Highlights From The Expert Panel Discussion on AI and DEI Hiring India At The Indeed FutureWorks Bengaluru 2023

During the Bengaluru edition of Indeed FutureWorks 2023, a panel discussion hosted by Nishita Lalvani, Indeed's Director of Marketing – India, Singapore, and SEA, focused on the issues related to diversity and inclusion in Indian workplaces.

Titled “Building the Ramp for More Diverse Talent,” the event featured award-winning author and inclusion consultant Parmesh Shahani; Zainab Patel, Head of Diversity & Inclusion, Pernod Ricard India; Sunita Cherian, Chief Culture Officer & Senior VP Corporate HR, Wipro Ltd.; and Nandini Sarkar, Global DEI Leader, Hitachi Energy.

What can organisations and HR professionals do to improve inclusion of individuals from marginalised communities? How can employers remove barriers to hiring people with disabilities? What can be done to prevent AI bias in recruiting? Find out what the experts had to say on these pressing questions in our summary of the panel discussion below.

The Importance Of DEI In India

Nishita Lalvani opened the discussion by highlighting the importance of diversity and inclusion in India, a country with rich cultural heritage and diverse tapestry of language, food and customs. However, things play out rather differently at the corporate level – according to an Indeed study, just 27% of companies in India had a formal DEI policy. 

“This means that we are not tapping into, or taking care of all the untapped talent from marginalised or various other backgrounds.” The aim of the panel discussion, according to Lalvani, was to identify various solutions, opportunities, or ideas to work towards a better world of work in India.

Should Organisations Look Beyond Gender At A More Segmented Level While Working On DEI?

Parmesh Shahani acknowledged the importance of the theory of intersectionality, pioneered by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in the US in 1989. While it is easier for organisations to approach DEI solely from the perspective of gender, it is also important to acknowledge that other factors like class, race, and social background can also make a difference in an individual’s experiences. 

According to Zainab Patel, social justice is very important in the context of India, particularly when we know how historically marginalised communities find their way into corporate workplaces in India. She said, “If we keep talking about bringing varied life experiences to work, then your varied life experiences cannot be devoid of people coming from varied backgrounds. And while we pursue the concept of gender equality, bringing women of different lived experiences will actually add to the culture pot of each organisation.”

For Sunita Cherian, while intersectionality is an essential part of the dialogue, getting the basics right is more important. “While it is important to look at intersectionality, I think we still have a long way to go before looking at those specific pillars where not much progress has happened despite talking about it for so many years.”

Women comprise 50% of the population. However, we still have not made any progress on getting close to that level in workplaces. So, gender is the first and probably the easiest starting point for organisations looking to improve on DEIB.

Nandini Sarkar agreed, observing how “gender is the most visible minority in the workplace, one of the most visible diversity dimensions most organisations attempt. It is easy to count. However, inclusion is not (easy to count). It is relative.” We need to look into intersections as each individual can have unique experiences.

What Can Organisations Do To Bring In People From Marginalised Backgrounds

Zainab Patel disapproved of the corporate prioritisation of meritocracy in corporate hiring, citing her corporate experiences as a member of the transgender community.

“Without making sizeable investments in traditionally marginalised communities, if we keep on harping about meritocracy, where is the connect going to come in for people? Make spaces and give people the opportunity to grow, most of them will turn out phenomenal.”

She highlighted the initiatives at Godrej, where the CSR funds were deployed alongside the DEI allocation to invest in marginalised communities, providing upskilling opportunities.

Sunita Cherian stressed on the importance of recognising and honouring merit, while still looking for ways to bring in individuals from marginalised sections. She mentioned the initiatives taken at Wipro to set up centres of excellence all over India to train individuals from marginalised communities.

How Can Organisations Remove Barriers To Hire People With Disabilities?

Nandini Sarkar explained in detail the steps taken at Hitachi Energy to make improvements in hiring workers with disabilities. The focus was on investing in building inclusion capability. Under a framework called Diversity 360, the initiative has the following objectives:

• Weeding out unconscious bias at every step of the hiring process
• Challenging mindsets to think beyond visible disabilities, including “invisible” disabilities like social anxiety, depression, cancer and diabetes among others
• Promoting inclusive hiring through the humanisation of data
• Making reasonable accommodations at the workplace for employees with visible and invisible disabilities
• Above all, promoting inclusion beyond mere regulatory compliance

“It is an amalgamation of everything, nothing can be picked in silos. Intention, proper communication, humanising of data, and being cognisant of the fact that we all have bias – that really sets the ground for motion.”

What Guardrails Should Be Put In Place To Ensure That AI Technology Is Inclusive?

Sunita Cherian had this to say about the use of AI tools in hiring:

“Of course, it is scary. If you are going to have that large dataset which is being fed into the system in a biased fashion, then obviously what you get as an output will be terrible. All I can say is that you have to be cautious. You cannot just leave it to systems to take over. There has to be human oversight. There has to be a proper governance in terms of the kind of data that is fed in.”

According to Parmesh Shahani, along with guardrails on the governance of data, it is also important to focus on the teams that are working on the AI projects. He cited the example of self-driving cars: as the AI teams were mainly Caucasian, the AI in cars ended up failing to recognise people with other skin tones and were crashing into them.

“Make sure that the teams working on your AI projects are very diverse. Make sure that you have a range of people who can ask the questions about what data you are feeding into the AI systems. If you do not have such people in the room, these other questions may not even come up.” 

Which Prevalent DEI Practices Should Be Retired?

This was an audience question that was put across to all panel members in the final segment of the panel discussion. While Zainab Patel stressed on the need to ramp up mental health interventions in organisations, Parmesh Shahani suggested linking 25% of executive variable pay to DEI goals.

Although Sunita Cherian agreed with the need for more leadership buy-in for DEI goals, she disagreed with the linking of DEI goals with KPIs and variable pay, sparking a lively discussion in the process. Among other things, the panel members agreed on the need to stop hiring exclusively for a diversity bracket.