Robert Newry at Arctic Shores caught up with Lauren Gladwell, Recruitment Manager for EMEA Apprenticeships at Amazon, about the adoption of AI by candidates and within her hiring practices.
Like many early career teams across Europe, Lauren’s team at Amazon had been grappling with the impact of GenAI on recruitment.
They had observed a growing trend of candidates using GenAI tools during key parts of the process and most obviously in interviews.
The lack of authenticity and increasing similarity between responses, combined with a rapid acceleration of application rates, meant that she had to get ahead of the growing challenge.
Approach to AI in recruitment
Lauren’s approach to AI in recruitment at Amazon started with three key principles:
- A balanced and proactive approach: Her strategy towards GenAI combines caution, innovation, and optimism. She knew her team had to become quickly familiar with AI tools without compromising the integrity and effectiveness of the hiring approach.
- Leveraging global expertise collaboration: Amazon, like many large organisations, has considerable expertise so Talent Acquisition (TA) linked up with Global Talent Intelligence teams, making GenAI a continual focus of her team’s innovation programmes.
- Testing and learning: She knew she had to start by experimenting and building basic AI skills in her team.
Lauren explained, “As we continue to learn and adapt, these foundational principles will inform and shape our future approaches, allowing us to stay ahead of the curve in the rapidly changing world of AI and recruitment.”
AI projects
Based on her principles, Lauren and the TA team initiated several AI-related projects at Amazon:
Formation of a TA GenAI working group
This cross-functional team explores the implications of GenAI and identifies opportunities for AI to benefit various stakeholders in the recruitment process. This includes the creation of an AI Risk Register.
Expanding advanced assessment tools
Following a successful UK pilot, building an EMEA-wide proposal to scale the use of advanced assessment platforms, like Arctic Shores’ task-based assessment.
AI-conscious ATS redesign
Redesigning and reimagining their ATS workflow with GenAI considerations in mind. A key aspect of this is the potential elimination of CVs, not just for early career roles, to focus more on skills-based screening and selection.
Experimenting with AI tools
This included:
- Boolean search generation: Using AI to create complex Boolean searches from job descriptions, improving candidate sourcing capabilities.
- Personalised outreach: Leveraging AI to create highly customised reach-outs based on candidates’ resumes or LinkedIn profiles.
- Interview feedback summarisation: Utilising AI to summarise interview feedback from voice recordings or notes, streamlining the data entry process in the hire system.
- Market intelligence: Employing AI to gather insights on companies with similar positions or technologies, enhancing competitive intelligence.
Guidance for recruiters and interviewers
Providing training on identifying good and bad use of GenAI in recruitment, especially in interview techniques. In addition, her team has provided ongoing guidance to recruiters and interviewers on managing potential GenAI usage by candidates.
Benefits
While it’s still early days, Lauren and her team are already seeing a positive impact from their approach to AI in recruitment:
- Improved quality of hire by identifying genuine candidate skills and abilities
- Enhanced candidate experience through greater trust in the fairness of the process
- Reduced time and resources spent on unqualified or misrepresented applicants
- Greater trust from the business that TA has a perspective and knowledge on the rapidly changing impact of AI.
By acknowledging the challenges, initiating conversations, and implementing changes, Lauren is laying the groundwork for a more robust and adaptive recruitment process at Amazon.
This proactive approach, although still in its early stages, positions her team to better handle the evolving role of AI in hiring, ensuring they remain at the forefront of recruitment best practice.