Last week, the EEOC held a public meeting on the growing use of big data and predictive analytics in employment decision-making. A panel of industrial psychologists, attorneys, and labor economists told the EEOC that the use of big data and analytics will continue to grow and is “the future of HR.” The panel generally agreed that such technology has great potential to reduce hiring bias and improve workplace diversity, but only if it’s deployed the right way. As many others have observed, technology built and employed by humans can reflect human biases and unwittingly aid in discriminatory decisions, but there are promising developments. Google, for example, thinks it knows how to prevent discrimination when using artificial intelligence.

• HR Drive wrote about the link between sexual harassment and the lack of women in leadership.
• The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit vacated a lower court ruling which held that sexual orientation discrimination is not sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and granted a rehearing by the full court.
• Palantir responded to the Department of Labor’s lawsuit alleging discriminatory hiring practices.
• Claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act are up 63 percent compared to 2015.
• The City of Anaheim, California settled a discrimination lawsuit from the city’s first Latina attorney for $1.45 million.

• Facebook launched its new Workplace app.
• Forbes rounded up the top innovators in HR technology.
• Facebook executives explained how they adapted their performance review system once they found out that 87% of Facebook workers wanted to keep annual performance reviews.
• The White House issued a new report on the future of Artificial Intelligence.

• Digital health platform Zocdoc announced it would give its employees an “Unsick Day” of paid time off to be used for preventive care doctor appointments.
• Business groups asked a Texas judge to immediately vacate the new FLSA overtime rules, just two days after 21 states filed an emergency motion to temporarily bar implementation of the new rules set to take effect December 1.
• A group of proposed class-action suits over a data breach involving 21,000 employees of Sprouts Farmers Market were consolidated in federal court in Arizona.
• New York state regulators ruled that Uber drivers should be treated as employees, not independent contractors, for purposes of eligibility for unemployment insurance.