'Hiring is stuck in an AI doom loop'

Employers are encouraged to implement a "more human" hiring process as job candidates resort to artificial intelligence tools in a bid to stand out during recruitment.

Greenhouse's latest poll among job seekers in the United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland found that jobseekers are facing immense pressure in a competitive market.

Nearly seven in 10 respondents said the job market is extremely or very competitive, with only seven per cent thinking that the market favours candidates.

The application of AI during recruitment has also made it harder to stand out, according to around a quarter of the respondents.

As a result, jobseekers are also utilising AI tools to help them with the job search. In the US, the respondents said they use AI for:

• Interview prep (45%)
• Analysing job postings and identifying key skills they should highlight (43%)
• Generating work samples or portfolios (28%)
• Helping them respond to questions during technical interviews (24%)
• Drafting personalised connection messages (22%)
• Applying for jobs on their behalf (22%)
• Salary negotiation and compensation evaluation (18%)
• Responding to take-home assignments (18%)
• Helping them respond to questions during live interviews (17%)

Daniel Chait, CEO and Co-founder of Greenhouse, said the findings indicate that recruitment processes "don't need more friction."

"Hiring is stuck in an AI doom loop," Chait said in a statement.

"We need a hiring process that allows people's true selves to come through more clearly and more completely. A more human and three-dimensional hiring process that helps candidates showcase their skills and focus their job search is the only way to cut through the chaos and connect the right people to the right roles."

Discrimination during hiring

Meanwhile, the report also found that around half of jobseekers still experience discrimination during recruitment:

• US (53%)
• United Kingdom (49%)
• Ireland (49%)

As a result, at least half of jobseekers said they have removed older experience from their CVs, while jobseekers from historically underrepresented groups reported changing their names to sound "less ethnic."

Paaras Parker, Chief People Officer at Greenhouse, said their findings reveal the "dangerous way bias decides who gets seen and who is overlooked."

"Discrimination allows qualified candidates to slip through the cracks and erodes trust, damaging a company's reputation," Parker said in a statement.

"Transparency, communication, and fairness are not optional; these characteristics are a competitive advantage for employers."