A Lancaster University researcher has lent his expertise to help set the agenda for the future use of Artificial Intelligence in hiring.

Dr Huw Fearnall-Williams, a Lecturer in Organisation, Work and Technology in Lancaster University Management School (LUMS) helped in the creation of the UK’s first guide on the issue.

Artificial Intelligence in Hiring has been created by the Better Hiring Institute and Reed Screening, along with Lord Holmes, the architect of the Artificial Intelligence (Regulations) Bill, parliamentarians, lawyers, industry, and academics including Dr Fearnall-Williams.

The guide is aimed at the practical use of AI in Hiring covering the uses and abuses already occurring in the recruitment sector and across UK hiring. It builds on the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s Responsible AI in recruitment guide which was more focused on assurance good practice for procurement and deployment. AI in Hiring also focuses on the use and abuse of AI by those currently searching for work in the UK.

Dr Fearnall-Williams said: “All the technological developments we have seen in recent years taken together are reconfiguring and transforming the hiring process. This is why this guide is urgently needed to help employers and organisations navigate this complex and rapidly changing environment. The guide sets out key principles and recommendations for employers to consider when evaluating the appropriate adoption of AI tools for hiring.”

Collaborators also include Arctic Shores and Future Work, who both spoke in Parliament alongside Lord Holmes, legal firm Osborne Clark, and Keith Rosser, Chair of the Better Hiring Institute and Director of Reed Screening, and an Honorary Teaching Fellow in LUMS.

Keith said: “Artificial Intelligence has the potential to be the biggest single change to hiring since the internet. Whether this change is positive or negative depends on how we – the UK hiring community – harness and apply it. Whether business likes it or not, AI is already here and is already being used by job seekers everywhere. This is only likely to increase.”

The guide is free to use, and the subject of AI in Hiring will return to Parliament again in the near future.

Lord Holmes said: “The Better Hiring Institute’s mission is to make UK Hiring faster, fairer, and safer. Artificial Intelligence speaks to each element of the mission. It has the power to help make UK hiring the fastest globally or leave it well behind, to make UK hiring the fairest in the world or make it even less fair than it is now, especially for underrepresented groups, and it can help make UK hiring the safest it can be through the innovative use of AI to identify fraud, or it could make hiring fraud even more widespread and sophisticated.”

The guide can be accessed here: Artificial Intelligence in Hiring - Campaigns - Better Hiring Institute.