New York and Google: Employment Law and The Future
Are the following questions discriminatory: Have you ever set a world record in anything? Have you ever made a profit running a dog walking business? Do you prefer to work alone or in groups? When did you first get excited about computers?
These are the kinds of issues that may soon creep into the employment law arena as companies begin to change the way they hire people. Smart companies are recognizing that traditional recruitment methods such as the job interview are ineffective. Laszlo Block, the Vice President for People Operations at Google believes that "interviews are a terrible predictor of performance." Google is now creating a new system to select employees.
The new frontier of employee selection will move away from subjective methods such as the job interview and will attempt to focus on quantitative data. Academic research has established that quantitative information on a person's background, called "biodata," is a valid way to look for good workers. Michael Mumford, a psychology professor at the University of Oklahoma who specializes in talent assessment, says that the use of biodata is an effective way for companies to find employees. Professor Mumford said that leadership traits can be identified by asking candidates if they ever started a club in high school.
Google's mathmeticians are creating an algorithm to identify employees who will fit into its chaotic and competitive culture. Candidates will fill out an elaborate online survey that explores their attitudes, behavior, personality and biographical details. The algorithm will then score the candidate between 0 and 100. The goal is to identify bits of life experiene and personality that will predict future performance. Yahoo is not following Google's lead. Jessie Wixon of Yahoo said that her company "does not use tests, puzzles or tricks when interviewing candidates."
As Google and other companies change the way they hire employees, how will this impact the employment law field? These new mechanized hiring practices may reduce discrimination claims because the use of quantitative selection criteria removes some of the subjectivity from hiring decisions reduces the opportunity for overt discrimination. On the other hand, certain algorithms or mechanized selection techniques may adversely impact protected categories such as race, gender or age.
Bookmark: 
