SIOP recap: Human potential intelligence & hiring assessments

This year HireVue once again had the privilege to attend and present 23 sessions at the annual SIOP Conference—IO Psychology’s annual event where innovation and science come together for a week of inspiration. 

The HireVue Science Team in attendance presented on various topics, emphasizing how to ethically use game-based assessments and job simulations to tap into human potential. In addition, there was increased discussion around AI regulations and skills-based hiring. 

We’ve pulled together some of the top trends discussed at SIOP 2024. 

Assessments across differing views

In their session “Avoiding Irrelevance in Hiring,” HireVue presented with Walmart, Charter Communications, and AT&T, all HireVue customers, on the role that different assessment effectiveness measures take in their hiring process. 

Each panelist was asked a series of questions on not only how they use and measure assessments but the challenges that can come when different stakeholders have different ideas of success. 

When asked if they’ve ever had to turn off an assessment they believed in or vice versa, Andrew Barsa, Senior IO Psychology Consultant at HireVue, explained the process in more detail. 

“We've done both. We would never implement an entire assessment that we don't believe in, but sometimes our recommendations acquiesce to new ideas. If a client wants to include a question that we know won’t predict, we’ll include it until a validation proves that it doesn’t work. You try to foster relationships so you can work with the data and show them the value.”

Sara Andrews, Sr. Manager, Selection & Assessment at Spectrum, Charter Communications, added her perspective as a customer as well.

“We've had both happen as well for a lot of the same reasons. Maybe leadership doesn't believe in it, so they think there is an impact to the candidate funnel. In reality if they don't want to use it or use it correctly, it's better to turn it off. But often they will circle back when they see the impact of not having it in place.”

Response as a result of AI regulation is increasing 

With the adoption of NYC Local Law 144 and now the EU AI Act, AI regulation is top of mind globally. Many companies have tackled the new landscape with the establishment of AI committees. 

In a panel  session titled “Regulating Assessment Technology: Perspectives on Current and Emerging Regulations,” Andrew Solomonson, General Manager, Talent Assessment & Strategy at Delta, referenced their AI governance committee. 

“We've added a couple layers of review and governance…. If we are considering a new vendor or new use from an existing vendor, we'll engage outside counsel and undertake a structured review. Not just for legal compliance but also best practices. We want to avoid unintended bias.”

HireVue is at the forefront of AI legislation, working with lawmakers on the regulations and requirements for ethical AI. It’s one reason HireVue published the industry’s first AI Explainability Statement. 

Assessments and the candidate experience

In the same session, Vinay Patel, Lead IO Psychologist at AT&T, addressed AT&T concerns over the candidate experience, especially for a company whose candidate pool doubles as its customers.

“Our customers are everywhere. Whenever we are trying to sell to them, we want a white glove experience. What is their experience like when they are entering the company? Candidate experience is what we owe to people, predicting performance is what we owe to the business.”

In addition, Walmart, another company whose candidate and customer pool overlap, offers its Retail Associate candidates a Virtual Job TryoutⓇ, a pre-employment simulation which gives teams an idea of what to expect on the job. The Walmart team worked closely with the HireVue IO Psychology team through the design and validation process to ensure they followed the principles of rigorous and objective test validation established by the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (1978) and the Principles for the Validation and Use of Personnel Selection Procedures (2018).

As a result of implementation, Walmart has seen: 

• 400,000 new hires in 4 months
• 100% of candidates would recommend applying
• 95% completion rate

Assessing talent as people

HireVue Human Potential Intelligence is AI-driven tech especially designed to unlock candidate potential by assessing the skills and competencies that best predict success. 

It’s the idea that candidates are people first—they are humans with a story not just bodies to fill roles. 

In their session titled, “Human Centric Assessments: Rethinking How to Assess Talent in Radically Human Ways,” Eileen Toomey, Selection Assessment Leader at Johnson & Johnson, another HireVue customer, emphasized the importance of treating talent as people and creating holistic evaluations, leaning into skills-based hiring. 

“Johnson & Johnson has a high-volume, 1-2 million applications a year…. We don't want to treat humans as commodities—we’ve developed a whole person model. We ensure we are evaluating and treating the whole person—their skills, what they want to do, what they can do.”

HireVue offers a variety of tools to tap into the potential of candidates. 

• Structured Interviewing: HireVue Structured Interviewing brings speed and quality together. Easily build science-backed, job-specific interviews designed to help you uncover the potential in all candidates. Scale with ease through powerful automated workflows built on an enterprise ready platform.
• Assessments: With an assessment for every role at every level, our robust library of skill-based questions identify candidates beyond just resume qualifications—better defining what they can actually do. Effective hiring is rooted in data analysis, and HireVue also offers insights to candidates after their interviews.
• Virtual Job Tryout®: Go beyond conventional cognitive and behavioral assessments. The Virtual Job Tryout® provides 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.
• Find My Fit: Present candidates with all roles that they fit—not just the ones they search for. Find My Fit helps easily identify what roles best match candidate potential. After a brief assessment of interests, personality, and background, Find My Fit compares the answers to your organization’s open opportunities, recommending the roles that are the best fit for the candidate. Recommending roles based on the candidate’s interests and soft skills drives candidates to those roles that might be a better fit—and can help expand the diversity of your talent pool.

Ready to take the next step in backing your hiring with science and data? Request a demo.