June 14, 2024

185 - DIBs 2.0—The Key Ingredients: Erin Thomas (VP, Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging, Upwork)

Erin Thomas, VP, Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging at Upwork, joined us on The Modern People Leader.

We talked about how her team is leveraging data in their DEI work, why you need high utility DEI programs, and she shared a couple examples from the last year at Upwork.

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This episode was brought to you by Great Place to Work. Learn more at greatplacetowork.com/mpl

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1:11 Good news stories

05:22 Erin’s Journey to becoming the VP of DIB at Upwork

07:32 Where DEI efforts can go wrong

14:11 The polarization of DEI

16:50 Key ingredients of DEIB work in 2024

19:09 The Importance of Data in DEI

25:10 The GlowUp community at Upwork

30:00 DIBs programs VS the DEI work that has to be deeply integrated into the business

35:04 Using AI to improve feedback quality for people of color

41:13 Exploring Generative AI in DEI

46:12 Making DEI work fun

51:31 Rapid Fire Questions

55:03 Future of Work and DEI

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