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Episode 151 - Is it fair to ask candidates to access their Chat GPT during an interview?
60 Plays1 day ago
Episode 151 has news for 10 March 2026 featuring results from Hays, Adecco and PageGroup along with the latest Gartner jobseeker survey and the MD of HR Partners resigns.Question of the week is, " Is it fair to ask candidates to access their Chat GPT during an interview?
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Transcript
Recruiter's Role Beyond Recruiting
00:00:10
Speaker
Quick question, Adele. How much of a recruiter's day is actually spent recruiting? Well, not enough, for Ross. There's sourcing, admin, compliance, LinkedIn searches, and about 47 tabs open at once.
00:00:23
Speaker
That's where wingman recruitment comes in. Exactly. Their remote professionals handle the sourcing, admin, and compliance, so your team can get back to what they're actually good at, speaking to candidates and making placements.
00:00:36
Speaker
Less spreadsheet, more placement.
Economic Forecast for Australia 2025
00:00:39
Speaker
Visit wingmangroup.com.au and check the services tab to learn more. This is the news for the 10th of March, 2026. I'm Adele Last.
00:00:50
Speaker
And I'm Ross Klenit. Let's start with the broader economic picture, Ross. The latest data from the ABS shows the Australian economy actually finished 2025 on a strong note. It did, Adele. The National Accounts released last week showed GDP grew by 0.8% in the December quarter. which is the fastest quarterly growth Australia has seen since March 2023.
00:01:12
Speaker
And for the full year, the economy grew 2.6% in real terms in 2025, which stacks up pretty well internationally. It does. For comparison, the UK recorded 1.2% GDP growth. The US came in at 2.2%. While New Zealand went backwards slightly, with its economy shrinking by half a percent.
00:01:33
Speaker
The ABS says growth in the December quarter was broad-based, with both public and private demand contributing about 0.3 percentage points each. And consumer spending picked up too, mainly due to a 0.5% increase in real household disposable income over the quarter.
00:01:50
Speaker
But there still are some warning signs, such as labour productivity remaining flat. Economists say the economy is starting to brush up against its capacity limits. with the balance between growth, the labour market and inflation quite delicately balanced right now.
00:02:05
Speaker
Inflation pressures also re-emerged, which did lead to the first interest rate hike in February. That was the first one in more than two years, with real wages falling 0.4% over the year to December.
Future Employment Trends in Australia
00:02:19
Speaker
And with markets expecting more rate rises in 2026, households are feeling the pressure, particularly with higher mortgage repayments starting to bite. Consumer confidence, I note, has also fallen. It's below all of last year's benchmarks.
00:02:37
Speaker
And economists are now saying that the global uncertainty, particularly that caused by the current conflict in the Middle East, isn't helping sentiment either. Okay, so this is all broadly interesting, Ross, but what does it mean for hiring in 2026?
00:02:52
Speaker
That's a great segue, Adele, for the latest employment forecast from Deloitte Access Economics. They're predicting the pace of employment growth will slow slightly from 1.8% last year, so around 260,000 new jobs created, to 1.1% this year, roughly 165,000 jobs.
00:03:15
Speaker
A big driver there is slower net overseas migration, meaning fewer workers entering the labour market. That's what Deloitte are expecting. There is positive news. After nearly a year of weak hiring, the labour market does appear to have stabilised more recently, with around 86,000 Australians finding work across December and January.
00:03:38
Speaker
What's interesting, though, is the split in where the jobs will grow. Growth is expected to be strongest amongst community and personal service workers, professionals and labourers. Meanwhile, employment among managers, clerical and administrative workers, and sales workers has largely flatlined.
00:03:55
Speaker
Deloitte also expects CBD employment to pick up a again, particularly as hiring in professional services and finance rebounds. And strong demand across health, education and public administration should keep the human services sector growing.
00:04:08
Speaker
The main risk though, as Deloitte see it, is consumer demand. If households keep tightening their spending and borrowing costs remain high, businesses in consumer-facing sectors will hold back on hiring.
