Greenhouse Inclusion aims to reduce bias in the hiring process

Unconscious and implicit biases can show up every step of the hiring the process. That’s why Greenhouse, a recruiting and applicant tracking program, has partnered with diversity and inclusion consulting firm Paradigm to bake in inclusive hiring practices throughout the entire process.

Greenhouse Inclusion is designed to help companies employ inclusive hiring practices throughout a job candidate’s entire interaction with the company, from application to interview to job. The platform’s features include automatic resume anonymization, real-time interventions to reduce bias, safeguards to ensure every candidate is evaluated consistently, as well as candidate data and analytics.

“We considered interventions that would have impact across the hiring funnel, influencing who applies to a role in the first place, how hiring decisions are made, and the inclusivity of the process end-to-end,” Paradigm CEO Joelle Emerson said in an email to TechCrunch. “We then collaborated with Greenhouse to determine how software could make those inclusive best practices scalable. For example, we know that when interviewers evaluate candidates in a more structured way – assessing only relevant qualifications and considering those same qualifications for all candidates – they’ll make more objective and equitable decisions. This product includes interventions designed to prompt greater structure and reflection from interviewers.”

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The platform also features something called “nudges,” which act as tips to remind hiring managers to draft inclusive job descriptions, prompt employees to take diversity into account when making referrals and remind interviewers to slow down and reflect while evaluating a candidate.

Over the years, Greenhouse has become a popular recruiting tool for tech companies like Airbnb, Pinterest, Twilio, Lyft, SurveyMonkey, DocuSign, Evernote and Vimeo. That means there’s some potential for the implementation of Greenhouse Inclusion to result in actual change, in terms of the demographic makeup of the tech industry’s workforce. So far, Pinterest is the only company that has signed on to use Greenhouse Inclusion.

“We’re the first to bring out a holistic technological solution to address bias in hiring,” Greenhouse Inclusion product manager Alex Powell said in a blog post. “We’re the de facto leaders and we need to set the right path for this.”