AI could help reduce bias in employee performance reviews

Dive Brief:

The rise of AI and "machine learning" may be the key to hiring and teaching better future managers, VentureBeat reports.
A human touch is an important part of leadership, but data-driven tech can help remove certain aspects of bias from the performance review, VentureBeat notes. Bias-free feedback and performance evaluations are, after all, more likely to lead to actual work improvements and increased retention.
As of now, 55% of organizations say they are "weak" at using data to improve their workforce performance.

Dive Insight:

The impact of data in the space is still an area being explored. More HR tech programs include bias reduction as a main focus — though all practitioners should be wary that human-developed algorithms could still hold human-enabled biases.

Interestingly, bias is usually discussed as part of the recruiting aspect of employee retention, not during the actual time an employee works at a company. But any biases that exist at the recruiting level can still exist once a person becomes an employee, creating issues throughout the employee lifecycle. Limiting bias during performance evaluation is one way to improve fairness overall.