Leadership Change at HR Partners
00:04:21
Speaker
So overall, the outlook is still for jobs growth just at a slower pace and with a clear shift in where those jobs are being created. Big news in the ah HR recruitment world last week. Adele David Owens has announced he's stepping down as Managing Director of ah HR Partners.
00:04:36
Speaker
Yeah, it really marks the end of an era, Ross. David's been part of that business since the very beginning. He even wrote the company's first terms of business. Some may not be aware, but that business started as part of Staff and Executive Resources, owned by Sue Healy, before being sold to Digby Morgan in 2007, and later it was acquired by Randstead in 2014, I believe.
00:05:00
Speaker
Yes, I actually worked with David back when Staff and Exec Resources owned ah HR ah Partners, and He was always incredibly professional, a strong leader who helped shape the business over many years. He certainly had longevity. David's been managing director since 2007. He spent almost his entire recruitment career here in Australia after originally coming out from the UK.
00:05:22
Speaker
Has it been announced who's taking over the leadership of HR Partners, Adele? Yes, Sophie Thompson, who was with HR Partners for four years until 2012 and then rejoined the business in early 2018. has been appointed to National General Manager.
00:05:38
Speaker
Interestingly, David didn't say specifically whether he's retiring or what the future holds, but after nearly three decades with the brand, it is understandable he wants a bit of breathing space.
00:05:49
Speaker
Absolutely, and he's definitely earned it. David has certainly been one of those people synonymous with the growth of specialist ah HR recruitment in Australia.
Challenges in Recruitment Sector Financials
00:05:57
Speaker
And on to results. Starting locally, Hayes reported ANZ net fees of $116 million dollars for the six months to December 2025, down 3%, although operating profit jumped sharply to $8.8 million. dollars Temp and contracting net fees slipped 3%, while perm fees fell 4%. Biggest pressure came in the major markets, New South Wales down 17%, and Victoria down
00:06:24
Speaker
In terms of specialisms, construction and property, Steelhaze's largest, held steady, while in IT, fees dropped 2%. Consultant headcount fell 10% year-on-year to 645, and the company closed six offices during the period, reflecting the tougher market conditions.
00:06:45
Speaker
Globally, Adeco Group, the world's second largest staffing company, delivered a more positive result. Fourth quarter revenue reached €5.96 billion, euros up 3.9% organically, with temporary placement income rising 4%, while perm fees declined 2%.
00:07:02
Speaker
Operating profit jumped 28% to €186 million. euros Across the Asia-Pacific region, ADECO saw 6% revenue growth, with ANZ up 2%, although there's still no update on a replacement for former ANZ CEO Peter Aitchison, who departed in mid-January.
00:07:21
Speaker
Finally, Page Group reported a very challenging 2025. Revenue to billion, pounds while operating profit dropped sharply,
00:07:37
Speaker
twenty one million pounds in australia revenue declined ten percent and in the asia-pacific region a one point nine million pound operating loss was reported although that's still an improvement on the previous year Across Page Group, headcount was reduced by more than 540 employees, highlighting just how cautious the global recruitment sector remains heading into 2026. New data from Gartner suggests Australian workers are becoming a lot more cautious about the job market.
00:08:07
Speaker
Their latest Global Talent Monitor surveyed more than 6,000 employees across 40 countries, including 855 in Australia, and the results show confidence in job availability has dropped to its lowest level in more than three years.
00:08:23
Speaker
In fact, only about 56% of Australian employees said they feel positive about the job market right now. The survey found intentions to stay in current roles increased by more than five percentage points during 2025. At the same time, the number of employees considered high potential talent fell to just 5.1%, a very small pool.
00:08:44
Speaker
Gartner says workers are becoming increasingly hesitant about making career moves, describing it as something like a labour market freeze, where employees don't feel confident enough to leave their job, but they're also unsure about what opportunities are really out there.
00:08:59
Speaker
That's reflected in Job Search Activity 2. Only 19.4% of Australian employees said they were actively looking for a new role in the final quarter of 2025. This suggests the market isn't necessarily collapsing, but workers are definitely playing it
Cautious Job Market Sentiment in Australia
00:09:15
Speaker
safe.
