There is a lot of noise about how AI – specifically generative AI and AI agents – is already halfway towards revolutionising how we work, how we create and how we collaborate.

From coding to customer service, from marketing to sales, NLP programmes are making immediate, critical inroads into previously human-centric operations. 

The possibilities beyond this explosion in generative AI (and the presumption that a working AGI is only around the corner) extend the horizon of what AI can do for more complex tasks, such as iterative problem solving and high-level reasoning.

So within this hysteria of disruption, where are the details around how AI will make workplaces better for everyone? 

After all, the main benefit of integrating AI into workplace processes is to reduce the mundane, automate the repetitive, and allow humans to do what humans do best – create, reason, collaborate, ideate, laterally generate ideas, build relationships and create genuine emotional connections between people, products, services and theories.

Amidst the contradictory thought pieces and think tank panics about AI, what seems to be somewhat lost in the mania is how AI can help build more equitable, fair workplaces for many millions of people who are forgotten or incapable of integrating into analogue workplaces. 

So can we create a future where AI is used for good, or are the tech naysayers right in assuming AI will only be used for illicit gains in easily manipulated industries, deep fakes, crypto-scams and hyper-capitalism?

Let’s dive into it.

Diversity, equity, and how AI can help.

According to author and Forbes contributor Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, AI will help diversity in two ways.

• “The first is to diagnose things better, telling us what truly goes on in a culture, revealing some of the hidden dynamics underlying many of the critical interactions between people at work”.
• “The second is being able to actually measure inclusion, in particular, whether someone’s demographic status or identity can predict their actual status at work”.

The analytical power of modern AI programmes “allows us to go beyond perceptions”, giving change makers and leaders insight into “biases in behaviour”. AI fills a gap between what we think is happening, and what really is happening, or what could happen, based on evidence. AI can supplement emotionally driven HR decision making with evidently based logic, which in the case of diversity hiring, network management and fair representation can only be a good thing.

Bridging this evidence/emotion gap is the only way to build HR functionality based on real, performance-driven equity, based on real-time data. That data, and the ability to parse it, is the real power behind how AI can assist in creating a representative workforce.

Of course, this doesn’t mean AI should be used on a whim – there is ample evidence that poor AI implementation can break laws and entrench biases, so oversight is key. 

It’s worth reading pieces, such as this article by Fast Company, on the pros and cons of using AI for diversity hiring practices.

Inclusivity, disability and how AI can help.

As this detailed report by Accenture titled AI for disability inclusion puts it, there are several things business leaders and AI developers both can do to help foster more inclusivity in workplaces, especially around disability access and using tech to help people work more productively.

At the very basic level it starts at the design phase. AI creators need to put “inclusive design principles in place to support “human + machine” collaboration (which is) essential to the development of fair and unbiased AI solutions”. Inclusive AI by design is the foundation of inclusive AI use. 

So what does this inclusive design look like in real life? Well, it can be a poisoned chalice but again with the right leadership and strategy AI can be a blessing. 

• “Biases often occur at the intersections of disability, race, gender, and other identities”, which means whatever and however AI is developed it has to be built around reducing bias between underrepresented and vulnerable groups, rather than exacerbating them.
• AI can help build more inclusive workplaces. For example AI platforms can provide better testing and pre-interview assessments, AI-based accessibility tools such as speech-to-text transcription and sign language into text systems, AI-driven employee feedback, AI-augmented accessible interview processes and AI-augmented language accessibility tools. 

The tools of the future can be implemented today to help those most in need of that extra layer of support.

Minority recruitment and AI. 

This piece by the Data Scientist neatly summarises how AI can help elevate minority hires in the recruitment funnel. 

But much of the theory behind diversity-focused hiring strategies – such as blind screenings and automated assessments – has been known for years. It’s how they’re evolving via AI that HR pros need to be aware of.

• The real power lies in how AI improves data-driven recruitment. AI can operate between a wide array of recruiting tools such as jobs boards, social media, applicant tracking systems and recruitment CRMs seamlessly, to better communicate in real-time with specific candidates on the nature of targeted jobs, or clients on the state of play with candidate funnels and minority talent availability. 

• AI can create more accurate predictions on candidate suitability and hiring success utilising data, and can better identify patterns in background, experience and assessment viability. 
• Coupled with in-house NLP (like ChatGPT plugins), AI becomes more than an automated extra – they become an assistant recruiter in all but name, able to seamlessly and immediately dive into entire recruiting networks to matchmake in real-time.

With the right sort of oversight (and a fixation on making sure bias-free searches are run), AI can be the diversity hiring partner every recruiter needs. 

At Rectec we help organisations to find the best recruitment and talent acquisition technologies to suit your needs. 

From Applicant Tracking System and Recruitment CRM comparison, to vendor snapshots, and technology showcases in our unique technology marketplace, we provide fee-free tools to help you build the perfect recruitment tech stack for your business!

