Laura McGee is the founder and CEO of Diversio, a people analytics company that uses artificial intelligence to help organizations become more inclusive. With offices in Toronto, New York, and London, Diversio was recognized by Fast Company as a “World Changing Idea: Data and AI” in 2021. Prior to Diversio, Laura was a consultant at McKinsey & Company with a focus on economic growth. She was named a Top 25 Women of Influence in 2017 and holds multiple Board positions, including Global Citizen, University of Waterloo, Ted Rogers School of Management, and ArcTern Ventures.

Mentioned in this Episode:

• Diversio Whitepapers
• Diversio Case Studies
• The homophily effect: Homophily and Business

Time Codes:

(3:15) - What brought you to DEI work?
(6:18) - What does it mean to use AI to read data?
(8:31) - Do you have an example of this algorithm being used in practice?
(10:00) - How do you filter between issues from employees that stem from home vs. those that stem from the workplace?
(13:17) - Diversio’s survey techniques and data trends.
(15:12) - How do you identify the things a client needs to do well?
(18:47) - How do you effectively implement pilot programs?
(22:31) - What does the deliverable look like that a client sees when you go through a survey?
(24:56) - What have been some of the biggest surprises you’ve seen doing this work?
(28:07) - Are most of the issues you see caused purposefully or due to ignorance?
(32:25) - What types of disabilities or mental illness are you seeing as being included the least in the workplace?
(35:11) - What recommendations are you making for employers when it comes to mental health?
(37:04) - What is neurodiversity?
(37:33) - How do you respond to someone saying that there are simply too many sub-groups to effectively affirm everyone’s differences and still effectively run a business?
(40:23) - Open source solutions for people who are motivated to start this work
(42:34) - What were the conversations like when deciding to open source your work?
(45:34) - What are the biggest hurdles you see companies facing even with all this data in hand?
(46:44) - How are companies effectively implementing your feedback and solutions?
(47:34) - Why would companies use this tool as a risk assessment?
(50:12) - What are you sick of talking about?
(52:23) - What are you most excited to be talking about?
(53:11) - What do you think people are not talking enough about?
(53:46) - What is the purpose of business?