Can technology be used to reduce bias in the hiring process?

The turmoil that marked the beginning of the global pandemic that began in March 2020 has had ripple effects across the economy, crippling businesses and causing massive unemployment. The convergence of technology and changing attitudes in work culture, including a shift to remote work for many, means new opportunities for disruption are coming to the fore in many industries. The end-to-end digitization of many services has changed not only the way certain industries work, but also the way we live our daily lives. Today, the number of services we use on a daily basis is growing rapidly and moving online. At every step, we digitize what can be digitized, removing the human element that has long been a function of traditional infrastructure. And that’s good. is not? Well, if it makes a certain process easier for most people, it definitely does. Embrace technological change in order to provide a piece of infrastructure to serve those who are unable or unwilling to accept change.

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And I think that’s where we are now. We implement AI, machine learning, and APIs to more effectively manage the complexities of modern life. So how can these tools be used to solve problems such as recruitment? An industry struggling to find a firm footing amid shifting cultural attitudes. That’s because the hiring process hasn’t really changed much. Resumes written in the 1950s don’t look all that different from resumes written today.

There are practical ways to reduce bias in the hiring process, and I think they are ripe for digitization.

This is usually the first point of contact for recruiters. We often sift through hundreds of recruiters. A phone interview is then conducted, sometimes followed by a longer face-to-face interview. Perhaps there is a follow-up interview, and if the candidate successfully makes it through all these hoops, there is an offer. But is that the right way to hire someone? Is this the fairest way to determine who is the best person for the job? Perhaps a shortlist of candidates actually consists of the name, gender, school the candidate attended, and whether the candidate ” It’s just a list of recruiter’s preferences based on one person’s preconceived notions about what “fits”.

Prejudice in the workplace has been a problem for decades, and since everyone is susceptible to unconscious bias, there is a good chance that bias will creep in at the hiring stage, so this is a real problem. is. Companies have long recognized this problem, but have not made meaningful progress in addressing it. Instead, they use his CRM and recruitment agency. Not only is this great for organizing and streamlining recruiting, it’s great for offloading some of your HR workload by outsourcing the search for viable candidates to a third party. Therefore, the next step in the management chain is to establish policies and strategies to tackle unconscious bias.

Under UK equality law it is illegal to set quotas on members of the workforce with protected characteristics such as age, race, religion, sex or disability. It gives employers the power to promote people with protected characteristics if they are as qualified as the candidate, but they are not required to do so.

And that’s how the law handles the issue of positive discrimination in hiring less qualified candidates with protected characteristics to promote diversity.

A recent study published in Harvard Business Review found that creating longer candidate lists “increased the percentage of female candidates from 15% to 20%.” What can you do to ensure inclusion and diversity in the workplace?

recruitment solution
I think this is why we are at an exciting point. Technology is advanced enough to have real impact, and while removing the human touch is usually seen as a bad thing, removing unconscious bias from the hiring process is perhaps more machine-specific. is the problem. Several startups have taken the first steps in using technology to “solve” recruitment. They hope to leverage the cloud, AI and machine learning to enable her Recruitment-as-a-Service (RaaS), which fundamentally rethinks how future candidates enter the world of work. is.

Companies will no longer pay exorbitant commissions to recruiting agents and will hopefully use end-to-end recruiting services that are effective in significantly reducing bias. What would such a platform look like? You will be given a set first. Initial telephone interviews may be conducted using voice her masking to hide certain characteristics that may introduce bias early on, regardless of the candidate’s suitability.

I believe the time is ripe for digitization as there are practical ways to reduce bias in the hiring process. Of course, we’re all susceptible to our own programming shortcomings, but perhaps a little quality control over some of our decisions wouldn’t hurt.