Boosting DEI efforts is easier with the right workplace technology
Technology tools for work have always been designed to enhance functionality, but employers are also seeing the profound impact that tech can have on their DEI goals — from attracting more diverse talent, to cultivating relationships in the workplace.
At video marketing platform Wistia, some well-placed tech tools and communications efforts have overhauled how their workforce engages with each other, and with the wider world. Wistia’s Slack community, for example, has become a way for employees to talk about, learn and get involved with things that matter to them.
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With designated channels for topics such as awareness and advocacy, employees can find out about volunteer opportunities, join book clubs, share cultural practices and more. This, says Wistia DEI program manager Colin Dinnie, provides different ways for them to engage and also unpack what is happening in the world.
“The separation of work life and home life is a deep fallacy,” he says. “Workplaces are collections of people who are bringing their whole lives with them. You want to leave people with the autonomy to engage in their own way. The more dialogue that is created through the different channels that you have accessible, the more people feel seen and supported.”
Beyond these internal dialogues, Wistia has advanced its DEI efforts by adding an HR hiring tool which allows recruiters to watch interviews back, helping them to focus on capability and qualifications, rather than likeability factors that can lead to homogenous hiring.
“It has been very helpful,” Dinnie says. “Bias in human beings is a very natural thing. It’s more our ability to understand it, keep a critical eye on it, know that it’s happening and work against it.”
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Wistia has made smaller tech tweaks that have had a large impact on the employee experience, Dinnie says. The addition of carefully placed speakers and microphones help Zoom participants to take a more active role in company-wide meetings based in the office, and captions and transcripts copies help to ensure that no one misses any of what is said.
“It’s important to think about the different ways that people give and receive communication,” Dinnie says. “Sometimes it’s not even being hard of hearing or sight — it can just be a different way to consume information for neuro-atypical folks, and different ways [of presenting] that information — technology is a huge way to serve that.”
Wistia has tracked their progress and compiled their findings into a report published publicly on their website. This presentation of data, Dinnie says, makes the importance of DEI clear not just to potential and current employees, but to potential clients as well.
“We have three key insights that help detail the things that we feel went well and the successes we had, and then also the obstacles and things that didn’t quite go as planned,” he says. “The idea behind that is to create accountability and transparency, and set an example that you are weaving [DEI] into who you are as a business.”
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The wide variety of tech tools available today can help companies reach more diverse talent, increase employees’ engagement with the company and each other, and keep track of what works and what does not. Whether through data or communications, Dinnie says, technology can be combined with human touch to guide and inform decisions.
“The reliance should be on the people who comprise your workplace, and technology is like an artificial partner,” he says. “You want to make sure that whatever you’re doing, technology is there to help serve your bottom line and whatever north star you’ve anchored to as an organization for your DEI goals.”
