Does your job screening violate the ADA and equal employment principles?

The Judicial (DOJ) recently warned that automated job application screening has the potential to unlawfully discriminate against workers with disabilities, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Outline report potential for discrimination; reasonable conditions that employers should provide when taking advantage of computer-based screening tools; and protective measures to be taken in the future. The Ministry’s recent news release is part of the larger sample of government agencies to promote the provision of guidance and litigation on AI-based recruiting tools previously unchecked, leading to high rejection rates among workers from more disadvantaged backgrounds, including those with disabilities.

How AI affects “hidden employees”

With combination or completely remote location increasingly the norm, there are greater opportunities for inclusion and increased labor force participation among many unemployed and underemployed Americans—whether it’s a woman in a wheelchair whose commute to work every day. A day to the office is a logistical challenge, or a father who needs to pick up his child from school at 3:30. However, they continue to face high rates of automatic rejection before their profile even lands on one’s desk.

At a time when companies are dealing with high turnover and exploding demand In terms of talent, it seems that American companies can hardly afford to turn down qualified candidates. However, many people use AI tools to screen applicants. These include anything from simple resume matching programs and job descriptions, to more complex programs like resume “scoring” systems or video interviewing tools. . While computer programs can often be considered less biased, they just as unbiased as the data they were trained on, and often, the teams that generated them. A video interview tool that claims to measure a candidate’s enthusiasm or expertise would need to know how to understand that candidate’s accent, tone, or manner of speaking. A resume screener that hasn’t been trained in job gap resumes can unfairly filter out new parents, not because they don’t qualify for a job. job, but because it hasn’t been trained to judge people like them.

Companies that use computer screening programs are acutely aware of their shortcomings. A recent report from Accenture and Harvard Business Review (HBS) found that 88% of employers agreed that “qualified highly skilled candidates” were filtered out because of these systems. In fact, the report determined that due in part to these automated screening systems, the United States has an estimated 27 million “hidden workers.” These include Americans with disabilities, carers, veterans, immigrants, refugees, retirees hoping to return to work, the long-term unemployed, or those without a college degree. People in these categories are willing, able and eager to work, but cannot pass the application process for the opportunity to do so. This provides another insightful picture of unemployment in the US, where the total number of unemployed Americans is around 5.9 million. April 2022. praise

How to ensure compliance with ADA guidelines

There are simple, yet impactful ways companies can proactively limit the negative impact of automated screening and avoid violating ADA guidelines.

1. Be aware of how non-majority candidates are evaluated and adapted to atypical career journeys. This may include “hidden workers” such as women, people with disabilities or those returning from work. Normalizing small differences in work history, such as maternity leave, and ensuring that technology doesn’t account for these differences against candidates, can have an impact in attracting candidates called invisible through the door.
2. Measure each part of the hiring process, including initial computer screening, interview rounds, other assessments, and referrals. Closely monitoring the metrics of each assessment level can help identify problems as they arise. Action should be taken if there is a part of the hiring process where diverse candidates are disproportionately filtered or eliminated.
3. Especially when it comes to ADA, accessibility testing is very important. Organizations should have a third party audit their website, application process, and any other tools or assessments used in recruiting (such as a video interview app or technical review. ) to make sure people don’t turn away even before they have a chance to apply.
4. Finally, ensuring that diverse hiring, whether it’s candidates with disabilities or other workers, is an issue that the entire organization owns. As noted in the HBS report, many companies engage with these hidden groups of workers, but they do so through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs, rather than through their function. their personnel. While all diversity efforts are good, this maintains the view that hiring these candidates is an act of charity. In fact, these workers are valuable contributors who want and deserve the same opportunities as everyone else.

The new DOJ report is a step in the right direction. While there are many new litigations governing the use of AI in recruitment, existing employment equality guidelines and legislation such as the ADA can be leveraged now to create better rules. around AI screening tools. These tools are costing companies a lot of workers, but more importantly, they are harming millions of Americans, who are losing their chance to get hired through no fault of their own.

Rena Nigam is the Founder and CEO of Meytier.