Eliminating Bias and Fostering Diversity & Compliance Using HR Tech

Here is a bold statement: Diversity already exists among job applicants. The challenge is translating diverse candidates into diverse workforces across industries. Why is this even a challenge? Because bias in the hiring process crops up, and often contributes to a lack of diversity as well as inefficient and risky recruiting and hiring practices. That bias, whether conscious or unconscious, stunts the drive to recruit candidates with unique thoughts, histories and perspectives. With resumes, replete with data that triggers assumptions about the candidate’s qualification, it is almost impossible to eliminate these assumptions and focus only on the most pertinent data that gives qualifying skills. While diversity in hiring is a hot topic, it is easier discussed than implemented.

Consider the data you collect and filter

Here is an important question: How does a Hiring Manager build a diverse staff systematically without letting his or her own bias enter the decision making?It starts with the outside or internal recruiter. Responsibility for delivering diverse candidates to the hiring manager rests squarely in the hands of the outside or internal corporate recruiters. Even these recruiting professionals can be biased. That bias can be conscious: looking at schooling and signs of wealth as factors of intelligence; graduation dates and years of experience to figure out candidates’ age. That bias can also be unconscious: seeing an ethnic name, specific address, area code or zip code which indicates race, national origin or even financial status.It continues with the applicant tracking systems (ATS). Much of the data that fuels bias is found on resumes and resides in the ATS used by most recruiters. Resumes and other information recorded in ATS are the basics -- essential tools in the recruiter’s HR technology toolbox. A single search of an ATS can churn out dozens of resumes. Depending on the data housed in the ATS, search terms and the assumptions of the recruiter who filters the resumes, this is where conscious and unconscious bias begins to impact the workforce.This is the point at which the likelihood the diverse candidate pool presented to Hiring Managers drops due to assumptions and biases about candidate.

Enter bowmo, the technology that minimizes the opportunity for bias!

A potential answer? bowmo, an evolutionary software as a service (SaaS) enters the HR Technology space to eliminate the bias in database and resume searches. The software enables recruiters and hiring managers to match candidates’ specific skillsets to job requisitions.Human bias is removed and the technology is driven by algorithms based on Boyer-Moore string search algorithm, the benchmark for modern search engines like Google. bowmo software finds the right candidates and empowers Hiring Managers to keep outside and corporate recruiters accountable.bowmo enables companies to build diverse talent pools. The software is easy to integrate and seamlessly matches qualified candidate with appropriate jobs. Recruiters can see clearly, without getting bogged down by distracting and irrelevant information that leads to bias.The algorithm does not consider or use as fields for matching any candidate name, race, gender, sexual orientation or religion. EEOC data collected by many systems and applications are not data fields for job matching either. Credentials such as role, years of experience, terms of technical skill and sometimes education can be relevant.Effective business leaders, data scientists and product leaders recognize the power of cognitive computing. The buzz word in HR Tech is “artificial intelligence” or “AI.” It is time to recognize the convergence of AI and recruiting, talent acquisition, and talent development.bowmo is combatting bias and making this AI and recruiting convergence a reality.* This is an excerpt from a longer content piece from bowmo, Inc. on Medium. Adrienne A. Wallace is the EVP, Marketing & Brand Engagement of bowmo, Inc. You can follow her on Twitter: @AdrienneWallace or Medium, or connect with her about bowmo on LinkedIn.