An Israeli company has developed an automated system to handle the first stage of the human resources process, analyzing the applicant's voice responses to questions to see how trustworthy an employee they are likely to be.

***

Nemesysco's HR1 Automated Integrity Profiling/Risk Assessment system, which was unveiled at the beginning of February, requires a job applicant to speak into a telephone-like handset attached to a desktop PC and answer questions on various topics, from loyalty and honesty to drug usage, theft from a place of employment, bribery, kickbacks, fraud and deceit. The test questions, which the company developed together with a human resources expert based on standard HR methodology, are displayed on the screen and spoken out loud, so that people with visual or hearing difficulties can use the system. HR1 is currently available in English, Hebrew, Russian and Spanish but can be translated into any language.

HR1 uses Nemesysco's Layered Voice Analysis (LVA) technology, which employs over 800 algorithms to analyze 129 different parameters related to the emotional content of the responder's voice when answering, regardless of the language they are speaking.

"The technology doesn't care what you are saying," explains Nemesysco's founder and CEO, Amir Liberman. "The technology analyzes the different paths that your brain is taking while it is deciding what to say next. For example, if you are excited, your voice gets higher and faster. If you are confused, your speech slows down. You can try and mask your reaction at the level that you can hear, but computers can hear much better."