Artificial Intelligence: EEOC’s Guidance for Employers
HR.com
HR.com
Michael Schulman and Sadé Tidwell authored an article for HR.com discussing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issuing Technical Assistance Guidance regarding the use of software, algorithms, and artificial intelligence (AI) in employment selection.
“The guidance emphasizes that employers (not AI vendors) are responsible for any disparate impacts caused by the use of AI tools in employment selection and suggests that employers need to continually audit the employment selection results generated by AI tools,” the authors wrote. “The EEOC directs employers to the EEOC’s Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures to evaluate whether the use of AI results in a selection rate for individuals in a protected group ‘that is ‘substantially’ less than the selection rate for individuals in another group.’”
They added: “The guidance acknowledges that the EEOC and employers have historically relied on the ‘four-fifths rule’ to determine whether the employer’s (i.e., AI’s) selection process disparately impacts a protected class. Under the four-fifths rule, members of a protected class are presumed to have been disparately impacted by a selection process if the ratio of protected class members selected versus non-protected class members selected is below four-fifths (i.e., 80%). However, the Guidance cautions that while the four-fifths rule is a helpful rule of thumb for employers, a more detailed analysis focused on statistical significance may be required in many circumstances.”
Read the full article.