At NameShouts, we are constantly promoting advocates and companies that support diversity in the workplace. You might just say that it’s the main focus of our Twitter, if you’ve been following us lately. But sometimes, even 240 characters are not enough to sum up the amazing work being done by companies to build more inclusive workspaces in our globalized spheres. So to start off the new year, we’re going to take a look into five of our favourite tech-focused companies working in the diversity and inclusion landscape.
Mya Systems
MyaSystems is an AI-based recruiter that takes the reigns from the traditional process. Before even getting into diversity, it’s clear that Mya provides businesses and candidates with some serious benefits — 100% of applicants receiving a reply is a huge change for the hiring process, and the service averages a 9.8 out of 10 on candidate satisfaction surveys.
Removing the human bias from recruiting is a noble (and necessary) goal. Mya Systems suggests that their AI chatbot, named Mya, will evaluate candidates using an objective line of questioning, ignoring any personal information that may betray an unconscious bias in a human recruiter. Mya uses Natural Language Understanding to evaluate candidate responses and uncover deeper meaning, and screens through the more professional aspects of the resume to form a base. Plus, the amount of time Mya saves means hiring teams will be able to take the time they need to make a well-considered judgement call, rather than relying on the immediate impression an applicant makes with their resume or first interview.
There are multiple factors that affect candidates in the job hunting process, and many of those factors specifically filter out the demographics we should be looking to integrate with our workforce.
Mya Systems is a strong answer to the diversity question in the workplace. There are multiple factors that affect candidates in the job hunting process, and many of those factors specifically filter out the demographics we should be looking to integrate with our workforce. What’s really exciting is the ease with which companies can integrate Mya: she can “seamlessly communicate” between your existing workflow. Companies like Mya Systems will usher in the diversity we need to see in the industry: get started with them here.
Joonko
We’re all cursed with an unconscious bias. It’s in our programming: we’re built to make quick decisions and judgement calls, and sometimes this can negatively affect diversity and inclusion initiatives. Joonko hopes to change that using AI. After analyzing over 570,000 applicants and employees in different companies, their AI can identify and rectify unconscious bias in management. Their solution integrates with a company’s SaaS tools and provides answers to one of the industry’s biggest questions with cold, hard data. No longer will opponents of diversity be able to belittle the movement as “feelings” — Joonko is serving up facts.
Noting their intelligence as Candid AI, Joonko hopes to provide organizations with an impartial guide towards matching diversity with efficiency. Their founders look towards a more inclusive tech industry where women and people of color will not only have the same opportunities, but also the same impact. Their AI works in real-time, and refrains from judging or punishing the people it advises, opting instead to inform and suggest in the hopes of diminishing the impact an unconscious bias can have. As they write on their Medium, humans can’t be perfect. Why not let a machine help you overcome that challenge? Check out Joonko here.
NameShouts
Of course, any list of diversity-first companies would be incomplete if we weren’t on it! At NameShouts, we believe that inclusive work environments are the way forward. Our API can provide companies with the means to start making both customers and colleagues feel that sense of belonging that every brand strives for. We’re dedicated to building better workplaces, connections and interactions, one name at a time. Plus, we’re more than ahead of the curve within the company as well, with women making up over 70% of our employees!
How does our API work with your system, exactly? It’s pretty simple. You’ve got names — perhaps in a CRM software, for example. We’ll provide quick and easy pronunciation audio that your employees can access before they make contact with new clients or hires. Our database currently holds 210,000 names, and we’re working towards raising that number every single day. Customers using our search tool have found it “user-friendly” and “essential for their work” in all industries, from education to sales to insurance. We’ll even give you a little bonus for being so committed to #DnI. Use “NS20OFF” for 20% off our API until the end of the month! Here’s a link to get started.
Interviewing.io
Remember the Google Anti-Diversity Manifesto incident? Our industry is still not doing the most we can to support minorities in the engineering department. Interviewing.io might have a solution to that. Providing users with an anonymous space to tackle evaluations in “practice mode,” the company eliminates the first step of the job offer challenge: getting your foot in the door. Now, instead of women, minorities and non-traditional engineers immediately getting sidelined for not having the right “credentials,” recruiters can see an applicant’s skill level first-hand.
Basically, Interviewing.io provides time slots where engineers can anonymously log in and practice their skills, all the while being observed by a recruiting agent. The agent will then be able to move them on to an interview with a hiring manager, which will still remain anonymous, meaning that only their ability to complete the task will be known. This means that applicants can prove whether or not they can do the job, no matter who they are, truly allowing the job hunt to be based on merit. Applicants will then be allowed to proceed to a face-to-face interview, and continue on in the traditional manner.
… applicants can prove whether or not they can do the job, no matter who they are, truly allowing the job hunt to be based on merit.
It’s an interesting proposition, and it’s surprising that for fields so skills-based, such a solution had not been offered before. Kudos to Interviewing.io for making it work — we hope to see the number of diverse software engineers multiply with the help of this platform. Head on over to their website to find out more.
pymetrics
The final company on this list, pymetrics, looks to disrupt the hiring process in favour of diversity and inclusion. Unlike Interviewing.io, pymetrics looks to tackle the cursory resume scan, opting instead for data science techniques via a game-based process that can measure 70 different cognitive and emotional traits, with the idea that certain scores will lead to certain levels of success.
Sounds a bit scary, but it doesn’t need to be. By eliminating the implicit bias present in human resume scanning, we can stop getting stuck behind barriers of race, class and gender. An unbiased intelligence will be able to aptly judge an applicant in a way humans simply couldn’t. And pymetrics stresses that there are no “right” answers to their questions: different answers simply lead to different scores, and depending on the job, it’s the right combination of answers that makes it. They note that more and more research is pointing to evaluating behaviour over self-report (i.e. practical tests over resumes). Plus, they aren’t trying to replace human recruiters. They’re simply getting resumes out of the way.
And it works. According to Business Insider, Unilever used pymetrics, alongside HireVue, to overhaul their hiring process. Though they did not disclose exact numbers, they did note that they had hired a “nearly equal number of men and women,” as well as a significantly higher percentage of ethnically diverse hires. pymetrics themselves note that they witnessed a 100% increase in female applicants for financial roles. Maybe leaving resumes behind is a good thing! Check them out here.
