Posts Tagged "digital"

The Hiring Bias

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In study after study, the hiring process has been proven biased and unfair, with sexism, racism, ageism, and other inherently extraneous factors playing a malevolent role. Instead of skills or experience-based recruiting, it is often the case that interviewees get the nod for reasons that have little to do with the attributes they bring to an employer.

“This causes us to make decisions in favor of one person or group to the detriment of others,” says Francesca Gino, Harvard School of Business professor describing the consequences in the workplace. “This can stymie diversity, recruiting, promotion, and retention efforts.”

Companies that adhere to principles of impartial and non-biased behavior and that want to increase workforce diversity are already hard-pressed to hire the best talent in the nation’s current environment of full-employment and staff scarcity.

Five Main Grounds for Hiring Bias

Researchers have identified a dozen or so hiring biases, starting with a recruiting ad’s phrasing that emphasizes attributes such as “competitive” and “determined” that are associated with the male gender. In fact, study findings have reiterated that even seasoned HR recruiters often fall prey to faulty associations.

Here are five of the most frequently cited reasons for the unintended bias in the hiring process:

• Confirmation Bias: Instead of proceeding with all the traditional aspects of an interview, interviewers often make up their minds in the first few minutes of talking with a candidate. The rest of the interview is then conducted in a manner to simply confirm their initial impressions.
• Expectation Anchor: In this case, interviewers get fixated on one attribute that the interviewee possess at the expense of what backgrounds and skills other applicants can bring to the interview process.
• Availability Heuristic: Although this may sound somewhat technical, all it means is that the interviewer’s judgmental attitude takes over. Examples might be the applicant’s height or weight, or something as mundane as his or her name, reminding the interviewer of someone else.
• Intuition-Based Bias: This applies to interviewers who pass judgment based on their “gut feeling” or “sixth sense”. Instead of evaluating the candidate’s achievements, this depends solely on the interviewer’s frame of mind and his or her own prejudices.
• Confirmation Bias: When the interviewer has preconceptions on significant aspects of what an applicant ought to offer, everything else gets blotted out. This often occurs when, within the first few minutes of talking with an applicant, the interviewer decides in his or her favor at the expense of everything else that other candidates may have to offer.

Why Bias Is a Problem

In a book titled The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better groups, Firms, Schools and Societies, Scot E. Page, professor of Complex Systems, Political Science and Economies at the University of Michigan, employs scientific models and corporate backgrounds to demonstrate how diversity in staffing leads to organizational advantages.

Despite the mountain of evidence, the fact remains that many fast-growing companies are still not deliberate enough in their recruiting practices, often times ending up allowing unconscious biases to permeate in their methods.

Diversity in hiring, an oft-used term, is essentially a reflection on different ways of thinking rather than on other biases. For example, a group of think-alike employees might have gotten stuck on a problem that a more diverse team might have tackled successfully using diverse thinking angles.

 

Automated Solutions

Although hiring bias is normally shunned, this in no way implies that it doesn’t proliferate amidst large and small organizations alike. The tech industry—and Silicon Valley in particular—was shaken recently by accusations of bias in the workplace, driving many HR managers and C-Suite executives to look for “blind” hiring solutions.

To pave the way for a more diverse workforce—one that is built purely on merit—there is recruiting software built to systematize vetting and maintain each candidate’s anonymity. These packages enable companies to select candidates through a blind process. Instead of looking at an applicant’s resumé through the usual prism of schools, diplomas and past company employers, the first wave of screening can be done based purely on abilities and achievements.

Other packages also enable the employer to write blind recruiting ads, depicting job descriptions that do away with key phrases and words that are associated with a particular demographic—masculine-implied words such as “driven”, “adventurous”, or “independent”, and those that are feminine-coded such as “honest”, “loyal”, and “interpersonal”.

eLearning Case Studies

Companies are now attempting to make diversity and inclusion—from entry-level employees to the executive suite—hallmarks of their corporate culture. With an objective to identify and address unconscious bias in all processes and behaviors, companies can introduce unconscious bias training curriculum for first-line managers, by calling on eLearning companies for their eLearning courseware and content.

 

 

 

Confronting Hiring Bias in a Virtual Reality Environment

Virtual Reality (VR) technology can further boost unintended hiring bias. In a  simulated setting, the user manipulates an avatar that was able to assume any number of demographics for applicants in the hiring process. Based on the gender or ethnicity of the avatar, the user experiences bias during question and answer sessions. The solution would use an immersive VR environment, a diverse collection of avatars, and sample scenarios to pinpoint to participants where bias is demonstrated and understood.

