If you’ve listened to the Contingent Workforce Weekly podcast over the past few years, you may have heard me utter this phrase many times: when it comes to the Future of Work movement, non-technological attributes are just as critical as technology and innovation. Aspects like flexible business thinking, transformative leadership, and an overall agile culture can be just as crucial to an enterprise as the new technology they leverage to get work done.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion represent, perhaps, the most important of these strategy-led Future of Work tenets and deserve a rightful place in the pantheon of work optimization approaches. Diverse workforces, inclusive workplaces, and an overall environment of equity can pay massive dividends for businesses seeking to spark innovation within their total talent community.
I spoke with several technology leaders across the contingent workforce, digital staffing, and HR arenas for their unique perspectives on DE&I as core Future of Work tenets:
Brian Hoffmeyer, SVP of Market Strategies, Beeline
“Leaders should place the same (or – frankly – more) emphasis on DE&I when compared to other Future of Work topics because, first and foremost, it is the right thing to do; we believe that companies and individuals have an imperative to ensure that historically underrepresented people are treated inclusively and equitably. Second, diverse teams win – study after study shows that more diverse teams and companies out-innovate and outperform those who are not. Finally, based on the first two reasons, there is so much opportunity to drive DE&I initiatives in the extended workforce as these programs often lag their full-time counterparts and companies can more quickly hit their DE&I goals due to the transitive nature of this critical part of the workforce.”
Allison Robinson, Founder and CEO, The Mom Project
“By 2025, millennials will make up 75% of the workforce, and they are the most diverse in American history. If you aren’t actively creating a diverse and inclusive environment for future talent that is front and center in every aspect of your business and culture, you will miss out on this talent. Technology investment and digital transformations mean little without the commitment to a more diverse workforce behind them to drive results.”
David Trachtenberg, Chief Marketing Officer, Workforce Logiq
“For too long, organizations have focused their DE&I programs on dollar diversity – their percentage of spend with diverse suppliers. While important, there must be equality of focus on an organization’s most critical asset: its people. An organization’s talent, both contingent and full-time, must reflect the broader sense of community in which it works – and from which it recruits. It’s the right thing to do, and it’s good for business. For example, our proprietary AI-powered insights quantify how visibility in the workplace impacts employee retention: women are over 1.5X more at risk and open to leaving their current role vs. their male counterparts when there are fewer women colleagues represented in their workplace. So, while technology, innovation and other Future of Work aspects are key areas of focus – DE&I is a proven investment to ensure organizations have the engaged talent with which to succeed.”
Rebecca Perrault, Senior Director, Diversity and Inclusion, PRO Unlimited
“Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) has been a topic for the traditional workforce for decades. Research has shown that a diverse and inclusive workplace increases revenue growth and the ability to innovate gives you access to highly qualified talent. Ultimately, we are talking about dynamics that impact people and will see the same amazing results from a focus on DE&I in the workforce of the future. It is long overdue that the contingent workforce be included. The workforce of the future is rapidly expanding and presents a huge opportunity for organizations as they consider their business strategies. Now is the time to embed DE&I — not after the processes have been instituted. To fully realize all the many benefits of DE&I, we need to seize this opportunity.”
Brooke Stovall, Inclusion and Diversity Marketplace Manager, Allegis Global Solutions
“A strong DEI strategy is vital to an organization’s ability to attract and retain great talent. And in the Future of Work, your ability to leverage technology, innovate and evolve at today’s accelerated pace of change hinges on your ability to attract and retain a talented and engaged workforce.
The challenge that arises from bringing DEI into the conversation as a core tenet of the Future of Work movement is that unlike a lot of conversations around technology and innovation, DEI cannot be automated. Developing, nurturing and prioritizing a truly inclusive culture that prioritizes belonging takes sweat equity. It involves conversations and evaluating processes and cultural norms, and bringing DEI into more conversations beyond HR.
Globally, the DEI conversation has expanded from a focus on talent attraction – sourcing, networking, recruiting – to talent retention. It is not enough to bring diverse hires through the door, if the environment and culture they’re coming into isn’t one that prioritizes inclusion and belonging, which are core to the employee experience. It is a financial and time investment to hire someone, you want (and need) them to be successful.
A challenge to business leaders emphasizing DEI like other aspects of the Future of Work, is that you can’t automate or purchase a technology to do all of the work for you. While quantitative and qualitative data and analysis is required to identify gaps and opportunities, and help you track progress, the real work on inclusion and belonging in the workplace requires sweat equity from people across the organization. Inclusion and belonging is everyone’s responsibility, requiring active participation from the highest levels of the company to people a few desks over.”
Maria Luoni, President, RightSourcing
“The past few years have brought to the forefront that a focus on diversity is only part of the equation. Inclusion is another. Both of these concepts will remain a top focus for organizations in years to come. Equity is something altogether different. Many innovative organizations are also focusing on the idea of “equity” as part of their overall strategy. This focus in the workplace will be a magnified topic as organizations are being called to operate with a deeper level of transparency around compensation reporting, board representation, harassment reporting, advancement and other talent management practices.”
