These 6 Business Leaders Are Moving the Needle on DEI
The tech industry is forward-thinking by design. But committing to innovations that can help make the world a better place doesn’t preclude companies from also needing to improve their internal processes – especially when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Addressing personal biases and blindspots, encouraging diversity of perspective, and creating spaces of equity in the workplace are all elements of professional DEI initiatives, a current area of focus for many companies. After more than a year of weathering a pandemic and navigating heightened political and racial tensions, both in the United States and elsewhere, employees deserve — and demand — to feel safe, seen and supported at work. Ensuring that this is the case across the board requires a company-wide commitment to DEI, but valuable progress must also be made on the individual level.
“Regardless of our role, one key action all of us must take is to consistently ask ourselves questions about our identities and how they impact our decision-making,” explained Jamie Villarreal-Bassett, director of diversity, equity and inclusion at Pinnacol Assurance.
“Accelerated awareness,” as Villarreal-Basset describes it, involves questioning one’s own perspective on the world so as to broaden it, focusing on honest self-assessment and making personal growth a priority. “Acknowledging the fullest picture allows us to see the beauty and brilliance within ourselves, our colleagues and the world around us,” she added.
Built In sat down with business leaders at six different tech companies to discuss the individual contributions that employees can make to creating a more inclusive workplace, as well as the specific steps they’re taking to bring about change.
As Colorado’s largest workers’ compensation insurance carrier, Pinnacol Assurance is committed to keeping all workers safe and supported.
Beyond simply speaking up, what’s one concrete action an individual contributor can take to bring about meaningful change in their organization as it pertains to diversity, equity and inclusion?
Individual contributors are critical to any DEI journey. To realize DEI, we must uplift and shine a light on the value individuals bring. I call this practice “accelerated awareness.” Each individual can flex this muscle by asking these questions: What are my identities, and how are they affecting what I see, hear, feel and do? Is what I am saying and consciously thinking in alignment with my actions? Are my actions matching my beliefs?
Each of us have our own lenses, but we have an opportunity to widen our aperture and field of view. Are we seeing, hearing and feeling the whole picture? When planning a project, am I considering whose ideas I am uplifting? As a mother, for example, am I discounting the needs of those without kids or failing to consider other types of caregivers? Do I make judgments about contributions from colleagues whose racial identity differs from my own? Am I valuing all types of difference or staying comfortable with what feels common?
This might seem like an inconsequential task. But in reality, if done consistently, it allows us the opportunity to drastically change our organizations. Once adopted, this practice is hard to shut down. It can help us to see people for who they really are, along with all of the wonderful differences and commonalities they bring to the team. If we regularly ask ourselves these questions, we strengthen our ability to be conscious of our biases, effectively mitigate them and contribute to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion.
Each of us have our own lenses, but we have an opportunity to widen our aperture and field of view.”
How does the leadership at Pinnacol Assurance encourage or empower individual employees to be vocal and active in driving forward initiatives that improve diversity, equity and inclusion?
Commitment from leadership at Pinnacol has been critical to propelling our DEI journey forward, encouraging and empowering team members to contribute to our DEI initiatives and modeling our company values. What happens at the top reverberates throughout the organization. Our chief customer officer and our vice president of human resources have especially worked to model what it means to be champions of equity.
In 2020, Pinnacol formally began its journey; our chief customer officer started the DEI Advisory Council, consisting of nine team members across the organization. Their intention was to enable employees to use their voice, share their experiences and help Pinnacol become a better place to work. Through the council, leaders created space for team members to share where they had experienced inequities and where they also saw opportunities, giving them the tools, resources and time to take action.
Pinnacol leadership commits to ensuring that DEI is a strategic priority, providing sponsorship and empowering members across Pinnacol to lead. This modeling from the top has been critical to embedding DEI and ensuring initiatives remain relevant, consistent and persistent in pursuit of our DEI goals.
