換工作？找AI

Since joining IBM nearly 20 years ago, Srinivas Chitiveli has switched jobs nine times. Mr Chitiveli, who works in Ohio, believes change is good for his career. It helps him develop professionally, broaden his skills and keep on top of the trends in his industry. But he used to hate the time it took to scour internal job boards, and to research and write applications.

大約20年前，斯里尼瓦•史提瓦力(Srinivas Chitiveli)加入了IBM，自那以來(lái)，他已經(jīng)換了9次工作。史提瓦力在俄亥俄州工作，他認(rèn)為換崗位對(duì)自己的職業(yè)發(fā)展來(lái)說(shuō)是好事。這有助于他在專(zhuān)業(yè)上取得進(jìn)步，拓寬自身技能，并緊跟行業(yè)發(fā)展趨勢(shì)。但他以前很討厭查看內(nèi)部空缺職位布告欄，以及研究和撰寫(xiě)職位申請(qǐng)書(shū)。

So when IBM introduced Blue Matching, a tool that uses artificial intelligence to connect employees to internal job opportunities, Mr Chitiveli, who was working on the internet of things, signed up. It took him three weeks to find a new position as a senior product manager for IBM’s AI-powered computer vision technology, which enables computers to recognise visual images — less than half the usual time.

所以當(dāng)IBM引入了Blue Matching，一個(gè)利用人工智能在雇員與內(nèi)部工作機(jī)會(huì)之間建立聯(lián)系的工具，正在從事物聯(lián)網(wǎng)工作的史提瓦力馬上登記了。他花了三周時(shí)間，找到一個(gè)高級(jí)產(chǎn)品經(jīng)理的職位，負(fù)責(zé)IBM人工智能計(jì)算機(jī)視覺(jué)技術(shù)，這項(xiàng)技術(shù)能令計(jì)算機(jī)識(shí)別出視覺(jué)圖像——耗時(shí)不及平常的一半。

“In the old days, I’d type in search terms, apply to a huge list of jobs, meet hiring managers and, after some initial discussions, realise the job wasn’t for me,” he says.

“以前，我會(huì)輸入關(guān)鍵詞，申請(qǐng)大量職位，與招聘經(jīng)理見(jiàn)面，在經(jīng)過(guò)一些初步的討論之后，發(fā)現(xiàn)那份工作不適合我，”他說(shuō)。

Since it launched last year, about 12 per cent of IBM employees have used Blue Matching to find new roles within the organisation. The software crunches data about each applicant, including previous roles, skills, experience, location and performance, and recommends suitable openings.

自去年推出以來(lái)，IBM大概有12%的員工使用過(guò)Blue Matching去搜索組織內(nèi)部的新職位。這個(gè)軟件會(huì)處理每位申請(qǐng)人的信息，包括以前的職位、技能、經(jīng)驗(yàn)、工作地點(diǎn)以及表現(xiàn)，并向他們推薦適合的空缺職位。

As working lives lengthen and automation replaces tasks once performed by people, more of us are changing career. According to CEB, a research and advisory company now part of Gartner, 40 per cent of roles that exist today will be significantly different in five years’ time. Helping employees change direction without leaving their employer is in everyone’s interests. Could the pattern-matching capabilities of AI put underused human intelligence to better use?

隨著工作年限延長(zhǎng)以及自動(dòng)化逐漸取代曾經(jīng)由人來(lái)承擔(dān)的工作，我們中越來(lái)越多人的職業(yè)都發(fā)生了改變。據(jù)高德納(Gartner)旗下的一家研究咨詢(xún)公司CEB稱(chēng)，目前40%的工作都將在五年內(nèi)發(fā)生重大改變。幫助員工轉(zhuǎn)變職業(yè)方向而不必離開(kāi)公司符合每一個(gè)人的利益。那么，人工智能的模式匹配技術(shù)能讓未被充分利用的人類(lèi)智慧更好地發(fā)揮出來(lái)嗎?

But even as employers seek to plug gaps by hiring from outside, studies point to workers being pigeonholed, rather than helped to explore new careers within their organisations. Research conducted for Cornerstone OnDemand found that under half of UK workers see opportunities to progress, and 11 per cent say their employer forbids moves to other departments.

然而，研究指出，即便雇主們通過(guò)外部招聘來(lái)填補(bǔ)空缺職位時(shí)，他們也只是將員工們束縛在固定的部門(mén)，而不是為他們?cè)诮M織內(nèi)部開(kāi)辟新的職業(yè)發(fā)展空間。為Cornerstone OnDemand所做的一項(xiàng)研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，在英國(guó)不到一半的員工看到了發(fā)展機(jī)會(huì)，但其中有11%的人表示老板禁止他們轉(zhuǎn)崗到其他部門(mén)。

Orange is one of several French employers that use AI developed by Clustree, a Paris start-up, to help people move within their companies. Employees submit a CV describing their experience, pastimes and aspirations. Details can reveal surprising abilities, according to Véronique Biecques, director of recruitment at Orange. “What you do in your spare time sometimes says more about you than your job,” she says.

