How Equitable Technology Can Boost Diversity

BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza | December 05, 2023

Almost three-quarters of Americans oppose the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in hiring decisions, according to a 2023 survey by Pew Research Center, yet almost 25% of companies surveyed by SHRM report using AI for HR-related tasks.

In order to make advanced tech a useful, ethical, and legal part of people operations, employers may proceed with enthusiasm, as long as it’s tempered with caution. This was discussed in an executive panel titled “How Equitable Technology Can Boost Diversity,” which I moderated during From Day One’s November virtual conference.

Given the panelists’ expertise in talent acquisition, the way tech is used in hiring decisions (specifically how AI and bias-limiting tools are used) was at the center.

When Tech Makes Decisions, and When People Make Decisions

Tech has proven itself to outperform recruiters on many hiring tasks, like making connections across vast amounts of information to solve problems faster, says Rebecca Warren, who leads customer success at talent intelligence platform Eightfold.

There’s a difference between new AI-powered tools and the more familiar ones that use data analytics and machine learning. Warren considers AI to be largely proactive, while the latter is reactive.

“AI are systems or machines that are replicating human intelligence,” she said. “Data analytics uses the insights, patterns, and trends from data to help make decisions. If you were to think about providing actionable information to improve operations, that would come from your data analytics, as opposed to using AI, which helps to either eliminate extra work or make connections faster. They should be used in conjunction, but they have different purposes.”

One signal of a good tech tool is that it streamlines the interview process, said Stacey Olive, VP of talent acquisition and employer branding at Medidata Solutions, which builds software for clinical trials. “Anything that levels the playing field is going to be helpful. Sometimes that’s the luxury of an applicant tracking system that allows you to customize a feedback form or to make sure that hiring can’t take place unless you have a diverse candidate slate.”

It appears that a sizable share of workers are comfortable with companies using AI to screen candidates. Pew found that 47% of Americans think AI would be better at evaluating job applicants than humans are. Only 15% believe it would be worse.

But there are some parts of the hiring process that even the most sophisticated tech can’t replicate, like networking. “Many people find their jobs through their network and by word of mouth. Some people don’t even like to apply, so you’ve got to always be networking, and that’s constant hard work,” Olive noted.

Spotting the Bad Actors, Finding the Good

Resist the draw of all things shiny and new, said panelists. Don’t chase technology for technology’s sake and adopt a buzzy tech trend before you’re equipped to do it well. “Like any new technology, people need to think about the problem they’re trying to solve,” said Josh Brenner, CEO of job search platform Hired. Instead of finding a problem to fit the technology, find tech tools that solve problems you already know about.

Journalist Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza moderated the panel among Josh Brenner of Hired, Rebecca Warren of Eightfold, Nicholas Mailey of Equinix, and Stacey Olive of Medidata Solutions (photo by From Day One)

Larger firms should make sure the tools they’re picking are set up for enterprise-level application, “especially when it comes to compliance,” said Brenner. “There are a lot of challenges within recruiting around privacy, salary transparency, and AI biases. Make sure your vendor can provide a third-party audit.” As of July 5, employers in New York City are required to submit AI tools used in hiring to an annual audit under the US’s first law designed to limit such bias. State and federal laws may be incoming, and some agencies already have recourse to challenge AI tools that cause harm.

All employers should look out for AI platforms making big, vague claims. “If your vendor can’t explain how the platform or the process works, that’s a red flag,” said Warren. “You need to make sure that the person who is telling you what you need to buy actually understands how it works.”

Not everything billed as AI is truly artificial intelligence. Some might be more accurately labeled as machine learning or data analysis. If you’re unsure of your vetting capabilities, bring in an expert. “Even if you’re a small organization, it’s absolutely worth the money to bring in a consultant to give you an independent view of whether that technology is going to solve your problems,” Warren said. “Even if it’s just five hours or one week, bring in an expert to make sure you’re not causing more harm than good.”