00:09:15
Speaker
When it comes to what motivates people to move jobs, the report confirms that money still matters more than anything else. Compensation are ranked as the number one driver of people leaving a job and the second biggest factor attracting them to a new one, which isn't surprising given the cost of living pressures many Australians are facing.
00:09:34
Speaker
Manager quality was the second most common reason employees leave and the top factor attracting people to a role wasn't salary, it was location, which shows flexibility and commute still matter a lot in today's workplace.
Ethical Considerations: AI in Interviews
00:09:48
Speaker
So overall, workers aren't rushing for the exits, but they're definitely keeping a close eye on the market. And that's your news up to date for the 10th of March. Stay tuned now for a question of the week.
00:10:02
Speaker
Question of the week. Is it fair to ask candidates to access their chat GPT during an interview? That's a very specific question, Ross. Where does that one come from? It is very specific, Adele, and it comes from X, a user, Dana Parrish, posted on X. HR asked a potential candidate to open their chat GPT during an interview and to type in the prompt, based on my past conversations, Can you analyse my behavioural tendencies?
00:10:36
Speaker
When the candidate declined, the vibe in the interview went south. This is insanely scary and inappropriate. So that caught my attention to go, whoa, what what really? Is this happening in interviews? So that's where it's coming from.
00:10:56
Speaker
That is an amazing story. And if that is true, absolutely shocks me. that people would ask. It's a huge breach of privacy, first and foremost.
00:11:08
Speaker
yeah Well, yes, but what are they hoping this produces? Like to me, I go straight to, yes, I suppose I should go straight to privacy, but really the core recruiter in me goes, well, what does the output of that question produce that provides a reliable indicator that the candidate is suitable or not suitable for the job?
00:11:34
Speaker
Well, presuming they're saying Type that prompt into ChatGPT and based on obviously candidate having lots of conversations with ChatGPT over time, it's going to pull together a summary. In fact, I might try this myself and see what it says. But I would actually be really scared, Ross, from an interview perspective because I ask my ChatGPT all sorts of strange questions. I ask it health-related questions. I ask it things that you maybe don't want to ask somebody in the real world. like You don't want to tell that to an employer.
00:12:07
Speaker
Okay, so that is exactly the point, that a chat GPT is the whole you. When an employer is making a decision about employing someone, or certainly at least their suitability for employment, it should be on specific work-related criteria. And clearly ah person's personalized chat GPT has everything. Like it doesn't create a ah demarcation between work and non-related issues. And to me, that immediately screams this is open to a challenge in terms of in terms of anti-discrimination.
00:12:47
Speaker
I'm going to be so bold as to say this can't have been a recruitment agency. This has to have been internal ah hr And yes based on what you just said, that it is trying to find out about the whole person, I'm going to say that it was some harebrained idea by somebody younger, millennial, Zed maybe, who went, how can we use ChatGPT in an interview? Or how can we get candidates to use the AI? and not really thinking about the true implications of this.
00:13:17
Speaker
Well, okay, so here is straight away is what might be an example. If someone's a relatively recent ChatGPT user and they turn to ChatGPT because they're going through divorce and they're asking a lot of questions about divorce proceedings, they're talking they're typing in things about their emotions and maybe, don't know, getting some form of coaching, then What the chat GPT has to draw on in terms of that particular person is overwhelmingly personal. It's overwhelmingly a very significant moment in that person's life. And surely that's going to massively skew the answer to the question that was mentioned at the top.
00:14:02
Speaker
of today because it largely got that sort of information to draw on, to produce a summary of that person's behavioural tendencies. Yeah, and it's really unfair, actually, because you're asking a candidate to, you know, breach that privacy and open that vulnerability. As you said, some people are using it extensively. It'll have a lot of data about them. Some won't be using it.
