How AI is disrupting the recruitment industry with Camille Morvan
Job searching is a frustrating process. Everyone dreads it. You’re a lovely human-being whose being pushed out of comfort zone to “sell” your profile. The mentally destabilizing interviews styles are outdated. Some companies like Goshaba are trying to improve the interviewing process with innovative approaches: Not that a robot will interview you (We’ll get to that maybe in the next 5 years?) but with cognitive gaming.
Camille Morvan, Co-CEO et Co-Founder of Goshaba, winner of the “Women in AI Awards” 2019 edition, will share her path from academia to tech industry.
After years in academic research, what stimulated you to launch your startup Goshaba?
I loved academic research because I love to think and explore. However, one thing I was missing in academia was a true impact and solving real-world challenges. I was intrigued by the fact that so much intelligence and creativity takes place in academia, and so many great ideas and powerful solutions are crafted, but far too often, they remain constrained to conferences and scientific articles that never reach beyond academic circles.
Among the research that I thought had great potential was my work on decision making and cognitive biases. I looked for real-world applications when I was a researcher at Harvard University. Besides my explorations in research, I worked as a headhunter, with consulting firms, digital companies and an ed-tech startup. These were all great experiences that further convinced me of the necessity to get all that great research knowledge out of the lab. Then the right moment arrived with the rise of Javascript and the increased power of laptops and cell phones. The technology I had been using for years to study the brain, required powerful computers and special software that was only available on desktops, and suddenly, around 2010 these became available on nearly every laptop and cell phone!! This was the MOMENT I was waiting for. I decided to come back to France and start Goshaba with the idea of studying people’s cognitive skills with the simple use of a cell phone. All I needed to do was to convert the tests I was using in the lab into video games. I looked for business partners with a video game background and that’s how I found Djamil and Minh, former colleagues of my sister.
Automation is already in HR recruitment systems like Applicant Tracking Systems, how Cognitive Gaming will improve the process?
The problem of recruiting today is twofold: candidates are tired of going through boring, outdated, and time-consuming processes. In addition, recruiting is inaccurate and leads to mistakes. In France, 50% of long term contracts are broken after the first 2 to 4 months. In the US, the cost of recruiting mistakes has been estimated at between $50 to $250K for regular employees — and that doesn’t even include managers or executives.
Beyond that, Applicant Tracking Systems are outdated. Most companies we talk to are dissatisfied with their ATS because the technology is outdated. ATSs typically bite off more than they can chew — trying to do it all but unable to do it all well. The candidate facing interfaces are not responsive, the forms are often very long and not user friendly, the recruiters interface confusing, and at the end of the process, the HR managers or recruiters have to do all of the selection themselves. Often the selection process requires reading a large number of resumes which leads to recruiting mistakes. This includes an unfair selection of candidates: candidates who can market themselves through their resumes or who have the right pedigree get to the interview round, others don’t get there despite their potential.
Cognitive gaming is the solution to many problems with recruiting:
* It reveals candidates potential despite of their pedigree making recruiting fairer.
* It turns the recruiting process for candidates into a fun moment.
* It evaluates the potential of candidates making recruiting precise and fair.
* It saves HR and recruiters time and money.
* It increases the diversity of the candidate pool.
* It gives a positive and modern image of the company and helps it attract the best candidates.
The covid-19 pandemic has caused many job losses and refrained many companies from recruiting new talent, impacting your industry. How are you dealing with this in Goshaba?
At Goshaba, the effect of the crisis on hiring and recruiting is obvious. Luckily, the Goshaba technology is also relevant for internal mobility! This is a use case that we started to tackle about a year ago. Our product is ready to help companies promote internal talents with the highest potential for success. In addition, in an economy with tightening budgets and recruiting slowdowns, it becomes even more important to recruit the right person for the job. Mistakes are costly and in a period of crisis, Goshaba’s precision is a key advantage for our clients. Our current and future clients have had to digitize their recruiting process and we accompany them during this process.
And last but not least, in a crisis, we can see many companies focusing on their role in society and focusing on impact and ethics as their compass to navigate these troubled times. Goshaba fosters more social justice and creates a more resilient world. Goshaba is happy to be a part of this journey with our clients. Together, we can build back a better, fairer recruiting process for everyone.
If you think that gamifying parts of the hiring process is an efficient approach, share with us your opinion in the comment. Else, share with us your hatred for the common recruitment processes. We’ve all been through that phase.
