How iCIMS supports the NYC Automated Employment Decision Tools law

November 26, 2024

 

Bill O'Connor

4 min read

Do you know about the latest AI-related hiring laws? New laws and regulations emerge every day, and unless it’s your job to know them, you may not be aware of how they impact your organization. As iCIMS continues to maintain and evolve our Responsible AI program, we are sharing highlights from current and emerging laws to help employers remain compliant in their use of AI recruiting technology.

In this article, we’re diving into the NYC Automated Employment Decision Tools legislation (1 N.Y.C. Local Law L.L. 2021/144, 12/11/2021, referred to here as the “AEDT Law”).[1]

What is NYC Local Law 144?

In December 2021, the New York City Council passed legislation that impacts employers and employment agencies using automated employment decision tools (AEDTs) to screen candidates and employees in New York City (meaning the job location is in, or is associated with, New York City at least part of the time).[2] This legislation, known as NYC Local Law 144, first enforced in July 2023, includes several key requirements to ensure fairness and transparency in the hiring process.

What’s an AEDT?

In short, any AI that is used to provide simplified output or make a recommendation in the screening or hiring process is an AEDT. Defined by the AEDT Law, an AEDT is “any computational process, derived from machine learning, statistical modeling, data analytics, or artificial intelligence, that issues simplified output, including a score, classification, or recommendation, that is used to substantially assist or replace discretionary decision making for making employment decisions that impact natural persons.”

When the AEDT Law was first passed, iCIMS evaluated all the tools and features in iCIMS Talent Cloud AI and determined that one particular feature does fit that definition: Candidate Ranking using Role Fit. Candidate Ranking uses AI technology to help match candidate skills and experiences to those listed in a job description and surfaces the highest-matching candidates. Because Candidate Ranking helps provide recommendations about job candidates in the screening process, it fits within the definition of an AEDT.

Once iCIMS reached that conclusion, we began to obtain the information needed to support our customers with their compliance with the AEDT Law.

Key requirements

There are two primary requirements of the AEDT Law: a bias audit and advance notice. The details and how iCIMS helps our customers comply are explained below:

Bias audit

Under the AEDT Law, the term “bias audit” refers to an impartial evaluation by an independent auditor, which includes (but is not limited to) the testing of an AEDT to assess the tool’s disparate impact on race, gender and the intersection of those categories. This bias audit must be conducted no more than one year prior to use (i.e., at least annually). This audit must be performed by an independent auditor and a summary of the results must be published publicly. Even though the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) has clarified that the vendor that creates an AEDT is not responsible for performing a bias audit,[3] iCIMS recognized that meeting this audit requirement would be incredibly burdensome for our customers. iCIMS was in a better position to provide the information needed for the audit, including robust data about the AEDT, our governance practices and disparate impact findings.

iCIMS obtained its first bias audit report in November 2022, with favorable results, and had a successful audit repeated in November 2023. Each of these bias audits was performed by a trusted third-party independent auditor. iCIMS will continue to perform these audits annually and will provide a public summary of our audit findings to customers upon request.

Since the bias audit requirement is such a crucial component of the AEDT Law, iCIMS has taken steps to ensure that we track and evaluate the Candidate Ranking tool on a weekly basis to ensure that there are no significant deviations or disparate impacts on evaluated candidates. This gives iCIMS and our customers peace of mind that we will continue to have favorable audit findings.

Advance notice and accommodations

Candidates must be provided with notice that they may be evaluated by an AEDT at least 10 days before the tool is used. Employers and employment agencies can provide this notice on the employment section of their website — it does not have to be provided on each specific job posting.[4] Employers and employment agencies can begin using an AEDT 10 business days after posting this notice on their website regardless of when a specific job was posted.

A candidate must also be able to request a reasonable accommodation if they are entitled to one under another law (the AEDT Law itself does not require an alternative method of screening).[5] iCIMS’ software allows customers to provide their own privacy and other notices in their career portals. Customers can tailor these notices as needed to provide any details that they require. iCIMS also provides several system configuration settings to help our customers provide an opt-out mechanism so that their candidates can request an alternative selection process if one is needed by a candidate under another law.

Other obligations

Although iCIMS can assist its customers with the primary requirements of the AEDT Law, customers do need to be aware of their specific obligations and determine the best methods for compliance for their business.

To learn more about how our AI-embedded technology can help you comply with NYC Local Law 144 and enhance your hiring process, visit the iCIMS Community and read the article Understanding How the iCIMS Talent Cloud Can Support the NYC Automated Employment Decision Tools Legislation.

[1] L.L. 2021/144, 12/11/2021, eff. 1/1/2023, available at https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/newyorkcity/latest/NYCadmin/0-0-0-135598

[2] See https://www.nyc.gov/assets/dca/downloads/pdf/about/DCWP-AEDT-FAQ.pdf for details on other terms and applicability

[3] https://www.nyc.gov/assets/dca/downloads/pdf/about/DCWP-AEDT-FAQ.pdf

[4] Ibid.

[5] https://rules.cityofnewyork.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/DCWP-NOA-for-Use-of-Automated-Employment-Decisionmaking-Tools-2.pdf