‘Algorithms for company layoffs sometimes provide incorrect advice’

Algorithms that companies use to provide advice on who the company should fire in a layoff round sometimes produce incorrect advice due to limited or incorrect data, experts warn.

Nearly all companies in a survey of 300 American companies say they use algorithms for layoffs, writes The Washington Post. Yet not all companies rely on this advice, because 41 percent of large companies trust that there is sufficient and good data. For smaller companies this is 25 percent.

For example, companies may include the risk that an employee might want to leave in the near future as a factor in the algorithm. If, on average, black employees leave more often due to problems with discrimination and the algorithm does not recognize the cause, it could identify more black employees for dismissal.

In addition, there is a risk in using incomplete data, causing the algorithms to make decisions with the wrong input, which then leads to wrong conclusions. According to the newspaper, many HR departments use algorithms to reduce workload.

A top executive of a company that makes HR software says in the newspaper that companies must be transparent about the use of algorithms and which factors play a role in decisions. The use of algorithms in many places has been a topic of discussion for years, because they can make wrong decisions due to incomplete or incorrect data, or by giving more weight or not taking into account certain factors. It is often unclear why an algorithm has drawn a certain conclusion.