Equitable hiring is a phenomenon in recruitment that focuses on hiring a diverse workforce to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at the workplace. Having workplace equity as an integral component of the company’s philosophy levels the playing field for every employee, making them feel empowered. When businesses focus on equitable hiring to promote DEI at the workplace, they enjoy benefits from the competitive spirit of diverse talent.

Discrimination, whether overt or subtle, affects business adversely. Equitable hiring focuses on aligning recruiters to deliver the best talent to the organisation irrespective of ethnicity, caste, religion, or sex. Business leaders have started to recognize the benefits of inclusive hiring practices, promoting a diverse workforce in their workplace. Companies are thoughtful and more deliberate about preventing recruitment bias.

The inclusion recruitment team of Netflix has been working closely with around 200 recruiters across the organization to help them have an elevated capability of hiring a diverse workforce. It has resulted in the hiring team always having someone offering recommendations for more inclusive, equitable hiring irrespective of the position for which the time is recruiting.

Enhancing Inclusion

When you focus on equitable hiring, you end up creating workplace equity, leading to proportional representation of employees for the same opportunities. It allows the company to place new measures wherein every employee can feel valued and worth it, promoting inclusion at the workplace.

With the increased significance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, technologies driven by artificial intelligence (AI) have been identified as tools that can help reduce recruitment bias and promote equitable hiring. Having understood the significant of equitable hiring, let’s explore how one can ensure equitable hiring at the workplace, especially by using AI-driven digital assistance.

AI to Eliminate Bias and Enhance DEI

Machines do not exhibit inherent biases, showing no preference towards the gender or ethnicity of an individual. Instead, they work on built-in algorithmic features developed by engineers. When designed and deployed correctly with the right intention, AI can eliminate the attributes that lead to biases. Further, AI can also detect potential biases, specifically those unintentional and difficult to divulge in decision-making processes. 

Define the job, not the applicant

As a recruiting manager, first thing that you need to do is develop the purpose of the position and describe why any role is necessary. Sit with your team and set the criteria for the skills and competencies that you want to see in applicants before posting the job. Further, use AI-driven technologies that remove the scope of human intervention while selecting the right candidates, eliminating any distracted or cognizant bias resulting from stereotypes or personal mindset.

Recruitment Smart offers chatbot-enabled Digital Assistance to pre-screen external candidates. The conversational chatbot engages with candidates and guides them to upload the CV or list of personal attributes in the desired format. Candidates could chat with the AI-chatbot from any channel with questions and replies customised as per the set business criteria.

One can customize the configuration of digital assistance tools to match its business requirements. The tool can match the applicants’ resumes as per the given job specifications, helping the client to find a perfect fit at blinding speed.

Use Fair Recruitment Practices

Consider using a rubric system of assessment to score candidates’ interviews assessing their aptitude for the job. You can frame a standard interview with fair questions for all the applicants, avoiding bias and discrimination. AI-driven chatbots can then conduct the interview per questions you have framed. Applicants can be scored based on already set rubric criteria and later selected according to how they performed. The top scorers would be the most eligible ones.

Recruitment Smart offers an AI-driven chatbot to serve as a digital assistant. It is coupled with its platforms, like Sniper AI and Jeeves AI. The chatbot helps conduct interviews and perform initial screening via completely automated steps, recruiting applicants without bias and on the basis of factors that potentially enhance organisation’s productivity and performance. Digital assistance can save countless working hours for the client as the entire process is automated.

Let’s not leave everything onto automation

AI-driven tools and digital assistance can only do as much work as the input fed into them. Hence, it is the responsibility of leaders and higher-level managers to ensure they have inclusive hiring policies. One way to achieve it is by raising awareness about the benefits of equitable hiring and having diversity and inclusion at the workplace amongst managers and employees.

Update your hiring policies, if needed

A conventional idea of recruitment is to select people who fit into the corporate culture in general. However, you must hire employees who show compatibility with your company’s values and come from different backgrounds, bringing diverse perspectives to the team discussions and promoting innovation. 

Recruitment Smart Delivering Value

Since its launch, Recruitment Smart has always aimed to help businesses promote diversity, equity, and inclusion at their workplace through the use of its disruptive technological solutions while hiring candidates. Our products like Sniper AI and Jeeves AI, deploying proprietary AI technology, empower our clients to streamline hiring, enhance candidate engagement, and recognise different means of promoting bias-free recruitment, thus boosting diversity at a workplace. Our robust tools have empowered organisations to automate talent acquisition and reduced the initial screening funnel by 60%, time spent on CV scanning by 53%, and sourcing cost by 37%.