A new report has claimed that Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) is now a top priority for 87% of firms across the UK.
The research, commissioned by Workday, surveyed 2,600 individuals, including UKI CEOs, as well as HR, IT, and finance leaders. It looked at the reasons and actions behind increasing DEI, and it seems that AI tools are lending a helping hand.
The research found a "strong correlation" between AI adoption and a good DEI program. AI has also apparently improved results for sentiment surveys (95%) and promotion discussions (91%), with Workday claiming that the reason being AI can "help paint a more nuanced picture of the employee experience and development."
Plugging the skills gap
Workday also claims that AI is helping to increase firms' understanding of the skills of their employees, in turn helping them to diversify their talent pools.
Daniel Pell, VP of UKI at Workday, said, "we’re seeing positive uptake of Workday Skills Cloud, a solution which enables businesses to understand the skills and capabilities of their entire workforce."
He added, "by using this data, organizations can build even better people strategies and identify gaps and opportunities to upskill, re-skill and even hire new talent with ease."
Workday also noted the importance of AI in plugging the digital skills gap, currently a big concern for many firms around the world. Michael Houlihan, CEO at Generation UK&I, noted, "There are large numbers of people intrinsically well suited for digital roles who are being overlooked."
He added, "AI tools can play a big role here, both to improve and accelerate peoples’ learning journey, as well as helping employers roll out skills-based hiring in a coherent, impactful, and business-improving way.”
Workday found that 62% of firms are making progress in using data and technology to improve DEI, while 40% haven't started to utilize this yet. Workday believes that one of the reasons why many firms are failing to implement effective DEI strategies "hinges on [their] capability to foster joint responsibility and model DEI goals from the top down."
It also claims AI can help in this regard, but needs to be deployed responsibly and transparently. Ashleigh Ainsley, co-founder of Colorintech, said, "organizations must consciously find ways to build trust in their workplace so employees know how any AI-powered technologies will be used, and ultimately, how they will benefit from them.”
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