X0PA AI

X0PA AI uses data science and artificial intelligence to make hiring and selections a scientific and objective process.

Algorithms that are built and tested over 100m data and remove biases across gender, race, nationality or other personal details. Additionally the platform helps remove over 80% of other biases that include resume bias, reference bias, video bias, school and social bias.

Research suggests, humans intrinsically practice bias when it comes to judging other humans. This bias is an inherent construct present in us human beings, and experiencing it is unavoidable in current human resource (HR) practices. 95% of bias originate from humans, in the form of human instinct or “gut feel”, 80% of bias stems from schools and backgrounds, where candidates from the upper echelons of educational institutions (Tier 1 schools) tend to be favored over Tier 2 and Tier 3 schools ,thirdly we have 75% of bias originating from resumes, where a well-articulated and polished resume format is considered more favorably over their inarticulate counterparts 50% of bias deriving from source, whereby some gender, race, age, and sexual orientation are considered more favorably over the other.

X0PA is a B2B SAAS platform that works in enabling bias free and equitable selections. Selections include hiring as a very large use case but extends to other use cases such as admissions, scholarships/bursaries etc.

X0PA AI uses data science and artificial intelligence to make hiring and selections a scientific and objective process.

Algorithms that are built and tested over 100m data and remove biases across gender, race, nationality or other personal details. Additionally the platform helps remove over 80% of other biases that include resume bias, reference bias, video bias, school and social bias.

Combining artificial intelligence and automation, X0PA helps companies hire right and hire efficiently hence helping in saving time, cost and resources. The platform is cloud based and is offered as a subscription.

Equity in hiring is all about finding ways to level the playing field. Nobody should have an unfair advantage for a role because of unconscious biases towards their socioeconomic status, or due to the benefits of privilege. However, many of these factors can come into play unknowingly when assessing candidates purely on their education and experience. To make the hiring process fair and inclusive for all, it’s time to go beyond CVs and professional profiles. The ideal candidate should be given the opportunity to demonstrate the critical skills required by the role. 

The problem with a traditional profile-only approach

Reviewing CVs and professional profiles is an important part of the hiring process and that’s not likely to change anytime soon. It’s a logical way to get a snapshot of areas the individual has worked in previously, years of experience and their level of education; amongst many other things. However, the problem with only screening via this method is that a number of unconscious biases and assumptions can seep through this process, causing barriers based on a person’s background, experience, interests and associations.  

Researchers at Harvard Business School and University of Toronto Mississauga found that black and Asian American applicants in the US were twice as likely to get a call for interviews if they ‘whitened’ their CVs. This meant deleting any reference to race and scrubbing any details that could give racial clues. Even those organisations that did profess to be ‘equal opportunity’ employers scored poorly in contacting minority candidates. 

And race is just one of a number of unconscious biases we can see coming through in the early stages of talent acquisition, others can include age, gender/gender identity, disability and many more social characteristics. Ama Afrifa-Tchie and Sarah McIntosh from Mental Health First Aid (MFA) England, mention how ‘people often think that unconscious bias only occurs at interview stage, but it’s embedded through every stage of recruitment from job design and job descriptions, adverts and where you advertise. To remove this inherent bias, you have to assess each stage of the process and analyse in great detail how to create early interventions to remove barriers and promote inclusivity’.

Inflating degrees deflates inclusivity

While it’s important to look at all applicants holistically, best practices for equitable hiring should focus on candidates’ capabilities, rather than purely on their education, academic ranking or years of experience. Perceived notions of schools and ‘degree inflation’ are just a few examples of barriers to diverse candidates and those from differing socio-economic backgrounds. Many candidates are discounted from roles that require 4-year degrees, which in the US rules out 70% of Latinx people, 73% of Indigenous people and 77% of Black people from consideration (Forbes).  

Education is still a vitally important factor in assessing candidates, but taking shortcuts to prejudge that a Harvard or Oxford graduate is going to have the best skills is short-sighted. Education is often used as a proxy for skills, however research shows that is a poor assumption in many cases. Hiring for ‘pedigree’ is another problematic symptom of profile screening that can favour more homogenous pools of candidates, leading to less diverse workplaces. Many candidates’ attendance at more prestigious educational establishments can come as a result of inherent socio-economic advantages and privileges that a lower-income household may not have access to, establishing more barriers for those more underrepresented groups.

