One way to spot a company with a mature diversity, equity and inclusion program is its ability to get down to brass tacks. Companies newer to the world of DEI may only be able to discuss their intentions and what they hope to accomplish with their program. Those that have spent some time in the space, however, can quickly move from intent to progress toward outcomes and the tangible initiatives they’ve launched or plan to launch.
Take Matillion and Uplight, for example.
The two Centennial State companies are doing their part to make tech a more diverse, equitable and inclusive industry, and each has new initiatives planned for 2023 to drive those goals. Matillion is rolling out an internal diversity calendar for 2023 designed to help employees become more aware and informed of religious and cultural holidays and to find ways to celebrate them. Uplight meanwhile is focused on internal employee development programs to help it both attract and retain diverse talent.
Built In Colorado recently spoke to leaders at both to learn more about these initiatives, including the intent behind them and the resources required to support them.
Uplight’s more than 15 software solutions are used by more than 80 utility companies around the globe to forge better relationships with customers through personalized offers, encouraging electric vehicle adoption, providing information on energy-efficient behaviors and more.
What’s one meaningful way you’re driving Uplight’s DEI efforts forward this year? What impact do you hope this will have?
We’re committed to fostering a diverse workforce of happier and healthier employees where inclusion, respect and belonging are foundational to our mission of creating a sustainable future. The people team partners with employee resource groups and managers on actions that help further our DEI strategy. These groups sponsor workshops on topics such as disrupting racial microaggressions, understanding imposter syndrome, financial education, neurodiversity in the workplace and advocating for the needs of working parents and moms.
There are many initiatives we have in store to drive our DEI efforts forward this year, with the outcome that our company culture continues to build upon equitable policies and processes, creates meaningful connections for our remote team members and offers new opportunities for learning and development. A few that I am excited about involve increasing the diverse representation of our leaders by re-establishing clear, equitable hiring and performance-management processes and launching a mentorship program.
We rely on a partnership with ERG leaders, managers and the executive leadership team to drive our DEI work forward.”
Why did you decide to make this a priority in 2023?
Our priority of becoming a destination employer in the climate tech market is centered on four core elements: mission and purpose, career defining, enablement and a culture of inclusion. Each of these foundational elements serves as a building block in developing key initiatives that help our company scale, grow and win. Having a diverse leadership team in the tech industry is not only the right thing to do but addresses the systemic barriers that have historically hindered opportunities for women and underrepresented minorities in this market.
With women leaders switching jobs at higher rates than men, our priorities in developing clearer hiring and performance-management guidelines — along with skill enhancement through a mentorship program — are essential in our inclusion efforts and support for equal paths to advancement.
How is Uplight’s team holding itself accountable to this goal?
We rely on a partnership with ERG leaders, managers and the executive leadership team to drive our DEI work forward. ERG leads develop a plan to set objectives and priorities based on impact and driving specific outcomes as determined by our engagement survey. We’ve established manager expectations to identify and reward behaviors and practices that maximize the potential and contributions of their teams. We train on topics related to performance management and accountability to help Uplighters feel supported in their career path, with individuals and teams also held accountable and recognized when celebrating impactful milestones.
We intend to gather feedback from our ERG leads on ways we can increase accountability regarding building a diverse representation in our leadership. Our executive leadership team relies on data and metrics to drive accountability for improvement, and we intend to roll out quarterly dashboards of our people metrics, with crucial data involving turnover, retention, hiring, engagement, gender parity and more. Accountability is then demonstrated by improved metrics in these areas while yielding better business performance.
Matillion helps companies do more with their data through its cloud-based extract, transform and load tool. The tool leverages a low-code/no-code user interface and integrations with Salesforce, MySQL, Oracle and others to enable teams to more quickly extract data and prepare it for analysis.
What’s one meaningful way you’re driving Matillion’s DEI efforts forward this year? What impact do you hope this will have?
Through Matillion Together, our diversity and inclusion task force, we have introduced the “Matillion Diversity and Engagement Calendar.” We believe it will benefit us in three main ways.
First, we’ll schedule respectfully. The calendar helps ensure our employees will never again be embarrassed or waste time by scheduling an event on a religious or cultural holiday. “We work with integrity” is one of our values and we want to ensure we are respectful.
Second, it creates inclusion opportunities. From Black History Month to LGBT Pride Month and religious observances to cultural holidays, the diversity calendar offers dozens of opportunities to show awareness and respect. This ties clearly to our “we care about our people and our community” value.
Finally, there’s sensitivity training. From inclusion tips to dietary do’s and don’ts, from audio pronunciations to diversity facts, the diversity calendar empowers our employees with valuable skills for inclusion.
From inclusion tips to dietary do’s and don’ts, from audio pronunciations to diversity facts, the diversity calendar empowers our employees.”
Why did you decide to make this a priority in 2023?
Matillion Together was born out of two of our values: “We care about our people and our community” and “We work with integrity.” Having a diverse team means we are more creative and innovative. Having an inclusive team means we are more productive and happy at work. Having a companywide visual calendar will help foster an environment of inclusivity and belonging.
What tools, resources and strategies are you leveraging to support these efforts?
The Matillion Together team is made up of volunteers from across the business who contribute their time to Matillion’s diversity and inclusion efforts. Matillion Together meets monthly to review what’s working and takes an honest look at the impact of our actions. We also seek regular feedback from our colleagues and leaders to hold ourselves accountable to our mission.
