What Does it Mean to ‘Solve’ the Problem of Discrimination in Hiring? Social, Technical and Legal Perspectives from the UK on Automated Hiring Systems

Author: Javier Sánchez-Monedero, Lina Dencik, Lilian Edwards

Publisher: Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency

Publication Year: 2020

Summary: The following article describes how discriminatory practices in recruitment and hiring are a persistent problem that affects not only workplace relations but also broader understandings of economic justice and inequality. With the introduction and increased adoption of automated hiring systems (AHSs) powered by data-driven tools, the way decisions on who is eligible for jobs and why are made is rapidly changing. In this paper, it presents a viewpoint from outside the United States by critically examining how 3 prominent AHSs in common use in the United Kingdom, HireVue, Pymetrics, and Applied, understand and attempt to mitigate bias and discrimination. These systems were chosen because they explicitly claim to address hiring discrimination issues.