Startup life is intense. Every day feels busier than the last and there are a million conflicting priorities at all times. When time is a precious resource, we naturally rank everything in terms of importance and urgency. When it comes to diversity and inclusion (D+I), while the vast majority of founders and employees agree that it’s important they rarely consider it urgent, which means it often gets sidelined. But failing to see the urgency of D+I, and therefore choosing not to prioritise it, is one of the biggest mistakes a growing business could make. Let’s prove it.
Why it matters: The Case for Diversity and Inclusion
- It’s just the right thing to do. Before we get to the business case for D+I you need to make sure you, your coworkers, and your employer are on the same page here. You’ll struggle to make headway if people don’t agree that we should all be working toward a more equal world, and are motivated by that. No one parameter of diversity is better or more desirable than others — the goal should be to have as wide a representation as possible.
- Diversity drives innovation which drives revenue. See this HBR article for more. Key quote: “Companies with above-average total diversity, measured as the average of six dimensions of diversity (migration, industry, career path, gender, education, age), had both 19% points higher innovation revenues and 9% points higher EBIT margins, on average.”
- More diverse companies outperform sector competitors. See this McKinsey study for more. Key quote: “ We found that the greater the representation, the higher the likelihood of outperformance”
- A more diverse and inclusive team makes it easier to attract and retain top talent. See this article for more. Key quote 1: “A lack of diversity can create an unintentionally hostile environment for those who feel like they don’t fit in.” Key quote 2: “If you make an effort to recruit a wide variety of candidates, your company is more likely to hire the best and the brightest in the labor market.”
- Avoid diversity debt. The same way engineers accrue technical debt when they ship bad code, companies accrue diversity debt with each hire they make before they commit to building a diverse team. The worse your diversity debt, the harder it is to make up, because people don’t want to work for homogenous teams (see point 4). If you believe in the value of diversity, you’ve got to start early.
“When you get these jobs you’ve been so brilliantly trained for, remember that your real job is that if you have some power, you need to empower somebody else. This is not a grab-bag game.” — Toni Morrison
How to Do It: Driving D+I
Re:infer’s space is an especially tough one when it comes to diversity. The UK Tech workforce comprises only 19% women, and 15% people from BAME backgrounds (Diversity In Tech). So when we decided to commit to building a diverse workforce, we knew we had our work cut out for us. However, we also knew that we had an opportunity to build a stronger, more innovative team by centring diversity and inclusion.
We have work to do, but here’s where we’re starting:
1.Find a champion. The drive for diversity needs to come from the top. Inclusion needs to be built into the culture, and the founders and/or CEO are the moral compass of any company. Find a champion (or champions) in your senior leadership — somebody who believes in the value of D+I on a moral level as well as on a business level, and who considers it both urgent and important. Make them the megaphone for the movement.
2. Structure your hiring process. Avoid biasing your hiring process based on “gut feeling” or “culture fit” by taking these specific steps:
Tell your recruiting team that you are looking for a diverse candidate pool. Do not start interviewing until you have one you’re happy with.
Consider relaxing your criteria. We rule out great candidates who are hungry and could learn quickly by narrowing the funnel too much. What are you willing to flex on?
Progress every candidate through each stage of the process at the same time as far as possible to create a fair assessment environment.
Create a structured list of interview questions, and ask each candidate the same questions to give you a better apples-to-apples comparison.
Incorporate a task or project so you can see candidates’ abilities in action.
Make sure candidates meet a diverse range of interviewers from within your company to prevent “groupthink” on your side.
3. Treat D+I like a business objective. You make goals for everything else you want to achieve, right? D+I should be no different. Your goals may need different timelines, but you should have an end-state in mind. While in sectors like ours, it is certainly a challenge to achieve the diversity we’d like, inclusion is more actionable. Workshops, seminars, and building mechanisms to foster transparent communication into the culture can form the basis of tangible D+I business goals.
If you have advice for us as we strive to create a more diverse and inclusive workplace, or if you’re interested in joining us to help build one, contact us at info@reinfer.io or view our jobs page here.
Other useful terms
Groupthink — Humans naturally tend to a desire for harmony, so we avoid conflict wherever possible. Groupthink describes the phenomenon whereby a homogenous group without dissenting voices makes a choice that’s worse than the alternative — or just straight up bad — in the name of harmony, because nobody is bringing a diverse perspective. Diversity = discord = better business decisions.
Confirmation Bias — A cognitive bias that’s true of everyone — we tend to search for, recall and favour information that supports our previously held beliefs. This subconscious editing of information we’re presented with means we bias our views in favour of proving ourselves right. The way around this? Introduce people into your decision-making process who have different outlooks and perspectives to you. Allow them to stress-test your assumptions and make sure your decisions are logically sound and unbiased.
Total Representation — But how come we talk so much about gender and race? Are those the only types of diversity that matter? Absolutely not. Every thread of diversity is equally important. It’s not good enough to reach a perfect gender ratio if everyone who works for you is straight, white, and privileged. Companies should strive for Total Representation — where every minority and disadvantaged group is represented (Thank you to Jopwell for coining this term).
