Is Your AI Recruitment Solution Creating Bias in Hiring

Recruiting tools using artificial intelligence promise to identify the most qualified candidates from piles of resumes in a fraction of the time it would take recruiting staff – and to do so without human subjectivity.

But, does your AI recruiting solution really eliminate hiring bias? That depends. When you find the right product and use it responsibly, it can be very effective, enabling you to make objective, data-driven decisions. But the wrong one can cause serious setbacks.

The old adage “garbage in, garbage out” still holds true. If an intelligence system is fed incomplete or inaccurate data, there still may be barriers to building a truly equitable workplace. It all comes down to what kind of information your AI product uses to make hiring recommendations.

How to Choose the Right AI Recruitment Solution

Before settling on an AI recruitment solution, consider:

Scalability: It goes without saying that if the AI you use doesn’t save you time, money and resources, then it’s not effective. But your AI product must also be able to grow and evolve with your business. If it’s not a long-term solution, then it’s really not a solution at all.
Consistency: Your AI must accurately qualify candidates across all company functions; for instance, assess engineering and middle management roles just as well as it does applicants for sales and marketing positions.
The kind of data used for assessments: AI isn’t magic. You need more than just information that’s been scraped online, or you could risk having the same data sets as so many others, versus your own unique material. Look only at solutions that create and synthesize objective, predictive, and new data.

More tips:

Accurate candidate assessment goes well beyond resume keyword matching. It doesn’t stop at evaluating skills and knowledge. These candidate traits are critical, of course. But be sure your AI solution also focuses on soft skills such as innovation, adaptability, and communication. It should measure personality, problem-solving abilities and emotional intelligence levels for truly comprehensive results. These characteristics are not only four times better at predicting future success, but they’re also much less biased.
Make sure it’s working for you. Once implemented, your hiring tools require careful human management and assessment. Measure outcomes. Conduct audits of your hiring data and underlying algorithms at least once a year.

In human resources, AI is the wave of the future – and with the right process and system in place, the possibilities are endless in terms of more objective, effective and successful hiring. If you need the latest expert advice as you embrace AI solutions at your company, contact HR Works today.