In Turkey, recruiters analyze interns’ brain waves to find most passionate applicants

TBWAInstanbul is using EEG technology in its AdLove initiative to determine just how passionate potential interns really are about the role.

With the jobs market still unbalanced in terms of supply and demand, employers are finding themselves inundated with applications, making the selection process more difficult. Israel’s BBR Saatchi & Saatchi IL ad agency has already come up with an innovative recruitment scheme that sees applicants rigorously questioned while also playing Diablo III, and now TBWAIstanbul is turning to EEG technology in its AdLove initiative, to determine just how passionate potential interns really are about the role.

The media agency received 503 applications for its five internship positions and in order to quickly determine the best candidates, a traditional interview was followed up with screenings of legendary advertisements. While watching the footage, applicants were asked to wear an EEG headset that monitored the electrical activity of the brain. A neurotechnology expert then analyzed the data to determine the candidates that had the greatest emotional reaction to the ads, and a combination of their interview success and AdLove result was taken into account when choosing the five new interns. The video below explains more about the project:

Passion can be important to many roles within the creative sector and beyond, but it can be difficult to quantify and the AdLove scheme aims to provide a way for employers to really get inside candidates’ brains and find the most suitable applicant. However, there are evidently concerns over the accuracy of the technology as well analysis of the data, while many employers favor demonstrable skills over passion for the job. Could we see more of this use of technology in recruitment as competition for jobs continues to intensify?