 

What sounds like the cutting edge of science fiction is no fantasy; it is happening right now as you read this article

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Imagine getting trained in a piece of equipment that is part of a critical production pipeline. What if you can get trained while you are in your living room? Sounds fantastic, eh. Well, I am not talking about e-learning or video-based training. Rather what if the machine is virtually in your living room while you walk around it and get familiar with its features? What if you can interact with it and operate it while being immersed in a virtual replica of the entire production facility? Yes, what sounds like the cutting edge of science fiction is no fantasy; it is happening right now as you read this article.

Ever heard of the terms ‘Augmented Reality’ or ‘Virtual Reality’? Welcome to the world of ‘Extended Reality’. What may seem like science fiction is in reality a science fact. Here we will try to explain how these technologies help in transforming the learning experience for you.

Let’s get to the aforementioned example. There was this requirement from a major pharmaceutical company where they wanted to train some of their employees on a machine. Simple, isn’t it? But here’s the catch. That machine was only one of its kind custom-built and that too at a faraway facility. The logistics involved were difficult. What if the operators can be trained remotely? That is when Sify proposed an Augmented Reality (AR) solution. The operators can learn all about the machine including operating it wherever they are. All they needed was an iPad which was a standard device in the company. The machine simply augments on to their real-world environment and the user can walk around it as if the machine were present in the room. They could virtually operate the machine and even make mistakes that do not affect anything in the real world.

What is the point of learning if the company cannot measure the outcome? But with this technology several metrics can be tracked and analysed to provide feedback at the end of the training. So, what was the outcome of the training at the pharma company? The previous hands-on method took close to one year for the new operators to come up to speed of experienced operators. But even then, new operators took 12 minutes to perform the task that experienced operators do in 5 minutes. The gap was a staggering 7 minutes. But using the augmented reality training protocols, all they needed was one afternoon. New operators came to up speed of experienced operators within no time. This means not only can more products reach deserving patients but also significantly reduces a lot of expenditure for the company. And for the user, all they need is a smartphone or a tablet that they already have. This is an amazingly effective training solution. Users can also be trained to dismantle and reassemble complex machines without risking their physical safety.

Not only corporates but even schools can also utilise this technology for effective teaching. Imagine if the student points her tablet on the textbook and voila, the books come alive with 3D models of a volcano erupting, or even make history interesting through visual storytelling.

Now imagine another scenario. A company needs their employees to work at over 100 feet high like on a tower in an oil rig or on a high-tension electricity transmission tower. After months of training and when employees go to the actual work site, some of them realize that they cannot work at the height.

They suffer from acrophobia or a fear of heights. They would not know of this unless they really climb to that height. What if the company could test in advance if the person can work in such a setting?

Enter Virtual Reality (VR). Using a virtual reality headset that the user can strap on to their head, they are immersed in a realistic environment. They look around and all they see is an abyss. They are instructed to perform some of the tasks that they will be doing at the work site. This is a safe way to gauge if the user suffers from acrophobia. Since VR is totally immersive, users will forget that they are safely standing on the floor and might get nervous or fail to do the tasks. This enables the company to identify people who fear heights earlier and assign them to a different task.

Any risky work environment can be virtually re-created for the training. This helps the employees get trained without any harm and it gives them confidence when they go to the actual work location.

VR requires a special headset and controllers for the user to experience it. A lot of different headsets with varying capabilities are already available for the common user. Some of these are not expensive too.

A multitude of metrics can be tracked and stored on xAPI based learning management systems (LMS). Analytics data can be used by the admin or the supervisor to gauge how the employee has fared in the training. That helps them determine the learning outcome and ROI (return on investment) on the training.

Training is changing fast and more effective using these new age technologies. A lot of collaborative learning can happen in the virtual reality space when multiple users can log on to the same training at the same time to learn a task. These immersive methods help the learner retain most of what they learnt when compared to other methods of training.

Well, the future is already here!

The IT industry is no stranger to digital disruption, over the last 3 decades, new trends and technological leaps have time and again changed the direction of the industry. The first wave in 1990s permanently transformed industries such as music, photography and video rental and the 2000s saw major disruption in industries like television, travel and recruitment. We now face the third wave of digital disruption, brought on by the huge amounts of rich data produced by social media and mobile technologies.

How quickly and efficiently businesses respond to this challenge, will determine whether they will be competitive and profitable in the coming decades.

Challenges of Digital Transformation

State of existing IT

Business need to know where they stand in terms of their IT readiness.For digitally mature organizations the change is manageable, but some businesses might have to restructure and invest more deeply to embrace the digital environment.

Change Management

The digital way of working is based on openness and creativity; it promotes a flatter and less controlled organization. Enterprises need to embrace and incorporate this into their work culture and existing workforce must be motivated to join this new work culture with an open mind.

Digital Employees

For a business to succeed in a digital world, it needs to be staffed with people who live digital and breathe data. To fully understand the digital experience offered to customers, managers have to be comfortable with the technology themselves.

