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In the fast-paced world of job interviews, every interaction can be a make-or-break moment. With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and the digital age, candidates have unprecedented access to information, allowing them to craft the perfect responses.

But have you ever wondered about the challenges faced by those on the other side of the table?

Interviewers have a tough task at hand, relying on resumes and a few interview rounds to assess candidates. However, it’s important to remember that a candidate’s interview performance may not necessarily reflect their long-term potential. And let’s face it, we humans are prone to biases, making it tricky to ensure a completely impartial hiring process.

The transition to online interviews has further altered the dynamics. Candidates are now largely assessed based on their facial expressions, leaving much of their body language behind. So, how do we adapt to this changing landscape?

Enter AI

AI and cognitive analysis, along with psychometric analysis, give a holistic view of a candidate’s behaviours, offering invaluable insights. It provides a glimpse into a candidate’s true potential and helps in making more unbiased, well-informed hiring decisions. With AI, we’re levelling the playing field, reducing the influence of biases, and giving everyone a fair shot at landing their dream job.

Cognitive analysis: A method to identify a candidate’s behaviour

Within human resources, cognitive analysis emerges as a potent resource for enhancing recruitment. Hard skills are easy to acquire, but what sets a candidate apart is their attitude and behaviour, which can only be accessed through AI and not based on inputs provided by the candidate. This analytical approach equips recruiters to discern the synergy between a candidate’s attributes and job imperatives.

Usually, recruiters and hiring managers extend their assessment beyond mere skill qualifications within a job interview. They employ behavioural interview inquiries, prompting candidates to elaborate on previous professional encounters that highlight their virtues introspectively.

For instance, asking questions like:

• Share a situation when you disagreed with a manager’s decision. Explain how you managed the situation and navigated through it.
• Narrate an occasion when you faced conflicting priorities. Elaborate on the steps you took to manage and address this situation.

These questions can easily be answered and gamed by preparation, employing AI and gamification to create an engaging experience that offers equal opportunities and inclusivity without compromising objectivity in subjective matters. 

Cognitive assessment: The tool to unveil a candidate’s perspective

Undoubtedly, as we move beyond the conventional methods of hiring, there is no justification for adhering to decades-old interview practices. Cognitive assessment has moved beyond merely relying on pages-long questionnaires that may or may not reflect the prospects of the candidate.

As innovation continues to grow in the hiring space, gamification has evolved as a powerful tool for assessing cognitive and analytical attributes by offering a more engaging and less invasive approach and ensuring that applicants do not need extensive preparation.

Furthermore, this approach ensures hiring managers can grasp the true potential of the applicants. These tools can help identify answers to questions like “Can the candidate engage in abstract thinking?” “How well does the candidate grasp complex concepts?”, “What is the candidate’s speed of learning?” and “How adaptable is the candidate in the face of change?”, which can aid recruiters in uncovering candidates’ perspectives.

Additionally, cognitive assessment tools can support hiring managers in unravelling a candidate’s motivations for seeking a job with a company and illuminating a professional’s stance, beliefs, or viewpoints.

By taking the candidate through a specific sequence of events, the process of hiring can be streamlined and made razor-focused, reducing the likelihood of diversions and misconstrued information. 

To encapsulate

Cognitive assessment plays a vital role in the hiring process, offering hiring managers profound insights into candidates’ cognitive abilities, behaviour patterns, problem-solving aptitude, and emotional intelligence.

The use of diverse cognitive tools helps empower employers to assess memory recall, critical thinking, communication skills, adaptability, creativity, and decision-making capabilities—thus making the interview process fairer, more insightful, and better equipped to identify candidates who truly align with a company’s values and job requirements.

Aditya Malik is the Founder and CEO of Valuematrix.ai, and Mentor – DeepTech Club at Nasscom.