this was on the front page of Sundday's New York times.  I wonder how a
blind applicant would apply alone.  Obviously, the person could bring
sighted assistance.

kelly


February 6, 2000

Online Revolution's Latest Twist: Computers Screening Job Seekers

By MATT RICHTEL

     DALY CITY, Calif., Feb. 2 -- With a pick comb in his hair and his
     shirt untucked, Roland Martin wandered into the Good Guys
     electronics store this afternoon and immediately secured a
     30-minute employment interview. Not only did the store disregard
     his appearance, it welcomed his impulsive job hunt. Besides, the
     interviewer could not see him.

     Mr. Martin's interview in this San Francisco suburb was conducted
     by computer, making him a participant in a trend in retail hiring.
     Dozens of big-name retailers, including Target, Hollywood Video,
     Macy's and Longs Drug Stores, are replacing paper applications and
     in-person interviews with computer kiosks in the initial screening
     of applicants.

     The computer programs query prospective employees on job history
     and work habits.

     They then typically delve into psychological tests that the
     companies say can help match job skills and personalities with
     openings. Employers say the automation gives them an edge in the
     tight labor market, enabling them to sift through applications
     quickly, weed out duds, identify talent and, as in the case of Mr.
     Martin, attract candidates who might not otherwise have taken time
     to apply.

     But critics ask how a computer program can rightly judge a person,
     even if only in an initial screening. For their part, privacy
     advocates say employers, and companies hired to administer the
     kiosks, are creating vast databases of applicants' psychological
     profiles -- as potentially damaging as a bad credit rating -- that
     could find a larger audience than the applicants expect.

     And this could be only the beginning for the automated interview.
     Before long, employers envision that job seekers will apply from
     home over the Internet. As technology advances, companies even
     foresee putting prospective employees into virtual video
     environments to see how they might react to stressful situations.

     "It's just a matter of time before the technology advances and
     before more companies get involved," said Alan G. Frost, director
     of management development for Home Depot, which uses computer
     kiosks for job applications in all of its roughly 900 stores. "This
     gives us a great opportunity to have tremendously accurate hiring
     and, No. 2, it saves on labor costs."

     Mr. Frost said the kiosks, which administer a 40- to 60-minute
     interview, are paying off for Home Depot. He said the procedure did
     not waste managers' time scoring applications and tests. And he
     said the turnover rate among new employees fell 11.4 percent in the
     12 months after stores started using the kiosks. One reason, he
     said, is that the kiosks show videos that give applicants a clear
     idea of the job demands, whereas store managers, eager to hire
     employees, may understate the stresses of a Home Depot job.

     "We're not doing away with face-to-face interviews, but they come
     later in the process," he said. "We're not wasting time
     interviewing the wrong people who don't have the job skills you've
     proven you need here."

     Unlike Home Depot and Mirage Resorts, the Las Vegas-based hotel
     chain, both of which have created their own computerized interview
     systems, many retailers use a third-party company to operate the
     kiosks.

     Dozens rely on Decision Point Systems Inc. of Beaverton, Ore.,
     whose clients include Macy's West, Duane Reade, Target and
     Blockbuster Video. Decision Point processed one million
     applications for clients last year and says it will handle more
     than three million this year.

     The Decision Point kiosks, like the one Mr. Martin used at the Good
     Guys, include an eight-inch monitor attached to a miniature
     keyboard and number pad. The interview usually starts with about 15
     questions meant to weed out clearly undesirable candidates, like
     those who decline to take a drug test required by a company, or
     those who say they are younger than 16. Applicants who fail the
     initial test are told the company has no suitable openings.

     After that, the questions vary from company to company, depending
     on the skills or personality traits being sought. For example, the
     roughly 90 questions on the Good Guys application are heavily
     weighted toward the applicant's view of drugs and alcohol in the
     workplace, and how the prospective employee might react in
     stressful situations.

     At Target, the multiple-choice questions include more elaborate
     hypothetical situations, like how an employee would react to a
     theft, and questions about social views, such as whether drunken
     driving laws are too strict and what percentage of Americans the
     applicant believes cheat on their taxes.