Customer is the king

Customer experience must remain the primary focus while designing and implementing digital systems. How you want to engage and service your customer? What are the business models that you offer? These are some of the questions that will drive your ultimate digital goal.

Leadership

Clear vision and strong leadership are two vital factors for long term Digital Success. Digital transformation is a top down process and a focused leader with a clear, detailed roadmap will successfully lead the organization through its digital journey.

Transformation, digital or otherwise, is crafted and enacted by people. Therefore, it’s no surprise that the success of digital transformation lies more with employees, managers and other stakeholders rather than implementing technologies. The right people will enable organizations to deal with, not just this wave of digital disruption, but all future changes that come their way.

We are Sify and we transform businesses for a digital world like no other. With our SMAC network, global inter-cloud connectivity, agile IT and seamless access across platforms, we transform the way enterprises do businesses providing a unified customer experience.

Collaborative tools have taken enterprise by storm, not only because of their innovative nature, but also because of the convenience they offer for the critical processes- client communication and data dissemination. Technology plays a huge part, but collaboration, by nature goes beyond that. Here is some ways on which your collaboration tools go beyond mere technological innovations. And these are the ways that collaboration can be used for giving that edge to the business.

Enables easier discussions and planning

With a collaborative platform that is free of geographical limits, remote working of teams has become a reality. This is a definitive edge, because while it may upset work life balance, certainly it supports teams to get together to share ideas, strategies and information that will create them. Getting the right people together, irrespective of the location, is what drives an efficient operation. In a medium sized organisation, this ability could be the game changer. Online collaboration tools also present the opportunity to create the virtual incubator, and this helps to get everyone on a single platform against boundaries of companies, colleges or even vendors.

Equipped with a file sharing and commenting system, audio as well as video collaboration allows employees and teams to work together real time. It will also save costs of travel, maybe real estate too. Having a clear task board is one of the things online collaboration tools can help you with. This helps to create and share a focussed goal, get roadmaps for everyone to follow and finally, ensure the project and strategy tracking is on the same board- pun intended. With good collaboration tools in place, there are jobs done far more efficiently from participants from across the world, than being in the same room.

The nature of the very basic of idea sharing – brainstorming- also can be changed with collaborative networking that has innovative techniques and tools to share information, ideas, and even record them.

They help shape best working practices

When teams work without spatial and communication inhibitions, it becomes easier to discuss the best practices, and far easier to adopt them. The company’s objectives are much clearer, since everything is out THERE, clear and open for discussion. Time delays, trust issues and inability to move forward- all are created because of lack of free and real time communication. Collaboration helps to eliminate that!

Much more efficient resources management

Resources and skilled ones, specially, are a big cost for every enterprise. As the enterprise goes up the value chain, the resources will reduce and there will be an increasing need to do much more with much less. With collaboration, this is supported well. These tools help cut down on redundant and unnecessary communications, high cost means of communication like couriers, or even travel. There is much more that can be achieved with a small, faster, agile collaborative team, and that is the benefit of these tools. Any issues that crop up can also be quickly flagged, resolved and eliminated. Clear conversations that can be tagged from any location, and the ability for the management to follow them- add untold value to the process of strategising- and can be the building block of a very smart company.

Upping employee engagement and morale

Some industry leaders see the engagement advantage as the biggest reason why collaborative tools need to be adopted. This is a modern management outlook, where top-down form of running a company often backfires. Any leader who does not take inputs from employees, but prefers to fire instructions, is more likely to lose people and respect.

Collaboration tools put everyone on the same platform, affording equal visibility to everyone; ideas, making employees feel important, and critical to the company. Nothing makes them more efficient and interested than this realization – that they matter. The manager driven vision of issuing instructions is terribly detrimental to a company’s growth, an increasingly people are realising that. Besides, there is the little matter of most young employees being better clued into the social market than the manager level ones. Getting their interest and commitment could be the smartest decision by way of resources management…and collaborative tools could be the best conduit for that.

Knowledge Management benefits

The same collaboration that helps sharing ideas and forming the most well informed strategies, will also enable collaborations for the knowledge repository within the organisation. Normally, most enterprises have a KM database, that no one really manages or knows about, hence very little utilisation happens. Data that is kept in some obscure corner of the server may be valuable but its real worth only issues when it is utilised for the company’s benefit. With collaborative tools, it can be used by teams globally or at least enterprise wide, to create the best strategies, driving the company’s growth. This pooling of data, information and insights could be the catalyst that your enterprise needs to get on the fast track!

Tips for Choosing the Right Collaboration Tool for Your organisation

Today any organisation needs effective and efficient Communication among their employees. We call this capability as collaboration tool which is in the form of software and hardware. This collaboration tool has many capabilities i.e. from simple instant messaging, to video or audio conferencing. Some applications may focus on a specific element while others try to incorporate more than one capability.

