Client: SuccessFactors functions as an independent business unit within SAP, the market leader in enterprise application software. SAP SuccessFactors provides a leading cloud-based HCM Suite, which helps HR drive business execution with solutions that are complete, beautiful, and flexible enough to start anywhere– optimizing workforces today and preparing them for tomorrow. SAP SuccessFactors has more than 6,200 customers with 47 million subscription seats in more than 177 countries and in 37 languages.
Overview: When hiring new talent, hiring managers and recruiters, often use different language – adjectives, verbs, definitions – to describe equally qualified men and women. Why? Because when they phrase job descriptions, they may unconsciously rely on stereotypes, or generalized beliefs about categories of people, as a shortcut in writing these job descriptions. This introduces bias into the job requisition. Sometimes this bias may result in the use of stereotypical language or in harsher responses to what is perceived as behavior that does not conform to stereotypes.
Solution: The original goal of the Bias Job Checker project was to provide recruiters with insights that help them see biased language in job descriptions and fix these biased terms and phrases using machine learning.
While designing this feature, I took the functionality step further during the conceptual design phase and asked why stop here? Why not use the same machine learning concepts and apply additional text analysis to help the overall writing style of the job description? Why not provide real-time SEO analysis to increase the number of applicants? Why not show real-time candidate matches and other types of analytics to help guide recruiters while writing the description of how likely they are to fill the position based on their position requirements? These questions were well received by the team and the Bias Job Checker project was expanded in scope and is now the Universal Checker.
Sector: Technology
Press: Inc Magazine – Businesses Beyond Bias: How AI Will Reshape Hiring Practices
Forbes – Using Technology To Move Business Beyond Bias
SAP News – SAP Reveals New Technology Designed to Help Move Business Beyond Bias