     When the application is complete, the information is sent online to
     Decision Point. The company says that within 10 minutes it sends a
     three-page typed synopsis back to the store manager by fax or
     e-mail to help determine whether the candidate is worth pursuing.

     The first two pages are fact sheets, indicating name, Social
     Security number, job history and the like. The third page is a
     computer analysis of the application and psychological test. It
     highlights "admissions" (like gaps in employment or dismissals) and
     "omissions" (like failure to include references) and suggests
     interview questions, like "Why did you leave your previous job?"

     Finally, it summarizes the personality profile by giving one of
     three ratings: green (good candidate), yellow (manager needs to dig
     deeper), or red (warning). The profile of a candidate in the yellow
     zone might read, "May not follow rules" or "May not be honest."

     The use of psychological tests is nothing new. But privacy
     advocates say their use in automated form and their storage in
     databases could become a major concern.

     Tara Lemmey, president of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San
     Francisco-based privacy advocacy group, said candidates had no
     choice but to submit sensitive information "for a job they may not
     get to a third-party company they don't realize they have a
     relationship with."

     In the case of Decision Point, there is a database of two million
     to three million applications that have been processed in the last
     three years, said the chief executive, Robert A. DeKoning. He said
     that while the company "co-owns" the data with its clients, its
     agreements with retailers currently forbid it to sell or divulge
     information about individual candidates.

     Further, Mr. DeKoning said the company would not use such
     information without notifying the candidates when they apply. "We
     would be morally obliged to do so," he said.

     But Mr. DeKoning said Decision Point's clients might eventually
     find it useful to share the database information so that an
     applicant not qualified for one employer might be referred to a
     more suitable one. "If we can make the case it's in their mutual
     best interest to share applicants, I know they would do that," he
     said.

     Matthew W. Finkin, a law professor at the University of Illinois
     and a specialist in employment law, said applicants had reason to
     be concerned. He said that depending on how Decision Point's
     contracts with retailers were structured, some applicants might
     have the right to see the reports and contest their accuracy under
     the Fair Credit Reporting Act. But otherwise, he said, current law
     in most states would probably allow the sale or dissemination of
     such a database without prior notice.

     In those cases, he said, the practice might be illegal only if the
     companies had made a written promise not to share the information.
     The kiosks administered by Decision Point do not tell applicants
     that the information will not be used for data mining or other
     purposes. Notwithstanding Decision Point's contract limitations
     with its clients, "they could be free to send the information out,"
     Mr. Finkin said.

     Mr. Finkin said he was also concerned that the psychological
     profiles and grading were not always scientifically validated. As a
     result, he said, the employers may be creating and potentially
     disseminating profiles that are "wildly in error."

     "The computer makes this all the more threatening," compared with
     paper-based profile tests, he said.

     "If there is one judgment in a data bank," he said, "no future
     manager has to sit across from the human being and make a
     judgment."

     Even if applicants might avoid the kiosks once they know about the
     potential privacy risks, they appear to be flocking to them now.

     Good Guys, which has 79 stores in Washington, California, Oregon
     and

     Nevada, said employment applications increased last year to 32,000
     from 14,000 in 1998, a rise it attributed to the fact that
     applicants do not have to ask for a paper application and to the
     kiosks' appeal to the impulse job seeker.

     That category includes Mr. Martin, 27, who came to the Daly City
     store with his father to return a television set and wound up
     applying for a job as a car-stereo installer.

     He said the questions at the kiosk seemed easy, although he said he
     sometimes had trouble reading the dimly lit screen and typing on
     the small keys. Eventually, his father became impatient, and Mr.
     Martin decided to return some other time to do the complete
     interview.

     The store does not tell applicants that the information winds up in
     a database, where it could find a wider audience. But Mr. Martin
     said he did not really mind. "They should have listed that," he
     said. "But I've got a pretty good background. I've got nothing to
     hide."
     _________________________________________________________________


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