How can technology be used to create a more diverse and inclusive future?
Here at Opus AI, we’re committed to creating a difference in the hiring process. Delivering on our commitment means actively sparking conversations in regards to bias and hiring. Our most recent conversation was in the form of a panel discussion in celebration of Black History Month.
The question we asked was simply “How can technology be used to create a more diverse and inclusive future?” For the discussion, we sought the help of folks who were not only subject matter experts in their relative fields but more importantly, were passionate about Diversity and Inclusion.
Our panelists were:
- Ouida Duncan (CEO White River Consulting, iPEC Certified Professional Coach and Energy Leadership Index Master Practitioner and President — Duncan Tree Foundation)
- Stefanie A. Smith (Diversity and Inclusion Subject Matter Expert, Board Member for Black Women for Black Girls, National Diversity Council, and Tri-State Diversity Council. )
- Tameka Vasquez (Advisor at Opus AI, Associate Marketing Director at Eigen Technologies and Adjunct Professor at St. John’s University)
- David Justus (Executive Director of Technology, AKQA)
I moderated the panel which was generously hosted by AKQA, New York. Our conversation delved into topics ranging from Hiring and Blind Candidate Screening, Predictive Analytics, Targeted Ads and more. Here’s a brief recap and highlights.
Diversity and Inclusion (the big picture)
McKinsey’s Why Diversity Matter’s * report found that companies in the top quartile for gender or racial and ethnic diversity are more likely to have financial returns above their national industry medians. Companies in the bottom quartile in these dimensions are statistically less likely to achieve above-average returns. Ultimately, this means that in the long term, having more diverse teams is better for business. With that in mind, we then looked at some of the biggest companies in the tech industry. What we found wasn’t surprising. However, it begged the question; is the lack of diversity at these large tech companies a possible clue of their future performance?
- African American’s account for 21% of employees at Amazon and a whopping 2% at Google. **
- LinkedIn’s employee base is 44% female while Intel’s is only 26% **
- Asians make up 35% of Google’s employee base while Latinos account for only 4% **
Hiring and Blind Candidate Screening
A study by the American Economic Association found that resumes for candidates with African American-sounding names received 50% fewer callbacks than resumes with Caucasian-sounding names, even when the quality of the resume was taken into account. Another study found that 36% of participants (31% of black respondents and 40% of Asian respondents) reported that they personally engaged in whitening or concealing their race on their resume.
“If you’re looking for someone you can go have a beer with as part of your hiring process, then you automatically eliminate folks.” — Tameka Vasquez.
Predictive Analytics
PredictiveAnalytics looks for patterns in data such as historical transactions and is used in a wide range of areas from law enforcement, insurance, entertainment, food service, and even healthcare. AI is used to predict trends and behavior patterns. However, Predictive Analytics relies on a large data set (which is often racially biased) in order to learn.
“The issue with Predictive Analytics is that it’s a symptom not a problem. If we continue to feed the AI biased data, the results will continue to be biased” — David Justus
“As with everything else, consider the source, garbage in, garbage out” — Ouida Duncan
“If it can’t be measured as a KPI, it’s not real” — Stefanie A. Smith
A huge thank you to our panelists, to AKQA New York and to all who made the event a success.
Learn more at opusai.co
Sources
- * Why diversity matters. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/why-diversity-matters
- * Diversity in Tech. Miriam Quick & Stephanie Tomasevic. November 7, 2018. https://informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/diversity-in-tech/
