A bias-free future of recruiting - Khyati Sundaram of Applied

Impact Hustlers - Entrepreneurs with Social Impact

In today's episode, I speak to Khyati Sundaram the CEO of Applied, a platform helping businesses to take bias out of their recruitment processes through anonymized recruiting, and algorithms that help them predict which candidates will be performing best in their roles, based on objective criteria rather than anything subjective and any biases.

The company also offers AI-based tools to help write job descriptions that are likely to attract a diverse set of candidates rather than biasing towards a certain set of candidates.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• [00:38] Khyati's Personal Journey
• [05:22] Most common recruitment biases in companies
• [07:33] Solutions for Debiasing Recruitment
• [11:27] Understanding how to test for skillsets in a non-biased way
• [14:56] Integrating Predictive Algorithms &Machine Learning into the Recruitment Process
• [17:42] Best way for early-stage startups to integrate debiased recruiting
• [21:45] Job descriptions 101: How to recruit more diverse talent
• [24:50] Biggest challenges for companies trying to adopt diverse hiring practices at scale
• [26:59] Applied in Action
• [31:09] Applied's 10-year vision

KEY LESSONS & QUOTES

• “Working as a Developer in Google doesn't automatically mean you'll translate all those skills well in any other company” [06:08]
• “As an employer don't just screen based on the CV” [09:55]
• “We know that AI can aid in adding bias to the recruitment system. We are working towards achieving the opposite; harm reduction” [16:41]
• "Most founders neglect the recruitment system - you're only as good as your team." [18:43]
• "Every company is a recruitment company & until they realize that, things will only get worse" [21:39]
• "We see Applied as an expression of a fairer society where there's level access to jobs" [31:48]

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