O'Melveny will use online games to evaluate potential summer associates
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O’Melveny & Myers will be evaluating potential summer associates through online games that measure traits such as effort, attention, planning, memory and flexibility.
O’Melveny is using the games developed by neuroscientists at a company called Pymetrics, according to a press release and an American Lawyer article.
O’Melveny is building its own unique algorithm by having its own associates play the games. Pymetrics will build a success profile based on the results and then audit the algorithm to remove potential gender, racial or ethnic bias.
In December, O’Melveny will host calls to introduce Pymetrics to career-services personnel at schools where it conducts on-campus recruiting. Then in January, O’Melveny will make the Pymetrics tool available to any first-year law students interested in applying at the firm.
The goal is to broaden O’Melveny’s recruiting efforts and make those efforts as effective and unbiased as possible.
Darin Snyder, O’Melveny’s diversity and inclusion partner, told the American Lawyer that the strategic goal “is to increase the number of diverse attorneys in our recruiting pipeline.”
Among the companies using Pymetrics are Unilever and Accenture, according to stories published last year by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
O’Melveny is also introducing a “people analytics” tool developed by a company called Werk to survey employees about their needs and desires for flexibility at work. The law firm will use the results in developing flexibility offerings.
