview for a position they really wanted. Furthermore, as Inc.com states in an article, “There are some big potential downsides to this approach…it’s a little creepy…it doesn’t seem there’s any legal obligation to tell [applicants]…the idea that AI is analyzing your face to determine your fitness for a job is a little distressing…” All of these are valid concerns, particularly the one that points out that the AI does not seem to come with any legal obligation to tell people that they are not only being recorded, but that the recording will be analyzed by a computer. Other things like facial tattoos, deformities, or even something as simple as recent Botox injections could skew the results, and possibly cost the applicant a great opportunity for employment.
However, Yobs Technologies has been able to use Bar Ilan’s innovation to tell recruiters which candidates are best for what industry. To back up their claim, they have even provided a diagram on their homepage that shows that people in sales have an extraversion rate in the 83rd percentile, while people in industry are in the 80th percentile for openness, and those in management rank in the 97th percentile in agreeableness. It’s not easy to argue with these numbers, and if they can save companies millions, if not billions of dollars, which hopefully trickle down to the consumer, then Yobs Technologies has the potential to help corporations, and make a positive impact on the economy overall.
