A chef, a lumberjack and an ER physician walk into the kitchen: Diversity and inclusion at Dialogue

Sitting at the lunch table at Dialogue, you’ll meet passionate professionals with incredibly diverse educational and professional backgrounds. Don’t believe me? Take a look! We have:

• An industrial engineer optimizing our medical operations
• A former chef who now helps recruit our top talent
• All 3 co-founders were born outside of Canada and are fully bilingual
• One of our cofounders is a woman, a rarity in the startup world which gave us an unfair advantage earlier on for attracting women to Dialogue
• Many former consultants from the most reputable firms, now turned entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs
• Several former lawyers who have found a passion in business development
• And last but certainly not least, a former lumberjack who is a B2B marketing master and now builds his own robots to increase inbound sales!

Additionally, Dialogue employees’ ethnic backgrounds are just as diverse. We come from France, Russia, Egypt, Italy, Lebanon, Greece, Ireland, Pakistan, Germany and many more countries. We can count up to at least 15-20 different cultural backgrounds in our 175 employee organization!  

In terms of gender diversity, if we take into consideration our medical team, Dialogue counts 58% female and 42% male employees. Comparatively, the Informations and Communications Technology industry’s benchmark is 75% male and 25% female.

How Did We Get Here?

Our Talent Acquisition team rigorously leads the search for the best and most unique candidates that will further complement our growing team. “LinkedIn is a goldmine for sourcing top talent with broader skill sets”, says Tanya Di Bennardo, Talent Acquisition Manager. “We use various keyword searches to directly reach out to potential candidates. This process allows us to cast a wide net.” Diversity in competencies and industries brings a packed suitcase of knowledge about other business cultures, which adds new perspectives and strengths to our Dialogue journey and culture.

Dialogue’s quest for diversity has materialized organically, thanks to the mix of ethnicities, of experiences and of genders of the stakeholders involved in the recruitment process. “We are very conscious of the need for and benefits of diversity, but we also focus on fit for the individual and the company”, says Tanya. “It’s critical for us to foster an environment based on inclusion, belonging, as well as difference of thought. Transparency is one of our core values.”

Why Does Diversity Matter?

Countless studies have been conducted across the world to analyze the impact of diversity in the workplace. Here are just a few of the positive outcomes:

1. Key driver of innovation: The majority of responders from a Forbes Insights survey  agreed that “diversity is crucial to encouraging different perspectives and ideas that foster innovation.“
2. Better economic performance: A 2015 McKinsey study found that companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35 percent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians.
3. Employee engagement, retention and attraction: A study by Gallup has found that the employee engagement elements most strongly linked to perceptions of inclusiveness are “someone seems to care about me as a person" and "my opinions seem to count." The study also found that when managers and employees were of different backgrounds and worked in an engaging environment, intentions to stay with the organization were highest. Another study by Glassdoor found that two-thirds of respondents said that diversity was important to them when evaluating companies and job offers.
4. Better understanding of customers: By hiring a diverse group, companies are able to improve their services as they are able to better comprehend the needs of their markets. As Dialogue patients are demographically diverse, it’s essential for our teams to grasp the particularities of each patient’s needs.

As an organization, Dialogue recognizes the value that each employee brings to his or her role, but also, to the company as a whole. We aim to leverage these different backgrounds and experiences in order to not only drive business results, but also to reinforce our organization’s values, and to enrich our culture. Join our team!

We want to hear from you: what actions has your organization taken to diversify its workforce?