Keonna Yearwood-Branch is the Director of Workforce Training at Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.
By Keonna Yearwood-Branch, Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida
In Summary:
Automated hiring tools can create barriers for qualified job seekers, particularly when employers rely on the same screening systems. Keonna Yearwood-Branch, director of workforce training at Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, examines those challenges and the continued importance of human connections. Through its tuition-free Career Pathways program, Second Harvest combines culinary and customer service training with employer partnerships to help participants pursue employment.
*****
These days, it’s not always easy to talk to a real person. Your customer service request goes to the chatbot; your call to the helpline gets bounced through an automated phone directory. And if you’re looking for a job, your biggest worry isn’t nailing the interview – it’s the AI screening tool that decides whether or not you’ll land the interview at all.
Related: AdventHealth grants will help 13 nonprofits serve more than 123,000 Central Floridians.
Ninety percent of U.S. employers use AI screening tools to rank job seekers, according to a May 2026 report from Stanford University – and the vast majority of those companies rely on the same handful of third-party vendors. It’s a reasonable solution to a real problem: The average job listing today might get two or three times as many responses as it would have 20 years ago, and technology can help ease the burden on overtaxed HR teams.
But a one-size-fits-all approach to hiring can also create big problems for job applicants, who can be blocked out of many potential positions at a single stroke without ever realizing why.
Here’s how it works: A candidate sends in their resumé, and the employer submits it to the AI vendor, which labels it “recommend” or “do not recommend.” If the AI decides not to recommend them, that candidate is also disproportionately more likely to be rejected by every employer that uses the same screening tool. For those “ghosted by the algorithm,” job hunting becomes an unsuccessful cycle.
And while AI can be a great assist for a human HR team, it has blind spots that can block qualified candidates from the positions they’re suited to. The problem lies in how AI is trained: Everything AI knows about how to screen for good candidates is built on past hiring data created by humans. If AI sees that Keith got a call back for an interview, but Lashonda didn’t, it doesn’t challenge the underlying stereotypes at play – it replicates them.
We’ve seen many cases of AI replicating human biases at scale – most recently, a Stanford University study found that certain AI tools recommended Asian and Black candidates at a rate less than 80% of white candidates. Without one-on-one connections between employers and job seekers, those kinds of disparities can go unchecked.
Through Second Harvest Food Bank’s Career Pathways workforce development initiative, I’ve spoken with people from all walks of life who feel sidelined in today's hiring market. Our programs are designed to address the “root causes of hunger” by providing tuition-free job training in the food service and customer service sectors.
Some of the folks I work with are trying to move from gig work to full-time jobs; others are re-entering the workforce after a long gap in employment or overcoming hardships in their personal lives. All of them have spent weeks developing the skills they need to be competitive candidates and great employees – but to get there, they need a chance to show their skills beyond the resume. And Second Harvest can help – by leveraging one-on-one partnerships with local employers to close the AI gap.
AI is changing the hiring process in many ways, for better and for worse. But it hasn’t replaced the value of human relationships and human connections in HR – nor should it. At Second Harvest, we’ve seen that networking, employer conversations, and one-on-one conversations remain incredibly valuable to jobseekers and businesses alike.
Second Harvest is currently accepting applications for its Career Pathways workforce development program, including the Culinary and Customer Service tracks. To learn more about class start schedules and application deadlines, visit FeedHopeNow.org
Key Points:
- AI screening tools can help employers manage applications but may overlook qualified candidates.
- Shared screening systems can contribute to repeated rejection across multiple employers.
- The author cites research raising concerns about racial disparities in automated hiring recommendations.
- Second Harvest’s Career Pathways program offers tuition-free training in culinary and customer service.
- Direct employer relationships give job seekers opportunities to demonstrate skills beyond their resumes.
Keonna Yearwood-Branch is the Director of Workforce Training at Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.