Governing Your Company Data

To better govern its data, enterprise network provider Equinix developed a governance board comprising representatives from information security, legal, IT, and HR analytics. The team built a process for reviewing the way data is handled, who has access (and whether they still need it), how it’s used, and who governs it. The group meets at least monthly, sometimes more, to review new data practices and audits.

“Then we run water through the pipes,” says the company’s VP of talent acquisition, Nicholas Mailey. “You want to play out the implementation of different solutions or processes, look at the outcome of those processes or practices to ensure that you know, to the extent that you can, that you have control and a sense for whether the outcome is ultimately equitable.”

The test-run exercise has worked, prompting the company to correct itself before making privacy-violating mistakes. “We started to implement AI technology in certain areas, then we candidly thought that we were out over our skis,” Mailey said. At the time, Equinix asked job seekers to self-disclose demographic information in the application process. So when Equinix wanted to create diverse talent pipelines for jobs, it was those self-disclosures they thought of first. But at disclosure, applicants had been assured that such data would not be factored into hiring decisions.

“Fortunately, we caught it,” he said. “But if we hadn’t had a governing board in place looking at how we were approaching these issues, we would have made the mistake of leveraging that data.” Instead, the company took its time and got it right. “It was another year and a half before we started implementing again.”

Recruiters like to move quickly and get things done. But HR isn’t a tech department (at least, not entirely), and it’s best to proceed with caution, Mailey said. “It’s safest for companies to go slow in order to go fast—and ensure you’re doing the right thing.”

Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is a freelance journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about work, the job market, and women’s experiences in the workplace. Her work has appeared in the BBC, The Washington Post, Quartz, Fast Company, and Digiday’s Worklife.

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Building a Thriving Culture Through Comprehensive Health and Wellness Benefits

Employee wellness isn’t just any one thing, and it should be treated accordingly, says Stacey Olson, the global wellness leader at architecture firm Gensler. It’s intellectual, it’s physical, it’s environment, emotional, and professional—just as a start. So when employers plan for workforce well-being, each deserves attention on its own.Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean programmatically. HR is wont to think of well-being as a set of programs or apps, says Deborah Olson, who leads well-being strategy at biotech company Genentech. “I think few teams thoroughly examine their culture, their manager training, and the behaviors across their population, and I think even fewer take the opportunity to assess the well-being of their workforce so they know where there are opportunities,” she said during an executive panel conversation at From Day One’s April virtual conference.The leaders on the panel made it clear: HR alone can’t ensure the well-being of thousands of workers, nor should it try. At chemical company BASF, director of total rewards and operations Melissa Tuscano enlists “well-being champions”: a network of employees that care deeply about mental and physical health to be ambassadors for the wellness program, exemplars of care, and sentinels of well-being in whatever department they work in. “Because we’re such a large organization, there’s no way myself or any part of my benefits team can talk to everyone as much as we might want to,” she said.At education tech company BrainPOP, chief people officer Kavita Vora set up “wellness circles,” or therapist-led discussion groups focused on coping strategies related to stressors. Her hope is that employees leave the circles with fewer stressors than when they arrived. She’s been collecting feedback from participants and iterating as she goes.The panel discussion was moderated by journalist and From Day One contributing editor, Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza (photo by From Day One)“For example, our Latinx community requested a meeting based on things that were happening in the news. So we had one, but we also made sure that the therapist facilitating was from the same identity group, so they felt that they really had a safe space and an understanding facilitator,” she said.Consider Access and Care NavigationAt Keysight Technologies, an electronics design firm, benefits director Heather Ostrowski’s strategy is a comprehensive one. The company’s slate of benefits is impressive: Think debt counseling, bereavement care and funeral services, concierge help with childcare and eldercare, postpartum care, menopause care, mental healthcare, and diabetes management, on top of the Cadillac of healthcare plans.Her challenge is navigation. Currently her team is the go-between for wellness vendors and employees, but she wants to hand over the controls to the employees themselves. When workers have autonomy and access, health outcomes improve.Ostrowski has been forging direct relationships between workers and providers with webinars and forums. “We have a calendar where people can see what webinar or what communications are going to be coming out. By reminding people how to get there easier—it’s been helpful for employees to feel supported.”Beware of Burnout Feeling good about work means being recognized for a job well done. Employee recognition is part of the wellness program at BASF, says Tuscano. “When people feel recognized, they are in a good, psychologically safe place. They feel happy, right? They may feel appreciated. This is all part of being well and feeling well.”But the right things must be rewarded, panelists noted. There are many paths to burnout, says Deborah Olson of Genentech. There’s overwork and long hours and lack of autonomy when it comes to decisions or style of working. Workers may edge toward burnout because they care about the work, and employees sometimes recognize and reward bad habits, even inadvertently. “So many times we are saying, ‘thank you for working long hours,’ or ‘thank you for calling in on your vacation,’” Olson said. That, too, is employee recognition. “We have the best intentions, so we should be shifting into recognizing behaviors that we want to see continued.”Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism.(Photo by Parradee Kietsirikul/iStock)

