Three Tech Tools To Beat Racism In The Workplace

Systemic racism can be addressed if companies are willing to invest in the right infrastructure and technology

Many companies have signposted their solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and pledged to drive out discrimination by putting diversity, inclusion, and equity at the top of their agenda.

 

Acting on those promises is where the hard work begins. Through the reading lists, the town-halls and consultations, employers are seeking tangible, impactful actions to back their words. Employees are demanding them too. So what can be done, today?  Here are three tech tools you should be looking at if you work in HR, D&I, or legal and want to make sure your workplace is doing everything it can to level the playing field and support your employees.
 
Vault Platform is a workplace Speak Up solution designed to empower people to report and resolve unethical or racist behavior within their workplaces. Vault’s mobile app is intent on replacing (or adding to) the old-fashioned hotlines as a way for employees to speak up about workplace discrimination and misconduct. The app is a safe space for people to raise concerns when something goes wrong, such as an incident of racism, bullying, or discrimination, for example. People can choose to report anonymously if they are worried about coming forward, while the app’s GoTogether feature means employees who don’t want to come forward by themselves will only have their report submitted once someone else raises a similar issue.
 
According to Vault Platform, employees choose not to report these problems because 51% are worried it would affect their job and 43% feel it would not be taken seriously. Vault is aiming to break that cycle.
 
Synd.io is a pay equity software and analytics company helping businesses establish fair pay by driving out bias based on race and gender. The Synd.io software includes a staffing feature that calculates a safe range for new hires to maintain overall equity.
 
Synd.io has deep concerns that COVID is exacerbating existing pay and opportunity disparities between genders and ethnicities. The company found that black people and POC are much more likely to quit their jobs than white parents and caregivers in order to care for family. Women, in general, are more likely to see impacts on their careers due to the effect of COVID on performance and/or productivity but this is more pronounced among non-white women. Hispanic and African American women are most likely to fear this, with 35% of Hispanic women saying it will affect their careers “a great deal,” and 30% of African American women saying the same. Of white women, only 14% believe their careers will be affected a great deal.
 
Joonko is an automated diversity recruiting solution that helps businesses to attract more diverse, qualified, and vetted candidates. Joonko operates the largest pool of qualified underrepresented candidates in the United States and enables companies to harness the power of diverse talent remotely or on-site.
 
Joonko shares the same concerns that women and minorities are being disproportionately affected in terms of career prospects during COVID, especially in the tech sector. Of 23,000 people laid off from 280 different startups, 51% of all layoffs have been women and 38% of layoffs have been within Black and/or Hispanic communities.
 
The message from all three companies is that systemic racism can be addressed if companies are willing to invest in the right infrastructure and technology. Technology is not the answer in its own right, but it’s an important part of the solution for companies ready to take the next step in their journey to reach equality and inclusion.