How Technology Boosts Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace
In the world of business, a lot has happened over the past decade. Beyond the major shifts that occurred during COVID-19, the world of work has been continuously developing. One of the most prominent changes that we’ve pinpointed is the introduction and proliferation of technology throughout departments.
While manual processes were once the go-to on how things got done, this is rapidly changing. Nowadays, in our era of Software-as-a-Service, there are tools for almost anything. While most of these tech tools only simplify or automate a process, some have much larger impacts.
One area where technology is positively influencing the workforce is in diversity and inclusion. In an attempt to create a truly inclusive workplace, more companies than ever before are turning to software solutions. In this article, we’ll trace some of these technologies, demonstrating how they’re actively contributing to a more diverse workplace.
We’ll be covering:
- How technology is reducing the gender wage gap
- The technologies behind accessible workplace inclusion education
- How technology helps to avoid unconscious bias
Let’s get right into it.
Tech and the Wage Gap
To many of us, the fact that women, on average, make $0.82 for every $1 that men make isn’t surprising. Since 2015, this figure has decreased by $0.02, but is still nowhere near to equal. These figures are generated by several different factors. For example, women are less likely to be granted raises, or will be afforded a lower amount if they do get one.
Beyond this, women are typically passed over for male candidates during the hiring process, further contributing to the gap. Simply put, the wage gap is alive and well within modern society. While technology cannot completely eradicate this overnight, there are a range of ways that it can begin to help.
For example, using software to conduct a salary range penetration will generate insight into how pay gaps have evolved within your own business. If you notice that certain groups of employees are routinely offered less when given raises, or brought on for less money, then you should set out to fix that.
Conducting these evaluations will help to instantly reveal wage gaps in your business. Once identified, you’re able to then work toward creating a more fair work environment for your employees. Beyond that, distributing knowledge about how certain groups are being undervalued to your HR department will help them become more conscious of this problem.
With the understanding of how minority groups within your business have been offered less money, they can then rethink offers to current candidates, making sure that the final figure they settle on is adjusted adequately.
Accessible Workplace Education
Many employees, especially now in our era of remote work, don’t have time to commute to in-person learning seminars. While employee development and training is a vital part of a business, if you don’t provide accessible methods of receiving this education, you’re in a tough spot.
One of the main educational modules that every employee should enroll in is diversity and inclusion training. Not only does this training help individuals to understand and tackle unconscious bias, but these training modules also help them to see how a diverse workplace helps everyone.
Instead of hosting in-person events, your business can turn to online education platforms. By being able to complete training online, whenever they want, employees suddenly have much more flexibility. With this newfound flexibility, they can start and finish their education whenever they please.
Over time, the ability to educate your staff members on a greater scale will help everyone move through the modules that they need. Especially when it comes to diversity training, this ensures that everyone has undergone the correct sessions and is on the same page.
Online education has made incredible strides over the past few years, majorly due to the pandemic and the need to socially distance. Much like how you’re probably using online meeting platforms to work remotely, giving your employees the chance to do all of their workplace education within an online system is a fantastic solution.
Beyond that, online education allows you to track how far through different programs each of your employees is. With this, you’ll have a better understanding of the current status of your workforce.
Avoid Unconscious Bias
As we’ve already stated, diversity training is an important and useful way of helping people overcome unconscious bias. Yet, for hiring managers, creating a recruitment process that is already completely free of judgment and bias needs to have already happened. Most of the time, no matter how many educational modules a user has been through, they still will have some level of affinity bias.
For a hiring manager, this can pose a huge problem. When left unchecked, it can continue unfair hiring practices and lead to a weaker workforce down the line. To remedy this, managers can turn to technology to level the playing field for them.
There are now a range of tech solutions that use AI to move through hundreds of CVs at once. You can control their actions, having these tools strip all elements of personal information from the CVs. From there, hiring managers will have a completely fair playing field as they know absolutely nothing about each candidate.
This practice is known as blinding hiring, allowing candidates to get the best shot possible. Instead of any elements of personal bias infringing on a hiring manager’s decisions, they are only able to value candidates by their experience and qualifications as written on the CVs.
Then, once you’ve selected the top candidates, you can progress onto a fair interview stage. To avoid bias here, you should always attempt to assemble a diverse interview panel. Instead of just 1-1 interviews, you should ensure that there are a range of HR professionals in the interview.
Final Thoughts
Technology is a tool for innovation in every field it touches. Whether it be streamlining workflows or boosting diversity and inclusion, software solutions are actively making the workplace a level playing field for all.
As we continue to see technology positively impacting businesses, we’re likely to see a radical change in the global approach to inclusivity and diversity. Shaping the world for the better, these tools integrate into our daily processes and make them better for everyone. From reducing the pay gap to helping manage the recruitment process to become free of bias, technology helps across the board.
We can’t wait to see just how far tech can go.