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Enhancing Employee Engagement Through Whole-Person Management

The best way to find out what employees want is to ask, but the next step is not always straightforward. “Employee surveys can reveal a lot about what people need, but translating that feedback into action is really hard,” said moderator Rebecca Knight, contributing columnist for Harvard Business Review.Whole-person management is revolutionizing the employee experience by recognizing the importance of addressing all aspects of an individual’s performance and well-being. What are some effective strategies and initiatives used to enhance the overall employee experience? Experts during a panel discussion at From Day One’s March virtual conference discussed the different areas of the whole-person approach: financial, emotional, familial, and more, and offered tools and strategies to bring value to employees while mitigating costs. Keeping the employees involved throughout the whole process, not just the initial inquiry, can be effective. Amina Lobban, head of culture, engagement & HR business excellence, GMS & GQ at Takeda, shares that her organization’s Mexico site had a relatively low well-being score, so it immediately took steps to get them more engaged with each other in ways that were most fun and meaningful to them through what they called “a people squad” with various interests that showed up in surveys.“They formed a volleyball squad. They started yoga. They started doing celebrations for Mother's Day, Father's Day, Children's Day–all these different days,” Lobban said. “Their well-being score went up significantly in one year, which is remarkable. It was an employee-led solution. When you involve the employee in ‘What is it that you want?’ versus telling the employee, ‘This is what I think you should have,’ that's when you see success.”Working Across DepartmentsRebecca Tinsley, VP, talent engagement & culture at Teradata, and her team have found success by working across departments, pairing benefits, well-being, and talent development to form one cohesive strategy. “We’re analyzing trends in learning, program participation, engagement survey and we’re also looking at benefit awareness and usage,” Tinsley said. “What that’s allowing us to do is to tailor programs to different employee segments based on what they’re directly telling us, or what they may be indirectly telling us through some of the feedback.”Panelists spoke about "Enhancing Employee Engagement Through Whole-Person Management" (photo by From Day One)This has led to new initiatives like their mid-level management program that blends leadership training with well-being support for some of the stresses that naturally come along with the role. Or financial wellness sessions that are integrated into career development programs. “I like to think of it as a mix between growth and balance,” she said. “It’s helping our people feel empowered to thrive in all different aspects of their life.” This holistic approach values both an employees’ personal and professional life and recognizes the impact of one on the other. Providing Rewards With an Eye Toward Cost “Compensation is a huge part of feeling valued and supported at work,” Knight said. Rewards programs can help your compensation model go the extra mile, especially when corporate budgets are tightening and “employees are struggling to afford life,” said Aaron Shapiro, founder and CEO of Carver Edison. His organization struck the balance when it launched its cashless participation program, which helps employees increase their overall compensation through stock purchases.