Coming into or transferring via the workforce, job looking might be each extremely rewarding and unexpectedly irritating. Few issues carry the spirit like discovering the right new position, and few issues deflate it greater than by no means getting a response.
Some employers talk rapidly and overtly, offering clear updates on progress. Others depart candidates ready, providing no steerage and leaving many guessing about their standing.
Ontario to require employers to reply to job candidates inside 45 days
Properly, right here’s a shake-up for this job-hunting dilemma: Ontario is rolling out new guidelines that principally say, “no extra chilly shoulders.” Beginning Jan. 1, 2026, firms with 25 or extra workers should get again to candidates inside 45 days of an interview. Bonus: In addition they have to tell you if the job is definitely being stuffed and whether or not AI is concerned within the screening course of.
Job postings should now clearly state the wage or wage vary (no wider than $50,000 except the highest finish exceeds $200,000), embody all types of pay like bonuses and commissions, disclose whether or not AI is getting used to display screen or choose candidates and ensure whether or not the position is a present emptiness.
Breaking the brand new hiring guidelines in Canada may value your organization a hefty $100,000, although first-time offenders are more likely to solely get a slap on the wrist or decrease fines, in accordance with a number of studies.
Years earlier than AI began screening resumes, ghosting was normal apply. Candidates typically undergo a number of rounds of interviews solely to listen to nothing. In the meantime, only some fortunate candidates get callbacks. AI is reworking how firms handle hiring, permitting them to guage and eradicate candidates nearly immediately. Duties that beforehand took days or even weeks now happen in moments. With most main corporations utilizing AI at a number of phases, making certain transparency and communication with candidates has grow to be a fair better problem.
AI more and more used to scan resumes and shortlist candidates
Automated methods can scan tons of, and even hundreds, of resumes in minutes, analyzing key phrases, formatting patterns and delicate indicators of candidate match based mostly on historic hiring information. Machine studying algorithms study from previous hires to foretell which candidates are almost definitely to succeed, flagging prime prospects whereas filtering out the remaining. Instruments similar to Hirevue, Peoplebox.ai and Recruitee are used to streamline this course of, combining AI-powered screening with candidate scoring to make recruitment quicker and extra data-driven.
Even probably the most ready candidates, who carry out nicely in interviews, can typically disappear from the method with none clarification. Below the province’s up to date laws, firms should now disclose any AI involvement in recruitment, serving to candidates perceive what’s actually taking place behind the scenes.
When algorithms go unsuitable: The boundaries of automated recruitment
Machine studying can parse resumes, profession paths and academic backgrounds in methods people may miss, highlighting transferable expertise in candidates who’ve taken unconventional routes. Advocates argue these instruments could make recruitment extra equitable by figuring out hidden potential. Nonetheless, AI stays an imperfect decide; it might flag expertise, however it can’t anticipate how an individual will collaborate, adapt or innovate inside a real-world surroundings confronted with challenges and duties.
Algorithms educated on historic hiring information additionally run the chance of perpetuating current biases, unintentionally favoring sure demographics or backgrounds. For instance, in 2018, Amazon scrapped an AI-powered recruiting instrument that was discovered to be sexist towards feminine candidates.
The system, first developed in 2014, was designed to automate hiring by evaluating resumes and assigning candidates scores from one to 5 stars—much like product critiques on Amazon’s platform. It was educated on resumes submitted to the corporate over a 10-year interval, the overwhelming majority of which got here from male candidates.
Consequently, the AI developed a desire for male candidates in technical roles, similar to software program builders, and penalized resumes that included phrases like “ladies’s” or talked about women-focused organizations. Even after revisions and updates to the system, programmers have been unable to ensure the elimination of this persistent bias.
Even when AI can detect transferable expertise or patterns of success, it typically struggles to evaluate softer qualities similar to creativity, instinct or cultural match. Overreliance on automated scoring may end in a technically “environment friendly” course of that nonetheless misses probably the most promising or distinctive candidates.
Ontario’s new reforms: Your rights and what actions you possibly can take
Ontario has handed a number of employment reforms this 12 months, and, as of July, the legislature added extra measures designed to provide workers extra readability and management. Employees at the moment are legally entitled to obtain key employment data in writing earlier than their first day, like authorized names, beginning wages, pay dates and hours of labor. The objective is to deal with a system that permits dangerous actor employers to take advantage of jobseekers attempting to enter the workforce.
The laws is a part of Ontario’s broader Working for Employees Acts aimed toward modernizing labor legal guidelines and bettering office requirements. The brand new guidelines power firms to be clear and accountable in recruitment, giving job candidates clear timelines and a say of their expertise. Employers can not depart candidates at nighttime, and the modifications are designed to make the hiring course of fairer and extra predictable.
By mandating well timed responses and transparency, the regulation provides gentle to greater than compliance, it’s about treating candidates with respect. Job seekers acquire clear solutions, releasing them from uncertainty. Whereas small in legislative phrases, the influence on the hundreds of thousands navigating the job market is very large. With comparable discussions underway within the U.S., Ontario’s method may set a world precedent and power employers not simply in Canada, however globally, to rethink what equitable hiring seems to be like.
The Reality in Job Advertisements working group not too long ago unveiled the Reality in Job Promoting and Accountability Act, a proposed federal regulation for U.S. employers. It will mandate that public job listings disclose hiring timelines, make clear if the position is newly created or a backfill and reveal posting frequency over two years.
Spearheading the hassle is Eric Thompson, who, after shedding his job in October 2024, has grow to be a vocal advocate for transparency and equity in hiring. CNBC studies that Thompson spends between 20 and 30 hours every week on advocacy efforts, together with legislative outreach, and has had near 30 conferences with congressional staffers from throughout the aisle to enact transformative change.
Easy methods to beat the bots: A information to AI-driven recruitment
Algorithms now management the primary lower of most hiring processes, silently deciding which candidates transfer ahead and which vanish with out a hint. Hundreds of resumes might be scanned in minutes, but the story behind every software, the talents, achievements and potential, can typically be misplaced.
The rise of AI is inevitable, however job seekers can take steps to regain management: tailor resumes to incorporate each vital key phrases and narrative context, spotlight transferable expertise, and analysis whether or not a task nonetheless entails human interviews. Ontario’s new transparency guidelines present a blueprint: they require employers to reveal when AI is used and the way choices are made, giving candidates concrete insights into what the machines are in search of and what’s in it for them.
AI can scan resumes, detect patterns and spotlight potential prime candidates, however it might’t decide creativity, instinct or resilience. To get seen, goal roles the place people nonetheless make the decision, observe up immediately with recruiters and put together for interviews as if the algorithm is simply the primary hurdle. Reveal expertise no machine can consider and also you’ll have an edge over purely automated choice.
Picture courtesy of fizkes/Shutterstock
