How Workplace Equity Technology Improves DEI And 12 Tools

When modern companies need to improve a business process or outcome, they often look to technology for assistance. While using software to enhance a quantitative area like financial performance is standard, technology can be equally helpful for building more effective, inclusive cultures and processes. With workplace equity technology, your company can gain insights into the organization that enable you to improve strategies for hiring, supporting, promoting, and retaining top talent.

Workplace equity technology can help you identify how your current practices and strategies promote (or hinder) diversity and inclusion by revealing gaps that encourage inequities, leave out certain demographics, or lead to unintended results. Tech-based diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) solutions equip organizations with tools to choose better strategies and measure their impact over time using quantifiable data. Advanced analytics features and AI can inform decision-making for staff dedicated to building welcoming workplaces. 

This quick guide highlights ways to use workplace equity technology to enrich your organization and promote fair and inclusive DEI initiatives. It also offers suggestions for quality tools that can enhance the diversity tech stack. 

What are the benefits of using workplace equity technology?

Diverse and inclusive workplaces are often happier, more productive, and more successful than companies that don’t prioritize these aspects. While people drive the diversity journey, workplace equity technology tools make it easier to do impactful work and measure its effectiveness.

Here are some of the top business benefits of diversity, equity, and inclusion:

Better Hiring and Retention

Boosting workplace equity through technology enhances hiring and retention by creating a more inclusive recruitment process, reducing unconscious bias, and ensuring all employees feel valued and understood. 

This results in attracting a wider pool of candidates and encouraging employees to come on board and stay with a company longer. Nearly seventy percent (69%) of respondents to a recent Deloitte survey cited a diverse workforce as the most important factor in accepting a job role. 

Increased Market Competitiveness

Companies that successfully implement DEI practices with the help of technology tend to have better market adaptability. Their workforce reflects a broader cross section of society, helping them understand and meet the needs of diverse customer bases. These companies also have access to data to evaluate and adjust their performance relative to the broader market. 

Enhanced Innovation and Creativity

Diverse teams bring perspectives that fuel innovation and creativity. Welcoming and inclusive workspaces also create an environment where employees take chances, share ideas, and open up regarding their unique perspectives. 

This diversity in thought and experience leads to better problem-solving and product development. Many studies have shown that diverse teams are more innovative. 

Improved Employee Satisfaction and Engagement

When employees feel valued and included, they are more likely to be engaged with their work and committed to their employer. Equity technologies that promote inclusive communication and practices increase employee satisfaction, thereby reducing turnover rates and the associated costs of hiring and training new staff.

Stronger Financial Performance

Studies show that companies with diverse management teams achieve higher revenue growth than their less-diverse counterparts. A study by McKinsey revealed that companies in the top quartile of ethnic diversity are nearly 40% more likely to outperform less diverse organizations. 

By leveraging technology to support DEI efforts, businesses can tap into diverse ideas and strategies that drive superior financial performance.

Positive Company Reputation

Customers are taking notice of brand behavior more than ever. Committing to diversity, equity, and inclusion enhances a company’s reputation and attractiveness. The drive to build an inclusive workforce can help businesses achieve better market reach and acquire additional customers.

Reduced Legal Risk

Implementing equitable practices helps ensure compliance with employment laws and regulations. Awareness and commitment to diversity also help mitigate issues within the workplace to avoid legal action from affected employees. 

Workplace Equity Tech Case Studies

The best way to see how the power of workplace equity technology can build a more welcoming environment is to read about companies that have done just that.

Here’s how NerdWallet and Zillow used the power of technology to create a more inclusive world at work:

NerdWallet

Financial industry leader NerdWallet needed assistance to drive diversity and inclusion in its remote workforce. The company partnered with Paradigm in 2020 to build a more ambitious DEI strategy. Through investment in DEI in its Leadership Pipeline, establishing Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), and rolling out organization-wide training, the company was able to: 

• Expand its percentage of women leaders to over 40%
• Increase the percentage of underrepresented employees of color
• Raise the percentage of women in the technology team to 28%

Zillow Group

Zillow is all about connecting people with a place to call home. The company wanted to instill that feeling of welcome in its growing workforce, so Zillow partnered with Paradigm to build comprehensive D&I initiatives focused on building skills and awareness for a more inclusive culture. With strategy guidance and technology from Paradigm, Zillow: 

• Identified key areas and barriers to diversity
• Created affinity groups that support over 300 employees and feature a Diversity and Inclusion Ambassador program
• Established a top-down approach to D&I, training 75% of its management team and a third of the company at large in diversity and inclusion topics

7 Types of Workplace Equity Technology

Technology can help companies tackle the biggest obstacles to creating a diverse workforce. It allows teams to remove the blindspots and unconscious influences that keep them stagnant in outmoded practices. 

Here are a few of the most powerful tool types companies seek out when implementing a diversity-building tech stack:

1. Recruiting platforms

Recruitment and hiring platforms help organize and analyze candidates’ personal information to streamline the hiring process. These tools enable candidates to engage with hiring professionals and showcase their skills. Some solutions focus on connecting underrepresented groups with potential employers to even the playing field in recruitment and hiring.

