Meet JIM, DBS' virtual recruiter

The Straits Time

16 Jun 2018

DBS Bank has launched a virtual recruiter to help the bank hire 40 per cent more wealth planning managers more efficiently this year, to support its "rapidly growing" wealth management business.

The move will also help it save up to 40 man-hours per month, DBS said on Thursday.

In pilot since April, the virtual recruiter, JIM, has helped to review resumes, collect responses to pre-screening questions, and conduct psychometric profiling assessments on candidates.

Mr James Loo, the bank's head of Talent Acquisition Group, Group Human Resources, said: "Our candidates are often busy during the day, and many of our recruiters end up working long hours to cater to their schedules. A virtual recruiter, such as Jim, would lighten our employees' workload... this frees up our recruiters' time so they can take on higher-value work."

JIM is an acronym for Jobs Intelligence Maestro, and was created by Singapore start-up Impress.AI and the DBS Talent Acquisition team. It is powered by artificial intelligence and will "learn to make better assessments in screening candidates" over time, DBS said.

Over the next few months, JIM will be available in DBS' core markets - Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Indonesia and India - for wealth planning manager roles. It will also be made available for other roles such as the management associate and graduate associate programmes, which see more than 7,000 candidates vying for 20 positions.

DBS is not the only bank looking to automate more processes.

Earlier this week, a Financial Times report said Citigroup's investment bank could shed up to half of its 20,000 technology and operations staff in the next five years, as "machines supplant humans at a faster pace".

Last November, United Overseas Bank announced it was employing two robot-like creations to cut the time taken to perform repetitive and time-consuming jobs such as data processing. The robots, named Amy and Eve, were assigned to teams supporting the wholesale banking and retail businesses.

EASING WORKLOAD
Our candidates are often busy during the day, and many of our recruiters end up working long hours to cater to their schedules. A virtual recruiter, such as JIM, would lighten our employees' workload...

MR JAMES LOO, DBS' head of Talent Acquisition Group, Group Human Resources.