Reaping rewards: How DE&I expands the talent pool and drives innovation

Discourse and roll back of DEI can impact tailored and personalised services

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Diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) is a much broader systemic change in the workplace, rather than just a policy, and it should encompass all elements of a community and foster environments where diverse talent can thrive.

A properly executed DE&I strategy benefits not only personnel but also product design, marketing, customer engagement, and brand reputation, explained Dharshi Harindra, technology lawyer and DEI practitioner.

“I believe the disconnect arises because corporate DE&I may not always align with diversity, equity, and inclusion from a definitional or purpose-driven perspective,” she said. “The term means different things in different regions and jurisdictions.

Lawyer and DEI practitioner Darshana Parekh explained to ARN, one reason organisations struggle with DE&I is fear of getting it wrong.

“But indecision is a choice that allows inequity to persist,” Parekh said. “When done right, DE&I brings structure and clarity by embedding equity into policies, removing ambiguity in decision-making, and ensuring workplaces operate reasonably and efficiently for everyone.”

For DE&I to succeed, Parekh explained, it must be integrated into the core of how organisations function, not as an add-on or short-term initiative.

This means moving beyond performative diversity hires to ensure people from all backgrounds thrive within the organisation.

As well as embedding equitable policies that prevent exclusion rather than reacting to it after harm is done, leadership needs to be held accountable, so DE&I is treated as a fundamental business strategy, not an HR issue.

“By dismantling outdated systems that serve only a privileged few and replacing them with sustainable, equitable structures,” she said. “We create a future where workplaces are genuinely inclusive, transparent decision-making and opportunities are available to all employees, rather than an exclusive few exposed to systemic advantage.”

The foundations of DE&I

Much has been publicised about DE&I but the focus on controversial statements around the topic diminishes its importance.

Harindra emphasised that the strategic framework exists to attract and retain talent, embedded with workplace equality.

“When done properly, drive innovation, fairness, resilience, and operationalise workplace culture,” she said. “Diversity addresses workforce demographics, ensuring a range of perspectives, skills, and experiences and accessing as much talent as possible.

“Equity focuses on leveling the playing field by addressing structural barriers to access roles, promotions and benefits.

“Inclusion involves creating a culture where everyone can contribute fully, perform at their best, and have what they need to succeed.”

Harindra explained the importance of inclusion because fostering the right culture leads to equity and diversity.

“Corporate DE&I often focuses on metrics and demographics because they’re easier to quantify,” she said. “However, the inclusion piece is crucial for creating psychologically safe workplaces, supporting mental health, neurodiversity, and physical disabilities, and providing tools and accessibility for those who need them.”

This aligns with Gartner’s HR practice senior principal and advisory, Jasleen Kaur who told ARN inclusion balances and mitigates the barriers that has disproportionately and negatively been impacted by systems and processes.

“Gartner’s research indicates that a diverse and inclusive team performs 1.4 times better than a non-inclusive team,” she said.

These actions lead to an innovative yet sustainable organisation and will lead to an inclusive and safe environment where employees aren’t wasting mental energy on trying to mask their real selves to fit in.

Kaur said Gartner’s research shows that a 20 per cent increase in inclusion corresponds to a 2.8 per cent increase in performance, with a 5 per cent increase in intent to stay and 6.2 per cent increase in on-the-job effort.

“This shows that DE&I doesn’t just benefit diverse talent but all employees,” she said.

Tech companies driving DEI from top down

ASX-listed Atturra is a supporter of the system within its organisation, said Larissa Lefevre senior people and culture manager at Atturra.

“Atturra’s board members, c-suite, and executive managers actively participate in DEI efforts,” she said. “Our leaders actively look for opportunities to provide leadership and training opportunities to people from diverse backgrounds, engage in skip-level conversations with other levels to understand the thoughts and questions of team members.”

According to Lefevre, DE&I at Atturra has been an authentic and organic journey so far where employees feel their needs in the business represented, heard and have a safe space for networking and collaboration.

“We have our Pride Chapter, our women’s business resource group RISE and a newly formed veterans’ group,” she said. “Atturra is currently developing a Reconciliation Action Plan to bolster the cultural awareness training and events held that celebrate First Nations people.”

Having an inclusive workplace can also include groundbreaking initiatives like Take2, who have developed a program upskilling people in correctional facilities.

In an interview with sister publication CIO Australia, founder and CEO Cameron Smith said this creates more opportunities for justice-impacted individuals to transform their futures, both inside and outside of the prison environment.

