Sunil Jindal is UK country head at Diversio, a people intelligence platform that measures, tracks, and improves diversity and inclusion. Sunil’s professional background includes senior roles at top-tier consulting firms and industry with deep expertise in fast-moving consumer goods. He is a passionate champion of diversity and inclusion in the workplace and a passionate mentor for early-stage start-up businesses.
“I want to see that businesses are able to apply an equal lens to reporting equality pay gaps, whether or not it’s required by law.”
Finding my true mission and calling in people intelligence
I went to a comprehensive school and did my A-levels there as well and went to Kingston University graduated with a BSc in computer science as my core degree. Over and above that I’ve qualified in marketing with an advanced diploma in marketing. I’ve also been accredited by the Association for Coaching for over a decade.
My career to date is 30 plus years in the technology industry, with 15 years spent in industry itself and over 15 years spent were in consultant positions. (I worked with Diageo for 15 years.) More recently, last summer, I left Alvarez & Marsal, a restructuring boutique firm, working on two pillars of corporate transformation and private equity performance improvement. It was a very high-intensity yet rewarding role, so after leaving I took a few months out to think: “What next?”
I believe I found my true mission and calling as UK country head at Diversio. Today I have the pleasure of working with CEOs , HR leaders and investors.
Using data to show that diverse organisations perform better
The role started with the UK, and it’s now branching out into Europe. It is about engaging with senior executives, including their diversity and inclusion counterparts, investors from the private equity and venture capital community, and helping them understand how best to measure and track diversity and inclusion, ultimately leading to Diversio diversity and inclusion certification.
The Diversio platform unlocks the benefits that inclusion can give businesses in support of business objective objectives. We all know that the data shows diverse organisations outperform their non-diverse counterparts on business metrics, such as innovation, growth, employee retention, wellbeing, and more. So, a big part of the role is working at that level and taking businesses through the journey.
I’m also part of a global executive team, working on product sales and marketing strategy. Diversio is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with offices in New York. I’m charged with building out the UK and European organisation, creating a pipeline of opportunities to convert into projects for great clients.
Opening up in our own four walls
COVID-19 hasn’t impacted my day-to-day role, however the opportunity to meet clients and team members in person is preferred when relationship building, although everyone seems to have got used to working from home and opening up in their own four walls to others in a way that would probably never have happened before COVID.
It hasn’t been any harder for us because everyone is in the same position. Sometimes it is better to meet somebody face to face as it can overcome some hurdles in terms of understanding each other, but hasn’t really been a big barrier.
The power of diversity and inclusion data, analytics and metrics
Diversio was founded in Toronto, which is a real hub for artificial intelligence and machine learning excellence.
The power of diversity and inclusion isn’t just in the data itself; it is also in the analytics. Diversity and inclusion data, analytics and metrics provide organisations with a richness of context and insight which focus leadership on the right issues and priorities to make meaningful and impactful change.
Without these elements, organisations are running blind acting in hope over purpose. This context and insight help leadership focus on the right issues and priorities.
At Diversio, we have a pulse survey, which succinctly captures diversity and inclusion data, creating granular analytics around inclusion, with some smart technology to really get underneath the lived experience. We pull that through into an AI (artificial intelligence) generated recommendation engine, which curates bespoke solutions to diversity and inclusion pain points. So, the power all starts with the data.
Additionally, Diversio uses natural language processing to analyse free text and isolate pain points. The recommendation engine is very smart in terms of how it selects from a proprietary database of 1200+ proven diversity and inclusion solutions and then recommends specific solutions for specific pain points. We are constantly training the algorithms and supporting them to make even better recommendations work even more effectively.
Providing perspective, insights and lived experiences
I’ve been in business for 30 plus years, I’ve been fortunate enough to work with predominantly diverse teams, certainly from the race perspective. One thing I found is that diversity of thought provides perspective, insights, lived experiences which minimises bias, to orientate problem-solving.
We also want to avoid groupthink at all costs because that would limit solutions. When you’re problem-solving, you want to be as open, expansive and judgement free as you can be in order to get the best possible solution set.
Diversity is about much more than gender
Diversity is about much more than gender. We need an equal focus on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and disability, including mental health. I’ve spoken with a number of disability charities and bodies who feel their clients are trying, but they’re not trying hard enough in terms of supporting those with a disability.
I want to see that businesses are able to apply an equal lens to reporting the equality pay gap, whether or not it’s required by law. I love the statement: “Whether it’s a legal requirement or not, just report it!” Progressive organisations should just be doing it, whether there’s a legal mandate or not.
I joke now with our CEO that there are more diversity and inclusion pledges per capita in the UK, probably more than any country in the world, which is great, but I would hate companies to fall into the trap of signing a pledge and then not do anything about it. I would want to see progressive organisations sign the pledge and demonstrably act through data and analytics.
From my personal perspective, I think in the UK we’re improving, but I’d love to see more organisations align diversity and inclusion to business growth and understand the risk of not doing so by being very vocal about it in their annual report.
What I’ve noticed, not universally, is that in some organisations the diversity and inclusion leader is not reporting straight into the CEO. This needs to be addressed to ensure diversity and inclusion receives the executive sponsorship needed to succeed.
Being an ally to women and other underrepresented groups
This is where my D&I journey started. I’m blessed with two daughters in their 20s. I’ve watched their careers develop and flourish. Back in 2014, they entered a business competition. They were the only female team out of 600 teams that year, they won the competition, receiving praise and recognition from Downing Street. My youngest daughter even went to meet the Chancellor at number 11 to celebrate their achievements.
It really opened my eyes about what is possible when you give young women, and, in this case, young women of colour, an opportunity to demonstrate what they can do. As an ally, I always make time for future women leaders in business, I’ve done a lot of coaching in the workplaces that I’ve worked in and take great joy when I see their careers accelerate.
If I meet somebody, and I just see a sparkle in their eye, and I think if they just need support, I’ll give my time pro bono, just to help them, because the minute you impact one person, they’re going to impact another and another, and before you know it that causes a ripple effect. For me, the role of allyship is to identify those special ones. Take time, take action.
I’ll give you another example. I went on the course a few years ago, and it was called: Speak like a CEO. It was a great course, don’t get me wrong, but the front cover of the course material was an elderly gentleman of a certain colour. He just looked like your typical CEO, so I said to the course the administrator: “Great picture, but why wouldn’t you think of having a woman as well?” In terms of allyship, if you see something broken, sort it out, take action, take the initiative, but don’t be judgmental.
From a gender perspective, I’m blessed as well to work working with two amazing female co-founders. Our company’s mission is to set the global standard for inclusion, as measured by CEOs, HR, and investors, I couldn’t be more fortunate to be in a position with a great product and platform that allows me to make a real difference.
Establishing the UK as a beacon of diverse business
What’s coming up next is really quite simple – more of the same. I’ve been in the role for the last six months doing more of that, but doing it even faster, and even bigger scale. Because what I’m super excited about is establishing the UK at the heart of diverse business in Europe, which is going to transform organisations’ business performance through Diversio’s products and services.