Potential over Pedigree – moving to skills-based hiring

‘Shifting from degree and pedigree-based hiring to a competency-based approach can open up new pipelines for organizations struggling to find talent. Introducing objective means to gauge an applicant’s aptitude is intended to give employers a more robust profile of a job seeker’s qualifications.’

      Dismissed by Degrees, Harvard Business School, Accenture & Grads of Life

Think about all those people who might have the skills and knowledge you need for the role, but didn’t gain them in the traditional way. It may have been through the armed forces, through voluntary or charity work, or it might just be that they have been out of the workforce for a few years. With the availability of online resources today, many individuals are self taught or have taken less visible online/distance courses. And even if you do hire the person with more experience, who is to say that they are suited for the individual role and the tasks they will be performing?  

Skill-based hiring has become an important leveler for more equitable talent acquisition. Before knowing an applicant’s full story, employers can discover inherent skillsets through utilizing assessments and tests for candidates around defined, unbiased criteria. Through this method real-life job task performance can be tested, as well as theoretical knowledge. 

While not a new concept, skills tests are not widely implemented, often more manual, and are traditionally given to candidates in later stage interviews when many potential applicants have already been rejected. This is where online assessment hiring platforms can give greater access to a broader pool of candidates at initial stages of the hiring process, levelling the playing field. Solutions utilising AI such as X0PA ROOM then have the ability to drive powerful, objective insights from assessment results, including skill gap and predictive modelling based on answers and profile. The results of these tests can give objective scientific insights into a candidate’s likely performance and skills, which can intelligently widen the diversity of your talent pool before getting to the face-to-face interviews. 

With our platform we hope help propagate equal opportunities to all sections of society, ensure equitable hiring for women, people from under-priviledged  social and economic backgrounds, remove nationality and race biases. Additionally also help people who are neurodiverse (people on the autism spectrum) and all of this through help of ethical AI where selections are skill-based and bias-free.

We already have clients who use our platform and solutions.

Data science is the centre of the solution. We use Artificial intelligence and machine learning to create algorithms to help in scientific selections. The intelligence is then combined with Robotic process automation to make the platform user friendly and intuitive.

We currently have 31 clients- this includes over 11,000 candidates and 250 users. In one year we expect to serve a 100 clients, address over 50000 candidates and in five years to have more than 3000 clients, and help over 5 million candidates.

1. No Poverty: equal opportunities and employment opportunities to all irrespective of economic or social backgrounds

2. Gender equality/ reduced inequalities: equitable and equal opportunities through inclusive hiring features

3. Decent work and economic growth: X0PA's AI focuses on skill based assessment and finding the best match between a person and a role. Additionally it also focuses on ensuring an optimum match between an employee and an organisation to improve retention hence securing accurate hiring.

Corporate staff: 3

Data Science: 7

Ai For autism: 5

Engineering: 20

Sales and business development: 14

We are already established since March 2017. Our product went commercial after rigorous alpha and beta testing in Jan 2019 and we have been actively growing since then.

Our mission with our product is all about making hiring and selections equitable and objective. X0PA is a woman led company with a female / minority CEO. The management team is diverse with people from different racial backgrounds , gender and nationalities. The company constantly ensures that a diverse and inclusive environment is always maintained. The ethos of the product resonates this mission.

We have a product which resonates with the Solve challenges. We are committed to ethical AI and in the area of equal opportunities and inclusive hiring. This resonates very closely with Solve' s challenges and mission.

We are very strong partner player. We believe that growth can be attained exponentially when working with complimentary partners and scaling. We already have strong partnerships with organisations such as  Microsoft, SAP, HP, Intel amongst many others.

HR product companies (Workday etc), complimentary product companies , system integrators and software vendors as well as staffing/ recruitment companies.

Our product has features and processes to ensure equitable and inclusive hiring with the use of AI, data science amongst other features such as cv masking, video masking, cognitive tools and skill based assessments.

The company founder and CEO is a woman.