AI-driven App That Eliminates Biases In The Workplace
What are two words you fear most in the workplace?
Most likely, Performance Appraisals. The two words most employees dread to hear from their managers, mainly because what follows is an inaccurate (or even false!) view of the type, amount of work, and effort that employees have put in.
Not including how a time crunch may affect a manager’s perception and memory of an employee’s performance, resulting in more serious consequences than imagined – such as promotions, or even retrenchments.
What if I told you that there is a platform, OnLoop, which uses collaborative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to strike a balance between technology and the human mind. While it might be nigh impossible to create an interface completely void of bias, the team at OnLoop believes that it is possible for developers to be aware of said bias and code it to avoid them.
But first, let’s address what’s happening in the workplace:
Hybrid Work: The Dark Side
Hybrid work has been posed as one of limitless advantages. Though that might be far from the truth — it has become a ripe ground for bias to fester. With many choosing to work from home, work has not been as ‘visible’ in the eyes of managers.
While we might try to deny it, forming social connections with your manager and co-workers is integral to a good review. Hybrid work has posed a challenge to this, especially for new hires. Those who speak up during Zoom meetings might be perceived as doing more than introverts who reflect or work behind-the-screens, resulting in eloquence bias. It divides employees, creating an uneven playing field, and this benefits no one in the long run.
Worse, Key Performance Indicator (KPIs) are not being updated with the changing times. With everyone working virtually, there must be the right tools to set the right measures of KPIs for the organisation, while helping the team to develop by tracking the team’s growth accurately.
Closing the Loop with OnLoop
To track the team’s growth, the OnLoop team believes AI might be the answer, yet it must help to collect consistent and precise data to combat bias. Rather than allowing the AI to be swayed by the inherent bias of developers, OnLoop is driven by their belief in Collaborative Team Development, to create multiple sources of feedback and opinions, resulting in a platform with a fairer spread of private data that is unaffected by the “pseudo-monitoring” by superiors. The bigger spread of data also allows powerful insights to be captured over time, from one’s own self-reflection and accountability, alongside observations and feedback from others. This culminates in an appraisal report generated by the AI at the end for the manager to refer to or use directly for check-ins.
In this hybrid world, with people working from different locations, OnLoop can help overcome this distance bias alongside other forms of bias, including eloquence bias, in a traditional appraisal report — balancing the use of AI tech with human touch to provide a holistic solution in the workforce. The power of AI cannot be underestimated.