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Artificial intelligence (AI) is pretty mainstream. It's about everything---to Netflix movie suggestions to digital pre-employment assessment. 

In a world of AI in recruiting, a digital-first pre-employment assessment, and people analytics, it’s easy to forget the origins of understanding people. Psychology, a social science, gained ground when two psychiatrists pioneered major ideas about human psychology and development, Sigmeund Freud and Carl Jung. Although his theories are discussed to a lesser extent than Freud's psychodynamic approach, Carl Jung's ideas carry an influence whose effects can still be felt today. 

The promise is one of humankind’s most primitive psychological mechanisms that fosters trust, cooperation, and partnership formation. Creating healthy employee relations involves building trust between management and team. A AI-powered pre-employment assessment (cough) may assist in team building, but employee relations play an important role in creating cooperative agreements. You could say employee relations is a promise in action: acknowledging and making the vowed effort to deliver. 

Mitigating risk, a strong employer brand, and gaining top-notch talent are the dreams of hiring managers. But not a single thing can address all of these desires, right? Well, the research shows green recruiting carries some serious benefits. The aforementioned are the by-products of organizations doing the right thing---and integrating those initiatives into their hiring and recruitment process. AI in recruiting may be the new kid in town, but green recruiting is how the town is won over. 

According to a working paper series by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, motherhood may be an indicator that a person may be particularly productive at the workplace. Mothers around the world will likely won’t be surprised to hear this. Between child rearing at home, leaning into their own personal development in private, being a competent team member at work, and other roles, mothers are in a constant balancing act. The St. Louis study analyzed the productivity habits of both female and male academic economists. Thus far, their conclusion: “unconditional effect of motherhood is zero”.

Renowned shame researcher at the University of Houston and five-time New York Times bestseller, Dr. Brene Brown has spent decades studying shame and empathy. Brown teaches Fortune 500 companies, school districts, and organizations across the globe about the values of vulnerability and courage. Her TEDx talk on the power of vulnerability is one of the most-viewed talks of all-time.

One HR trend is the emerging world of digitization. From digital meeting spaces like Zoom to digital team organization. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, digital onboarding is one aspect of talent management that has taken off within recent months. Onboarding refers to the process of acquiring and ensuring new customers or new employees have access to all the services and products they need to excel.  In organizations, onboarding expands from a pre-employment assessment and in-person meetings to taking these processes online.

What is job speed dating?

With the COVID-19 pandemic stopping the economic and social life of entire countries, researchers wanted to know which leaders made a difference in delivering a (more) positive outcome. From hiring, pre employment assessments, to travel, the results may affect how organizations attribute leadership in times of crisis. The University of Liverpool conducted a statistical analysis of 194 countries. Their conclusions: countries with women leaders performed better. Their countries suffered half as many COVID-related deaths.

Facial recognition search and software is becoming integrated within hiring and recruitment efforts. Not only are private companies interested in the technology’s capabilities, it’s also being used by the public. For example, in the US,  forty-three states have used some form of facial recognition technology as a way to reduce identity and driver’s license fraud. Seven of those 43 states have adopted the system for driver’s licenses within the last three years. However even with its utility, facial recognition may be one of the most misunderstood technologies at the moment. 

An application tracking system (ATS) could be likened to two types of friends: the first is the kind of friendship where you meet for coffee every few months and happily gab for an hour and at the end say, “we should meet more often”, but it never happens. Or an ATS could be the other type of friend: the one who showed up to your pet’s funeral or books you a hotel when your credit card isn’t working. 

What’s the big deal in attaching a CV photo? 

A fair recruitment and hiring process is just what the doctor ordered during these times companies are rethinking their internal processes. Remote work, racial equity, and other changes to the workplace are occuring. 

You’ve scored the interview. Eureka! You’re busy preparing for a world-class interview, full of witty answers that showcase your experience, team spirit, and enthusiasm for the company in question. But have you considered preparing for any job interview discrimination?

Employees are the principal resource for a successful company. Full stop. Therefore it is absolutely crucial companies select the right people for their teams. From skill and value set to complementing the goals of the company culture, hiring managers build a company.

Facial expressions play an important role in recognition of emotions and are used in the process of non-verbal communication. Just like you hear your mother’s certain tone of voice---yes, *that* voice---you can quickly indicate a person’s feelings via their facial expression. This helps describe a person’s emotional state. Facial expressions assist us in ascertaining a person’s emotions and frame of mind. 

Researchers and scientists utilize facial expression detection in exploring the field of emotion  recognition.  Much of the research focuses on recognizing  seven  basic  emotional  states:  neutral,  joy,  surprise, anger, sadness, fear, and disgust.

In the field of psychology, the five dimensions (the ‘Big Five’) are commonly used in the research and study of personality. Since the late 20th Century, these factors have been used to measure, and develop a better understanding of individual differences in personality. It's commonly used as a pre-employment assessment---and as a basis for other personality systems. The Enneagram and the Myers-Briggs pull from the science-based Big Five.

Oh 2020, you're a weird one. We're really trying our best. Companies are quickly trying assess how the world of work is going to continue---including how to build teams and successfully manage them. Even with many employees workig from home. Organizations are digitizing their hiring process with an online recruitment system, allowing employees to work from home permanently, and making Zoom an unofficial employee. 

In a remote interview, HR Manager at VirtuaGym, Sandrien de Nijs tells us about her role in scaling up at the fitness coaching company. She shares with us how the role of the employee has changed for the better, why they don't have difficulty in finding tech talent, and the challenges in managing talent, especially during this time of COVID-19. 

The trend for working from home may suit some companies while they redesign their office spaces to cater to new social distancing guidelines. Nearly every company is clamouring to find how to make their business processes digital, from finding an online recruitment system to team brainstorming. Business leaders are not only looking to solve for the short-term, but also for the long-term consequences of COVID-19.