64% of employees believe that diversity and inclusion make up a strong, decisive factor in accepting job offer1. Despite this, the Wall Street Journal2 reported over 1 million violations of anti-discrimination laws registered with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or partner agencies in the last decade.
Though organizations are consciously making stronger commitments for diversified and inclusive workplaces, some practices undermine the overall effort. A quick search got us these numbers:
These biases hurt everybody. Although it visibly hampers employee morale, workplace discrimination can cause organizations to lose up to $64 billion annually8.
So how can organizations work towards bringing parity, eliminating possible biases, and sustaining the diversity?
While educating employees about possible workplace prejudices remains the focus of every diversity and inclusion (D&I) initiative; a little help from technology can help us get there. New-age technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and analytics can potentially eliminate bias at work.
1. Choose AI-powered bots to screen candidates, bias-free
In the talent space, when designed and deployed well, AI can help mitigate the possible recruitment bias like the halo effect (where a single positive character trait influences the recruiter’s overall judgment), the confirmation bias (when the recruiter uses the interview process to confirming his preconceived beliefs rather than getting to know the candidate), etc.
AI-powered bots can be programmed to ignore demographic details and use data to support human decision-making. AI-enabled recruitment applications can help assess candidates on data points objectively — free from assumptions and mental fatigue that a human recruiter may be susceptible to.
2. Use augmented writing to create inclusive job descriptions
Augmented writing can easily highlight gender-specific vocabulary and help human recruiter curate more inclusive job descriptions.
3. Let algorithms limit human interference in the hiring process
Organizations are also employing machine learning (ML) algorithms to screen resumes, shortlist candidates, and rank them relatively. These intelligent algorithms can help automate activities like scheduling interviews, rounding up feedback, and following up with applicants, ultimately freeing staff for more strategic tasks and improving cost-per-hire.
4. Leverage NLP to identity possible virtual prejudices
Not just hiring bias, AI can also help identify the possible workplace prejudices during online interactions. Advanced Natural Language Processing10 (NLP) can track word usage and create a profile of their potential level of prejudice, anger, and aggression. Doing this can help organizations detect unfavorable behavior and take steps to rectify/ eliminate it organically.
5. Encourage a bias-free performance evaluation with analytics, dashboards etc.
Lack of recognition and unfair performance evaluation are among the many reasons good employees jump the ship11. Analytics, real-time dashboards, and CFR procedures can help counter performance bias. Organizations can implement performance management software that illustrates Objectives and Key Results12 (OKR) and automatically recommends improvement plans and action items to support all employees—equally. The interactive dashboard acts as a common ground between employees and their managers to discuss their performance evaluation criteria through comments/chat support. The perfect performance management tool can be integrated with the organization’s Learning Management System (LMS) to help employees overcome their skill deficit.
Bias-awareness is important
Employees need to be aware of possible biases that stem from their un/conscious mindset. This is why fostering a bias-free culture that pivots on encouraging diversity, ensuring transparency, and embracing the value of the experience of employees from all walks of life is critical for success.
Employees need to undergo frequent bias-awareness training. These trainings will enable them to identify biases (conscious/unconscious) and correct themselves with the help of module learning and assistance from behavioral experts and diversity trainers.
The journey begins with us
While attempting to handle explicit prejudice at work, organizations must pay attention to more implicit biases as well. These cognitive prejudices, especially less overt, might have an insidious negative impact on employees’ mental health and professional growth.
Owing to my work association with diversity and inclusion, I have witnessed the impact that leaders can have on enabling inclusion at workplace. Leaders must encourage employees to work in diverse groups. Policy makers and people leaders should brainstorm on ideas that help integrate underrepresented employees into the social fabric.
While communicating the code of conduct to employees, organizations need to share details of the forum/team/group they can reach up to report any such event. Periodic surveys on non-discriminatory polices should be conducted. I personally evaluate the success of a diversity model against the feedback shared by my colleagues. This can be a great start for you too.
If the work environment is constructed to optimize the employment outcomes of an employee — without considering factors like age, weight, political preference, sexual alignment, race, ethnicity — it would create a better demographic of our world of work. I hope all of us do our bit to enable, embrace, and encourage workforce plurality.
References
Veni Mathew
Director – Human Resources, Wipro HR Services
Along with steering the people priorities at Wipro HR Services, Veni also leads the Inclusion and Diversity agenda for the business. She brings a diverse experience of over 23 years spanning across Airline, hospitality, and ITES sectors. Veni has worn different hats during her tenure with Wipro, starting from Quality Black Belt to client delivery leader to her current HR role. In her spare time, Veni likes to read and spend time with her daughters.
