Software driven by science

As I look back on a year that presented the world with more challenges than anyone thought possible, I’m reminded that our mission at HireVue has always been to democratize the hiring process. The social movements of 2020 further galvanized our commitment to equity in hiring and the ethical principles on which our products are built.

Looking forward to 2021 I want to reshare those principles, acquaint you with our science team and introduce a series of audits, both completed and underway, of which we are committed to sharing the results.

The science team

Our Science Team brings together experts from a diverse set of disciplines, but they can be thought of in two groups, Data Scientists and IO Psychologists:

Data Scientists work on artificial intelligence applications, IO Psychologists work on how to measure and maximize human performance at work, and together they work to solve complex problems of extracting meaningful predictions from large, diverse data sets in ways that should improve human decisions.

On Our Science page, you can put a face to their names and learn about their areas of expertise. Many of them are engaged in ongoing research in their respective fields, and frequently present at academic conferences such as the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) Annual Conference and the O’Reilly AI conference.

In addition to individual research, the whole team collaborates with external stakeholders and frequently holds briefings with third-party researchers to advance innovation (inquiries for collaboration can be submitted here).

Science values driving software

We are committed to continuing education and collaboration because we’re actively writing the proverbial playbook for artificial intelligence (AI)-based HR systems. Knowing our leadership position in the HR tech market, behind every decision - from who we partner with on research, to how we implement assessments - is our team charter. This is the mission from which everything else follows:

"To enable human decision making that is highly predictive of job success and significantly less biased than if the decisions were made by humans alone."

With our charter in mind, HireVue crafted and released the first ever AI Ethical Principles specifically for HR. The first of those principles is that we recognize the impact our software has on individuals and on society, a responsibility we take very seriously.

On a daily basis, our principles guide our science as we develop AI-based technology and tools. Although change is continuous and oftentimes unpredictable, our scientists follow evidence-based best practices in our respective fields of research, and we’re guided first and foremost by our ethics.

Science transparency in software

Black box software is not a good thing for society and certainly not for HR applications. Following this belief, HireVue's science team worked with four independent auditors that are experts in these respective topical areas to conduct the following four audits:

1. AI Technology: a detailed analysis of our AI technology and algorithms and how they affect a range of diverse stakeholders.
2. IO Psychology: a detailed analysis of the psychological measurements and job fit frameworks used in our AI-based assessments.
3. AI Procedures: an independent review of the consulting procedures and design controls we place on our software when using AI-based assessments.
4. Methods for Measuring Bias: an audit to analyze our data sets and the procedures we follow to measure and mitigate discrimination or bias in our algorithms.

We will describe these audits in more detail in subsequent blog posts on our Science Page.

Software driven by science

HireVue's foundation is a commitment to creating software and technology that is driven by science; our dedication has been strengthened over the years and as we learn more we put theory to practice and do better for our customers, candidates, and the public who use our software. We will continue to research the appropriate use of AI and software in hiring, following the evidence where it leads to create products that benefit society, promote fairness, help people make better decisions, and protect the privacy of candidates.