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10 Minutes

Certn

Starting with solid DEI research

Hey, no assholes allowed! It’s a great mantra, and value to have for any team.

Certn is used to doing things differently, from their value statements (... "no assholes allows") to their practices. When the opportunity to expand on their Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging came in the form of an MBA student with a research question. They were happy to collaborate. Read about how this information technology organization harnessed the intellectual capital of an academic to help them plan to leverage research into DEI action!

Certn is a start-up company founded in 2016 and headquartered in Victoria, BC. They are one of Canada’s fastest-growing tech companies and were named one of the nation’s Companies-to-Watch in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50™ Awards.

Founded by Andrew McLeod, Owen Madrick and Evan Dalton, Certn is all about delivering background checks on individuals for organizations; and they do it through a combination of empathy and tech that delivers fast, friendly and comprehensive solutions.

For instance, when companies such as Saks Fifth Avenue, TELUS and ATB Financial need to background check new employees, they trust Certn. Property management companies also use Certn frequently. And small businesses are also able to use the technology. Certn achieves this through leveraging both artificial intelligence and machine learning into their technology, giving businesses around the world a new solution to bring trust back into the workforce.

They’re Certn about Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

DEI comes pretty naturally to the leadership team, and the 120 employees who received Series A funding from Inovia Venture Capital based in Calgary, Alberta. Inovia requires commitment to DEI as a part of the funding contract.
Certn is well aligned with Inovia, sharing values of DEI, and the tech org sees diversity of thought as a key ingredient to increasing innovation needed for success as a rapid growth tech company. Furthermore, because Certn is competing for acquiring high-performing top talent in a competitive talent pool, they recognize that good company culture and a dedication to DEI are attractive to top talent.
And, they aren’t afraid to tell it like it is. Their company values outline DEI in plain human language, with one of the pillars being “No assholes… Individualistic behaviours have no place in our environment.” And through their unique mission of combining empathy with technology.

Certn Values

Taking it past the value statements into practice

The team at Certn knows that setting value statements is only part of the battle and roadmap.
The company recently hired Lisa Zombor as Vice President of People and Culture to spearhead the DEI initiatives, hiring for diversity and achieving company-wide gender pay equity.
“My main goal at Certn is to create an environment where folks with different backgrounds can show up and do their best work. Work that is valuable and meaningful to them,” says Zombor, who comes from a background of innovative People and Culture leadership.
With Lisa’s leadership, Certn has begun hiring with diversity as a key metric.. The company is also paying attention to occurrences that indicate a lack of alignment with the DEI initiative. Everyone knows there’s work to be done, and they aren’t afraid to talk about and act on that work. For example, in the past, communication styles that are unsupportive of DEI had been noticed in top leadership. Leadership acknowledged that in meetings, it has been noticed that women are cut off by men who overpower the conversation. They decided instead of sweeping this under the rug or pretending it wasn't happening to openly talk about the issue and aim to help each other do better.
And this unique tech company isn’t afraid to go outside of the box, and their comfort zone to get the tools, research and help they need to pave their road to DEI success… maybe even getting a few egghead, ahem, we mean academic minds on the case!

“We know that there’s a lot of work to be done in DEI and we aren’t afraid to make that a priority for Certn. As leaders in tech and human beings in general — it’s just plain important to us to create a company culture and place for everyone on our team to feel included. There’s no question that DEI work is top of mind. It’s the ‘what next’ that we are currently working towards,” says, Andrew McLeod Co-Founder and CEO.

Don’t be afraid to do the research before implementation

While many companies opt to engage with HR and Change Management experts to help implement DEI, Certn once again applied their innovative and exploratory approach and decided to add an academic approach to the fray.
What they ended up with a tangible set of researched recommendations that applied in conjunction with their day to day operations and cultural progress could herald excellent results.
“We know one of the most important things about DEI work is doing the research and exploring the opportunities to make significant change, so we were all for bringing in a new set of academic based eyes and perspective,” Zombor says. “Metrics and proven techniques are the road map we use to roll our sleeves up and get to the real tangible changemaking. Whatever you care about, you should measure. It’s that simple,” Lisa says.

Along comes Lara Mitchell

Lara Mitchell is a Royal Roads University MBA in business administration, management and operations student with a pretty slick background in marketing, as well as NFP work in the field of reducing light pollution. During her 2021 thesis, she set to task to write a case study on Certn as part of her MBA that would also help set the company up with recommendations for their next steps in DEI.
Lara’s case study is summarized below and is useful for any scale up looking to find sourceable proven information on what works in DEI.

jump to Lara’s recommendation pillars for DEI implementation

Case Study courtesy of Certn & Lara Mitchell, MBA (in Progress).

