Financy and UniSA collaborate on tech solution to help organisations manage DEI performance

Australian fintech Financy has partnered with the University of South Australia’s (UniSA) Centre for Workplace Excellence (CWeX) to develop Impacter — a new tech solution that helps organisations manage and prioritise performance on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

Financy views their partnership with UniSA’s CWeX as vital to the development of robust questions and scoring algorithms for Impacter, which will help inform national and global insights on best practice towards achieving an equality-effective company.

CWeX provides workplace evidence-based research and Financy CEO Bianca Hartge-Hazelman says the partnership allows for academic guidance and leading insights on DEI across Impacter.

As an evolving fintech, Impacter is Financy’s next step. The company is already known for delivering women’s financial content and the quarterly gender equality scorecard and report, the Financy Women’s Index.

“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,” said Hartge-Hazelman.

In addition to supporting the business case, Impacter’s main mission is to help organisations with their social impact by providing tools to measure, act on and be accountable for DEI initiatives.

A pilot of Impacter was launched on 28 November by Financy and is working with 30 small, medium and large organisations over the coming months to test the new software and get feedback.

Hartge-Hazelman says the organisations working with the pilot represent over 4000 employers, making it a “huge step forward.”

“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.”

Adding to the importance of company commitment to DEI, UniSA Research Professor in Human Resource Management, Professor Carol Kulik says “CWeX research has identified the management practices associated with greater gender equality, but change doesn’t happen overnight.”

“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.

Professor Kulik adds that the Impacter tool is a reflection of Financy and CWeX’s commitment to gender equality through this “ideal” partnership.

“Finally, organisations will be able to benchmark their progress toward gender equality and create a practical plan to accelerate change,” she says.

This article was first published by Women’s Agenda.