Top Recruitment Platforms

• Jopwell helps connect employers with qualified candidates from underrepresented groups, including Latinx, Indigenous, and Black candidates.
• Greenhouse is applicant tracking software (ATS) that offers end-to-end hiring tools for candidate experience management, interviewing, onboarding, and reporting.

2. Bias Detection

Bias detection tools identify and mitigate unconscious biases in workplace communication and policy-making. These technologies analyze various communications and processes, such as emails, performance reviews, and job descriptions, for language or patterns that may inadvertently favor one group over others. 

Highlighting these disparities helps organizations take proactive steps toward inclusivity. It helps organizations center business decisions and communication around inclusive behaviors.

Top Bias Detection Tools

• Textio uses AI to uncover unconscious bias in employee performance reviews and demographic information, helping managers recruit and lead high-performing teams.
• Aporia addresses the bias potential within AI applications, providing guardrails against bias introduced through neural net and large language model (LLM) training.

3. Inclusive Communication Tools

Inclusive speech tools use algorithms to identify and mitigate biased language in real-time communications, promoting a more respectful and inclusive work environment. 

By analyzing speech patterns and suggesting alternative, non-discriminatory phrases, these tools ensure all employees feel valued and understood. Thus, inclusive speech apps are crucial in eliminating unconscious bias, enhancing team collaboration, and supporting an organization’s DEI goals.

Top Inclusive Language Tools

• Allybot is a writing enhancement tool for Slack that improves inclusive communication in team chat by scanning text for non-inclusive language and providing suggestions (visible only to the user) to improve inclusivity. 
• Trinka is a web-based language checker that provides feedback on writing based on six areas of bias. It includes gender, racial, disability, religious, nationality-based, and age-related filters.

4. Online Training

Online diversity training programs allow employees to build the skills and knowledge needed to foster an inclusive workplace. These programs are delivered through digital platforms, making them accessible to every employee and adaptable to every learning style. They cover essential topics such as cultural competency, unconscious bias, and inclusive communication practices. 

By educating employees on these critical issues, virtual training helps create a more understanding, respectful, and equitable work environment.

Top Online DEI Training Tool

• Paradigm Reach is a blended learning tool that combines engaging online learning courses and microlearning resources with in-person, tailored experiences to help employees improve and embrace diversity and inclusion. 

5. Anonymous Reporting

Issues around diversity and belonging arise even in diversity-minded companies. For this reason, companies need a way to enable openness and capture necessary details when an incident occurs. 

Anonymous reporting platforms allow employees to report discrimination, harassment, or other perceived misconduct without revealing their identities. These structures remove the fear of retaliation or negative consequences, increasing the likelihood that an affected employee will step forward.

Top Anonymous Reporting Tools

• AllVoices is an employee reporting tool that helps employers and HR teams surface and investigate workplace incidents while preserving team members’ security and anonymity.
• Whistleblower Software is a centralized reporting channel that complies with relevant privacy regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the EU Whistleblower Protection Directive. The platform enables confidential or anonymous two-way communication between workplace reporters and relevant stakeholders, including HR and compliance teams.

6. DEI Strategy Tools

Diversity strategy tools help teams analyze and measure diversity, equity, and inclusion metrics and use those insights to craft the best strategy for organizational goals. Companies can use DEI tools to analyze workforce composition, hiring practices, promotion rates, employee satisfaction surveys, and other critical diversity metrics. From there, they can identify areas of improvement, monitor progress over time, and promote a more inclusive workplace.

Top DEI Analytics Tool

• Paradigm Blueprint uses the wealth of diversity and equity data already within a company’s infrastructure to help develop a roadmap for improving inclusion and belonging results. The platform helps businesses benchmark their DEI maturity, adopt strategies to harness growth, and find expert advice for crafting more effective programs. 

7. Employee Surveys

Employee surveys are a critical tool in advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion. They gather information about employees’ perceptions, experiences, and suggestions regarding DEI issues. 

The data collected in surveys can be anonymized to protect the interests of individual employees and encourage candor in employee responses. On the back end, this information can help uncover trends and opportunities to boost employee experience, engagement, and longevity.

Top Employee Survey Tools

• Paradigm offers employee survey and culture assessment tools to help organizations understand diversity impacts from the employee perspective. 
• Vantage Circle is a complete employee engagement and benefits platform that aids companies in understanding what motivates their employees. The platform includes employee survey features in addition to tools like rewards and recognition management. 

Paradigm Workplace Equity and Online Training Tools

Creating an effective learning environment is foundational to building diversity and inclusion within your organization. Refining those results through measurement and continuous improvement is just as important. 

Paradigm Reach and Paradigm Blueprint offer forward-thinking teams the tools and resources to build exemplary workspaces where everyone feels a sense of belonging. 

To learn more about growing your diversity and inclusion efforts through workplace equity technology, contact one of our experts. 

December 19, 2024

If you're interested in trying workplace equity technology, contact us today!