Orange是法國(guó)幾家采用Clustree開(kāi)發(fā)的AI技術(shù)的公司之一，Clustree是巴黎一家初創(chuàng)企業(yè)，這家公司的AI技術(shù)旨在幫助人們?cè)谧约旱墓緝?nèi)部實(shí)現(xiàn)轉(zhuǎn)崗。雇員們提交簡(jiǎn)歷，描述自己的經(jīng)驗(yàn)、愛(ài)好以及志向。細(xì)節(jié)能暴露一個(gè)人出人意料的能力，Orange的招聘主管韋羅妮卡•碧珂絲(Véronique Biecques)說(shuō)。“你在閑暇時(shí)間做的事情有時(shí)會(huì)比你的工作更能說(shuō)明你是個(gè)什么樣的人，”她說(shuō)。

Studies suggest that we view those whom we resemble in background and tastes as more able, but machine intelligence is — at least in theory — neutral. Ms Biecques notes that graduates of France’s top academies, the grandes écoles, favour team members who share their credentials. By generating a diverse slate of candidates, backed by proof of ability, she hopes the software will help her to convince managers to judge everyone in the round.

研究顯示，我們認(rèn)為那些與自己背景及品味相似的人更能干，但機(jī)器智能——至少在理論上——是中立的。碧珂絲注意到那些從法國(guó)精英院校(grandes écoles)畢業(yè)的學(xué)生喜歡與自己教育背景類(lèi)似的團(tuán)隊(duì)成員。憑借證明能力的信息挑選出各式各樣的候選人，她希望這個(gè)軟件能幫她說(shuō)服管理者們?nèi)娴貙?duì)每個(gè)人做出評(píng)判。

Jean Martin, head of research at CEB, says Orange’s efforts mirror a wider push by employers to “build an archive of skills that goes beyond what managers can see”. As part of its search methodology, Blue Matching trawls employees’ blogs on the IBM intranet. Other businesses cast their nets wider, arguing that anything staff post publicly is fair game for analysis.

CEB的研究主管讓•馬丁(Jean Martin)稱(chēng)，Orange的努力反映出雇主們希望“建立一個(gè)超出管理者視野的技能檔案”。作為其搜索方法的一部分，Blue Matching在IBM的局域網(wǎng)中抓取員工們的博客。其他企業(yè)則把網(wǎng)撒得更廣，認(rèn)為員工公開(kāi)發(fā)布的任何內(nèi)容都可以拿來(lái)分析。

Not everyone is sanguine about AI’s potential. Privacy advocates argue that web-monitoring tools give organisations new powers to peer into employees’ lives — and there are signs that regulators are toughening their stance. According to new EU data protection guidelines, employers should not assume that because an individual’s social media profile is publicly available they are “allowed to process those data for their own purposes”.

并非每個(gè)人都對(duì)人工智能的潛力持樂(lè)觀態(tài)度。隱私權(quán)的捍衛(wèi)者們認(rèn)為網(wǎng)絡(luò)監(jiān)控工具給了組織新的權(quán)力去窺探員工們的生活——也有跡象顯示監(jiān)管機(jī)構(gòu)的立場(chǎng)趨于強(qiáng)硬。根據(jù)歐盟新制定的數(shù)據(jù)保護(hù)準(zhǔn)則，雇主們不該假設(shè)，因?yàn)閱T工個(gè)人的社交媒體允許公開(kāi)訪問(wèn)，他們“就可以出于自身目的處理這些信息”。

The politics of AI can be tricky, too. Line managers may feel that self-service career tools threaten their authority.

人工智能也涉及微妙的政治。部門(mén)經(jīng)理們或許會(huì)感到自助求職工具對(duì)他們的權(quán)威構(gòu)成了威脅。

Abi Weeks, HR operations director at Harrods, the London department store, argues that experimenting with different roles, not AI, gives people the confidence to put themselves forward for career development. To encourage staff to sample different opportunities, the retailer runs careers weeks with “backstage tours” of hard-to-access departments, such as personal shopping.

倫敦哈羅德百貨公司(Harrods)的人力資源運(yùn)營(yíng)總監(jiān)阿比•威克斯(Abi Weeks)認(rèn)為，嘗試不同的職位——而不是人工智能——會(huì)讓人們有信心追求自身的職業(yè)發(fā)展。為鼓勵(lì)員工嘗試不同的機(jī)會(huì)，這家零售商開(kāi)展了“事業(yè)周”，以“后臺(tái)訪問(wèn)”的形式，讓員工們參觀那些平時(shí)難以接觸到的部門(mén)，如私人采購(gòu)部等。

Though optimistic that AI will, over time, improve the hiring process, Ms Biecques says smart machines can’t do everything. “You can say: this person would be perfect because they have all the qualities. But, in the end, the manager must choose. Every morning they must come in and work with that person — there has to be a chemistry.”

盡管碧珂絲樂(lè)觀地認(rèn)為，隨著時(shí)間的發(fā)展，人工智能將改善招聘的過(guò)程，但她表示智能機(jī)器無(wú)法面面俱到。“你可以說(shuō)：這個(gè)人很完美，因?yàn)樗邆渌行枰钠焚|(zhì)。但最后必須由管理者做出選擇。每天早晨管理者要到公司和這個(gè)人共事——他們之間一定得有某種默契。”