Diversity up, Inclusion down – Business Impact & Solution
Let’s start with an existential question – why do we even exist as human beings?
An ultimate accomplishment is to have complete and unhindered self-expression. For most of humanity, this happens best in the context of love, respect and belonging since it makes us feel safe and courageous. We also know that the opposite of courage is not fear, it is conformity. And conformity suppresses creativity and self expression.
Honest D&I is an organization’s way of saying “I love you and I respect you” and leaders have the highest leverage and impact of anyone. For some time this has been a space where the answer to the question of being a company that believes in and practices D&I was “we think so”. It does not have to be that way anymore. People Analytics and in particular ONA (organization network analysis) is a tool companies can use effectively, at a relatively low cost in relation to ROI, to visualize, measure and constantly make increments. We will get to this a little later.
Diversity Doesn’t Stick Without Inclusion
As per HBR, “Diversity” and “Inclusion” are so often lumped together that they’re assumed to be the same thing. But that’s just not the case. I”‹n the context of the workplace, diversity equals representation. Without inclusion, however, the crucial connections that attract diverse talent, encourage their participation, foster innovation, and lead to business growth won’t happen. Numerous studies”‹ show that diversity alone doesn’t drive inclusion. In fact, without inclusion there’s often a diversity backlash.
As noted diversity advocate ”‹VernÄ Myers”‹ puts it, “”‹ Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance.”
McKinsey has been researching this domain for numerous years. The findings below emerge from their largest data set so far, encompassing 15 countries and more than 1,000 large companies. They have incorporated a “social listening” analysis of employee sentiment in online reviews and their findings highlight that companies should pay much greater attention to inclusion, even when they are relatively diverse.
Diversity – Key Takeaways:
- Likelihood of outperformance continues to be higher for diversity in ethnicity than for gender – a substantial differential likelihood of outperformance””48 percent””separates the most from the least gender-diverse companies.
- The greater the representation of women, the higher the likelihood of outperformance; Companies with more than 30 percent women executives were more likely to outperform companies where this percentage ranged from 10 to 30,
- companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 25 percent more likely to have above-average profitability
- despite the awareness, there is a widening gap between D&I leaders and companies that have yet to embrace diversity; the representation of ethnic-minorities on UK and US executive teams stood at only 13 percent in 2019, up from just 7 percent in 2014
- In 2019, fourth-quartile companies for gender diversity on executive teams were 19 percent more likely than companies in the other three quartiles to underperform on profitability””up from 15 percent in 2017 and 9 percent in 2015.
Diversity without inclusion is a story of missed opportunities. Here are some key takeaways from McKinsey’s outside-in research using “social listening,” focusing on sentiment in employee reviews of their employers posted on US-based online platforms. While this approach is indicative, rather than conclusive, it could provide a more candid read on inclusion than internal employee-satisfaction surveys do
Inclusion – Key Takeaways:
- While overall sentiment on diversity was 52 percent positive and 31 percent negative, sentiment on inclusion was markedly worse, at only 29 percent positive and 61 percent negative.
- For the three indicators of inclusion””equality, openness, and belonging”” their research found particularly high levels of negative sentiment about equality and fairness of opportunity.
- Negative sentiment about equality ranged from 63 to 80 percent across the industries analyzed. Negative sentiment about openness ranged from 38 to 56 percent
- Belonging elicited overall positive sentiment, but from a relatively small number of mentions.
HBR research finds that employees with inclusive managers are 1.3 times more likely to feel that their innovative potential is unlocked. And therefore employees who are able to bring their whole selves to work (i.e. who feel included) are 42% less likely to say they intend to leave their job within a year.
Societal Context
Let’s zoom out for a second into a wider societal context. Over 9 million people in the UK ”“ almost a fifth of the population ”“ say they are always or often lonely. The Brits may not be the only ones feeling this way. The overuse of technology is a cause of depression, social anxiety and a lack of meaningful connections. And if we add to this lack of feeling included at work, what kind of a society will we end up creating? This impacts everyone – our own partners, kids, parents. With only a handful of aware individuals (leadership), a world of good can be created in society.
