[LINK] LinkedIn: Top Companies are using AI to help hire staff

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Tech Wrap-Up Australia

LinkedIn: Top Companies are using AI to help hire staff

By Marty McCarthy, Tech and Innovation News Editor, LinkedIn


Welcome to this special Edition of Tech Wrap-Up Australia, to coincide with the launch of our announcement of LinkedIn's 2024 Top Companies — a data-backed ranking of 25 best workplaces to grow your career in Australia.

Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Telstra topped the list this year. To see the full list of companies, the top jobs they are hiring for and the skills they look for it applicants, take a look here.

In this newsletter edition, we explore how these companies are increasingly using artificial intelligence in the hiring process to maximise their efficiency, while also making applying for a job easier for jobseekers.


AI is rapidly transforming recruitment

If you are looking for a new job, chances are you will encounter AI in the application process.

It can help you through the application process, but can also be used by recruiters to assess your skills and suitability to make a job.

In 2024, recruitment is set to evolve with increased reliance on AI, as machine learning predicts potential employee success and AI chatbots streamline initial candidate screenings.

Enhanced algorithms are now crucial in analysing resumes to precisely match an applicant’s qualifications with the requirements of the job.

AI can also be used to minimise bias in the hiring process to help boost diversity in particular industries, such as the technology sector where gender diveristy is lacking — women make up just 28-30% of the industry’s workforce in Australia.

Telstra is one of Australia’s largest employers of tech professionals and leverages AI to analyse responses given by applicants in video and gamified assessments when it is hiring multiple people for similar roles.

“We also use AI to stack rank candidates based on competency levels — to empower our recruiters and hiring managers to make quality selections based on data-driven insights — and to review resumes to extract key information,” said Kathryn van der Merwe, Telstra’s Group Executive for People, Culture & Communications.

“Leveraging AI for our administrative tasks helps to streamline the process for our candidates but also allows our recruitment team to dedicate more time to reviewing and assessing candidate qualifications.”

“For some roles you can expect to find AI as part of the technology assessments we use to evaluate an individual's proficiency and capability across the technological domains we’re looking for.”

At Optus, AI is used to help make the recruitment process more inclusive and accessible, and to ensure applicants' values align with those of the telco. Recruiters use software from Textio to helps them write better job listings and to avoid bias in job posts.

“In real-time, it allows us to steer clear of using language with hidden bias and gives instant feedback on the types of audiences that our ad will resonate with,” explains Kate Aitken, Vice President of People & Culture at Optus.


“Textio uses algorithms that are trained on the largest language processing model datasets of its kind, which allows us to tailor our job posts to appeal to the broadest range of candidates.”

To support job applicants, Optus also uses an AI-powered recruitment chatbot called CareerMate, which answers questions related to the job and listing in real time.

Optus said that 40% of all applicant interactions occur outside of typical working hours, meaning candidates can still get help when applying for jobs after hours or on weekends.

“This has resulted in a significant decrease in time to complete an application, and an uplift in application completion rates and candidate satisfaction,” Aitken said.

Optus told LinkedIn News Australia that the AI tool has helped 25,000 candidates, answered over 40,000 questions and has scheduled over 5,500 interviews, saving recruiters an estimated 5,000 hours — or about 7 months — worth of work.

Global tech giant Amazon, which operates in Australia and is the second largest employer in the United States, has built some of its own recruitment tools that rely on AI and machine learning to help guide applicants through the hiring process.

For a company with around 1.5 million employees, efficiency in the hiring process is essential.

The company has been an innovator and early adopter of AI hiring. However Amazon encountered some early difficulties after the technology it started developing in 2014  — that was being tested but not deployed — was found to show a bias against women.

That’s because Amazon’s computer models were trained on resumes submitted to the company over a 10-year period — majority of those were from men due to the lack of gender diversity in the tech sector. As a result, the model learnt to penalise resumes that included the word "women's", according to media reports.

Amazon pulled that AI system in 2017 but has since doubled down on its efforts to create and implement AI hiring tools that remove bias from the hiring process, to aid both job applicants and recruiters.

“These AI- and ML-based hiring tools have been developed and used responsibly to foster continued innovation and earn candidate trust,” said Pritho Saxena, Amazon HR Director for China, Australia and South East Asia.

“Over the last several years, we’ve built tools using AI and Machine Learning to help job applicants throughout the hiring process — from identifying the right position to apply for, to giving them more flexibility through online assessments that help us engage and evaluate candidates.”

Amazon said it regularly conducts “rigorous analyses” of the outcomes of its tools to ensure they are benefiting all demographic groups, and can reduce — rather than reinforce or reflect — biases in recruitment.

“It’s especially essential that tools used in hiring be developed, implemented, and monitored in accordance with legal requirements as well as scientific and industry best practices,” Menzies said.

“We believe that technology can drive fairer application processes by focusing on skills and job requirement fundamentals, and measuring and minimising bias algorithmically, and we’re proud of how we’re innovating in this space”.

Some companies still prefer a "human touch"

But not every LinkedIn Top Company is sold on the merits of AI-aided recruiting, or at least willing to use it across the entire process.

Despite the strong push by Canva to incorporate AI into its suite of graphic design products, the company said it doesn't rely on AI to screen job applicants, although — like Optus — it uses Textio to review its job postings to mitigate bias.

Jennie Rogerson, Global Head of People at Canva, told LinkedIn News Australia the company prefers to “use technology as an enablement tool in our hiring process, not to screen applicants”.

“We really believe in the importance of a human touch, authenticity and open conversation in uncovering people’s true skills, values and perspectives,” she said.

Similarly, National Australia Bank (NAB) said it does not use AI in its hiring, while Commonwealth Bank’s Head of Talent Acquisition, John Hancock said, “We believe that hiring is best done by our people, who assess on diversity and accessibility goals, and ensure that our talent match our corporate values.”

Software company ServiceNow said it uses AI to help existing employees plan ahead and accelerate their careers.

“AI powered tools are critical to enabling the new world of work, where a great experience and internal mobility are priorities for employees and employers,” said Melissa Ries, Chief Operating Officer – Asia-Pacific at ServiceNow.

ServiceNow acquired Hitch Works in 2022, an intelligence platform that uses data and AI tools to help map people and skills to projects, and integrated it with its existing HR software.

“We can more effectively match people to projects from a single platform. Employees can also map their career paths — Where am I now? Where do I want to be next? What’s my skill or experience gap? How do I bridge it?—with AI recommending courses and programs to develop the necessary technical and soft skills,’ Ries said.


What do you think about the idea of using AI to hire staff? Or as a jobseeker, how has it helped — or hindered — you?

Join the conversation in the comments below, or post your own thoughts using #LinkedInTopCompanies.
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