Digital barriers are blocking job opportunities for many qualified individuals. Unsupervised AI-based automated hiring tools are having severe, detrimental effects. The results of using rigid keywords, unfair rules, and outdated assumptions to select interview candidates without human review are very predictable. Candidates who don’t fit HR’s preconceived ‘ideal profile’ are unfairly sidelined.
The problem is worse for people with disabilities. We may have nontraditional education paths, employment gaps, or keywords in our experience that algorithms don’t understand. People who belong to multiple underrepresented communities have it even worse.
If companies are serious about diversity and inclusion, they should focus only on candidate qualifications and the ability to do the job.
The solution?
1) Harness the power of human judgment at every stage of the hiring process.
2) Audit automated systems to ensure they don’t reinforce discrimination.
This approach ensures that companies are not constructing illegal barriers where there should be none.
Alt: The first barrier most wheelchair-using job seekers face isn’t a staircase.
It’s bias embedded by HR into a hiring algorithm that filters us out before a human sees our resume.