Inclusivity and diversity matter 

There is growing evidence that tech companies with an age, gender, socio-economic and culturally diverse workforce deliver social impact, says Olga Oleinikova, founder of HeyLink.me. 

Revolutionary shifts in technology, the turbulent economic and social situation in Europe and new ways of working over the past two years are changing how we achieve business and social goals.  

All these recent global changes are generally assessed in terms of how they impact productivity and profits. Often overlooked is how they affect and are affected by humans, and how they have a unique bearing on diversity and inclusivity in the workplace. 

Despite media narratives that highlight ongoing progress towards greater gender equality and inclusivity, the reality is disappointing. Decades of global progress on women’s rights are “vanishing before our eyes”, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned in an emotional speech at a UN Security Council meeting in March 2023, arguing a lack of educational and employment opportunities have pushed the goal of gender equality “300 years away”. 

Despite the pessimism, there is nevertheless plenty of proof that female leadership and tech companies with an inclusive and diverse workforce perform more effectively across various domains. This piece explores these cases and puts forward the case for creating more inclusive and diverse workplaces. 

It’s more than gender 

Being a female founder of a fast-growing tech company with 1.7 million users and team of 11 people, my reflection on the role of women in tech and gender-diverse workforce may be somewhat biased, but it is based on lived experience. 

I always argue that gender is not the only lens, but is an important lens to understand why some tech companies are achieving better profits and social impact than others. Gender intersects with age, race, ability, socio-economic status, and this intersectionality is critical to impacting the performance of the company and creating social impact. 

In recent years there has been growing evidence that women’s start-ups perform better over time.  

BCG (Boston Consulting Group) looked at 350 start-ups in the US in 2018 and found that companies founded and co-founded by women had significantly better financial returns.  

“Investments in companies founded or co-founded by women averaged 935,000 US dollars, which is less than half the average 2.1 million US dollars invested in companies founded by male entrepreneurs,” the report said.  

Higher revenues more often mean higher profits for backers of start-ups led by females given that tech valuations are all about revenue multiples. Another BCG report on women in tech, published in June 2021, quoted a paper by the Peterson Institute for International Economics which found that “firms where 30 per cent of leaders are women have a 15 per cent increase in profitability (a net profit margin that is more than one percentage point higher) compared with similar firms with no female leaders”. 

These statistics are not surprising to me. Personally, I’ve been among some of the best female founders, and I will note that there is real care, a real depth of understanding of the issues and, actually, a real responsiveness and empathy for the customer.  

There is also growing evidence that tech companies with an age, gender, socio-economic and culturally diverse workforce deliver social impact. Diverse teams are more likely to create proactive and decisive actions underpinned by empathy, compassion, common sense, foresight and recognition. Purely economic drivers are worthless if the company is not tackling social issues, not improving communities or providing people with access to employment and training. 

The future of work 

Given the current turbulent financial, political and social climate, tech companies can only be better positioned for success (social and economic success) if they pay attention to racial justice and equity, including real commitments and investments in doing better. 

In our tech company, we have a plan to do well on these three actions to make sure we best position our business for the future. 

We have decided to make diversity a priority. This means introducing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in our business — creating a strategy for hiring refugees, women, people of colour, LGBTQ+ employees, and other under-represented groups. We believe it is good business, and it does not come at the expense of financial outcomes. 

We have challenged existing biases. This involves monitoring for self-biases and trying to avoid making decisions and choices based on our own unconscious preferences.  

And lastly, we have looked at improving inclusivity. That relates to creating an inclusive space for group decision-making and embracing the working environment where each employee’s opinion counts, and everyone is empowered to make meaningful contributions.  

Author

Olga Oleinikova, Founder & CEO of HeyLink.me