UniSA and Financy come together to improve workplace DEI

The University of South Australia (UniSA) has teamed up with Australian financial tech company Financy to create Impacter, a program to manage diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) performance.

Financy unveiled Impacter on 28 November, working alongside UniSA’s Centre for Workplace Excellence (CWeX). Currently, 30 organisations of various sizes are testing the tech and giving their thoughts over the next few months.

Bianca Hartge-Hazelman, Financy chief executive officer, commented on the announcement: “The Impacter software presents a significant opportunity for corporate Australia to manage, improve and report on their DEI credentials on an ongoing basis, and importantly, understand the business case for their actions. 

“This is a huge step forward for organisations and I’m delighted to have so many organisations, representing over 4,000 employees, taking part in the current pilot and sharing their needs and wants with our team.” 

Financy has championed DEI throughout its journey. The fintech company releases a quarterly Women’s Index, which is described on its website as a “measurement of the economic progress of women and time frames to gender equality in Australia”.

Ms Hartge-Hazelman continued: “Many business leaders, human resources and diversity managers are spinning their wheels on DEI because they are working with inefficient and compliance-heavy systems that place a huge administrative burden on their workloads. As a result, many leaders struggle to see the value of DEI for company performance.”

UniSA described the partnership with Financy as “ideal”. The organisations are working together to develop algorithms and questions that will give them the insights to assist companies in achieving a more DEI-friendly workplace.

Professor Carol Kulik, UniSA research professor in human resource management, said: “CWeX research has identified the management practices associated with greater gender equality, but change doesn’t happen overnight.”

She continued: “Companies need a way to track their progress and measure the impact of their DEI activities. Without that accountability, companies can adopt the wrong practices, or give up on the right practices too soon.

“The Impacter tool reflects Financy and CWeX’s shared commitment to gender equality – finally, organisations will be able to benchmark their progress toward gender equality and create a practical plan to accelerate change.” 

Thomson Reuters discussed the significance of DEI tech September last year, saying that “more than 100 solutions are in the market currently, and the DEI technology market is estimated to be worth more than $100 million”.

According to Thomson Reuters, 43 per cent of DEI tech is used for talent acquisition, with the aim of diversifying candidates and preventing bias.