Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Co-op harnesses AI in predictive hiring pilot

A message from Co-operative and Experiential Education.

Starting this fall, Co-operative and Experiential Education will be piloting Plum.io’s predictive hiring platform to help better connect co-op students with the 7,000+ employers that recruit from Waterloo each year. The Plum platform marries artificial intelligence and machine-learning with industrial organizational psychology to give hiring managers an additional, distinct dimension to predict candidates' on-the-job performance.

The objective is not to reinvent campus recruitment, but to increase recruiting success through innovative use of information available to hiring managers and campus career service personnel.

"We’ve long been dedicated to helping our students cultivate a clear sense of career direction and purpose, both of which play a big role in job satisfaction and performance," says Dianne Bader, Director of Co-operative and Experiential Education Services. “While we have excelled at helping match students with employers based on skills and knowledge, we wanted to add a dimension that captured who our students are as humans. Research, including our own here at Waterloo, has shown that human talent - things like work ethic, teamwork, leadership and creativity - is just as important as skills and knowledge when predicting job performance.”

Rolling out this summer, the partnership will initially span the following:

• All University of Waterloo students will have the option to complete a Plum profile. By taking a 25-minute assessment test, students can learn about what makes them happy and fulfilled in their work, which work environments best suit them, and how their personality affects their job interviews.
• All employers recruiting at the University of Waterloo will have the option to complete a Plum match criteria assessment. Plum match criteria are the behavioural job requirements that hiring managers and their teams set for a job. Match criteria - also known as a Competency Model or a talent model - outline which behaviours are most important for being successful on the job and are determined when one or more of a hiring manager's team completes a 25-minute match criteria assessment test.
• Based in part on the intersection of match criteria and the findings of Plum assessment tests, students will be matched with open employment positions (and employers) where there is a high predictive degree that they will succeed based on qualities that make them unique.

"We're really excited about launching this partnership with the University of Waterloo. Thanks to funding from the Build in Canada Innovation Program, employers can now quantify students' potential for success in their unique roles," said Caitlin McGregor, co-founder and CEO, Plum. "Employers will be able to understand students' ability to execute, be innovative and work well on teams. This is unparalleled insight that Waterloo is uniquely positioned to offer their employers. Together, the University of Waterloo and Plum can provide the data and insights to help companies build agile, innovative and collaborative workforces."

These are the issues: Internationalization

This is part three of a 7-week series in the Daily Bulletin examining the Strategic Plan Bridge to 2020 issue papers. Have your say and join the Strategic Plan conversation by providing feedback!

In an increasingly interconnected and complex world, the need for universities to make a contribution is perhaps more important now than ever. That was the thinking that informed the Internationalization advisory group as they considered the issue as part of the strategic planning process.

The Internationalization advisory group identified several ways that universities engage with the idea of internationalization:

• Learning: Internationalization better prepares the student for a globalized world;
• Research: Diverse perspectives and insights, as well as a larger pool of financial, infrastructural, and educational resources, provide a strong foundation for research;
• Service: Public universities are obliged to contribute to issues of significance, many of which are global in scope;
• Strategic: To help a university advance its strategic goals, internationalization can be a stimulus to innovation, and it can be a gateway to resources.

Contemporary components of internationalization include the concepts of Internationalization Abroad (IA), or mobility of the university population across international borders, International Partnerships (IP), or the cross-border linkages with institutions, alumni, industry, governments, and other stakeholders, and Internationalization on Campus (IoC), which refers to the multiple international dimensions on the home campus, with focus on incoming international students and internationalizing all students’ experiences. 

Internationalization can serve to advance the higher education sector's core mission of teaching, research, and service for the public good, and a strong international outlook and vibrant international engagement are vital to Waterloo’s global excellence. 

Thought-starting questions:

• What ought to be the goals, values, and motivations/drivers for Waterloo’s international engagement (e.g., preparing global citizens, contributing to global challenges, knowledge, discovery)?
• What are Waterloo’s unique contributions to the world and how can they contribute to Waterloo’s international engagement?
• How can Waterloo support/increase faculty members’ engagement in the international component of their research? Of their teaching/learning? Of their service?
• How can Waterloo facilitate access to international opportunities for faculty and staff?
• How can we engage our global network of alumni in support of our internationalization efforts?

Consider the full list of thought-starting questions.

Check out the full issue paper (PDF) on the Bridge to 2020 website.

Join the conversation and provide your feedback on the Internationalization issue paper.

Info session for students interested in going abroad

This year, all students planning to participate in an exchange or study abroad program in the 2019/20 academic year will be required to attend an information session before they can apply.

Information sessions will be held in the Student Success Office several times a week starting on August 8, and will help students be more informed about the process and more intentional with their applications to go abroad.

Visit the Student Success Office website for upcoming dates and times. 

Wednesday's notes

The Centre for Ocular Research and Education (CORE) is currently seeking children ages 7-12 years old who wear glasses/contacts to participate in an exciting new daily disposable, contact lens research study here at the University (with ethics clearance). All study contacts and glasses will be provided. Receive up to $370 for up to 7 visits over 6-12 months. For more information visit the CORE website. Anyone with questions is invited to email corestudies@uwaterloo.ca or call 519-888-4742.

There are no employers on campus next week hosting employer information sessions. Visit the Employer Information Session calendar to stay updated.