00:14:25
Speaker
extensively and so it's only one-sided or one-dimensional but it really puts the candidate in an uncomfortable position because what will you do like this person said in the post they declined to provide that information or do the exercise that straight away puts the interview into a standoff situation you know the person's so uncomfortable but How do they say no? How do you say no when you're asked to do something you're really uncomfortable with in an interview? It's immediately, i think for most people, signalling, ah I'm awkward or I've got something to hide or I'm going to be one of those people that's going to stand up for their rights at work. And it unfortunately could send a very, let's call it, limiting response
00:15:12
Speaker
perspective of you as a potential employee and it's likely to mean as was the case with the Dana Parish Post where the candidate would you know never heard from ah never heard from the employer again yeah how would you handle this Ross I'm interested to know if you were put in this situation personally how would you have answered this how would you have handled it with the potential interview panel asking you to do this wow Well, being a crusty old bloke, the people asking me questions in an interview are likely to be younger than me. So I'd like to think that I'd probably be more confident to stand up for my own privacy and to say I'm going to decline to do that.
00:15:56
Speaker
I know quite a bit about behavioural assessment. So I suppose the question I would ask is, well, why are you asking me to do this when there's a lot of validated behavioural assessment tools that you could use that I'd mostly be comfortable to complete to give you some sort of behavioural assessment of me. To me, it just strikes as lazy and made up on the spot. It's a bit gimmicky, isn't it? That's a good word and quite gimmicky.
00:16:26
Speaker
Yeah. As I think about it now, I wouldn't have thought it because I'd be shocked if it happened to me in an interview, but as I process now I would ah be cheeky and say, wow, the response tells me that I'm perfect for your job. My chat GPT tells me I'm the right candidate, no need to interview any others. You could kind of be funny about it, I suppose.
00:16:47
Speaker
You could, but again, you'd want to feel like it didn't really matter whether you got the job or not. Like I'm prepared to have a bit of fun or I'm prepared to push back because I'm just going to treat this as I'm going to show them the real me. And if that means that they don't want to proceed, well, I've got to be okay with that. And again, the balance of power is huge. If you're a young person and you really want the job and you don't have too many alternatives, if you've been applying for a lot of jobs and getting nowhere and this is one of the few interviews you get and this is a request that's made, then naturally you're going to feel a lot of pressure to play along because you want this opportunity. Well, I assume, you know, you want this opportunity or at least you want the opportunity to decline the job, to at least have an offer to consider.
00:17:39
Speaker
Yeah, that's probably, you know, the sad part of it and and wondering whether this is going to be a trend. You know, is this a future hiring trend or are there better ways to be using ChatGPT in an interview? What other tasks could you be asking the candidate to do on ChatGPT if you were trying to maybe assess their skills in accessing large language models perhaps? I don't know. And again – it gets back to the question right at the top. It's like, what's this attempting to assess?
00:18:08
Speaker
And is it just um a gimmick? Because to me, overall, this is an example of the Wild West where we've got people's use of chat GPT is way ahead of where legislation is, etiquette.
00:18:24
Speaker
And so we we really are in unknown territory. And that means, unfortunately, those with the power in a situation such as a job interview are ah going to push the boundaries because they don't know anything different or they don't care.
00:18:42
Speaker
And the people who are on the other side of that power equation are feeling like they really have to say yes. And I and i do not like that at all. So this might be just the start of a list of bad behaviour during an interview. Perhaps we can start start creating a record of this.
00:18:59
Speaker
Well, there'd be a much longer list, but I think I'd certainly be interested to hear from any of our listeners what they are hearing from their candidates, excuse me, or what their clients are proposing for how gp chat GPT or other large language models are tested in in terms of candidates' use or um proficiency, because really we we are at the beginning of that era.
00:19:28
Speaker
So even though this question is about chat GPT, Adele, to me it points to a much more fundamental issue. That is, in an interview or any part of a recruitment process, that whatever you are asking a candidate to do or whatever question you are asking a candidate to answer, you must be able to demonstrate that what you're seeking relates directly to that candidate's ability to fu fulfill the core requirements of the job that is at the heart of any excellent recruitment process. And this example is taking us way, way away from that core principle.