INITIATIVE

To conceptualise and execute a strategy to promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in its various forms in a tricky operating environment: an early-stage tech startup subject to multiple constraints in a highly regulated industry, but building for a market defined by its complex diversity – all in an age of algorithm-fuelled polarisation.

CONTEXT

“The most diverse and inclusive companies are 6x more likely to innovate, 6x more likely to anticipate change, and 2x as likely to meet or exceed financial targets…They’re also able to attract and retain top talent,” reports Deloitte & Touche in on the value that Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) can bring to organisations. 

Still, over 80% of public South African companies view DEI as costs of compliance and optics – a price to pay for a ‘license to operate’ and a socially acceptable public image. The gaps are well-documented across race, gender and sexuality when it comes to pay, management, and most forms of meaningful organisational influence beyond PR, Marketing, or CSI.

As for private companies and startups – where there is no legal requirement to comply to a minimum level of DEI – primary (first-person) reports and indicators such as deal-flow by gender suggest that the gaps are starker.

In an age where South Africa’s Great Resignation is being driven largely by a generation of workers who cite toxic workplaces and burnout, a systemic lack of DEI makes little commercial – or humane – sense.

STRATEGY

WE CANNOT BUILD A COMPANY FIT FOR THE FUTURE OF us – let alone the future of WORK – ON THE ORGANOGRAMs OF THE PAST.

PROCESS

In Bettr’s case, the approach was two-pronged: to introduce long-term continuous learning and operational interventions to facilitate both culture and practice as inseparable components of DEI.

• Critical success factors: leadership buy-in, time, persistence

• Critical sustainability factors: keeping interventions manageable, low-friction, and engaging