With its suite of business continuity and disaster recovery solutions, Agility Recovery helps businesses stay in business. Pursuing diversity, equity and inclusion is, like many other areas of focus for the company, is statedly a team effort.
Beyond simply speaking up, what’s one concrete action an individual contributor can take to bring about meaningful change in their organization as it pertains to diversity, equity and inclusion?
Many things we do as individual contributors can bring about meaningful change in our organizations. One such change I have made here at Agility Recovery is partnering with Circa and Diversity Job Boards to ensure our job postings are reaching a plethora of diverse candidates. This partnership not only improves our visibility to diverse candidates but also allows us to do community outreach to organizations that support diverse communities and individuals.
Many things we do as individual contributors can bring about meaningful change in our organizations.”
How does the leadership at Agile Recovery encourage or empower individual employees to be vocal and active in driving forward initiatives that improve diversity, equity and inclusion?
Our leadership does an amazing job of giving employees the chance to share their thoughts and perceptions about DEI in the workplace. Our employees receive weekly engagement surveys that focus on not just how they relate to their managers or peers but also on inclusivity and belonging. Employees share their feedback anonymously and leave comments if they wish.
Our managers also check in with employees during one-on-ones to ask whether they feel they have psychological safety to speak up about their concerns openly and honestly. We have found that these measures have created high levels of engagement across the organization in matters of DEI.
Guild Education is a mission-led, women-founded and venture-funded company committed to expanding opportunity through education for America’s workforce. Guild partners with employers to build strategic education benefits programs for their employees, with a technology platform and a diverse academic network of the best schools for working adults.
Beyond simply speaking up, what’s one concrete action an individual contributor can take to bring about meaningful change in their organization as it pertains to diversity, equity and inclusion?
When you see or experience a gap, say something. Whether it’s to your manager, your people team or another leader you trust, share when you see opportunities for improvement.
At Guild, we are committed to cultivating an environment where everyone is addressed by the name and pronouns that feel most comfortable and affirming for them. However, our technical system for putting this practice in place was imperfect, and it resulted in one employee’s email account being created with their legal name, rather than their preferred name. The employee brought it to our attention, and we put together a cross-functional group to solve this challenge. Each team shared their potential solutions and systems limitations, collaborating to develop interventions to ensure that this mistake would not reoccur.
This problem-solving resulted in a process in which every candidate inputs their legal and preferred name on their job application, to ensure we’re pulling that information into every internal system. If the employee hadn’t raised this feedback, we likely wouldn’t have thought to audit and improve that system, which could have negatively impacted other employees.
Whether it’s to your manager, your people team or another leader you trust, share when you see opportunities for improvement.”
How does the leadership at Guild Education encourage or empower individual employees to be vocal and active in driving forward initiatives that improve diversity, equity and inclusion?
Guild views DEI as both a moral and business imperative. We are committed to ensuring our approach to this work is intentional and strategic. Guild’s mission of unlocking opportunity for America’s workforce is inherently equity work. Everything we do — whether directly with our learners, externally with our partners, or across internal operations — anchors back to DEI principles; it’s our expectation that this lens is incorporated into our day-to-day responsibilities.
Employee resource groups (ERGs) are the backbone of a strong DEI roadmap. These groups are essential for building community among historically marginalized and underrepresented populations. They’re also an essential component of advocating for more inclusive workplaces. We believe in funding DEI initiatives so each ERG receives a significant budget, and elected leaders are equitably compensated for providing the framework to our DEI strategy. Each ERG is assigned a senior-level sponsor who serves as a trusted advisor and advocate for the ERG. We currently have six ERGs, with 50 percent of our workforce belonging to one or more groups. Allies are warmly welcomed at any ERG, and growth of these groups will continue as we scale.
Emerge’s digital freight marketplace is a logistics management platform for shippers and carriers in the trucking industry, reducing costs and boosting productivity across a historically fragmented, $800 billion industry.
