Bayer Korea, HR Transformation Story

The HR Operations team at Bayer Korea, a 70-year-old global life sciences company, is a growth-driven team that is serious about working smart and efficiently.

Since implementing ViewinterHR, Bayer Korea's HR department has been able to streamline and improve the quality of interviews and make better hiring decisions.
Why does Bayer Korea HR recommend ViewinterHR?

1. Thank you for agreeing to this interview. Please introduce yourself!!

Hello, my name is Sojung Kim, and I am in charge of recruitment, training, and internship operations for the HR Operations team at Bayer Korea.

Behind the Bayer Korea office is a panoramic view of the Han River.

In case you need to become more familiar with Bayer, we're a global life sciences company headquartered in Leverkusen, Germany, with a presence in more than 150 countries worldwide.

You probably know us best as the company behind one of our most iconic global brands, Aspirin®. We are organized into three business units: Pharmaceuticals, Consumer Health and CropScience.

• The Pharmaceuticals division conducts R&D and marketing activities to diagnose, prevent, and treat diseases in cardiovascular therapeutics and speciality drugs, including anticancer drugs, women's health products, contrast agents, and imaging diagnostic solutions.
• The Consumer Health division sells over-the-counter medicines such as Aspirin®, a fever-reducing analgesic, and Bepanthen®, a treatment for acute and chronic dermatitis; dietary supplements such as Berocca®, a multivitamin; and cosmetics such as Bepanthol®.
• The CropScience division provides innovative and compelling products and solutions to customers worldwide across crop protection, vegetable seeds and traits, and digital agriculture technologies.

Our mission, 'Science for a better life,' and our vision, 'Health for all, Hunger for none,' reflect our commitment to finding solutions to the most fundamental challenges in human life—health and nutrition. We have been on this journey for over 160 years and continue to strive for a better future.

In Korea, we have been a steadfast partner in the country's economic growth for the past 70 years. Our journey began in 1955 with our entry into the crop protection business, and since then, we have been contributing to the development of the Korean market.

2. What is the most challenging part of the hiring process for you?

The most challenging part is finding the right person for the job. To be more specific, companies often list specific qualifications in the job posting to ensure the best fit for the position. As a candidate, it can be challenging to meet all these requirements, which can feel like a barrier to entry.

However, when we are more specific about what exactly we're looking for in the position and what kind of experience they can bring to the table, we empower the candidates to understand the position more clearly and find it more appealing.

There's a fine line to walk, and I'm always pondering how to not only convey our message effectively on the job board, but also how to increase the visibility of our open positions to attract more talented individuals. I believe this is a challenge that many recruiters can relate to.

3. If yes, how did you hire before using ViewinterHR?

The process was and still is the same: document screening - interview screening - (reputation/background check for experienced candidates) - a job offer. However, before the introduction of AI interviewing, we used in-depth interviews to evaluate candidates' skills and screen candidates, sometimes with additional validation of skills that we felt were necessary for the position, such as practical skills tests and personality tests for some positions.

4. What were your expectations when you introduced ViewinterHR?ㅇ

First, we strategically recognized that many domestic companies were already conducting AI interviews. We, as a valued HR team, wanted to lead the way in upgrading the overall recruitment process and ultimately secure excellent talent through AI technology.

Our aim was to empower our internal interviewers to make better decisions. The feedback was that since the basic questions were already answered in the AI interview, we saved more time in the face-to-face interview by asking more in-depth questions about the job and the candidate's personal experience. This not only made the interview process more efficient but also boosted the confidence and capability of our interviewers.

Our ultimate goal is to create a positive hiring experience for our candidates. ViewinterHR provides them with one more opportunity to showcase their skills and personality before they come in for an in-person interview, demonstrating our empathetic and considerate approach to recruitment.

5. Why did you choose ViewinterHR over other AI interviewing solutions?

The basic premise that "human capabilities can be uncovered and developed" aligns with our company's values.

ViewinterHR's BEI assessment methodology assesses a person's competencies from their past experiences found in their answers, and it made sense to us to focus on the candidate's experiences rather than trying to uncover them as something innate and inherently unchangeable. Because we're all growing from our experiences, and hopefully, we are.

6. How are you currently using ViewerHR in your hiring process, and in what ways?

As we are still in the early stages of implementation, we do not use AI interviews to weed out candidates significantly; instead, we use the results of AI interviews to support interviewers in their final decision-making.