“Employee stock purchase plans were actually America’s first modern financial benefit written into law in 1964 as part of Johnson’s War on Poverty, almost 15 years before the 401(k) came into existence,” he said. “The number one wealth creator is equity ownership.” And the statistics are indicative of this type of program’s success. “87% of employees using cashless participation at public companies, ranging from small NASDAQ biotechs all the way up to the Fortune 500, said that cashless participation is a more important financial benefit than other benefits at their company because it gives them the flexibility to build wealth while at the same time freeing up disposable income,” Shapiro said. More Than Just Job TitlesAn inclusive culture can be valuable to employees and make all the difference for acquisition and retention. “Sometimes the benefits are not even something that we need to spend money on. Community doesn’t require investment,” said Fatma Ghedira, head of community at ThinkHuman. “Sometimes it’s just employee-led ideas that really feel valuable to them.”“A strong culture is really what determines whether employees feel valued,” Knight said, and “whole person inclusion” can make employees feel respected, safe, and ultimately more engaged. “Shared values and beliefs need investment over time,” Ghedira said, for employees to feel the true impact. Culture has become a buzzword, and Ghedira warns employers to take an intentional approach as they set out to define their workplace values.Leaders should understand why they are developing a culture, whether the goal is engagement, performance, or something else. HR can help coach leaders on how best to communicate culture to employees. “If we do not know how to communicate the vision, and how to communicate conflict or feedback, then there is no way of actually creating the way we relate, which comes down to behavior and how we interact with each other,” she said. Part of a “whole person” approach is systemically encouraging employees to take breaks and practice self-care. This includes instructing managers to respect boundaries around breaktime and role-modeling behaviors, Lobban suggests. This is especially pertinent for remote workers who, thanks to technology and the blend of workplace and home life, feel like they are “always on.” Innovation like delayed delivery on emails to respect time zones and office hours can be helpful. Increasing Engagement Through Accessibility and Creativity Managers are often on the frontlines of encouraging culture, boosting morale, and explaining benefits, but don’t necessarily have the training to take on the whole-person approach themselves. Tinsley’s organization has systematized this through management training sessions, quarterly check-ins, and creating toolkits and conversation guides. Digital solutions, like Teradata’s “People Hub,” can also provide a one-stop location for employees to easily access vital information about their benefits offerings on their own.Employers will need to remain nimble in their strategies to adapt to rapidly changing times. “I would encourage employers to think about how to be more flexible, be more creative, [and] to come up with solutions to help address some of the challenges employees are seeing on the affordability side, but also that shareholders are demanding from a cost perspective,” Shapiro said. “Now is the time to think in a slightly different way and take some new approaches to some of these historical problems.”Katie Chambers is a freelance writer and award-winning communications executive with a lifelong commitment to supporting artists and advocating for inclusion. 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Developing an Employee-Experience Strategy for Your Organization

