Workplace Equity Technology describes a range of software, tools, and AI systems that help employees gain parity with their peers. To learn more about this new area, read on to discover how it could benefit you and your teams.
Workplace Equity Technology describes the tools, systems, devices, and software that facilitate and promote workplace equity and inclusion. Higher rates of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) matter to a company’s bottom line. For example, companies with greater gender diversity in their leadership teams have a 25% higher likelihood of higher profits.
As a key method to track, review, and boost rates of workplace DEI, Workplace Equity Technology supports better diversity in many ways. For instance, communication platforms and apps like Slack, MS Teams, and Google Workspace all support remote workers with movement restrictions or deafness. These platforms also offer better opportunities for collaboration and the opportunity to adapt to variable working hours, time zones, and cultural differences.
Investing in Workplace Equity Technology can lead to significant results including increased profits, higher productivity rates, and better decision-making abilities—studies back this up and show how inclusive teams are over a third more productive than their peers.
Workplace equity describes working environments where every staff member has the chance to work with parity to their peers. Workplace equity focuses on removing barriers to access at work and giving everyone a chance to bring their full range of talents, skills, and abilities to work.
While they share a similar ethos, equity is not the same as equality. Equality relates to fair treatment while equity suggests everyone has the same chance to succeed. The Equality Act 2010 legislates a sense of fairness and equality while ensuring staff aren’t mistreated or discriminated against. To achieve a sense of equity, staff must receive the tools, support, or interventions they need that meet their specific needs.
And this is where interventions including Workplace Equity Technology come in.
When staff feel more included at work they’re more productive and more likely to stay with a company. Studies suggest targeted DEI initiatives lead to a 20% increase in workplace inclusion.
Workplace Equity Technology is an effective way to boost workplace inclusion and overcome hiring issues like unconscious bias. So, let’s look more closely at how this plays out in some key pieces of technology.
There’s a wide range of digital platforms that can promote better workplace inclusion. Popular ones that many firms already use include Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Google Workspace. These off-the-shelf solutions are helping teams communicate in equitable ways, across time zones and physical limitations. But they can also host virtual company ‘all hands’ meetings. These meet-ups can promote better transparency and increase a general sense of inclusion.
AT is a vital form of Workplace Equity Technology since it facilitates better accessibility and closes communication gaps. Assistive technology like our own Caption.Ed and TalkType are key ways to increase feelings of inclusion for staff, particularly those who need support with communication. For example, Caption.Ed is effective in helping people with neurodivergent conditions like dyspraxia, which affects around 10% of the adult population. Live captioning technology enables people with dyspraxia to better follow conversations and avoid missing vital information.
AI-based HR and recruitment platforms can support the full range of talent management processes including sourcing and people management. These platforms are also helping recruiters analyse diversity levels and overcome internal unconscious biases, leading to greater inclusivity. AI-powered language optimisation tools, bias detection software, and AI-driven candidate matching solutions can all reduce any inbuilt prejudices and biases found in existing algorithms.
AI and machine learning can also help with broadening potential talent pools by reviewing the equity of policies and HR and hiring practices. This type of analysis can look at fairness, equity, and consistency in hiring, performance, retention, and remunerations. Such tools can also boost inclusion by analysing perceptions, and attitudes, and by benchmarking diversity levels. With this data, HR and people leaders can devise focused strategies based on evidence.
Multi-user immersive experiences can help to reduce locational barriers and let remote-based staff come together and collaborate. Such collaborations can lead to innovations and capitalise on the talents and skills of neurodivergent thinkers, for instance. By placing users in different settings, they can also help people with disabilities interact with their surroundings in real time.
As we’ve touched on already, there are many benefits to investing in Workplace Equity Technology. Let’s run through the key ones in this list:
Workplace Equity Technology can empower staff with protected characteristics and help to dismantle workplace barriers. Plus, this technology isn’t just helping individual staff but also teams and organisations as a whole.
So where should you start when it comes to trying to implement equity technology? One theory is that DEI implementation, change, and integration happen across five stages. Professor and organisational psychologist Dr Ella F.Washington defines these five stages in their paper “The Five Stage Maturity Model”:
Workplace leaders who find themselves at stages 1-3 can look for help from our ebook “The Ultimate Guide to Neurodiversity in the Workplace”. Because implementing Workplace Equity Technology for people with neurodivergence isn’t a straightforward task, this guide can help you understand more about the conditions and symptoms. With better awareness and understanding, DEI leaders should find it easier to build compliant tech solutions that empower neurodivergent staff and unlock their full potential at work.
Our small but mighty team builds leading-edge software that people love. We pride ourselves on a user-led approach to product design. The voice of the customer shapes what we create and that’s exactly how great assistive tech should be made.