Depending on the position, some are conducted after screening to select candidates for face-to-face interviews. In contrast, others are performed after the first round of interviews to help inform the second round. The interviewers and hiring managers still use their judgment, but seeing how the AI's assessment compares to their own is more meaningful.

7. Did you have any concerns when you decided to adopt ViewinterHR?

Indeed, the AI interview tool itself hasn't been on the market for a very long time, and since most of our recruitments, other than internships, are for experienced candidates rather than new graduates, we were worried that senior candidates who are not familiar with AI interviews would be rejected, or that they would not be able to show their full capabilities in the interview because they are not familiar with the tool. The results would be distorted, and we would not recognize great people. There was also some concern about whether the AI's assessment would be reliable enough to replace the decision-making of a human interviewer.

However, no candidate has ever complained to us about taking the AI interview, and in fact, Genesis Labs has even contacted me to tell me that their results were significantly higher than those of other companies. This gives us the opportunity to learn more about great candidates that we would have otherwise missed based on their resumes and interviews.

Internally, we encourage our interviewers to reference the AI interview results. While the final decision is still up to the human interviewer, it's interesting to see how your subjective assessment compares to the AI's objective assessment and gain valuable insights.

It's interesting to note that in most cases, the AI's assessment and yours are in close agreement, so it seems that we're learning to understand the tool's trustworthiness as we go along.

8. What has been your favourite part of using ViewinterHR?

As a recruiter, the most satisfying part of my experience with ViewinterHR was the fast and close support I received from the operations team, led by Ji Hae Lee and Eunjin Kim.

I had numerous queries, and I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to Ji Hae Lee and Eunjin Kim for their patient and sincere responses.

I was satisfied that they gave me proper updates on how the project was progressing when the results would be calculated, and why the results were calculated the way they were. It was also good that they took care of all the primary CS responses to the candidates but shared with me what questions they had.

In terms of the positive impact on hiring as a whole, I'm most proud that we've improved the quality of our in-person interviews. As a candidate, it's your chance to meet and interact with the current employees of the company you want to work for. You only have a limited amount of time to do so, so it's satisfying to be able to take care of the fundamental/superficial introductions and questions in the AI interview and have a real, genuine conversation in the face-to-face interview, which not only streamlines the interview but also improves the quality of the interview itself.

ViewinterHR has undeniably enhanced the hiring experience for both interviewers and candidates, offering streamlined AI interviews that free up valuable face-to-face time for more meaningful conversations.

9. What's the most significant difference you've seen since implementing ViewinterHR?

It's too early to tell if we've seen a higher quality of candidates because we have yet to have much data on the number of people who have taken the AI interview.

Bayer's recruitment is based on on-the-job screening and selection of candidates. HR is viewed positively internally because we have introduced systematic tools and processes to support hiring managers' decision-making rather than just delivering candidates to the field.

Before the introduction, I think a voice said, "Other companies are selecting applicants by watching AI interviews..." but now I think I heard positive feedback that the company is trying to follow the market flow and trend. We will increase the utilization more and more, so it's a good start.

10. What is most important for the HR team at Bayer Korea in recruiting?

Most importantly, we get qualified candidates who are a good fit for our organization and the positions we are hiring for.

To this end, HR has been and will continue to work as hard as possible. Still, since we have delegated the responsibility for candidate screening and selection to the business units that fill the positions, I would like to see the business units take a keen interest in recruiting and work with HR with a lot of interest and proactivity to ensure that the best potential candidates from the market are attracted to Bayer.

11. How have your coworkers and interviewers reacted to the introduction of ViewinterHR?

It's still early, so some people are still getting used to it, but most feedback is positive.

1. They like that they can see the candidate's skills in the report,
2. They liked that the report included suggested questions for the interviewer to ask in the face-to-face interview,
3. It made their decision-making process more accessible than if they had to select candidates based solely on paper.
4. As I mentioned earlier, many interviewers said they evaluated the candidate after the actual face-to-face interview. When they looked at the AI interview report, they saw that their and AI's evaluations were similar, which gave them confidence in the tool.

12. What would you say to HR managers who are thinking about adopting ViewinterHR?

I recommend ViewinterHR to other HR professionals who have not yet realized the need for AI interviewing or are considering it, regardless of industry or role.

While there may be some internal concerns, we've found that even though AI hasn't replaced one of our human assessments but added a screening step, we've improved the quality of our subsequent interviews and made better decisions.

Suppose you're an HR organization just starting on this journey. In that case, we encourage you to partner with the passionate folks at Genesis Labs and realize the value ViewerHR can bring to your recruiting efforts.