Last week I wrote about starting a new diversity and inclusion initiative from scratch. I briefly mentioned the buzziest new term in diversity and inclusion: diversity tech. Diversity tech is what happens when some of the smartest start-up minds in our country work on one of the most intractable problems of this century – increasing diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
Diversity tech includes companies that focus on recruitment like Textio, Blendoor, Teamable, and GapJumpers. The range expands from there. One startup, Glassbreakers, sells enterprise software to companies to improve their inclusion and retention. Another, Allie, allows users to anonymously report incidents of microaggressions instantly to HR. Includeed lets employees and employers share a company’s diversity and inclusion efforts and shares those reports on a publicly searchable database. And ColorStock offers stock photos featuring people of color, something any user of stock photos knows is desperately needed.
But how effective are these talent development diversity tech solutions? Yes, we can implement blind hiring technology, but what’s the short and long-term effect of that change, both to a company’s composition and its performance? That’s the need another start-up sought to fill.
Aleria uses what they call a “people-centric” analytics approach, combined with a software platform that utilizes computer simulations, to help organizations plan, execute and measure the impact of diversity & inclusion programs.
I recently interviewed the founders of Aleria, about the whys of their business and the future of this new diversity tech world. Ellen Hunt is a financial services veteran. Her business partner, Paolo Gaudiano, has long worked in analytics and AI. Together, the two of them are going to transform how companies perceive diversity, using quantitative analyses, technology, and performance as the guide. Here’s a lightly-edited transcript of our conversation.
READ MORE Talent Think Tank July 31, 2017