人工智能将平等带进职场

埃米莉·采盖尔斯基

Inequality in the workplace has long been a hot topic in the corporate world， but gender economist Katica Roy is actively turning that conversation into action. After fighting to be paid equitably twice—and winning—Roy was on a radio show when asked if she thought the pay gap would be closed in her lifetime.

“I said， ‘Well not until we make it an economic issue. And then I thought， oh， I think I can solve that.” Roy explained to Worth CEO Juliet Scott Croxford， during the first day of the weeklong Techonomy Virtual： Reset + Restore conference. “So， that was my entry into entrepreneurship and really looking at gender equity as a massive economic opportunity rather than only a social issue.”

This realization led Roy to found Denver-based Pipeline Equity， an award-winning SaaS company that leverages artificial intelligence （AI） to identify and drive economic gains through gender equity.

“The idea behind [Pipeline and its application of AI] was： If we could change decisions that are made in organizations， the human capital decisions， we could actually make gender equity a reality in our time in our lifetime， rather than the hundred or so years that the World Economic Forum （WEF） talks about.” Roy said. “But also， we could essentially augment the decision making. We could also change the narrative from gender equity as this social issue to an economic opportunity. The thing that we also saw more broadly in the marketplace was that there was an increasing number of CEOs who were committed to gender equity and have made these public commitments. Yet， there was really a difference between making a commitment and living a commitment， really the difference between making that commitment and actually the employee experience of that commitment.”

“So， if we could change the way that the decisions are made，” she continued， “then we could actually catapult that opportunity forward.”

Of course， the WEF pay gap closure predictions were made before the COVID-19 pandemic hit， which Roy called a “she-session，” because women have lost the majority of jobs during this particular economic downturn.

“With remote work and with people being at home with children， most caregiving and unpaid work falls to women，” Roy explained. “Weve seen that theres about 40 percent of U.S. employees [who] dont have sick leave. So， they have to choose between their health and going to work. And most of that actually falls on women… this particular economic downturn has really highlighted all the cracks that were already sitting underneath the system.”

But while this crisis has been a “giant step backward” for equality， “at the same time， what we are seeing is this opportunity to actually use artificial intelligence and use people analytics solutions to catapult us forward，” Roy said.

With the move to remote work， there has been a lot of talk about the flexibility of such situations being good for gender equity， but Roy warned that while working from home could help keep more women in the workforce， it could have a negative impact on female promotions.

“At this moment， theres the opportunity to actually leverage artificial intelligence to ensure that we are not only continuing to make progress on gender equity， but actually catapulting us forward，” Roy explained. “And for companies， that is of particular importance because in the 2008 Great Recession， what we saw was companies that put equity at the core of their crisis management strategy actually increased the velocity of their recovery. So， for companies that are looking to recover， and recover more quickly， from this particular downturn， gender equity is important.”

But to close the gender pay gap， we cant start by talking about pay. “Pay is the symptom， its not the disease，” Roy said. “In other words， pay is the quantitative value that you place on your talent. But the actual value happens before that in performance and potential.” And thats where Pipelines platform steps in.

“We are augmented decision-making，” Roy， who also acts as Pipelines CEO， said. “So much like you would use Google Maps or ways to get from point A to point B， we do the very same thing for companies human capital management decisions. Essentially， its their data， our algorithms. We attach to their HR systems when theyre going to make a decision across these five pillars of talent， which essentially are kind of the five big buckets of talent decisions you make： hiring， pay， performance， potential and promotion. We actually intercept those decisions， essentially audit them. And then if theres any inequity， make a recommendation.”

Using natural language processing， Pipelines platform reads through performance reviews and calls out any biased phrases. “Weve found that on average， women are underrated 4 percent of the time， and that actually impacts their ability to be in the succession pipeline， as well as their pay. So thats what we make possible. Just to give you one more quick stat： The average Fortune 500 company has 60，000 employees. And what we have discovered is that there are really three key decisions that they make across those employees each year， which are performance， potential and pay. So， thats 180，000 opportunities for the average Fortune 500 company to move toward equity each and every year. Thats what we make possible.”

According to Roy， in the next five years， we could reduce the time it will take to tackle gender equity， which is currently estimated at 257 years. “We could actually shorten that quite a bit，” Roy said. “At this moment， we have the opportunity to embrace AI as a tool to achieve gender equity.”