Not only it D&I is right from a humane perspective, but data not only suggests that it makes a good deal of business sense; organizations with the D&I”‹ esprit de corps’”‹ position themselves for business success by attracting the right kind of talent and making them feel like they are in the right place. This spurs safety, feeling cared for and as a result the release of the creative genie out of the bottle for out of the box thinking, non-conformist thinking and exemplary performance. The stats are above to make the business case.
Using Organization Network Analysis for insights into D&I to track and report progress
For some time this has been a space where the answer to the question of being a company that believes in and practices D&I was “we think so”. With Organization Network Analysis (ONA), it does not have to be that way anymore! ONA can be used not only to measure diversity but also to measure network activity and analyze the immersion of different employees across the organization
With ONA, you can map and analyze patterns of interaction across relationship networks of every employee, so Diversity & Inclusion leaders can understand where differences exist in specific groups of employee’s networks in different hierarchies.
Even relatively diverse companies face significant challenges in creating work environments characterized by inclusive leadership and accountability among managers, equality and fairness of opportunity, and openness and freedom from bias and discrimination. However with the right tools, technology and data, you can measure the impact of your various D&I initiatives and make required improvements on an objective basis.
Puneet Sachdev is International Director, Human Capital at The Singularity Lab. The Singularity Lab is an integrated human capital consultancy, helping technology companies achieve exponential results by attracting and retaining top talent and creating high performing inclusive cultures based on data, design and technology. Learn more about our”‹ ”‹ONA solution”‹ for D&I.
Paul Forrest joins Blockchain Technology Partners
Scottish fintech Blockchain Technology Partners (BTP), just announced it had appointed Paul Forrest as its first chairman.
Paul has been advising many FTSE 100 and Global 500 businesses in the past 25 years including Ford Motor Company, Wal-Mart, Virgin Galactic and AkzoNobel. Paul is also on the board of Glasgow based recruitment firm MBN solutions and is involved in the Virgin Startup Programme as a mentor. Always interested in blockchain he founded the IdeaGist Blockchain Incubator.
Duncan Johnston-Watt, CEO & Co-founder of BTP said: “Paul understands the potential for growth in enterprise blockchain adoption, having been involved in this space for several years and at the cutting edge of successive waves of innovative enterprise technologies throughout his career. We are delighted Paul has decided to take up this role and help us scale the business and lay the groundwork for future investment.”
Paul Forrest said: “I am excited to be joining BTP at a pivotal point in their journey. Their management team has demonstrated an ability to develop a scalable product and close early enterprise deals. Given the present circumstances I was particularly impressed by their ability to secure a contract with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange to deliver their innovative blockchain-based securities lending platform.”
Paul was involved in BTP’s latest angel funding round which was led by Aberdeen Asset Management co-founder Martin Gilbert and former deputy Andrew Laing.
Mental Health in the workplace under COVID-19
Coronavirus is inevitably something which has affected us all. It has affected how we feel, how we work, and how we live. We want you to know that no matter how you are feeling during this time, you are 100% not alone. You are completely normal. You are acting like a fully functional human being reacting to threat, and we are all hardwired to do this.
So what is the hardwiring of humans that makes us feel anxious, irritable, and unmotivated during this worldwide pandemic? We explore what roles various parts of the brain have to play in our reactions to this threat. We are hopeful that by gaining an understanding of these functions, we can recognise and respond in ways that will work more effectively for us.
None of us really have any control over the coronavirus spread, or the economic situation. But we can act to help ourselves. We believe that through having structure and routine; acknowledging our thoughts and feelings; practicing mindfulness; becoming aware of our breathing; taking care of our physical needs; and considering our personal values, that we all might be able to take some steps towards improving our mental health during these times.
Below you can find our blog around Mental Health and how OK Positive can help with supporting you individually and your company.
Ex-Paypal CEO joins Money Dashboard
Scottish fintech Money Dashboard has just announced that Renier Lemmens would join the company as Chairman.
This is a great news for the fintech as Money Dashboard is gearing up to launch payment capabilities. With experience on the board of Revolut and as CEO of PayPal EMEA, Renier brings a lot of fintech knowledge.
