Morning! I read your pre-selection, thank you. Marco gave me a lot to think about.
A quick look back at Day 1: we checked four applications against the three must-have criteria, and Aylin passed although she has no degree. Then we saw that a screening tool learns patterns from earlier hires, and that Amazon stopped its tool because it gave women lower scores.
And remember Lena from our development team: she has no degree and no apprenticeship. She learned testing by building mods for games.
Tom ran HireSort on all 340 applications yesterday, and he wrote down the facts for us.
Today we check the tool with numbers, test it ourselves, and then you write our rule. On Friday I'll take your rule to the team. Before that, you prepare a short statement about it for your classmates. Let's start with Step 1.
Open your workbook for HR and go to Day 2. Keep this page open next to it.
Download your workbook for HRThis file is for your internship in HR, with one part for Day 1 and one part for Day 2. Download it once and use it on both days. The file lands in your Downloads folder. If you missed Day 1, download the workbook now and go straight to Day 2: the check on this page only looks at your answers for Day 2.
Calculate and check
Tom collected the facts about HireSort in M7. Use them to find out what Lisa's work costs without the tool.
HireSort at Respawn: the facts
Collected by Tom| Facts | |
|---|---|
| HireSort | costs €49 a month; reads all applications and puts them in a ranking; learns from the CVs of the nine developers Respawn hired before |
| The nine developers Respawn hired before | all 9 had an IT apprenticeship or a degree in computer science; Lena is not one of the nine: Respawn hired her as a tester |
| Lisa | checks about six applications in one hour if she reads them properly |
| One working hour of Lisa | costs Respawn €30 in staff costs |
| Test run yesterday | HireSort sorted all 340 applications: 40 at the top, 180 in the middle, 120 at the bottom |
- a) How many working hours does Lisa need to check all 340 applications properly? Write down your calculation and round up (aufrunden) to a full hour.
- b) What do the working hours from a) cost Respawn in staff costs (Personalkosten)? Write down your calculation.
- c) Tom wrote in the team chat: “Then the tool is the obvious choice.” Write one sentence that supports Tom. Use your numbers from a) and b) and the price of HireSort.
a) 340 ÷ 6 = 56.67. Rounded up: 57 h.
b) 57 × €30 = €1,710. Also right: 56.67 × €30 = €1,700, if you write that you did not round.
c) For example: “Lisa needs 57 h for the pre-selection, and that costs €1,710, but HireSort costs only €49 a month.”
Test HireSort yourself
HireSort learns from the nine people Respawn hired for developer jobs, and all nine had an apprenticeship or a degree (M7). The simulator shows four applicants from Day 1 and also Lena, as if she applied today. Remember the three must-have criteria from the job advert: code in C# or a similar language, a finished project with a link, and working in English. Move the slider slowly from 0 % to 100 % and watch who moves down. In the real tool, this setting is hidden inside the software. Here you can see it.
- a) Two applicants in the simulator pass all three must-have criteria and still fall to the bottom when you move the slider to the right. Write both names. Then explain in three sentences why. Use the Amazon case: Amazon's tool learned from ten years of CVs, mostly from men, and gave women lower scores.Help for a): “HireSort gives ... and ... a low score. All nine people Respawn hired for developer jobs ..., but ... Like the tool at Amazon, HireSort ...”
- b) Lena asked in the team chat: “Would a tool like that have put me in the top 20?” (Mika said that HireSort puts the best 20 applicants at the top of its ranking.) Use the simulator and answer her question in one or two sentences.
a) Aylin and Lena. Both meet all three must-have criteria, but neither has an apprenticeship or a degree. All nine people Respawn hired for developer jobs had one of them, and that is the pattern HireSort learns. Like the tool at Amazon, HireSort repeats the decisions of the past: from 60 % in the simulator, Aylin and Lena fall behind Sophie, who cannot write code at all.
b) Probably not. Lena took the same path as Aylin (mods, no degree) and would not have matched the pattern. Strong answers add: Respawn would then have lost a colleague who works in the team today.
Zoom out: the whole city
Leave Respawn Games for a moment and look at the whole city. 200 companies in Ohm City use HireSort. Each of them lets HireSort learn from its own earlier hires, and most of them have only hired people with an apprenticeship or a degree. Aylin, the applicant from Day 1 who learned to code with her mods, applies to 30 of these companies.
- a) What happens to Aylin? Complete this sentence in the box: “Most companies ..., so HireSort ..., therefore Aylin ...”
- b) Now think about all 200 companies in Ohm City. Describe one problem they all get when they use HireSort in the same way. Two sentences.Help for b): “All 200 companies look for ..., so ... Nobody hires ...”
- c) Aylin gets 30 rejections and never finds out why. Who should check that a tool like HireSort treats applicants fairly? Tick exactly one box.Each company itself · The company that sells HireSort · The state, with a law and an office that checks
- d) Explain your choice in c) in two sentences. Then name one weakness of your choice in a third sentence.Help: Ask yourself: Who knows the tool best? Who earns money with the tool? Who can check all 200 companies? “I choose ..., because ... One weakness is that ...”
a) Most companies have only hired people with an apprenticeship or a degree, so HireSort gives Aylin a low score everywhere, therefore she never gets a job interview, although she meets the must-have criteria.
b) All companies fight for the same kind of applicant, and nobody hires the talents who learned in a different way. Also right: the teams become more and more alike, and companies miss good people without noticing.
c) Every choice is possible. What counts is your reason and an honest weakness. For example: the company knows its jobs, but may not want to find its own mistakes; the seller knows the technology, but wants to sell; the state is independent, but a check by an office takes time and money.