职场中的不平等一直是企业界的热门话题，而性别经济学家卡蒂察·罗伊正在积极地将这一讨论转变为行动。两次为同工同酬而斗争并且都大获全胜之后，她在一次电台节目做客时被问到，男女薪资差距在她有生之年是否会消除。

“我当时的回答是，‘不把它变成一个经济问题就不太可能。然后我想，哦，我觉得我可以解决这个问题。”在为期一周的“技术经济虚拟大会：重启+恢复”首天，罗伊这样对价值媒体公司首席执行官朱丽叶·斯科特·克罗克斯福德解释，“就这样，我走上了创业之路，真正开始将男女平等视为一个巨大的商机，而不仅仅只是一个社会问题。”

认识到这一点后，罗伊便创建了总部位于丹佛的Pipeline Equity。这是一家获奖的SaaS公司，充分利用人工智能，通过性别平等举措，找到经济增长点并促进实现经济收益。

“我（创建Pipeline并运用人工智能）的想法是，如果我们能够改变公司做出的决策——也就是人力资本决策，那么我们在有生之年就能让男女平等成为现实，就不用等到世界经济论坛所说的百来年后。”罗伊说，“而且，我们可以从根本上加强决策过程。我们还可以改变提法，把男女平等从社会问题变为商机。我们在市场上更广大范围内看到，越来越多的首席执行官致力于实现男女平等，并已做出公开的承诺。但是，做出承诺和遵守承诺是两回事，做出的承诺和员工的感受到那份承诺又是两回事。”

她继续说：“所以，如果我们能够改变做决策的方式，就能抓住机会、突飞猛进。”

当然，世界经济论坛关于消除男女薪资差距的预测是在新冠疫情暴发前作出的，罗伊将新冠疫情造成的冲击称为“女性期”，因为在本次经济衰退期，大多数失业者是女性。

“由于远程工作，加上孩子也都待在家中，照看孩子和无偿工作主要就落在妇女身上了。”罗伊解释说，“我们已经看到，大约40%的美国员工没有病假。因此他们不得不在健康和上班之间做出选择。而面临这一选择的实际上主要是妇女……这次经济衰退，让我们社会体系中早已存在的裂痕真正凸显出来。”

罗伊表示，虽然疫情危机对于男女平等来说是一次“大倒退”，但“與此同时，我们也看到了使用人工智能和人员分析解决方案来帮助我们大步迈进的机会”。

由于工作转为远程居家办公，很多人讨论说，这种情形的灵活性有利于男女平等，但罗伊警告说，虽然居家工作可以使更多女性留在职场，但它对女性职场晋升却有负面影响。

罗伊解释道：“目前来看，我们有机会运用人工智能，以确保我们不但在男女平等上继续取得进步，而且是大踏步向前。而对于各大公司来说，这一点特别重要，因为在2008年经济大萧条期间，我们看到的是，将性别平等作为危机管理策略核心的公司复苏速度更快。因此，在这一次的经济衰退期，对于想要复苏、想要更快地复苏的公司而言，男女平等很重要。”

但是，要想消除男女薪资差距，我们不能从谈论薪资开始。“薪资只是症状，并不是疾病本身。”罗伊这样说，“换言之，薪资是对才能的价值量化。但一个人的表现与潜力所产出的实际价值是先于这一量化价值的。”而这正是Pipeline的平台切入点。

兼任Pipeline 首席执行官的罗伊说：“我们是增强版的决策过程。就像你使用谷歌地图或者其他方式从一个地点出发到另一个地点一样，我们为公司人力资本管理决策所做的是完全一样的事。基本上是公司出数据，我们出算法。公司招聘人才时需要在招聘、薪资、绩效、潜力和晋升等五个重要方面做出决策，这时，我们接入他们的人力资源系统，拦截这些决策，基本上是对这些决策做必要的审核。如有不平等情况出现，则会提出建议。”

Pipeline平台使用自然语言处理技术，检读绩效评估报告，挑出带有偏见的措辞。“我们发现，平均而言，对女性的评估低了4%，而这实际上影响了她们后续的升职加薪。是我们发现了这些有待改进的方面。再快速浏览一条数据信息：《财富》杂志评选的世界500强公司平均每家有6万名员工。而我们发现，他们每年对员工做出的其实有三项核心决策，即绩效、潜力以及薪资。也就是说，对于每一家世界500强公司来说，每年有18万个推进男女平等的机会。这些机会是我们找到的。”

在罗伊看来，在接下来的五年间，我们能逐步减少实现男女平等所需的时间——目前估计需257年。“我们能将这一时间缩短许多。”罗伊说，“而现在，我们有机会应用人工智能这一工具实现男女平等。”□