Dive Brief:
- Fast Company, in a recent article, singles out two startups on their successful strategy in making diversity work - unlike most of their larger, more traditional brethern in the financial services industry.
- Apart from disrupting their industry in general, Addepar and ZestFinance are working hard on a practice that runs deep in both the tech and finance, according to Fast Company.
- As background, research suggests that women make better investors than men and are better portfolio managers, the magazine reports. Yet they remain underrepresented. Only 23% of certified financial planners are women, a figure that has been unchanged for a decade, according to CFP, the industry’s professional organization.
Dive Insight:
Both Addepar and ZestFinance have put diversity as one of their top priorities, and have been making strides in that effort. For example, Barbara Holzapfel, Addepar's CMO, told Fast Company that overall, 20% of its employees are female. The management team is made up of 30% women, including Holzapfel, the CFO and the VP of people.
In addition to making sure there are women in leadership roles, Holzapfel says one particularly effective strategy is to actively recruit them from seemingly disparate industries. More importantly, Holzapfel said the company emphasizes that employees should continue to have conversations about gender diversity and what they can do better.
ZestFinance CEO Douglas Merrill has baked diversity into its corporate culture, Fast Company reports. Starting from the ground up requires making the decision that diversity is core to winning, he told the magazine.
"It will never happen if it’s viewed as a side effort heralded by HR people and a few people on the legal team who think it’s important," he said. Currently, more than 40% of its workforce are women and 50% of its C-suite are women. That happened thanks to a careful hiring process that Merrill says surfaces a variety of diverse candidates.
