人工智能將平等帶進職場

埃米莉·采蓋爾斯基

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.”

職場中的不平等一直是企業界的熱門話題，而性別經濟學家卡蒂察·羅伊正在積極地將這一討論轉變為行動。兩次為同工同酬而斗爭并且都大獲全勝之后，她在一次電臺節目做客時被問到，男女薪資差距在她有生之年是否會消除。

“我當時的回答是，‘不把它變成一個經濟問題就不太可能。然后我想，哦，我覺得我可以解決這個問題。”在為期一周的“技術經濟虛擬大會：重啟+恢復”首天，羅伊這樣對價值媒體公司首席執行官朱麗葉·斯科特·克羅克斯福德解釋，“就這樣，我走上了創業之路，真正開始將男女平等視為一個巨大的商機，而不僅僅只是一個社會問題。”

認識到這一點后，羅伊便創建了總部位于丹佛的Pipeline Equity。這是一家獲獎的SaaS公司，充分利用人工智能，通過性別平等舉措，找到經濟增長點并促進實現經濟收益。

“我（創建Pipeline并運用人工智能）的想法是，如果我們能夠改變公司做出的決策——也就是人力資本決策，那么我們在有生之年就能讓男女平等成為現實，就不用等到世界經濟論壇所說的百來年后。”羅伊說，“而且，我們可以從根本上加強決策過程。我們還可以改變提法，把男女平等從社會問題變為商機。我們在市場上更廣大范圍內看到，越來越多的首席執行官致力于實現男女平等，并已做出公開的承諾。但是，做出承諾和遵守承諾是兩回事，做出的承諾和員工的感受到那份承諾又是兩回事。”

她繼續說：“所以，如果我們能夠改變做決策的方式，就能抓住機會、突飛猛進。”

當然，世界經濟論壇關于消除男女薪資差距的預測是在新冠疫情暴發前作出的，羅伊將新冠疫情造成的沖擊稱為“女性期”，因為在本次經濟衰退期，大多數失業者是女性。

“由于遠程工作，加上孩子也都待在家中，照看孩子和無償工作主要就落在婦女身上了。”羅伊解釋說，“我們已經看到，大約40%的美國員工沒有病假。因此他們不得不在健康和上班之間做出選擇。而面臨這一選擇的實際上主要是婦女……這次經濟衰退，讓我們社會體系中早已存在的裂痕真正凸顯出來。”

羅伊表示，雖然疫情危機對于男女平等來說是一次“大倒退”，但“與此同時，我們也看到了使用人工智能和人員分析解決方案來幫助我們大步邁進的機會”。

由于工作轉為遠程居家辦公，很多人討論說，這種情形的靈活性有利于男女平等，但羅伊警告說，雖然居家工作可以使更多女性留在職場，但它對女性職場晉升卻有負面影響。

羅伊解釋道：“目前來看，我們有機會運用人工智能，以確保我們不但在男女平等上繼續取得進步，而且是大踏步向前。而對于各大公司來說，這一點特別重要，因為在2008年經濟大蕭條期間，我們看到的是，將性別平等作為危機管理策略核心的公司復蘇速度更快。因此，在這一次的經濟衰退期，對于想要復蘇、想要更快地復蘇的公司而言，男女平等很重要。”

但是，要想消除男女薪資差距，我們不能從談論薪資開始。“薪資只是癥狀，并不是疾病本身。”羅伊這樣說，“換言之，薪資是對才能的價值量化。但一個人的表現與潛力所產出的實際價值是先于這一量化價值的。”而這正是Pipeline的平臺切入點。

兼任Pipeline 首席執行官的羅伊說：“我們是增強版的決策過程。就像你使用谷歌地圖或者其他方式從一個地點出發到另一個地點一樣，我們為公司人力資本管理決策所做的是完全一樣的事。基本上是公司出數據，我們出算法。公司招聘人才時需要在招聘、薪資、績效、潛力和晉升等五個重要方面做出決策，這時，我們接入他們的人力資源系統，攔截這些決策，基本上是對這些決策做必要的審核。如有不平等情況出現，則會提出建議。”

Pipeline平臺使用自然語言處理技術，檢讀績效評估報告，挑出帶有偏見的措辭。“我們發現，平均而言，對女性的評估低了4%，而這實際上影響了她們后續的升職加薪。是我們發現了這些有待改進的方面。再快速瀏覽一條數據信息：《財富》雜志評選的世界500強公司平均每家有6萬名員工。而我們發現，他們每年對員工做出的其實有三項核心決策，即績效、潛力以及薪資。也就是說，對于每一家世界500強公司來說，每年有18萬個推進男女平等的機會。這些機會是我們找到的。”

在羅伊看來，在接下來的五年間，我們能逐步減少實現男女平等所需的時間——目前估計需257年。“我們能將這一時間縮短許多。”羅伊說，“而現在，我們有機會應用人工智能這一工具實現男女平等。”□