Inclusivity Gains: Technology Solutions For A More Diverse Workforce
Progressive businesses have realized that remote working has broadened the talent pool—so there is no excuse not to engage underrepresented groups
- Why diversity and inclusion are business critical to attracting the best young workers
- How remote working and technological innovation have broadened the talent pool
- Examples of how organizations have leveraged technology to improve inclusivity
- The benefits of recruiting and training a more neurodiverse workforce
Greater diversity, one of the Art of Smart's four pillars for better decision-making—alongside boldness, growth, and innovation—enables companies to thrive in numerous ways. No longer a 'nice to have' or quota-filling exercise, it is business critical in the post-pandemic era.
Four in five United States workers would resign if they thought their current employer was not creating an inclusive work environment, according to a GoodHire report published in July 2022. It’s a global trend. For example, 83 percent of Gen Z and millennials in India would quit their job if their employer didn’t have a diversity, equality, and inclusion policy.
Indeed, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) are increasingly vital deal-makers for prospective candidates when choosing what employer. Moreover, with the Great Resignation trend showing no sign of losing momentum, it is crucial for organizations to up their diversity game. But there are many more reasons besides attracting and retaining top talent to improve workplace diversity.
Research and Markets report data shows that equal opportunity providers make 2.5 times greater cash flow per employee, and inclusive teams are 35 percent more productive. Further, companies that have switched to remote working can widen their recruitment net and hire from a broader pool. There is, then, no excuse not to increase diversity. Technological advances are helping to create a more equitable workforce and breaking down barriers.
The European Space Agency (ESA) offers a bold example. John McFall, a British doctor and Paralympian, who won a bronze medal in the T42 100 meters at the 2008 Beijing Games, is receiving training under ESA's Parastronaut Feasibility Project. As a result, he will become the first astronaut with a physical disability to travel into space.
Innovation improving lives of disabled workers
Pleasingly, there is a growing list showing how innovation improves the working lives of people with disabilities. For instance, Otter.ai helps people with hearing problems engage better in work meetings.
While many professionals see virtual conferences as a blessing, they can be challenging for the hearing impaired. This situation is compounded when participants switch their webcams off, making lipreading impossible. California-based technology company Otter.ai uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to address this problem by converting speech to text.
“According to data from Accessibility Online, 30 percent of working professionals have a disability, 62 percent of which are invisible. We are helping businesses make the workplace more inclusive by improving accessibility in meetings with real-time transcription,” says Sam Liang, CEO and Founder of Otter.ai.
Otter.ai’s live transcription enables deaf and hard-of-hearing employees to follow and participate in a conversation as it happens. It also benefits those with attention deficit disorders, taking the pressure off meetings and allowing them to catch up on content later.
“Otter wasn’t initially intended for specific use by people with disabilities, but after we launched, a variety of users with disabilities began using the tool, especially those who are deaf, hard of hearing, or those with learning disabilities,” continues Liang.
Unsurprisingly, in the last two years, Otter.ai has experienced a 600 percent increase in product use, with more than 20 billion minutes transcribed by millions of users globally.
Expanding reach to underrepresented communities
Elsewhere, Qatari startup Bonocle has developed a hand-held device that uses advanced assistive technology to translate the contents of any electronic device into braille. Portable, powerful, and cost-effective, the device is helping visually impaired people become part of mainstream society, schools, and workplaces. Bonocle was used at FIFA World Cup 2022, making the event in Qatar more inclusive and accessible for people who are blind or have restricted vision.
Meanwhile, Linking Dreams, founded by Chris “Link” Duarte in Arizona, helps companies big and small build diversity measures into their operations. “We form collaborations with organizations and offer them consultancy and DE&I/EIG (Employee Inclusion Group) evaluation,” he says. “The goal is to set up a program to help them expand their reach to underrepresented communities, particularly LGBTQ+ folks.”
Duarte is excited about how gig platforms are helping people from disadvantaged groups enter the global supply chain. “The future of new work brings wonderful opportunities for people from marginalized communities to find a job that pays a liveable wage,” he continues. “By taking on a new gig, getting online, and being freelancers, they can develop their skills and work themselves into an industry that may not have been available to them before.”
Duarte added that the platform economy and remote work also solve organizations’ issues around building inclusive physical setups, such as restrooms for transgender people.
On the other side of the world, India is also making rapid strides in adopting freelance and platform economies. Research by NITI Aayog, the Government of India’s public policy think tank, says that by 2030 more than 23.5 million people will be working in India’s gig economy.
NITI Aayog has proposed fiscal incentives, including tax breaks and startup grants for companies that employ one-third of their workforce as women and people with disabilities (PwDs) through gig platforms.
Creating a supportive environment
There are many other examples of organizations transforming their approach to diversity, especially around neurodiverse recruitment. There is incredible potential here. A 2017 report published by The Harvard Business Review found that 80 percent of people with neurodiversity had not secured employment or continued higher education after leaving school. More recently, in the UK, the Office for National Statistics showed that in 2020 only about 22 percent of adults with autism had jobs.
Things are improving, thankfully. German-based software company SAP was one of the first to actively recruit neurodivergent talent, establishing its Autism at Work program in 2013. The organization, which hires autistic people worldwide, boasts a 90 percent retention rate among its neurodiverse employees and claims the varied makeup of the workforce accelerates innovation.
And Wells Fargo, the American multinational bank, successfully trialed its neurodiversity hiring program in 2020. It has now expanded this to other countries, including India. The mission is not to find a miracle treatment for people with ADHD, autism, or Tourette’s syndrome but rather to create an environment that supports them.
Wells Fargo’s technology division is at the vanguard of this movement to foster a more neurodiverse workplace. This bold approach is already showing incredible results, according to Stephen DeStefani, Wells Fargo Technology Business Services executive and leader of the Neurodiversity Program. “What we’ve seen is remarkable,” he says.
Incredible potential
A number of the program’s participants managed to learn new coding languages in one to three weeks much quicker than “the industry standard of six months.” DeStefani adds: “They’ve shown an aptitude and eagerness to learn and build the skills required to succeed on their team, and in some cases, even become subject matter experts in new technology.”
One neurodiverse hire on the program, Alex Lieberman, sums up the opportunity for other organizations. “We’re people who have different abilities, and there’s a lot of talent in the community that is untapped,” he says.
In a similar effort Stanley Black & Decker, a Fortune 500 manufacturer of industrial tools, has developed NxtGen, a program to recruit and train adults with autism. The scheme was built in partnership with Autism Speak, America’s largest autism research organization. The NxtGen program will also teach the trainers how to accommodate autistic learners.
ESA’s bold decision to send a disabled astronaut into space made great headlines. Media coverage pushes the issue into the mainstream, thus raising public awareness. Across industries, leaders can take cues from these examples and act today to supercharge their workforce diversity and be better prepared for tomorrow.
Ultimately, by utilizing the extraordinary experience and abilities of people from marginalized communities to solve challenging business problems, the more resilient and relevant a business becomes in the post-pandemic era.
Key takeaway questions
- As a leader, how has your attitude to diversity changed—if at all—since the start of the pandemic?
- How could you improve diversity and inclusion?
- What business challenges or opportunities you are facing might be approached differently through building a more neurodiverse workforce?
- How are you developing a culture of inclusivity and supporting marginalized communities within your organization?
- What technology tools could you use to improve inclusivity in the organization?
- If you have improved diversity and inclusion are you communicating this internally and externally to raise awareness?
