Walking The Talk For Change: DE&I in Fintech
Many people talk about the importance of DE&I (diversity, equality and inclusion), but there is still a poor representation of women in the financial industry.
Nadia Edwards-Dashti co-founded Harrington Starr Group in 2010; a financial technology recruitment firm with offices in London, New York and Belfast.
In addition to helping more than 2,000 people find work, she runs the podcast series FinTech with Nadia: The DEI discussions (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion). to share the challenges and successes of those driving equitable change in the industry. She is also the author of “Fintech Women Walk the Talk”.
As part of our January focus on moving fintech forward, Edwards-Dashti shares with us insights about inclusion in the workplace, as well as some lessons from her podcast series.
As a financial services and technology recruiter, I am uniquely positioned to recognize the debilitating issue facing a vast majority of workplaces: our people, how we invest in them, how we support them in their career growth and how we build an environment that truly include the diversity we see in people. Very rarely do we see a gender balance. Very rarely do we see the sharing of ideas from all kinds of perspectives. And very rarely do we see diversity of people coexisting to create and succeed.
This lack of perspectives and opinions holds us back. We have become accustomed to a select demographic of society making business decisions; and then the same selected building products meant to reflect the masses. This often happens without regard to what the masses want or even who the masses are. Not that we actively acknowledge this. Instead, inclusion in the workplace is often just a quote on an agenda, a solitary post on social media or a passive afterthought.
A better workplace
I’m going to share what I’ve learned from certain areas of the fintech sector as a case study for how we can better drive inclusion everywhere. It is a sector that has revolutionized our understanding and relationship with money, and so it has the unique opportunity to also transform our understanding of DE&I, and lead a cross-industry commitment to building a better workplace for all.
My personal work for DE&I in fintech can be captured under the phrase: Walk The Talk. But this is not a concept or an actionable process that only applies to fintech. Walking the talk is for all people and all organizations who want to embed their commitment to being more authentically inclusive. It’s about listening, then acting, ending the notion of a silent witness, and raising awareness of the real barriers that keep DE&I from being mainstream.
Walk the Talk has fueled the conversations I have on my podcast series, The DEI Discussions; and I’d like to take inspiration from the exceptional voices featured on the show to share actions that can be adopted by everyone, no matter where we are in our career journey:
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It begins with attraction and retention
The average length of employment in the fintech area is 13 months. And often when companies try to address this, they don’t ask the right questions, shifting the blame onto those who leave the company, or even the industry. We say they didn’t click, didn’t fit the culture, or didn’t progress at the rate we projected. Are these statements fair or accurate?
Our understanding of storage must change. Employee retention cannot just be about keeping someone in their job, it must be about moving them into the job they want through education, challenge, stretching, training, progression and promotion. What can your company do to cover this even at the interview stage? Are you attracting the right people, those who can do the job or those who are excited to do the job and learn to do more? And when they join your company, what do they expect from you? How can you deliver your lecture?
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Recognize fair pay, fair recognition and fair promotion
After nearly 300 podcasts, I can confidently say that the systemic problems we face in fintech revolve around fair pay, fair recognition, and fair promotion. The winners in this are the businesses that are completely transparent with their pay erasing any pay gaps between demographics. Naturally, with this comes better promotion criteria and fairer evidence-based decision-making around the choice to promote, with better promotion criteria and a focus on proper recognition of work done. The loudest person on the team isn’t always the right person to give all the credit to no matter how our brains are wired to think so.
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Be flexible with your hybrid work policy
Instead of reluctantly following a few days of working from home, the best businesses build trust between their managers and employees to allow this model to thrive. These organizations train their managers to lead better without having to sit next to their employees five days a week. Learning how to better recognize work done and investing in training while remote have made huge strides in productivity.
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Consistent communication strengthens support and confidence
Creating a communicative environment where you can celebrate, understand, listen and grow is central to elevating your people. An accurate understanding of the problems people face, or the exciting heights people have reached, creates an open community capable of learning beyond their immediate experiences.
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Realize there is a problem.
For years, companies have denied that a problem exists. And when it is addressed, it appears as an empty policy that is not authentic and effectively executed. The challenge actually begins with all of us, when we consider this problem a problem, deciding that we all must solve it. Instead of placing the burden on the marginalized and believing that they will be able to reduce the gender pay gap, the ethnicity gap, the leadership gap, the social mobility gap and the promotion gap, the winner invests in drawing everyone into the solution.
The winners not only guide, they also advocate. They open doors for their mentees, they put their name forward, they have their backs. Each individual has a unique desire for their own success, what that means to them and what environment will support that success. Those who ask what it looks like with interest and a desire to make things better are doing just that.
For me, walk the talk is far more than a slogan. It’s a call to action, a way to own the real issue and inspire positive change through clear steps. While firms introduce DE&I committees, ambassadors and guidelines, they are limited without concrete actions everyone feels they can be a part of.
After all, inclusion includes everyone. My call to action: give everyone in your organization a stake in improving DE&I’s reputation. When we recognize that this is everyone’s responsibility, real change can begin to happen.
