Tech for Good: How Workhuman Innovations Advance Workplace Equity & Inclusion
As the omnipresence of AI causes concern for many employees, it’s important to focus on how AI can improve the employee experience. As with any new advancement, AI is not without its issues, but rather than feed the fear that these tools will “replace” human workers, show them. The endless ways it can enable your workforce to thrive.
Among the ways AI can enable your people to thrive is through providing valuable insights regarding diversity in your organization and steps that can be taken to improve inclusion in your workplace. AI can be a powerful tool to glean information and statistics from seemingly incoherent or unimportant data.
Is there a pattern of certain people, or a certain group of people, not being recognized for their work? Is the same unhealthy workplace rhetoric being flagged repeatedly, pointing to a larger need for reeducation or cultural shifts?
Workhuman’s AI capabilities can reveal intricacies, inequities, and opportunities for ingenuity you may have previously overlooked.
What is diversity analytics?
“Diversity analytics” is an umbrella term that describes the process of collecting and evaluating information about employees to create a more fair and equitable workplace. This can include data regarding pay equity, social demographics (age, gender, sexual orientation, etc.), educational backgrounds, disability status, and so much more.
Collecting and analyzing this type of data can help leaders identify areas of concern or inequity, break down barriers, and provide further training and education to improve workplace culture. Having this highly-attuned knowledge about the makeup of a workforce can create innumerable opportunities for growth and development, both on a day-to-day level and a macro scale.
To get a clearer picture of diversity, inclusion, and belonging within your team, you can break down information regarding ERG demographics and participation, employee satisfaction surveys, and conduct regular pay equity analyses.
However, Workhuman’s iQ team provides you with an additional facet to consider: invaluable data gleaned through your company’s recognition program. We call this Human Intelligence.
What is the Workhuman iQ team and what do they do?
Our Workhuman iQ team is a specialized team of experts with professional backgrounds in psychology, data science, computer programming, engineering, linguistics, and research. They work 1:1 with our partners to uncover new insights and mine their existing recognition data for valuable nuggets of information, unearthing potential inequities within their workplaces, and devising solutions to tackle those issues head-on.
We call these insights Human Intelligence, because they give leaders the opportunity to make changes to help their employees feel secure and their workplaces to be more human-centric.
These subject matter experts have honed many facets of our offerings to better serve our partners. Through our platform, your leaders will have access not just to data, but to the right data: information that is insightful, accurate, timely, and most importantly, useful. We call this Human Intelligence.
So, what exactly is Human Intelligence, and why is it so important for advancing equity and inclusion?
In the simplest terms, Human Intelligence is the collection of insights gleaned from applying highly advanced AI and analytical tools to raw recognition data. Through this data, leaders can uncover hidden talent by ensuring that no employee’s contributions or potential are being overlooked.
It can also identify areas for growth, learning, and development, as an invaluable tool for keeping a pulse on your organization’s culture and creating meaningful, measurable change when necessary.
Human Intelligence also helps reduce bias by giving leaders concrete, cross-sectional information about their employees, encouraging them to move away from subjective opinions and outdated performance models. This should help with promotions and other workplace accolades going to those deemed “favorites” or the loudest voices in the room.
That cultural shift can help create more equitable leadership pipelines and reduce an organization’s dependence on taking biased, opinion-based “data” as gospel.
Because technology is evolving much more quickly than it did in the past, the half-life of employee skills is now less than three yearsOpens in a new tab.
Not only does that pressure employees to constantly upskill, it also means that workplace leaders who don’t have their finger on the pulse of their organization are going to have wildly skewed data on who is the most qualified for promotions, whether educational opportunities are being dispersed equitably, and more.
Using AI to monitor this information can help leaders stay ahead of skill shifts and adapt more quickly to changes in both technology and staffing.
Curious to learn more? Check out one of our latest reports featuring proprietary data and insights from our Workhuman iQ team: “Upskill or Stand Still: AI Isn’t Going to Wait for You.”
63% of employees are unfamiliar with AI in the workplace. Discover how to upskill your workforce with the AI skills needed to thrive in the future.
What other facets of Workhuman’s offerings can support my diversity initiatives?
Workhuman’s Inclusion Advisor was created to improve your employees’ day-to-day experiences of work, as well as their overall feelings of belonging within the organization. This tool within Workhuman’s Social Recognition platform was designed to privately flag problematic recognition messaging and provide the writer with micro coaching and suggestions for rewording.
This highly-evolved AI tool uses real-time natural language processing to pick up on instances of unintended bias and potentially troublesome language that may lessen the value of a recognition award. The Workhuman iQ team is hard at work to constantly evolve this feature, ensuring that it remains helpful, up-to-date, and relevant.
Some of the main issues the Inclusion Advisor currently flags are:
- Gendered language
- Ableist phrases
- Unhealthy workplace rhetoric
- Derogatory or stereotypical comments
- Microaggressions and condescending language
- Comments on an employee’s appearance
Our data has shown that employees who utilize this tool have their language flagged less and less over time, showing that these moments of microcoaching are actually leading to changed language and behavior. This timely, private education is contributing to larger shifts in acceptable workplace rhetoric, which is likely, in turn, making the workplace a more peaceful and inclusive place for all employees.
Wrapping up
To summarize, AI can very much be a force for good within the workplace. While there is a lot of fear surrounding this advancement, just as there has been with every dominant technological development in
human history, the data speaks for itself. When utilized correctly, such as with Workhuman’s Human Intelligence or Inclusion Advisor, AI can not only boost the efficacy of your company’s diversity and inclusion initiatives, but completely alter how your leaders view equity and belonging.
While digital technologies, especially AI, are ever-shifting, leaders can easily learn how to harness these tools for the good of every human within their organization. By empowering your staff with new tools and checkpoints to monitor your employees’ successes and opportunities for growth, you’ll create a less biased, more agile organization.
About the author
Anna Picagli
As a CYT500 yoga instructor and a certified reiki practitioner, Anna is an advocate for holistic wellness, especially within the workplace.
She’s extremely passionate about the brain-body connection and exploring how mental and physical wellness intersect.
Anna has experienced firsthand how chronic stress, overworking, poor management, and other organizational issues can lead to extreme burnout. Knowing the impact that a toxic work environment can have on a person’s body, psyche, and general sense of well-being, she now works to direct others away from facing the same fate.
As Workhuman’s Content Marketing Senior Specialist, Anna is a regular contributor to Workhuman iQ reports and aims to create resources that company leaders can reference to help improve their culture and empower their employees, creating healthier workplaces for everyone.
In her free time, she’s a voracious reader and a seasoned home chef. You can learn more about Anna’s work on LinkedIn or through the Yoga Alliance.