THURSDAY THOUGHTS: When H.R. Is Run By A.I. We All Become A Little Less Human
On the inhumanity of making people beg computers for the right to work.
Sadly a number of my friends have recently been retrenched from vast organisations; one from UPS (current market cap US$126 billion), one from Amazon (current market cap US$1.8 trillion), and one from one from Microsoft during the very same week it announced its market cap broke US$3 trillion! Were they victims of over-hiring during the pandemic, A.I. displacement, economic sandbagging or simply greedy shareholders? Probably. But now they are all looking for jobs and I don’t envy them because Human Resources has been overtaken by Artificial Intelligence, which makes us all a little less human, here’s why.
The current cause célèbre of corporations is diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I), which I’m all for but is largely BS for them, though perhaps not for the reasons you may think.
We can probably agree that the primary role of any corporation is to make and sell products and services for profit. A corporation may have other roles, even a purpose (although my personal belief is that the only purpose any corporation needs is to pay its people properly, pay its fair share of taxes and not pollute), but let’s start with the basics.
Anything that is an impediment to a corporation making a profit must by definition be (lawfully) eliminated, be it staff or competition, which is the first reason why I believe corporations hate diversity, after all doesn’t Coca-Cola want absolutely everyone on earth to drink Coca-Cola not Pepsi? And doesn’t Tesla want everyone to drive a Tesla not a VW? And doesn’t Nike want everyone to wear Nikes not Adidas?
Marketers will argue that all these brands have specific target customers but their role is to drive constant demand to fuel growth - what company hits its target and declares, “that’s enough, we’ve reached everyone we’re ever going to reach, shut it down.”? Their job is to go in search of new customers and open new markets because whilst there is anyone on this planet not drinking a Coke, driving a Tesla or wearing $300 trainers, they’ve got work to do. But wouldn’t it be so much easier for them if all of those new customers and markets just spoke bloody English?
Having worked for 15 years with international corporations trying to do business across Asia I can tell you that they absolutely do NOT appreciate the diversity here. The range of languages and dialects, skin tones and religions makes marketing and selling to the region a nightmare for them. In the USA they can press ‘send’ on a single, English language email and reach 330+ million well-heeled consumers at a single stroke. To reach the same number in this region requires multiple translations and imagery, often a mobile-first approach and, despite there being some 4.3 billion potential buyers the average annual income in the region is just US$12,828 compared to the average American worker who earns US$58,120. Therefore, diversity amongst the Asian customer base becomes an impediment to profit because the costs of marketing are higher and the potential rewards lower. But what about diversity amongst the staff?
In an ideal world corporations would like for you to share their mission, vision and values but if you don’t happen to value ‘Diversity’ or ‘Innovation’ or ‘Sustainability’ or any of the other buzzwords painted on the breakroom wall then presumably you’re not going to be ‘a good fit’? Diversity of opinion and class are rarely counted in surveys that are more concerned with ethnicity, sexuality and gender but do a bunch of people who look different but think the same really count as diverse? Renowned journalist, author and podcaster Malcolm Gladwell addressed this at his recent company all-hands meeting following layoffs caused by a lack of profitability and it was, ahem, #awkward.
The event took an especially uncomfortable turn, staffers told Confider, when Gladwell was asked for an update on the company’s diversity goals.
“My (Jacob Weisberg, CEO) definition of diversity might be different from other people, but that’s part of diversity—allowing Malcolm to have a different definition of diversity than everyone else,” he said. When asked what diversity meant to him, Gladwell replied: “Here’s a question: If you’re a Republican, raise your hand.” When no one raised their hand, Gladwell remarked, “I would think that a diverse company should have some Republicans in it.”
When staffers pushed back, noting the lack of diversity among Pushkin’s senior leadership, Gladwell, who is half Black, responded, “Hello, I don’t count?”
Then there is diversity of experience. All of my recently retrenched friends have had fascinating careers, pinging between different disciplines and industries that have helped them build up a breadth of experience that is as unique and inimitable as they are. They are all smart, curious and hungry for new challenges and the A.I. recruitment tools designed to sift through C.V.s for the ‘right’ candidate hate that. They want someone who has done the exact same job in the exact same industry as the one they are recruiting for, but how is that going to bring the diversity of experience and perspective required to innovate?
Like anyone who has ever had an issue with their bank, insurance company or telco, all these candidates want is the opportunity to talk to a human who stands a better chance of understanding and appreciating their unique experience and potential, but they can’t get through the first layer of C.V. sifting. Candidates like Marta Puerto, a product marketing manager who speaks 5 languages but cannot get an interview so resorted to making a video in which she doesn’t even ask for a job just “a chance to meet face to face” because, as you can see here, this woman is so much more than her CV - LIKE WE ALL ARE!
However, as in so many areas of modern life, we must all dance to the tune of the algorithm, except no one knows what the tune is so we’re left guessing or open to the influence of self-appointed online gurus who claim to have “the secret C.V. hack that recruiters don’t want you to know”, to beat the A.I…
Algorithms set the rules of the game, but don’t show us how to play, which is cruel and inhuman for someone who simply wants to get back to work to pay their rent and feed their family. If you’re a recruiter try to remember you’re hiring people not robots and that true diversity requires humans who break the mold, not those that fit neatly into it.