There is increasing awareness amongst organisations that diversity and inclusion are important considerations for business in driving innovation. “A diverse and inclusive workforce is critical for success, to drive innovation, foster creativity and guide business strategies” [Forbes Report: “Fostering Innovation through a Diverse Workforce”]. For a company like Amazon, innovation is crucial to our success and having a diverse workforce gives us a better understanding of customers’ needs and is key to unlocking ideas. This session will feature speakers from Qantas, WORK180, and Women@Amazon to explore how both large corporates and start-ups are embracing a diverse workforce to foster a culture of innovation and drive business outcomes.
11. Agenda
The impacts of Inclusion & Diversity considerations
within Technology on our society
Diversity & Inclusion at Qantas
The challenges in AI
Creating value for customers
Creating value for employees
Principles for applying Inclusion & Diversity in Tech
14. The Challenge: Biased data
Obvious:
• Race
• Gender
• Demographics
Less Obvious:
• Uniformity of classes
• Underrepresentation of population
• Incorrectly learned properties
16. The Solution: Countering Bias
Where does the
dataset come from?
Who collected the
dataset?
What is the math
that underlies the
data?
How can we measure the
diversity of the data?
What diversity is
required?
• Increased robustness of predictions
• Increased integrity of model
• Better understanding of the diversity of the population
or dataset
Benefits of heterogeneous datasets
Detecting and eliminating bias in datasets
19. “Your scientists were so preoccupied
with whether or not they could, they
didn’t stop to think if they should”
– Jeff Goldblum as Dr Ian Malcolm
20. Creating value for
employees
• Glassdoor – two-thirds of respondants said
diversity was important when evaluating
companies
• Deloitte – 80% of employees say inclusion an
important factor in choosing an employer
• McKinsey – 0.8% EBIT rise for every 10% increase in
racial & ethnic diversity on the senior-exec team
21. Principles for
embedding
Inclusion &
Diversity in
Tech
Work is required to stop algorithms perpetuating historical biases
& prejudices
Studies suggest that the presence of diversity in leadership teams
improves company performance
Performance of diverse teams significantly outstrips
homogeneous teams
Diversity of thought can mitigate risk of unintended consequences
through modelling & increase innovation
Heterogeneous datasets lead to more robust AI models and
outcomes
Aim for not just diversity of skillsets but backgrounds and
experiences
22. “We have a very diverse environment
and a very inclusive culture.
Those characteristics got us through
the tough times.
Diversity generated better strategy,
better risk management, better
debates, and better outcomes.”
Alan Joyce, Qantas CEO
Bourke, 2018 – The Diversity and Inclusion Revolution: Eight powerful truths
25. The inclusivity
paradox
People are individuals, not types. Organizations must
embrace meaningful mindsets to meet demand for true
inclusivity.
26. I&D drives innovation
Accenture research shows that a culture of equality—the kind
of workplace environment that helps everyone advance to
higher positions—is a powerful multiplier of innovation and
growth.
Employees’ innovation mindset—
their willingness and ability to
innovate—is six times higher in the
most-equal cultures than in the least
equal ones
27. Broad scale segmentation is
counter cultural
Everyone's instinct was, ‘Yeah, if you find out their age and gender
data, that's fantastic’. But what we learned is: it's almost useless.”
Todd Yellin, vice president of product, Netflix
“
28. What’s next?
• Organizations will have to re-evaluate their brand heritage within
a context in which new racial, social, cultural and sexual norms
have become established.
• More will realize that statistical modelling has limitations and will
switch to models that actively help them to achieve inclusivity.
• The wisest among them will interrogate the “why?” behind data
and work to achieve a true, 360-degree customer view. We’ll see
new frameworks emerging, blending big data, thick data, and
wide data.
• AI will provide solutions but algorithmic bias is a stumbling block.
29. But can we
design for it?
We’re in a world of
“post-demographic consumerism,” where we place
more importance on lifestyles and mindsets.
31. Fjord suggests
01
Marry quant and qual
When designing services, carefully mix human
insights with data to breathe more color into facts
that are often black and white. Learn the
differences between qualitative insights and
quantitative statistics at scale and how each can
make the other more powerful.
02
Focus on mindsets
over segmentation
Move away from traditional marketing approaches
that treat people as a homogenized group
according to their demographics. Instead, focus on
the mindsets that group people together based on
their motivations, attitudes and behaviors.
03
Become a Living Business
Living Services are personalized services that
adapt to user needs in real-time context. To be
able to deliver them, you need to rewire your
business by putting humans at the center and
strive for ultimate customer relevance – you need
to become a Living Business.
39. 30%Nearly a third of Australians plan to
change employers within the next
year
Source: Randstad 2018 Employer Brand Research
40. 56%
of women look at whether the organisation
publicly shares its progress on diversity when
considering a potential employer
Source: PwC 2017 Winning the fight for female talent - Executive summary
41. Financial benefits of a strong Employer
Brand
• 28% reduction in staff turnover
• 50% cost-per-hire reduction
• 50% more qualified applicants
*LinkedIn Global Recruiting Trends 2018
44. “Providing access to paid parental
leave after a stillbirth is quite simply
the right thing to do.”
James O'Reilly, Talent Acquisition Manager at Xero
47. 67%of women will look at whether there are positive role models
similar to them when considering a potential employer
Source: PwC 2017 Winning the fight for female talent - Executive summary
56. Pacesetters for Gender Equality
• Australian Agri-Tech Startup,
employing 20 people
• Increased paid parental leave from 0
weeks to 6 weeks for both primary &
secondary carers
• Zero minimum tenure to take paid
parental leave
• Stillbirth clause included
57. In the past 12 months, 33% of all external hires at
Incitec Pivot have been women
- October 2018
58. BHP have gone from 10% to 50% of new female
hires
- August 2018
59. In the past 12 months, 42% of Xero’s new recruits in the
Product & Engineering teams have been women.