Leveraging technology to drive Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

14/4/2021

Jamie Miller - Director, Marketing Recruitment

Image of jumbled cables representing diversity, equity & inclusion.

As organisational DE&I strategies become increasingly high profile and are rightly positioned at the heart of business strategy, many firms are seeking to leverage technology further to identify, attract and retain a vast pool of under-represented talent.

Talent Acquisition teams play a critical and central role in diversity hiring efforts, however, according to a recent survey by IBM, 35% of HR leaders believe their organisation does not have the statistical capability to check whether their recruitment processes are bias-free.

Despite significant investment in DE&I centres of excellence and the roll out of sophisticated employer branding campaigns, the outlook for hiring and promoting diverse talent is not where it should be. Carefully chosen AI and, increasingly, Virtual Reality platforms for screening and assessment, can further enhance organisational inclusivity efforts and ensure all qualified candidates have equal access to opportunities.

I spoke to James Jenkins, Director of UK Recruitment at Accenture, who commented:

“Once candidates enter our recruitment process, we manage our selection process robustly.  We run assessments that do not require any pre-existing knowledge or work experience, removing any potential barriers or blockers for candidates who have been impacted by bias previously.  

Candidates enter an immersive virtual reality-based assessment that mimics a client case study narrative; both simultaneously educating candidates on how we work, whilst also providing an assessment where no previous experience or knowledge of consulting is necessary to be successful. Decision making is centred on structured, strength-based interviews that bring out the genuine interest, motivation and aptitude of interviewees, which is effective in identifying potential, instead of pedigree, and driving diversity in the hiring process.”

The AI recruitment software market is vast and developing rapidly; we looked at three examples of platforms that have the potential to support Talent Acquisition teams further:

Diversiowww.diversio.com

Diversio's bias corrector tool integrates with a company's communication platform, such as Slack, and flags cultural insensitivity and unconscious bias. The social media barometer tracks company mentions on social media to see if the public is complaining about the company's D&I record. Diversio’s recommendation engine uses algorithms to match a company's problems and recommend the correct course of action.

Appliedwww.beapplied.com

The Applied platform targets removing bias from the hiring process. Some of its strategies include removing job applicant information and randomizing the order in which recruiters see applicant answers. Applied also displays application question responses from all candidates, rather than having recruiters review one full application at a time, to lower the chances that bias creeps in.

If deployed correctly, Artificial Intelligence can play a key support role in organisational DE&I efforts; however, critical to success is building upon an already embedded inclusive organisational culture.

Market Update October 2021

Market Update October 2021

October 1, 2021

We are delighted to be celebrating Miller Byrne’s first year anniversary on 1st October 2021. A huge thank you to our client and candidate network and to our trusted suppliers. Both our HR and Marketing practice areas experienced steady growth over the last 12 months, and we remain cautiously optimistic about the year ahead.
Virtual HR Director Workshop, Miller Byrne & Working Mindset

Virtual HR Director Workshop, Miller Byrne & Working Mindset

September 1, 2021

Our HR Practice is delighted to be collaborating with Working Mindset, a highly experienced team of Clinical Psychologists who provide mental health consultancy services, to host a range of virtual HR Director workshops during September 2021.
Leveraging technology to drive Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Leveraging technology to drive Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

April 14, 2021

As organisational DE&I strategies become increasingly high profile and are rightly positioned at the heart of business strategy, many firms are seeking to leverage technology further to identify, attract and retain a vast pool of under-represented talent.
Market update

Market update

March 21, 2021

Launching Miller Byrne last year was the singularly most challenging project we have collectively undertaken as recruiters. We are also pleased to report that it has been the most rewarding project we have undertaken and, as we approach the end of our first business quarter and look forward to the Easter weekend, we wanted to share the following market update with our HR & Marketing networks.

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