The charity is a proponent for ‘fair chance hiring’, which is about seeing the potential of the individual and excluding questions about a job applicant’s criminal record.

“The Australian tech industry is projected to face a shortage of 200,000 skilled workers by 2025, [there’s] a need for more inclusive hiring practices to fill these roles,” said Smith. “Fair chance hiring promises more diverse, inclusive workforces, which also improves the prospects for millions of individuals with criminal records.”

Woolworths New Zealand general manager for technology Steve James is one of the IT leaders who has recently taken on a Take2 graduate in his team. He told CIO Australia that the experience was of great value to his organisation.

Datacom in New Zealand was one of the first to have a Take2 apprentice take up employment with the company back in June 2022.

At the time Smith said Karl Wright, the company’s former CIO/CISO, was a champion for the program right from the start.

Wright said Take2’s mission aligned closely with Datacom’s “commitment to achieving greater equity and inclusion in the tech sector and playing an active role in the communities within which we operate”.

Embedding DEI into product design

This also extends to product development projects, explained Lefevre, “Atturra includes our service design and usability experts from the strategy stage through to user acceptance and accessibility testing,” she said.

Identity and access security vendor, BeyondTrust, also includes DE&I in its product development, said Laura Edwards-Lassner, VP talent management.

“We consider different accessibility needs and make sure those are accounted for in our design system, things like large enough hit area for someone with mobility issues but still uses a mouse, or high contrast for someone with vision issues,” she said.

The vendor works with a third-party accessibility firm who tests its products with a team that consists of members with accessibility issues.

“We talk to our different customers to understand their concerns around accessibility, truly understand their users and their challenges,” Edwards-Lassner explained. “Another thing we’ve done in the past, we bake accessibility into our personas.

“Things like Mary has a slight hand tremor, or George needs glasses and finds long hours at a computer can hurt his eyes. This reminds designers and engineers alike to think about these things with building inclusive solutions.”

Times are changing

Founder of TSP Consulting James Davis pointed out the technology services industry was and is still typically made up of a certain demographic, the nerdy male introvert that is super technical that loves problem solving.

“This personality type is how you would describe the founding generation of the industry, and as many started to become business owners [over] 20 years ago,” he said. “They would look to hire those like them, they looked to recreate what made them successful. This has shaped our industry for a long time in the channel.”

According to Davis, service providers have revolved around different technical services, and we are still an industry of predominantly males from an Anglo background.

“This is hurting us as an industry. While in my time in the industry there is more diversity and acceptance of the non-traditional demographic, we are still at the stage where we are accepting it,” he said.

“We aren’t growing the diversity and there are still pockets of backwards actions, women still aren’t generally given opportunities because we expect old school commitments rather than providing flexibility and there are still those out there perpetuating the myths of clients only want to hear an Aussie on the phone.

Davis explained that if service providers keep “doing the same things, you’ll end up getting the same results”.

“The industry and market have dramatically changed and what made us successful then will not make us successful in the future,” he said. “For many of us this means our business models and what we deliver to clients.

“The days of needing to be a super technical problem solver as the key skill requirements are disappearing, we are needing to focus on new skills and mindsets to understand business strategy, process and workflow, change management, quality assurance and compliance.

Importantly clients need you to understand their business and leverage technology to reduce risk, increase efficiency and enable scale and growth,” he said.

Davis said DE&I wasn’t about tokenism and partners in the ecosystem that are embracing it aren’t doing it check some boxes, they are embracing it and their results and cultures speak for themselves.

“We need a workforce with much different skillsets and personalities to make us successful in the next horizon,” he said. “As we transform [into] modern technology solutions providers, it’s a much different kind of mindset and that mindset starts with us as leaders of the industry.”

Previously, ARN reported Moheb Moses director of Channel Dynamics explained that customer loyalty is declining, driven in part by the depersonalisation of service and the overwhelming availability of self-help tools and online videos.

“Whereas before you had a relationship with your supplier, now, it might be that your communication with them is solely via a frustrating cumbersome chatbot,” he said.

“That will probably get worse with AI, where some companies will use AI to replace/reduce their customer service teams.”

Moses explained that for a customer, there was a greater importance of wanting a provider to care about them, much more than the product being serviced.

“A customer can easily get all the product information they need online, the value a partner adds is how they tailor and apply it to their customer to achieve the best outcome,” he said.