Shining a light on Workplace Diversity – Finnies 23
Any workplace that seeks to create an inclusive environment that accepts each individual’s differences, embraces their strengths, and provides opportunities for all to achieve their full potential is worth celebrating.
Visa is proud to be the sponsor for this year’s Best Workplace Diversity award at The Finnies. Visa’s vision is to be a workplace where everyone is accepted everywhere. The foundation of our company culture is one based on a culture of intentional inclusion; by leveraging the diverse backgrounds and perspectives of our teams all over the world, Visa is a better place to work and a better business partner to our clients.
As Dijana Josevski, Visa’s Head of People for Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific, puts it: “Universal acceptance for everyone is the foundation for our company culture at Visa. One of the great things about our culture is that it actively encourages new ideas and perspectives by being outcomes focused – performance is equally measured on ‘what’ we deliver and ‘how’ we get there. Congratulations to all the finalists and good luck!”
Ahead of the Finnies on the 31st of May, we are thrilled to shine a light on this year’s finalists and their inspiring stories:
Erika Villanueva, Co-founder & CCO, AssuranceLab
To accomplish our vision of ‘A better way of global trust and cooperation, unlocked by audits’, new and diverse ways of thinking about and tackling the problem are essential. We believe this can only be achieved if the people involved in the solution are truly diverse.
Our remote-first structure removes barriers and promotes individuality, flexibility, and authenticity
We walk the talk and publish our Gender Pay gap and equity stats which surpasses industry standards
We embrace the unique strengths and perspectives that our team brings to the table by encouraging collaborative processes to build our company values and policies.
Our people are our greatest asset. We hire intentionally with our Head of People & Culture to attract a diverse talent pool
Rebecca Del Rio, Chief Revenue Officer, Bizcap AU
At Bizcap Small Business Lending, we have experienced an impressive 200% year-over-year growth, and with this rapid expansion comes the challenge of scaling our teams and work environments - while remaining true to our core values. The diversity within our team member has played a pivotal role in our consistently strong decision-making as a business. By bringing together individuals from different backgrounds, cultures and experiences, we foster a rich tapestry of insights and stimulate meaningful discussions and decision-making.
Since our inception, Bizcap has been dedicated to implementing various initiatives that promote inclusion, encourage employee participation, and facilitate healthy debates. Some notable examples include our Best Place to Work Committee, Cross Department Working Groups, and the implementation of Employee Connectivity & Engagement Tools.
As we continue to grow, our focus on prioritising diversity and inclusion enables us to foster a collaborative culture, which equips us to navigate the highs and lows of the business cycle more effectively.
Terry Laudrum, Head of People and Culture, CampaignAgent
Since our inception, Bizcap has been dedicated to implementing various initiatives that promote inclusion, encourage employee participation, and facilitate healthy debates. Some notable examples include our Best Place to Work Committee, Cross Department Working Groups, and the implementation of Employee Connectivity & Engagement Tools. As we continue to grow, our focus on prioritising diversity and inclusion enables us to foster a collaborative culture, which equips us to navigate the highs and lows of the business cycle more effectively.
Samira Tollo, Co-Founder, Elbaite
Embracing diversity from the top down, Elbaite's diverse team and inclusive hiring practices lay the foundation for their success. The team represents various genders, sexualities, and speaks over 16 languages. This diversity has allowed us to adapt to a widespread global audience.
The blockchain industry is still in its infancy and we see this as an opportunity to grow and nurture this budding community with the correct ethos and diversity. Our commitment to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace is highlighted by our win of the "Gender and Diversity Leader of the Year" award from Blockchain Australia in 2022. Elbaite's inclusive environment serves as a powerful example of the impact of fostering diversity and inclusion in the workforce.
Elbaite's inclusive environment serves as a powerful example of the impact of fostering diversity and inclusion in the workforce.
Sian Rochford, Head of People and Culture, Lumi
At Lumi, we believe maintaining authenticity and genuineness is the most effective way to diversity. It is one thing to say and another to act. We’ve has made a conscious decision to drive representation across various seniority levels, cultural, linguistic & gender diversity with a data led approach. To stay on track, it is important to monitor ourselves on actionable decisions and closing the gaps we’re observing. We bring to life our focus on diversity by engaging with the community too.
For example, our CEO personally drove representation for intellectual diversity by partnering with Down Syndrome Australia. We live and breathe diversity not only for our employees but because it in turn also supports our customer diversity who are predominately small to medium business. We are a young organisation that has always focused on diversity which has allowed us to be successful and enabled us to deliver for our customers and employees.
Emily Zhang, Chief People Officer, Monoova
Monoova is a leading Australian payment service provider with a clear goal when it comes to diversity, people and inclusion. We want to be one of the best Fintechs in the industry to work for. Just over a year ago, there was no dedicated HR function within Monoova. Since establishing the team we’ve almost doubled the number of employees. Through that growth we’ve been conscious of ensuring that everyone across the business feels a sense of belonging, creating a space where people can thrive.
Being included as a finalist for the Finnies, Best Workplace Diversity award this year is amazing recognition of the initiatives we’ve established to date, but we are still very much a work in progress. We will continue to invest in people and culture – a priority the business sees as one of the fundamentals to our growing success story.
Elise Ward, Chief People Officer, Prospa
Prospa is proud to have created an environment for inclusion where our people feel safe, valued and empowered. For us, we believe that inclusion is key to harnessing the benefits of diversity and we know that this important work is never done!
The next chapter of our focus on DE&I at Prospa is continuing to build on our strong foundation of inclusion – to nurture inclusive leaders, build inclusive practices and an inclusive culture which will benefit everyone and ultimately help us to move at pace, be innovative and do more for more small business customers.
Damien Vasta, Founder and CEO, Sniip
Both of my parents are children of Italian migrants. My grandparents started out life here in Australia in the 1920s in Innisfail as cane cutters. When I founded Sniip in 2014, I knew weaving diversity and inclusivity into the fabric of my business would form our ideology in fostering a solid foundation for success and longevity.
In our Brisbane headquarters, more than 70% of the team are non-Anglo Saxon. This diversity broadens the perspectives, ideas and creativity in our business. Our incredible customer service manager speaks five different languages (Mandarin, Cantonese, Bahasa, Malay, English) to serve the needs of our diverse customer base.
Beyond cultural diversity, we’ve worked on improving our inclusivity metrics too. In 2020, our business had one female employee. Fast-forward to 2023 and 41.2% of our business identifies as she/her.
Our staff feedback sessions consistently show how much it means to our team when their ideas are heard and they feel they can make a difference in our business by being part of the way we shape our collective future at Sniip.
Anthony Nantes, CEO, Wisr
As a purpose-led company whose mission is to improve the financial wellness of the community in which we operate, Diversity & Inclusion is at the forefront of mind when making decisions at Wisr. We promote the integration of diversity at all levels within the organisation, enabling us to embed our high-performance culture from the bottom up, create world-first innovations and build a company of meaningful size and scale. Having a genuinely diverse employee base promotes psychological safety and inclusion. It encourages all our employees to be their authentic selves and ensures a sense of belonging and inclusion within the workplace. Diversity enables innovation, and is a virtuous circle, with the best ideas from a wide ranging group of individuals allowed to flourish. Through our metric-led approach and reviews, we are proud to report no gender pay gap at Wisr, and our purpose and DEI initiatives have positioned the company for continued growth and scalability.
