“People will do this. Of course they will, because they’ll be attempting anything to fix their recruitment issues or their retention issues or their skills issues, and they’ll potentially look at this,” the EST10 recruitment agency founder said.
An AI start-up in Sydney, for example, recently had a worker complete three to four traditional interviews followed by a 72-hour trial.
The trial involved the worker being given a brief for a project that involved creating a new AI product line, marketing it and getting the first customer. He successfully landed the job afterwards.
While trial interviews can work in the hospitality industry due to the casual nature of the workforce, Calder said applying it to white-collar, knowledge workforces would prove more challenging.
“When you’ve got unemployment levels at the levels that we’re at, and when you’ve got a skills shortage, your skilled worker who’s interviewing with you is likely employed, so how are you going to do a trial?” she said.
“One, they’ll need to take annual leave. Two, they’re probably in breach of their contract if they did that. There are some real complications with trying to do this.”