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Tech, especially well-placed recruitment tech, can offer targeted solutions to some of the most pressing issues of the day, namely: access to opportunity for those who have been historically underrepresented in the workplace.

Now we’re not saying Tech is a DEI silver bullet, but we want to draw attention to how recruitment innovations in the tech space are leading the line for positive change, and how providers of recruitment tech are trying to do their part to improve representation and diverse leadership retention. 

This blog is inspired by the newest McKinsey Women in the Workplace 2022 report. Every year McKinsey publishes an incredibly well-researched long-form report on the state of women and minority women in-work representation.  

This year, the report focuses on leadership and c-suite level representation for women and women of colour, and how, despite the general shift to positive action by many firms across the world over the last decade, more women are leaving leadership roles than ever post-COVID.

So what’s the solution? Well, the report contains many, including hyper-focusing on remote work and inclusive flexible working patterns, and understanding intersectional experiences in the workplace. 

But we want to focus on how recruitment tech, specifically the platforms we use day-in-day-out as recruiters and talent resourcers, can help improve representation in work.

So here are some key takeaways from the report, with some ideas on how tech can provide further support for Women and minority Women leaders in work.

“More than two-thirds of women under 30 want to be senior leaders”.

Let’s start with a positive spin – more women than ever are pushing to climb the career ladder and stamp their authority on their industry. However, as the report stipulates, the leadership attrition rate for women, especially women of colour, is immense and outweighs that of men by a considerable amount. 

This is due to multiple factors including in-work bias, a lack of career support and a lack of women-led visibility at the c-suite level.

So how does recruitment tech help? 

• Recruitment Tech plays a huge role in helping employers build an understanding of candidate expectations during initial screening and hiring stages. For example, a well-positioned recruitment CRM will, if utilised correctly, provide granular detail of your candidate’s motivations, dreams and expectations from this job and all future jobs, and provide cross-business visibility. This is vitally important to breaking down barriers between legacy ideas of female leadership, and actual, real-life, tangible Women-led leadership and expectations of it.

“Women of colour are more ambitious despite getting less support: 41 per cent of women of colour want to be top executives, compared with 27 per cent of White women”.

Further to the above point, let’s talk about ambition. 

Women of colour want to be offered leadership opportunities and are actively seeking them, and it’s on current leaders, both Male and Female, to provide the right sort of development plan to achieve it.

So how does recruitment tech help? 

• Tech can again be a foundation for effective communication. Everything from performance management platforms to more inclusive remote onboarding not only opens up talent pools to a more diverse candidate base but creates accountability and visibility on career advancement, personal development and promotional opportunities. 
• This consistently and objectively reduces biases and preconceptions of leadership credentials.

“Only one in four C-suite leaders is a woman, and only one in 20 is a woman of colour”.

A perennial problem at almost every company is a lack of Women at the top of the business pecking order. 

We appreciate there are outlier companies doing the good work of righting that wrong (and reports show there is good progress being made), but the vast majority of women around the world simply never see a Woman leader at the top of their company or on the board.

So how does recruitment tech help? 

• Step away from the hard work of managing a recruitment funnel or talent acquisition strategy and think about representation through the lens of employer branding. 
• You have a fantastic array of marketing and communication platforms to use – consider free Social Media platforms, plus how many Social platforms are now integrated into ATS’ – to better communicate to your candidate base, user base and your industry at large. 
• Tell your community about your Women-led stories of leadership, and give more Women a chance to see how you support senior leaders.

“For every 100 men who are promoted from entry-level roles to manager positions, only 87 women are promoted, and only 82 women of colour are promoted”.

Again, righting this historical wrong will go a long way to building a more sustainable and inclusive hiring culture. Ignoring the issue won’t help. We say meet it head-on.

So how does recruitment tech help? 

• Metrics and measurements are all-important. Being able to measure applications and follow through into higher positions via promotions is essential if you are to improve DEI visibility and seniority placement. 
• Utilising cross-company applicant tracking systems, ones that focus on DEI applications and sourcing gives you a better handle on applicant reach and diversity of applicants. It’s only one step to creating a culture of inclusive talent management, but it’s a powerful one.

“For every woman at the director level who gets promoted to the next level, two women directors are choosing to leave their company”.

Recruitment of women into senior roles is one thing, but retaining them is proving a challenge unto itself.

So how does recruitment tech help? 

• Well placed recruitment tech provides a feedback and engagement foundation for leaders to share ideas, roundtable company progress and build inclusive frameworks of decision-making and performance measurement. 
• Recruitment tech can provide real-time context to your leadership decisions, which only betters Women-centric business hiring outcomes, and encourages more equitable decision-making across leadership groups.

If you haven’t seen our ATS and recruitment CRM comparison service yet, what are you waiting for? 

Rectec Compare is totally free to use, and you can input your requirements in under 20 minutes to see what ATS or recruitment CRM best fits your needs. 

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