Inclusio is a leading platform dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion within organizations. Inclusio leverages data-driven insights to create inclusive workplace environments, helping companies enhance their culture and employee engagement.
Inclusio has partnered with ReaDI-Watch to effectively manage its research and development activities. Through this collaboration, Inclusio leverages ReaDI-Watch's advanced digital platform to streamline its R&D processes, driving innovation and ensuring the continuous improvement of its offerings.
Founding Story
Inclusio was founded by Sandra Healy, whose vision for fostering workplace inclusion stems from her 20 years in engineering and leadership roles within the global technology industry. The concept for Inclusio emerged in 2016 at Dublin City University, where Sandra collaborated with co-founders Deborah Murphy and Arthur Lubambo. After four years of research and development, Inclusio officially launched in 2020.
Sandra, Deborah & Arthur - Co-Founders of InclusioSandra noticed a gap in how organizations measured and reported on people, culture, and social sustainability. Many companies lacked the data needed to assess the impact of their DEI and culture initiatives, resulting in these areas not being prioritized by CEOs. Inclusio’s platform, developed from these insights, combines research with practical solutions to help organizations understand and improve their workplace culture, providing clear data on employee engagement and diversity.
Spinning-Out Intellectual Property from University
In 2020, Inclusio spun out from DCU, marking a shift from academic research to a real-world business. This journey showcases how university research can effectively turn theory into practical solutions. Inclusio's platform now fills an important industry need by offering data-driven insights for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
This is an example of how a technology, advanced by strong entrepreneurs, can be driven along the technology readiness level scale.
Growing the Business
With the platform built and their venture established, Inclusio set out to make a tangible impact in the workplace diversity space. The team focused on refining their technology to ensure it met the evolving needs of organizations. They collaborated closely with early adopters to gather feedback, continuously enhancing their platform's features and user experience.
Inclusio also prioritized building a strong network of industry partners and clients, raising awareness about the importance of data-driven diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. By showcasing the platform's results, they demonstrated how organizations could effectively measure and improve their workplace culture.
Through persistence and innovation, Inclusio have began to see further traction and adoption of its solutions across various sectors. Their commitment to addressing a real gap in the market helped establish them as leaders in the DEI field, enabling companies to foster more inclusive and engaged environments.
How the Platform Works
Inclusio's customers come from a diverse range of sectors, including technology, finance, healthcare, and education. By using Inclusio's platform, these customers can identify gaps, track progress, and drive meaningful change within their organizations. The platform provides them with the tools and metrics needed to create more inclusive environments, ensuring that DEI initiatives are not just aspirational but actionable and measurable.
Inclusio's process begins by partnering with organizations to understand their specific diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) needs. The platform gathers data through employee surveys and assessments, providing a clear picture of the current workplace culture. This data is then analyzed to uncover insights and identify areas for improvement.
The platform delivers tailored recommendations and strategies, helping organizations implement actionable DEI initiatives. Inclusio also provides ongoing support and monitoring, enabling companies to track their progress and adjust strategies as needed. By focusing on measurable outcomes, Inclusio ensures that businesses can foster more inclusive and engaged work environments.
What are DEI and CSRD?
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) are essential components for fostering a positive workplace culture. DEI initiatives aim to ensure that all employees, regardless of background, have equal opportunities and feel valued and respected. For companies, addressing DEI is crucial not only for ethical reasons but also for improving employee engagement, innovation, and overall performance. A diverse and inclusive workforce can better understand and meet the needs of a global customer base, driving competitive advantage.
Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) refers to new regulations requiring companies to disclose information about their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices. As social responsibility becomes increasingly important to consumers, investors, and regulators, CSRD ensures transparency and accountability in how companies manage their impacts.
Addressing DEI and CSRD is critical for companies as they navigate a landscape where social awareness and sustainability are key drivers of success. Inclusio helps businesses meet these challenges by providing data-driven insights and strategies, enabling them to align with modern expectations and regulatory requirements.
The Science Behind Inclusio's Platform & Service
Inclusio's technology integrates multiple scientific disciplines to offer a comprehensive solution for workplace diversity and inclusivity. By blending psychology, behavioral data science, AI, machine learning, and Natural Language Processing (NLP), Inclusio creates a powerful tool that transforms employee data into actionable insights.
The blend of Applied Research & AI Technology needed to create the Inclusio PlatformThis blend of applied research into behavioural science, blended with experimental development of AI and NLP, has enabled Inclusio to develop technology for:
Diversity Data Monitoring: Inclusio collects data to provide a clear view of workforce diversity. This process is guided by psychological principles to ensure that data collection respects employee privacy and encourages honest participation.
Scientific-Based Metrics: The platform uses behavioral data science to link diversity and culture metrics directly to business KPIs. These metrics help organizations see the direct impact of DEI initiatives on their performance, making the business case for inclusivity compelling and measurable.
Tracking and Reporting: Using AI and machine learning, the platform continuously tracks and reports on diversity and inclusion data. This allows organizations to visualize trends and progress over time, adjusting strategies as necessary for continual improvement.
Anonymous Reporting and Risk Management: Inclusio's system is designed with GDPR compliance in mind, ensuring data privacy and protection. The platform supports anonymous reporting, which helps manage risks and holds organizations accountable, fostering a safe and transparent environment.
Through this advanced, scientific approach, Inclusio empowers companies to make informed decisions, aligning their DEI efforts with business objectives and regulatory standards.
R&D in Inclusio
In partnership with ReaDI-Watch, Inclusio have implemented a robust R&D management process in the company, ensuring strong governance of commercial, financial, and technological progress.
Commercial Progress
The R&D roadmap in Inclusio is closely tied to the commercial growth plans. As the technology has been developed, customers have benefitted from multiple generations of Inclusio product & service offerings. The team are very conscious not to allow for long R&D cycles before getting a solution in the hands of their customers. The VOC (voice of the customer) is a critical input to the R&D roadmap.
Intellectual property protection & exploitation is also a key commercial growth factor - as the team document their knowledge, learnings and technology development journey on the ReaDI-Watch platform, the company has a documented record of key IP and know-how which is considered for protection & exploitation (e.g. through trade secrets & confidentiality clauses, or through more formal patent/trademark registration & protection or licensing mechanisms).
Financial Progress
Inclusio has been able to effectively offset a significant R&D spend, through access to R&D tax credit (SR&ED) supports. Working with ReaDI-Watch to justify the "science" and classify "R&D projects", the team have ensured strong ROI on any technology investments made.
Investors & shareholders in Inclusio welcome this strategy, which multiplies their investment into the technology and commercial growth of the business.
Technological Progress
Inclusio use Jira to manage their weekly/monthly development sprints - they operate their software development in an agile manner. However, as is the case with many software companies, ReaDI-Watch helps Inclusio to fill a gap in this management process - the documentation and dissemination of technology learnings & knowledge gained.
It can be very difficult to look back at a historical sprint, filled with features, user stories & testing logs - and determine precisely the technology and commercial journey which drove key decisions forward. ReaDI-Watch integrates and pulls information from Jira in order to add information and evidence to Inclusio's R&D portfolio.
For more on how this should be done, read this article.
"ReaDI-Watch's team & platform have had a very positive impact on Inclusio. While the strong ROI from R&D tax credit claims alone is impressive, the real value lies in the broader benefits it brings. From enhanced financial outcomes to improved commercial and technological decision-making, ReaDI-Watch has elevated our governance, leadership, and strategic direction." - Deborah Murphy, Chief Financial Officer, Inclusio
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