Those are busy times for Money Dashboard with recent announcements about partnerships with Nutmeg and Wealthify.
Steve Tigar, Money Dashboard CEO commented:
“We’re delighted to welcome Renier to the board. His impressive experience as a fintech VC, CEO of Paypal EMEA and board member of Revolut will be invaluable as we enter our next phase of growth. We are particularly excited to have Renier on board as we prepare to launch our payments service, in addition to a number of other features that will revolutionise the way people organise and grow their money.”
Renier Lemmens, Money Dashboard Chairman added:
“Steve and the Money Dashboard team have done a fantastic job at building a product that truly helps people master their money. I am delighted to join them on this mission and look forward to helping the company go from strength-to-strength and leverage open banking to help millions of people.”
How a fintech is helping people to receive affordable loans
The University of Edinburgh and Scottish fintech Inbest are collaborating on a research project that aims to address the challenge of accessing income benefits and affordable finance swiftly for those individuals who have suddenly been made financially vulnerable as a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic. The project has been awarded a Data-Driven Innovation Grant Innovation and also has the support of Scotcash and Advice Direct Scotland.
The project will propose a new credit assessment method that takes into account the amount of benefits that the applicant is entitled to receive and will suggest a repayment schedule based on the applicant’s timeframe of receiving the benefits and their expense behaviour. This method will help affordable lenders to make better short-term lending decisions for individuals who otherwise may fail to meet the standard credit risk models. The project will leverage on Inbest Benefits calculator and its banking analytics platform to calculate individuals’ benefits entitlement and financial situation.
The project came to light as a response to the priorities underlined by the Scottish Fintech Consumer Panel – an industry group set up by Fintech Scotland that aims to support inclusive fintech business development by connecting citizen advocate groups into the fintech ecosystem. The consumer panel played a fundamental part in the project proposal by defining the project scope and connecting the participants.
Raffaella Calabrese, Associate Professor at University of Edinburgh Business School, said:
“We are delighted to work on such a pressing issue for Scottish citizens as, in the last month, Scotland has seen 130,000 new applications for Universal Credit, compared with 20,000 the same time last year. Our objective is helping financially vulnerable customers to access cheaper sources of financing and improve their resilience to financial shocks. Customers’ credit capacity will be further enhanced as the lending assessment will also include the potential impact of financial recommendations such as their benefits entitlement”.
Manu Peleteiro, CEO of Inbest, said:
“This project is another great example of how Scottish institutions and companies are collaborating to develop data-driven solutions to improve financial inclusion. We are looking forward to sharing the lessons learned from this project on the Fintech Consumer Panel, raise awareness of financial vulnerability and drive new initiatives to improve design access and management of benefits and affordable loans”.
Nicola Anderson, Strategic Development Director at FinTech Scotland welcomed the initiative.
“This initiative demonstrates the real value of bringing citizen and consumer needs to the forefront of FinTech development. Using focused research and data analytics, the collaboration between Inbest, the consumer groups and the University of Edinburgh’s has helped develop an enterprise that can help people at a time of crisis and real need. It’s another great example of how inclusive innovation in financial services can deliver good outcomes for people and society”.
Coronavirus, Autism and Fintech
The Coronavirus crisis has led to the largest move to remote working that anyone has ever seen, with many companies switching to homeworking almost overnight. I have witnessed some surprising lessons on the power of neurodiversity in a crisis like this.
Autism and the fintech opportunity
When we founded auticon in 2011 we believed that diversity is a strength that enhances problem-solving ability. Neurodiverse people often excel at business intelligence, quality-assurance, test automation and complex software development projects. They have unique cognitive strengths: attention to detail, a systematic way of working, logical analysis, pattern recognition, error detection and sustainable concentration for routine activities.
Autistic individuals are equally capable of excelling in STEM subjects and many achieve degrees or advanced qualifications. However, in a recent survey of more than 3,000 technology leaders, IT outsourcer Harvey Nash and auditing firm KPMG found that 67% reported that a skills shortage was preventing their organisation from keeping up with the pace of change. Autistic people are often overlooked or not considered as a source of talent, with some studies showing that up to 90% are either unemployed or underemployed.
