Originally posted on Marketing Brew by Phoebe Bain, November 10, 2021.
Flexible talent marketplace We Are Rosie (aka a company that matches freelance marketers with projects at brands like Bumble and Hulu) has a new tech thingamabob it claims will help solve the industry’s diversity, equity, and inclusion problem.
- Dubbed the Rosie Roster, the tool matches its freelance talent with clients based on factors that aren’t résumés and “records of privilege and bias,” as We Are Rosie puts it, like titles (CC: the kid in your intern class whose dad got him the job).
- It’s out with the résumé, in with the job description: For instance, the tool takes actual work experience into account rather than titles (think: “I’ve managed a team of creatives” rather than “I was a senior creative strategy manager”), Jessie Kernan, We Are Rosie’s head of product and strategy, told us.
- Kernan mentioned other data points the tool’s algorithms work off of as well, such as what a candidate is most passionate about.
Additionally, rather than presenting a LinkedIn profile pic or a traditional headshot to hiring managers, Kernan told us job seekers can choose from one of 18 avatars and different hair styles, skin tones, and accessories to represent them.
“We’re trying to eliminate the attractiveness bias—which has been a big factor in people getting hired for a really long time—and also enable people to identify as they’d like to identify. We make a lot of assumptions when we see people about who they might be, and those assumptions can impact their career trajectories,” Kernan said.
Why it matters: This is more of a next step for We Are Rosie than a one-off effort—the org is known for its DE&I efforts. “This is our opportunity to infuse diverse talent into organizations that have traditionally had gates on getting in the door, like, ‘Do you have a college education? Have you held a specific title?’” Kernan explained, adding that some of the factors contributing to exclusion in the industry “go out the window” with this tool.