Beyond simply speaking up, what’s one concrete action an individual contributor can take to bring about meaningful change in their organization as it pertains to diversity, equity and inclusion?
An individual contributor can ensure that they do not interrupt others when they are explaining their point of view. Oftentimes, minorities in workplaces are interrupted and spoken over, which not only disrespects their perspective but also doesn’t give them an opportunity to chime into conversations. Meetings present opportunities for entry-level employees and middle management to impress an executive or member of senior leadership. By not interrupting other employees, everyone is able to get their point across, which fosters a collaborative work environment for all.
How does the leadership at Emerge encourage or empower individual employees to be vocal and active in driving forward initiatives that improve diversity, equity and inclusion?
Our chairman personally announced his backing of our DEI council to ensure that all levels of the organization understood the importance of its mission. He also joined our monthly council meeting to empower its members to share their ideas for building a better company.
PointsBet is a digital bookmaker and sports betting platform. The Australian company is the official sports betting partner of NBC Sports.
Beyond simply speaking up, what’s one concrete action an individual contributor can take to bring about meaningful change in their organization as it pertains to diversity, equity and inclusion?
Much of the meaningful change we have seen as a country and business community can be traced back to a single source of disruption sparking action in a larger group of individuals. We each have a role to play in creating a positive culture, celebrating diversity, ensuring equity and building inclusion. When I think about the workplace, I tend to concentrate on the actions of managers who have the opportunity and responsibility to intentionally challenge their own biases. Managers must ensure that all of their direct reports are heard, given constructive feedback and provided with the professional support to be their authentic best.
I concentrate on the actions of managers who have the opportunity and responsibility to intentionally challenge their own biases.”
How does the leadership at PointsBet encourage or empower individual employees to be vocal and active in driving forward initiatives that improve diversity, equity and inclusion?
We are constantly working to strategically disrupt systems of oppression and mitigate interactions that do not support our commitment to diversity, authenticity and meaningful opportunity. We do this by actively seeking feedback on our culture, programming and business strategy. Internally, we encourage allyship, supporting others and intentionally engaging with communities that have been traditionally marginalized. We have found that it takes several approaches to have organizational cultures that are truly equitable and celebrate diversity.
Funding Circle is a peer-to-peer lending marketplace that allows the public to lend money directly to small and medium-sized businesses.
Beyond simply speaking up, what’s one concrete action an individual contributor can take to bring about meaningful change in their organization as it pertains to diversity, equity and inclusion?
Don't be afraid to point out opportunities to increase inclusion. For example, If your team is hiring for a new role, and you’re building an interview panel that is all one gender, you could say,
“I notice the interview panel for this role is only men. Is there any way we could add a woman to the panel? That would help us make sure we are getting more diversity of perspective.” Host events that might teach people about your cultural traditions or customs. At Funding Circle, we have hosted panels about Lunar New Year, Passover, Black History Month and Cinco de Mayo. These events are often a mixture of fun and learning, as people get to share their culture and life experience.
How does the leadership at Funding Circle encourage or empower individual employees to be vocal and active in driving forward initiatives that improve diversity, equity and inclusion?
We offer employees the option to build affinity groups. Two groups that have done amazing work at FC are Women@FC and Circle of Pride. Both groups have created new levels of inclusion. Circle of Pride has led an initiative to complete tasks listed on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index; this process has helped FC institute policy changes that make our organization more inclusive for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees.
We have a very active D&I committee in the United States and established our charter in 2019. This group is very data-focused. We regularly review wellness and engagement surveys by gender and ethnicity to ensure all FC employees are having an equitable experience. When we see disparities between scores, we often host listening sessions to see how we can improve the experience of underrepresented groups at FC. Over time, we’ve seen these changes improve the employee experience. Driving systemic change requires diligence and a real commitment to leveraging the data. This committee also regularly reviews our recruiting funnel to ensure we are creating an equal opportunity for women and underrepresented minorities.
