Artifcial intelligence in personnel selection and its influence on employer attractiveness

Abstract

Attracting and retaining talented employees has become one of the most pressing challenges for companies in their struggle for achieving and sustaining competitive advantage. Personnel assessment and personnel selection plays an important role in this context. On the one hand, its methods can help, to distinguish between suitable applicants and less suitable ones. On the other hand, personnel assessment and selection affects the perceived attractiveness of the employer. Therefore, it is closely related to employer branding. In the course of digitization, artifcial intelligence is now increasingly used in personnel attraction and selection. New instruments are being introduced. For example, computeraided speech recognition can allegedly be used to generate personality profles of applicants. However, the scientifc debate on this topic seems to lag far behind the marketing of corresponding instruments. From a scientifc point of view, it is questionable not only whether such instruments are prognostically valid, but also whether they are accepted by applicants. Within the framework of an experimental study, two important questions are thus investigated: What effect do job advertisements have on the perceived attractiveness of an employer if the use of computer-aided speech recognition for personnel selection is explicitly pointed out? To what extent is the relationship between job advertisements with and without reference to speech recognition on the attractiveness of employers moderated by technology acceptance, country-specifc differences and qualifcation? Answers to these questions will enhance our understanding of applicant reactions to selection procedures. In addition, they provide important information for the practice of human resource management in the context of employer branding.