AI and evidence-based recruitment – Interview with Astrid Svedérus

Tell us about yourself

I am a genuine HR nerd whose main interest is to immerse myself in research about HR, organization, and leadership. This is also the reason why I created TemaHR.se where practitioners get help by using research in their work through articles, lectures, training, and support.

You specialize in evidence-based recruitment. What does it mean and how can it help recruiters?

Evidence-based recruitment is about recruiting based on evidence, in other words, through the best available knowledge from research, data from other sources, our expertise and the stakeholders’ perspectives.

The advantage of working with evidence-based recruitment is that we increase the probability of getting the results we want, since we are not making decisions based on guesses, but rather supporting these decisions with facts.

You made a pool on LinkedIn where you asked people if they would rather have their application read by an AI algorithm or by a human. 74% answered that they would like to have their application read by a human, while only 8% chose the algorithm. What are your thoughts on this matter?

I think that, in general, people don’t like the idea of being reduced to just a number. We simply believe that humans are better at seeing the unique individual behind the CV, and accept the idea that biases and preconceived notions may take place in the selection process.

What do you think are the biggest challenges when using AI in recruitment?

Besides the candidate experience, I believe that the biggest challenge is that we can risk losing control of how we make decisions.

AI is good at identifying patterns in complex information, but when the algorithm has developed to the point that we no longer understand how it works, we will have a hard time defending its use in the selection process.

What do you think are the advantages of using AI in recruitment?

As I mentioned before, computers are significantly better than humans at identifying patterns in complex information and handling large amounts of information quickly, so there is a huge potential for both more efficient and accurate selection methods and tools for recruitment.

How can people get in contact with you?

Contact me on LinkedIn or send me an e-mail at astrid@temahr.se.