Reducing unconscious bias gets easier with artificial intelligence
October 21, 2019
by Elena Knutsvik

How do recruiters hire for diversity when we’re already overwhelmed with qualifying candidates with just the few seconds we have to review a resume?

The problem starts with job seekers only spending, on average, 50 seconds reviewing a job description. I say reviewing because they often don’t even really read it. People, out of necessity, will just apply to any job that they think they may be remotely qualified. This increases the number of unqualified resumes that must be reviewed by recruiters.

Current HR systems simply match on keywords. When you have say, 500 people a week applying for one job, it can get out of hand. Almost all the applicants may have some sort of keyword match. This means you as a recruiter must read through hundreds of resumes before the job is filled. Recruiters must do the monotonous job a computer should be doing, screening hundreds of resumes.

The problem now is that under a time pressure, and the seemingly endless repetition of reading through resumes, recruiters are prone to make mistakes. We’re only human. People excel at creativity, not monotony.

One of these mistakes is not hiring for diversity.

Recruiting for diversity gets easier with artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence likes repetition. It likes boring work. It doesn’t get tired. Artificial intelligence may be used to find qualified candidates, without unconscious bias or other discriminating effects.

How AI works for you

With an automated artificial intelligent based screening system, recruiters are free to spend their time recruiting. Not stuck reading through hundreds of unqualified resumes.

The best candidates are brought to the attention of recruiters without the bias of race, gender, location, or other discriminating factors.

Also, don’t make the hiring team part of your recruiting process by necessity. When fatigue sets in from reading hundreds of resumes, and the time pressure to send candidates to hiring teams, recruiters often send over unqualified candidates. This takes time away from everyone’s job.

Artificial intelligence is able to make a model of what the hiring team wants in a qualified candidate. With this model, AI is able to predict the resumes hiring teams want to read.

Keywords don’t work. A job description may include “sales and marketing campaign creation”, while a person may have “designed promotional strategies for sales and marketing teams” in their resume. We know these two terms are expressing the same concept. But a traditional keyword search could exclude this resume. AI is able to understand the context and the different ways people (hiring teams and candidates) express themselves.

People from diverse backgrounds express themselves differently. Like, “I say tomato, you say tomahto”. Diversity comes not just from race or gender. Professionals from New York will express concepts differently than someone from Los Angeles. For example, one person says sofa, another couch. Or, Soda or pop.

The read of a resume is as important as the skills expressed. AI is also able to model how a resume will be received by the hiring team and make a prediction on which candidates will be asked to interview.

Make AI work for you

Our goal at Mosaictrack is to create recruiting tools that increases diversity that includes, rather and excludes, qualified candidates.

Recruiters should spend their time in creative and meaningful endeavors. Don’t stay stuck in bad habits doing the repetitive tasks AI could do. Think how much you appreciate cruise control in your car. Or, the spam filter for your email. These technologies don’t take away the need for a thoughtful human doing their job. Technology just makes our jobs less fatiguing and easier.

Instead of a keywords search, perform a contextual AI search.

Instead of reading through 500 resumes, read through 50 of the most qualified.

Think of AI as a really good intern. Have the AI do the time-consuming monotonous work for you. While you spend your time getting to know great candidates. And better understanding your hiring team’s requirements.

Advances in Artificial intelligence recruiting tools make it possible to reduce the monotonous time-consuming tasks recruiters currently perform. New AI recruiting tools allow recruiters to understand the strength and weakness of qualified candidates. Allowing great people to be placed in great jobs where they’ll do great work with their new team.

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