'We don't have a single point of view; we have a diversity of points of view'
People tend to think of tech startups as less favourable for work-life balance, especially for women, but one new health tech company has prioritized hiring women.
“From a business standpoint, we believe it’s important that the composition of the team reflects the composition of the users,” says Marina Pavlovic Rivas, cofounder and CEO of Eli Health in Montreal.
“But from a societal and impact standpoint, we also believe that’s key to really address the needs of what we’re trying to solve.”
The company produces a hormone tracking technology that allows women to keep on top of fluctuations through a saliva monitor and app. It also provides information around fertility and contraception in a home-based method.
And because the product is exclusively marketed to women, Eli Health believes it’s ideal to have roughly 80 per cent of its 16 employees be women, without sacrificing diversity as it also boasts around 40 per cent who are people of colour.
“Products that are built for the masses... the composition of their team is not that diverse and that can lead to various problems. Because of unconscious bias, people tend to develop technologies with their experiences in mind, so that means that experiences of other people or genders or minority groups are not reflected in the product decision and then that can lead to problems,” says Pavlovic Rivas.
So far in its young life (the company began in 2019), the unique makeup has led to productive gains, says Pavlovic Rivas.
“We are seeing that this diversity, both in terms of gender, in terms of other minority groups, it really creates an environment where we have various perspectives and this makes sense when we have decisions to make. We don’t have a single point of view; we have a diversity of points of view.”
Tech industry issues
While the tech industry has traditionally been seen as not-so-friendly to working mothers, Eli Health approaches these issues in a unique manner.
“It’s not lowering the standard, it’s not lowering the performance expectation, not at all: on the team, we have extremely high performers, it’s just giving them the flexibility to say, at this time of the day, if they need to be with their kids, great. They can organize their schedule however they want and it’s enough to give them the room they need to arrange their schedule.”
Marina Pavlovic Rivas
As an example, one female employee recently gave birth to a child and wanted to adjust her schedule to work only three days per week so she could take care of her newborn. Eli Health agreed but after a short time, the mother realized she could do full-time if she was given true flexibility.
This diverse approach has yielded excellent feedback, especially during hiring conversations, according to Pavlovic Rivas.
“We’ve seen some people, even in the interview process, even before joining the company, who explicitly said that one of the reasons they want to work with us is because when they look at the team page, and when they look at who’s in the team, and they see themselves in the leaders of the company, to see people that looks like them, for a lot of people, it’s one driver of why they want to be part of it.”
HR takeaways
The lesson for HR people trying to implement a truly diverse and flexible workplace is to “really validate with people directly if what we’re putting in place for them truly works,” says Pavlovic Rivas.
And make sure those employees are being consulted after that flexibility is introduced, because what might work for some doesn’t work for all, she says.
“What would be useful to achieve goals in terms of diversity and inclusion is to first set a safe space where people feel truly safe to share that type of information and to say, ‘No, it’s not working for me,’ and then to quickly implement modifications that reflect what they’re saying they’re doing,” says Pavlovic Rivas.
“That takes often, a bit of back and forth... keeping the dialogue [open] and remembering that diversity and inclusion, sometimes it’s a topic that employers like to promote but then to see what the actual results are and if the results are not there yet, to make modifications,” she says.
