How to Hire from a More Diverse Candidate Pool
Most organizations agree that diversity delivers business benefits. But getting there can be difficult. Hagopian said that businesses need to think creatively about how to find diverse talent and learn to manage that talent inclusively.
For example, she said, they should think carefully about the kinds of experience and educational backgrounds they require when hiring certain positions. Someone with a less technical background may be an excellent long-term candidate, even if they need a bit more training. Finding people who are good cultural fits can be just as important as particular technical skills, she said.
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“We have a lot of people on my team who aren’t traditional computer science majors,” Hagopian said. “We don’t believe there’s a one-size approach to filling roles on our team.”
And while artificial intelligence tools have their place in human resource, she urged against using AI tools designed to filter candidates out. These have been shown to be biased against women, people of color and candidates from nontraditional backgrounds.
“We don’t do that, intentionally, because we don’t want to filter out good candidates who don’t meet an algorithm,” she said. “There’s also some racism and sexism that can be built into those systems.”