Gartner ReImagine HR recap: The future of skills assessments

Gartner ReImagineHR is the premier event for CHROs and HR leadership teams to come together to explore work models, ways to boost accountability, expand equity, and reach past the boundaries of what has been previously thought possible.

This year, HireVue was able to share the next horizon of hiring—Human Potential Intelligence. With AI-driven tech designed to measure potential, we shared how organizations can move the hiring conversation from simply, “What have they done?” to “What can they do?”

This year, 4 key themes rose to the top at Gartner ReImagineHR 2023.

AI is your ally—not your enemy. 

In her session, Dr. Lindsey Zuloaga, Chief Data Scientist at HireVue, shared about the misconceptions around AI. In a recent survey of TA professionals from Aptitude Research, the vast majority of people have no idea where or how AI is being used in their TA process.

• 46% don’t know when they’re using it
• 26% are not always clear when they’re using it
• 20% have a clear understanding of when they’re using it

AI is advancing at an incredible pace, and it’s hard to keep up with what’s going on at a given moment. Just like any powerful tool, AI can be used for good or bad, so it’s important we approach applications with a lot of care.

There are certainly a lot of headlines discussing the damage AI can certainly do—it can often pick up unwanted patterns and replicate the problems of the past. 

In 2019, HireVue published the AI principles that guide our work. On that foundation, we’ve built a suite of products to assess candidates for every job in a fair, standardized, and efficient way.

“At HireVue, we are less interested in what a person has done—we’re looking more to what they can do, how they think, how they approach problems,” she said. 

Solutions like structured interviews and assessments empower teams to identify the potential of candidates and the traits and skills that better predict future success.

Skills assessment is the solution to changing labor markets.

As the world of work continues to evolve, labor shortages probably aren’t going anywhere—yet companies still need to develop their talent. Millions and millions of new jobs will be created in the coming few years requiring people to fill them—but how do you hire someone with experience in a role that just came into existence?

By evaluating the skills and competencies of a role, teams can start building workplaces that will not only excel today but continue to excel tomorrow. 

• Structured Interviewing & Assessments: Structured interviews simply ensures all your candidates are evaluated equally, so you can create a fair baseline for evaluation. And with an assessment for any role at any level (including technical coding challenges), teams can back their decisions with data and ensure all candidates are evaluated the same—making your hiring fairer for everyone.
• Find My Fit: Present candidates with all roles that they fit—not just the ones they search for. Find My Fit is an assessment that helps easily identify what roles best match their potential. Quickly assess skills, interests, and even personality to present candidates with more opportunities—many times ones they would not have considered in the first place.
• Virtual Job Tryout®: Designed for a specific job and customized with a realistic job preview to help candidates further understand the position. The Virtual Job Tryout® goes beyond conventional cognitive and behavioral assessment by providing innovative candidate exercises that simulate the job and offer evidence of how the candidate will perform against competencies proven to be crucial to on-the-job success.  

On this note, mobility is going to be more and more important as jobs change faster and faster. Bringing cutting-edge mathematical techniques into the world of jobs allows us to see how jobs and skills relate to each other without a ton of manual work. For example, one might not think of a teacher making a good solution architect, but many of the same skills are involved according to data-driven job clusters.

Ultimately, CHROs should focus on solutions that empower candidates to see a clear path for development in their future careers. 

Using science to increase diversity

Continuing the conversations around AI misconceptions, Dr. Zuloaga went on to discuss the topic of fairness and AI. 

She reminded listeners, “There is a common misconception that AI is unregulated. However, there are accepted federal standards, like the ADA or the uniform guidelines from the EEOC, that guide our work and best practices in IO psychology.”

HireVue holds high standards for its AI, continually testing for bias in algorithms. 

“Fairness considerations are built into the optimization of our algorithms that are built to predict job-related outcomes. Science can actually be used to increase diversity in hiring.”

HireVue has been a trailblazer when it comes to our auditing programs. Our audits with ORCAA and Dr. Richard Landers in 2020 were at the forefront of the regulatory discussions on AI—and now we’ll undergo annual 3rd party audits with DCI to comply with regulations like New York City Law 144.

“We have been asked for our input, and we’ve volunteered comments and feedback on many pieces of proposed legislation. We’ve encouraged lawmakers to make these laws clear and consistent and aligned with existing best practices and laws.”

The regulatory landscape is quickly evolving. At HireVue, we believe in being an expert voice and champion for our customers, so we must take part in the conversation so both lawmakers and hiring teams can understand what to expect from technology that is compliant and fair. 

Boost candidate experiences with automation

In her session titled How to Improve Business Outcomes with Candidate Experience Focused Processes, Stephanie Ketelhut, Director of Talent Acquisition at Keurig Dr Pepper, discussed how her company was able to improve business outcomes through automation.

By automating the hiring process and leveraging HireVue technology, teams can not only expedite processes and make them fairer but also build processes around the candidate experience. 

Candidates today demand full transparency, convenience, and open communication, so Keurig Dr Pepper set out to rethink the way they use HireVue OnDemand technology—to exceed candidate expectations.

As a result, Ketelhut and her team have been able to revolutionize the candidate experience by increasing NPS scores, decreasing time-to-fill, decreasing no-shows, and empowering recruiters in the process. 

With a focus on increased retention and diversity, the talent acquisition team is leaning into science and AI to better support their goals. At the end of the day, automating more of their hiring has improved their workflows and provided better experiences for their candidates.

Keurig Dr Pepper is a 2023 HireVue Customer Award Winner. The Impact Star recognizes the hiring impact that was made through implementing HireVue technology.

Ready to start evaluating potential and elevate your hiring? Request a demo.