How Technology Boosts Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace
In the world of business, a lot has happened over the past decade. Beyond the major shifts that occurred during COVID-19, the world of work has been continuously developing. One of the most prominent changes that we’ve pinpointed is the introduction and proliferation of technology throughout departments.
While manual processes were once the go-to on how things got done, this is rapidly changing. Nowadays, in our era of Software-as-a-Service, there are tools for almost anything. While most of these tech tools only simplify or automate a process, some have much larger impacts.
One area where technology is positively influencing the workforce is in diversity and inclusion. In an attempt to create a truly inclusive workplace, more companies than ever before are turning to software solutions. In this article, we’ll trace some of these technologies, demonstrating how they’re actively contributing to a more diverse workplace.
We’ll be covering:
- How technology is reducing the gender wage gap
- The technologies behind accessible workplace inclusion education
- How technology helps to avoid unconscious bias
Let’s get right into it.
Tech and the Wage Gap
To many of us, the fact that women, on average, make $0.82 for every $1 that men make isn’t surprising. Since 2015, this figure has decreased by $0.02, but is still nowhere near to equal. These figures are generated by several different factors. For example, women are less likely to be granted raises, or will be afforded a lower amount if they do get one.
Beyond this, women are typically passed over for male candidates during the hiring process, further contributing to the gap. Simply put, the wage gap is alive and well within modern society. While technology cannot completely eradicate this overnight, there are a range of ways that it can begin to help.
For example, using software to conduct a salary range penetration will generate insight into how pay gaps have evolved within your own business. If you notice that certain groups of employees are routinely offered less when given raises, or brought on for less money, then you should set out to fix that.
Conducting these evaluations will help to instantly reveal wage gaps in your business. Once identified, you’re able to then work toward creating a more fair work environment for your employees. Beyond that, distributing knowledge about how certain groups are being undervalued to your HR department will help them become more conscious of this problem.
With the understanding of how minority groups within your business have been offered less money, they can then rethink offers to current candidates, making sure that the final figure they settle on is adjusted adequately.
Accessible Workplace Education
Many employees, especially now in our era of remote work, don’t have time to commute to in-person learning seminars. While employee development and training is a vital part of a business, if you don’t provide accessible methods of receiving this education, you’re in a tough spot.
One of the main educational modules that every employee should enroll in is diversity and inclusion training. Not only does this training help individuals to understand and tackle unconscious bias, but these training modules also help them to see how a diverse workplace helps everyone.
Instead of hosting in-person events, your business can turn to online education platforms. By being able to complete training online, whenever they want, employees suddenly have much more flexibility. With this newfound flexibility, they can start and finish their education whenever they please.
Over time, the ability to educate your staff members on a greater scale will help everyone move through the modules that they need. Especially when it comes to diversity training, this ensures that everyone has undergone the correct sessions and is on the same page.
Online education has made incredible strides over the past few years, majorly due to the pandemic and the need to socially distance. Much like how you’re probably using online meeting platforms to work remotely, giving your employees the chance to do all of their workplace education within an online system is a fantastic solution.
Beyond that, online education allows you to track how far through different programs each of your employees is. With this, you’ll have a better understanding of the current status of your workforce.
Avoid Unconscious Bias
As we’ve already stated, diversity training is an important and useful way of helping people overcome unconscious bias. Yet, for hiring managers, creating a recruitment process that is already completely free of judgment and bias needs to have already happened. Most of the time, no matter how many educational modules a user has been through, they still will have some level of affinity bias.
For a hiring manager, this can pose a huge problem. When left unchecked, it can continue unfair hiring practices and lead to a weaker workforce down the line. To remedy this, managers can turn to technology to level the playing field for them.
There are now a range of tech solutions that use AI to move through hundreds of CVs at once. You can control their actions, having these tools strip all elements of personal information from the CVs. From there, hiring managers will have a completely fair playing field as they know absolutely nothing about each candidate.
This practice is known as blinding hiring, allowing candidates to get the best shot possible. Instead of any elements of personal bias infringing on a hiring manager’s decisions, they are only able to value candidates by their experience and qualifications as written on the CVs.
Then, once you’ve selected the top candidates, you can progress onto a fair interview stage. To avoid bias here, you should always attempt to assemble a diverse interview panel. Instead of just 1-1 interviews, you should ensure that there are a range of HR professionals in the interview.
Final Thoughts
Technology is a tool for innovation in every field it touches. Whether it be streamlining workflows or boosting diversity and inclusion, software solutions are actively making the workplace a level playing field for all.
As we continue to see technology positively impacting businesses, we’re likely to see a radical change in the global approach to inclusivity and diversity. Shaping the world for the better, these tools integrate into our daily processes and make them better for everyone. From reducing the pay gap to helping manage the recruitment process to become free of bias, technology helps across the board.
We can’t wait to see just how far tech can go.