The fintech sector is one that could benefit massively from onboarding neurodiverse people with STEM related skills and above average attention to details.
Autism and homeworking
Prior to the coronavirus crisis, most consultants at auticon worked from client sites or from our offices. That seemed to be the best way to make sure everyone performed at their best. Autistic workers like consistency in their office environment and routines. We employ Job Coaches to work closely with our consultants. They suggest adaptations to work environment, smooth out any bumps and ensure that our consultants are set up for success. They are also on hand to support our clients.
We had to change all of this when the coronavirus struck and on 23rd March, we matched our clients and transitioned all of our team to homeworking. Fortunately, everyone already had laptops and mobile devices, so we didn’t have to worry about the technology part of the equation. Our main concern was whether we could maintain productivity.
Overall, this has gone better than we hoped. Traditional managers at many organisations may worry that team members who work from home may not put in the same level of focus or be able to meet deadlines. We never have to worry about this. Autistic people tend to be very direct and honest. If you ask them if they are being productive working from home, they will tell you the truth. (If they were watching Netflix, they will tell you that, too.)
auticon consultant, Kyle Walker says he actually prefers working remotely as for him, the most stressful part of his day was the bus journey to his client’s office. With that out of the equation, Kyle is very happy and probably a little more productive on his client’s project.
The tech tools we used for remote communication, such as Slack, Zoom and Microsoft Teams, also work very well for us. Autistic people often prefer to interface via a precise text or email. Verbal or face-to-face conversations, which involve body language and emotional expression, can be more subjective and challenging. Some of our consultants who aren’t comfortable making eye contact in person found that they were able to do so on Zoom calls, giving them a new way to connect.
The Coronavirus challenge and opportunities
We have seen additional business opportunity during the coronavirus crisis. Going virtual has meant our global operation is working together more closely, leveraging a much deeper resource pool with specific technical capabilities in near real time. We are working across multiple time zones to assist clients with rapid deployment in a very cost-effective way. This global virtualisation may have taken us months or years to realise prior to the crisis.
Having a team capable of working very effectively from home is powerful. Beyond the current coronavirus lockdown, many organisations will rely much more on remote working and need to have a workforce that’s capable of doing this effectively. In auticon’s experience, hiring more autistic people is an answer. Not only does it bring more diverse thinking to a team but it is also an ideal way to make sure that you are staffed up with people who naturally excel at remote work.
Written by Emma Walker, Regional Manager ”“ auticon Scotland
Auticon provides a neurodiverse and agile workforce to improve clients information technology projects predominantly in areas such as Data Science, Quality Assurance and Cyber Security.
Photo by Polina Zimmerman from Pexels
Scotland, a thriving fintech sector
As part of the series on “Innovation in finance” the BBC have produced a video exploring the fintech developments in Scotland
It has been produced in collaboration with Innovate Finance, Scottish Enterprise, Direct ID and Fintech Scotland
The video includes interviews with FinTech Scotland’s Nicola Anderson, DirectID’s founder and CEO James Varga and students from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow and Newbattle High School in Edinburgh
The video covers how fintech is already impacting every aspect of society with the aim of making the world a better and fairer place for all through innovation.
Scotland is highlighted as an ideal place to lead the fintech movement with its rich history of both financial innovation and entrepreneurship. This is in addition to the great work done by universities in producing the talented people of tomorrow as well as the research that will drive innovation. For example, the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow was the first in the UK to launch an MSc in fintech.
As an example of entrepreneurship, the innovative DirectID is showcased to demonstrate how the use of financial data and technology, can help people with low or no credit score access financial products they would previously have been refused.
Scotland is one of the best places to start and grow a fintech business because of the quality and cohesiveness of the cluster. With over 130 fintech firms in the fintech community, 50 established global financial firms, a vibrant tech scene, mobilised world-class universities, a strong presence of the regulator and the support of the Scottish Government.
For this reason, Scotland is attracting more and more fintech firms from around the world and developing a fintech cluster which is innovative, collaborative and inclusive for all “