The statistics are grim: a recent Gallup survey showed employee engagement is at a near-all time low, while the share of workers who want to switch jobs is at a 10-year high. “Why is it so darn hard to fire up the team these days?” asked moderator Callum Borchers, columnist at the Wall Street Journal during a fireside chat at From Day One’s March virtual conference. Fortunately, some companies are finding a way to break through the doldrums with innovate their engagement strategies.Global Head of Employee Experience Jason Simmonds and his team at Morgan Stanley, a global financial-services firm with 80,000 employees across 41 countries, has developed a comprehensive employee-experience program, covering resources that improve employees’ careers, the workplace, and well-being. Among the upgrades: improving the onboarding process.Responding to Changing TimesThe social contract between employer and employee has shifted dramatically since the onset of the pandemic, Simmonds says, as workers came to expect greater mental health support and increased their focus on their families. “Employers reacted in kind, providing more generous benefits [and] flexible working arrangements, investing in products and tools that ultimately provided more to employees,” he said. Gen Z has also entered the workforce within recent years, and their unique values are beginning to impact demands on benefits. They prioritize mental well-being, social impact, meaningful work, and flexible working options—having never known anything else—leading to tensions as “return to office” mandates increase, Simmonds says. HR professionals are even starting to see “a managerial gap,” as balance-focused Gen Z hesitates to take on higher level positions due to the anxiety that can come with the job. Callum Borchers of the Wall Street Journal spoke with Jason Simmonds of Morgan Stanley (photo by From Day One)While the “talent wars” of the immediate post-pandemic period might be over, with a 26% decrease in open positions and layoffs on the rise, employers still need to take engagement seriously, Borchers says. To put it bluntly: In today’s job marketplace, if an employee is unhappy, they will leave. “Ultimately, if you want to attract, retain, [and] develop talent, and differentiate yourself amongst your peers in this quite increasingly competitive landscape, employee experience is really central,” Simmonds said. “Most people agree that their employees are their greatest assets. So how do we invest in them? How do we make sure that they're providing the best outcomes for the business and for their team?”Shaping an Employee-Experience StrategyMorgan Stanly experienced major growth during the pandemic, including two major acquisitions and record revenues. They also guaranteed no layoffs during that time of global crisis. The bigger challenge came, Simmonds says, coming out of the pandemic with a newer, bigger workforce. “50% of the firm was hired in the last five years,” he said, and the organization needed a strategy to help transition those newer workers into a hybrid or fully in-person working model. During the pandemic, the organization had already amped up its benefits offerings, without the official title of “employee experience strategy” per se, including better mental health resources and expanded paid parental leave. “And then also we did a lot of investment in reimagining and redesigning our workplaces, [so] that when we bring people back into the office, we provide a flexible working arrangement that fosters collaboration, that fosters innovation,” he said. The company launched a branded employee experience program called “My Experience,” focused on three pillars: career, well-being, and workplace. “The importance of the ‘my’ part is that we wanted to create more ownership and connectivity between the experience and our employees,” Simmonds said. Within each pillar are sub-pillars like “financial” and “family,” so that employees don’t need to “doomscroll” through a roster of benefits options before they find what they need. The “My Workplace” pillar of the program also comes with its own app for better access and a chatbot to efficiently understand HR policy.Prioritizing the Communication of Resources While the launch of the program did mark the addition of several benefits options, the rebrand also served as a way to refresh and better communicate the ample offerings that Morgan Stanley had already had available for quite some time. Simmonds says this employee-centric rebrand led to an uptick in awareness of and engagement with the program. His team also relied on employees themselves to be ambassadors for it. “What better way to market our employee resources than to amplify the voices of employees who have used it?” he said. “We’ve been starting to highlight employees who’ve gotten out of debt using our financial wellness resources. We highlight employees who survived cancer, leveraging our relationships with cancer research hospitals. And even if you're not in that situation, I think it makes employees very proud to work at a firm that has these resources.” Onboarding is also a crucial part of the employee experience, and it too hinges on communication. Having all the employee resources consolidated in a single, easy-to-understand package helps keep new workers from getting overwhelmed and empowers them to better understand both their role within the organization and what the company has to offer them. Morgan Stanley has a digital onboarding process that relies on fun and informative videos. “It brings the experience to a 21st century, and it creates better connectivity with our firm leadership”Of course, adding employee benefits costs money. “How do you achieve an employee-centric culture in a bottom-line driven business?” Borchers asked. One way a good experience program can offset costs is through retention, since replacing employees is expensive. “90% of employees decide to remain with the company in their first three to six months,” Simmonds said, so the sooner they understand and enjoy the experience program, the better. Simmonds says that happier employees often turn out to be better workers: “When we communicate through this employee-centric lens, it helps to increase engagement, increase culture, and ultimately increase business outcomes.” Katie Chambers is a freelance writer and award-winning communications executive with a lifelong commitment to supporting artists and advocating for inclusion. Her work has been seen in HuffPost and several printed essay collections, among others, and she has appeared on Cheddar News, iWomanTV, On New Jersey, and CBS New York.(Photo by Urbanscape/iStock)

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