Instacart’s Hiring Settlement Comes With a Stamp-Sized Irony
Digital convenience appears to have travelled more efficiently to the customer than to some of the job applicants.
The story
Instacart reached a $5 million settlement over alleged hiring discrimination. The DOJ says some U.S. applicants for PERM-related positions had to mail applications, unlike the usual electronic process. The agreement includes up to $4 million in compensation and $1 million in penalties.
Source: www.foxnews.com
Our reading
A delivery platform is an excellent place to appreciate the difference between removing friction and merely moving it somewhere less visible.
For a customer, convenience is the product: find the thing, press the button, let the system handle the rest. The hiring process described by the authorities introduces a charmingly different relationship with technology. Suddenly, the envelope becomes a remarkably persistent innovation.
The process described by the agencies suggests a very selective version of progress. There is the streamlined customer journey, and then there is the applicant journey, which appears to have taken a thoughtful detour through the stationery drawer. The technology was available; the convenience was unevenly distributed.
The agreement requires changes to the process. That is a useful form of modernisation: extending the idea of an accessible electronic application to the people trying to work at the technology company.
Convenience, it seems, depends on which side of the application you are on.