Your rule and your statement
Work alone. You are Lisa now, and you speak for Respawn, so you say “our rule”. You can use HireSort, use it only for one part of the work, or leave it out. Choose the rule you can defend best. If your rule uses HireSort, use the groups from the test run in M7: 40 at the top, 180 in the middle, 120 at the bottom.
- a) Write Respawn's rule for the pre-selection in one sentence. Your rule answers three questions: Does Respawn use HireSort? What exactly does HireSort do, for example make the ranking or sort out applications? Who checks the result?Help: “Respawn uses HireSort to ..., and Lisa ...” or “Respawn does not use HireSort, and Lisa ...”
- b) Prepare your statement. Write exactly three sentences, one in each box.
- Sentence 1 starts with: “Our rule is ...” Write your rule from a) again as one sentence and start it with these words.
- Sentence 2 starts with: “The strongest reason for our rule is ...” Use a number or a result from Steps 1 to 3 of today.
- Sentence 3 starts with: “The biggest weakness of our rule is ..., and we deal with it by ...”Help for sentence 3: “The biggest weakness of our rule is that it costs ... / that someone like Aylin ..., and we deal with it by ...”
- c) Everyone prepares this part. Ms Borgwardt chooses some of you to read their three sentences out loud. Then two classmates ask two questions: “Who loses because of your rule?” and “How much does your rule cost?” Write your answers here, one or two sentences each.
- Question 1: “Who loses because of your rule?”Help for question 1: Think of Aylin and of Lena. If your rule leaves HireSort out, think of Lisa and of Respawn.
- Question 2: “How much does your rule cost?”Help for question 2: Use Lisa's hours and the price of HireSort from Step 1. How many applications does Lisa still read herself under your rule? Six per hour, €30 per hour, plus €49 a month if Respawn uses HireSort.
Every rule is possible. A strong rule answers all three questions in a): HireSort yes or no, for which step, and who checks. In b), sentence 2 has a number or a result (57 h, €1,710, €49, 30 rejections), and sentence 3 names a real weakness and what you do about it.
Strong middle ways: HireSort makes the ranking, and Lisa reads the 40 at the top and also the 120 at the bottom, because people like Aylin may land there. Or: Lisa reads the 40 at the top and checks a few from the bottom.
Question 1 needs a real person. With HireSort, applicants like Aylin and Lena may lose, because they fall to the bottom. Without HireSort, Lisa loses a lot of working time, and Respawn pays for it.
Numbers for question 2, with the test run in M7: Lisa reads only the 40 at the top: 7 h, €210, plus €49. The top and the bottom (160): 27 h, €810, plus €49. All without the tool: 57 h, €1,710.
The statements
Stop here and wait until the statements start. While you wait, read your three sentences from Step 4 b) to yourself and check your answers in Step 4 c). Ms Borgwardt chooses some of you to read their three sentences. She also chooses two classmates who ask: the first one always asks “Who loses because of your rule?”, the second one always asks “How much does your rule cost?” If you read, answer with your notes from Step 4 c). If you ask, ask your question after each statement. Everyone writes notes, also the readers and the askers: after each statement, write down in a few words who loses, in the box for this step. At the end, write two sentences under your notes: What do the people who lose have in common?
- First, while you listen: who loses in each statement? A few words for each one. Then think about all the answers to the first question, “Who loses because of your rule?” Write two sentences under your notes: What do the people who lose have in common?Help: Look at your notes. Do the people who lose decide about the rule? “Most of the people who lose are ... They all ...” If you missed the statements: leave out the notes and write two sentences. Think of Aylin and of Lena, and of the people who lose under your own rule. What do they have in common?
A strong answer finds a pattern, for example: the people who lose are often at the start of their working life, have little money, or have no say in the decision. They carry the risk of the new tool, but they did not choose it.
Check your answer: Did you name what the people have in common, and not only who they are?
What I learned today
Write three sentences, one for each important thing you learned in HR, in your own words. For example: what a screening tool learns, and what your rule would change for someone like Aylin.
Check your workbook
- Save your workbook.
- Choose the file here.
- Does the page name a step? Then an answer is still missing or very short. Fill in that box, save the file and choose it here again.
- When all answers are there, Lisa answers you and the solutions appear under every step.
- Compare the solutions with your answers. Is a number or a fact in your answer wrong? Write “Correction:” and the right answer in the same box, under your answer.
- Is the answer your own opinion or your own rule? Then more than one answer can be good. Write “Also:” and one idea from the solution that you did not have.
- Save your workbook again.
Thank you for your rule. I'm taking it to Friday's meeting, and I'll tell Jan where the idea came from.
It was great to have you in HR. You helped Respawn make a fair decision, thank you!