About 75 percent of businesses with diverse decision-making teams are expected to exceed their financial goals through next year, according to the research firm Gartner. Additionally, a study from Deloitte found that almost 70 percent of millennials said they feel more engaged in diverse workplaces and are more likely to stay with an inclusive employer for at least five years.
The verdict is in: Diverse work environments are more profitable, engaging and productive. But building an inclusive business culture takes commitment.
Enter, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) committees.
These groups are dedicated to impacting a company’s hiring practices, culture and team makeup through their internal initiatives and collaborative efforts alongside leadership.
Senior Software Engineer Neel Indap is a member of the DEI committee at the captioning and transcription service provider 3Play Media. He said 3Play’s committee seeks to drive impact with initiatives like recruiting on diversity-driven job platforms, unconscious bias training and DEI-focused lunch and learns.
“The DEI committee was set up to identify and eliminate any potential barriers to diversity and inclusion, while holding ourselves accountable and educating the company in these areas,” Indap said. “One of the committee’s biggest contributions has been fostering awareness.”
By encouraging meaningful conversations and tracking internal progress, a DEI committee can ingrain inclusivity into a company’s culture so deeply that employees take up the work without the help of the group, Indap said. This trend was exemplified during an internal hackathon last year when the two winning teams donated their winnings to the National LGBT Bar Association and Black Girls Code.
The efforts of 3Play’s DEI committee were so effective that leadership was inspired to create a new diversity-focused company value, Indap said.
Hear more about the work this developer and the rest of 3Play’s DEI committee is doing to drive positive change at the company and in the larger Greater Boston community.
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What is the mission of 3Play’s DEI committee and what are some of its major initiatives?
The committee’s goal is to have DEI be a consistent part of our company culture and leadership has been really supportive of the committee’s efforts. Our efforts and feedback resulted in DEI being added as a core value: “3Play pursues, respects and celebrates diversity.”
The committee is divided into smaller groups with their own agendas. I’m part of the group that organizes events. One of our first events was a lunch-and-learn session about the Netflix documentary “Crip Camp.” The committee also hosts sessions on unconscious biases and how to identify and overcome them.
The committee’s goal is to have DEI be a consistent part of our company culture.”
What are some of the other DEI initiatives 3Play offers its team members?
3Play also offers paid volunteer time, company-sponsored opportunities to support DEI organizations and a generous charitable matching program.
Growing awareness and creating conversations about DEI is definitely on the forefront for us. The people working at 3Play come from diverse backgrounds and everyone is provided with a platform to contribute and grow. We want to create a safe space for everyone here to talk and ask about whatever concerns them.
What role does DEI play in recruiting new team members?
Since the committee’s inception, we’ve been working on being more inclusive and reaching out to a more diverse pool of candidates. The hiring subgroup of our DEI committee has been doing lunch-and-learn sessions to highlight best practices for interviewing and hiring. We adopted Greenhouse as our recruiting tool and list jobs on the DiversityJobs portal. We’re also making all of our job descriptions free of any gender biases. It’s a process that we’re still learning and tweaking based on feedback.
As an engineer of color in tech, what’s your experience working at 3Play been like?
I’ve always felt like I’m part of a group that’s working together toward a common goal. I’m provided with a platform where I am comfortable voicing my opinions about our product, processes and having conversations about things that are working, as well as things that aren’t. That comfort stems from the fact that the people at 3Play are always welcoming, open and willing to learn and teach.