This application software designed to help people involved in a common task to achieve goals. A collaborative working environment supports people in their individual with collaborative work environment thus evolving into a new class of professionals, e-professionals, who can work together irrespective of their geographical location with many tools stich together. we define Online Collaboration Software as a software application, platform or tool that is delivered as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), or cloud, or on premises having number of capabilities within one platform, either built directly in, or integrated with other applications.

Online collaboration is a valuable tool for any business that wants to be more efficient and effective and isn’t just for companies who had multiple offices located in different geographical locations alone.

Let’s discuss some capabilities of collaboration which is being expected by any organisation.

Some groups want their work done through Group Messaging. We should always look for Integrated messaging features. Collaboration on work doesn’t always mean two or more people are working simultaneously. At time some document which needs to be reviewed by other team members. This is when messaging can be helpful in moving the process on. Users who are viewing the files should be able to leave the message in the file/document. There should also be an option to share the message privately /personally or with a group. Support of Instant messaging IM should also be integrated in the online collaborative tool OR should be part of collaborative conference tool. Sending IM is efficient way to communicate.

There are many ways of doing online conferencing like WebEx, GoToMeeting, Spontania, video, skype, google hangouts etc. and if you are working on any collaboration tool then you should need to supplement your online collaboration software with one of these services. Also we need to see the number of participants in a single conference, normally many solutions are having 25 participants but again depends on the available bandwidth also. We should also see whether the same conference can work as video and audio both? How many continuous presences are available? Public & private chatting is available? Also we should check if connecting the tool with any hardware H.323/SIP video conferencing codecs is possible or not FROM LAPTOP and vice versa? Normally it needs some Gate way software licenses or hardware to connect H.323 /SIP Codecs. All these collaborative tools should also have capabilities for features like application sharing, desktop sharing, white boarding annotation etc.

Then one of the demands are whether you can record the conference on the host pc or on cloud?

Also we are talking about BYOD i.e. bring your own device be it iOS, android smart phones etc. should have the apps available to join the collaboration services from these smart devices as well.

Finally these collaborative tools appeal to the young

One thing for sure that the young generation, group of young people won’t stay unless they’re happy with the tools they’re provided. Email isn’t enough anymore: they expect to communicate much more naturally, just as they do with their friends.

Fail to adapt to this change and you’ll quickly be left behind. If your business isn’t open to collaborative software with latest communication techniques that suit your employees, you might find it hard to find talented employees to fill the gaps in your workforce.

 

With evolving technologies and the advent of advanced applications, telecommunications has triggered a growth in various business sectors. Technological advancement in telecommunications has helped businesses in not just increasing efficiency and productivity, but also reducing expenses. Here are five things that IT team of every business should know about the telecom technology to acquire cost-effective telecom solutions providing optimum business benefits.

DSL services

Reliable Internet access is imperative for every business for uninterrupted services to potential clients, customers and their workforce. Businesses can benefit from the telecom providers who emphasize on providing a range of high-speed Internet options specifically customized to the demands of a company. Value-added services including 24*7 customer support are also critical for excellent workforce productivity.

Unified Communication

All forms of communication are carried on the same network in a unified communication strategy and businesses can immensely improve productivity and efficiency by working with the right service provider. In order to reap the benefits, you must work with a provider that delivers absolutely flexible and secure platform contributing to better responsiveness with both, real-time and non-real-time communication from everywhere. Furthermore, choose a telecom service provider that assures flawless integration of distinctive applications and communication devices as well as networks into a unified platform as a service.

Video and voice conferencing

The need to meet face-to-face with potential partners and clients is critical in different businesses, but is not always viable due to the global reach of the businesses. While there are many options available to sustain communications through video and voice conferencing, getting the right services is crucial. Scalability, network adaptability, availability through various devices, flexibility in plans, instant facilities and multiple layers of security are of high value. A service provider with a wide range of collaborative tools will help you to save on your capex and maintenance costs.

Customer service

To stay ahead, businesses are constantly seeking to redefine their relationship with their customers. With a comprehensive telecommunication plan, businesses get to enhance the quality of their customer service. Telecom service providers give businesses from different sectors opportunities to improve productivity and efficiency with specific tools that can help them handle enquiries in a better way. A competent provider offers optimum-quality and reliable communication services to assist you in managing incoming workload.

Remote and mobile employees

Today, employees in various industries work on the go or from remote locations, which calls for uninterrupted connectivity. Employees that work outside of the office also require easy access to various business operations and seamless exchange of information. Work with a telecom service provider who offers plans that cover remote and mobile employees with secure network connections so that they can leverage the same communication dexterity that in-office employees are provided.

With telecom technology offering so many advantages, it is beneficial for every business to partner with the right service provider that helps them achieve improved productivity, facilitate faster decision-making and gain a competitive edge.