The Problem
In spring of 2021, Lara assessed a few things from her interviews with Certn.
The company is beginning to implement a company-wide DEI initiative. However, they are concerned that their company culture could be adversely affected if the change process isn’t handled properly. Currently, employees enjoy working together; they hang out after work and have meaningful relationships. The company has grown organically in size through employees referring their friends and family, which produced the thriving company culture they have today. People tend to bring in those similar to themselves — inadvertently creating a relatively homogenous environment.
While there is a small grassroots coalition of employees supporting the DEI initiative self-organizing within the company, most employees seem ambivalent about DEI. Certn is concerned about the lack of engagement and the potential for latent employee resistance. Consequently, Certn is facing the challenge of identifying ways to encourage employees to engage in and care about DEI.
The Research Question
Lara set out to explore: How can Certn encourage employee engagement in a DEI initiative that is compatible with their high growth environment?
For the purpose of this research, Chic Geek has kept the structure academic in sourcing and style. For a full list of the sources Lara used to do her own research please see the Takeaway which includes Lara’s results (recommendations for DEI in practice) the sources she used to come to these recommendations and also a list of her own favourite DEI sources academic and beyond!
She started by examining change models.
The “Coles Notes”
DEI is increasingly becoming recognized as an important aspect of organizational growth. Research has shown that workplace DEI is an effective talent strategy, produces higher-quality innovation and improves financial performance (Mondal, 2020; Lorenzo et al., 2018; Clarke, 2021; Rock et al., 2021). However, research indicates that diversity can make working together feel more uncomfortable than working in homogeneous teams because dissimilarity adds friction. This can make collaboration more challenging, but this is precisely why it improves outcomes (Rock et al., 2016).

Change Models for DEI

Change management involves transitioning people, groups, and projects from one state to another; however, most change implementation attempts have a 70% failure rate, often due to the lack of a proper match between the change model and problem (Burnes & Jackson, 2011). Therefore, the random use of change methods should be avoided. Instead, a well-fit approach with attention to the organization's unique needs and the type of change intended should be designed (Belyh, 2015).
Over the years, many change models and processes have been developed, adapted, and used, and some are better suited for implementing DEI than others. Change models range from simple and widely useful to complex and highly structured (Belyh, 2015). For example, the Lewin change model is based on three distinct phases described by the metaphor of an ice cube: unfreeze, change and refreeze (Belyh, 2015). Lewin’s change model has been recommended specifically for DEI changes, with particular reference to anchoring changes made through DEI training workshops (Bonet, 2016). The Lewin change model can be quickly utilized and is useful in a wide range of applications (Belyh, 2015). Unlike the Lewin model, the Kübler-Ross model, Bridges Transition model, and ADKAR models are more complex and structured approaches (Belyh, 2015).
A change model that is well suited to a positive company culture is Appreciative Inquiry (Stravos et al., 2016; Tocino-smith, 2020; Rose, 2014).

Leadership through Change

Appreciative Inquiry is an affirmative, strengths-based approach that looks at what is working well within the company and explores what the organization wants in the future through an engaging method of generative inquiry (Stravos et al., 2016; Tocino-smith, 2020; Rose, 2014). Reiss (2013) recommends employing a blend of multiple change models for successful implementation of change and to better address the unique situation within an organization.
Leadership is an essential part of any successful change process (Al-Haddad & Kotnour, 2015). First, and perhaps most relevant, for DEI to have the highest benefit to the organization, it must occur within the top leadership levels (Lorenzo et al., 2018). Second, research shows that the source of where the change is coming from and how it is supported matters. Identifying change that pushes from the middle upwards and is supported by top management is most successful (Heyden et al., 2017).
Similarly, change that comes from the top and engages middle management is also effective and reduces resistance much more than change that comes from the top and is dictated downwards (Heyden et al., 2017). Burnes (2011) argues for the importance of middle managers being empowered in the change process. Thus, the role of middle managers is far more critical to the success of organizational change than it may first appear (Strategic Direction, 2017). In sum, companies benefit from approaches that encourage and nurture change from the middle of the organization while supporting it from the top.
Engagement improves outcome, getting people involved and giving them responsibility for creating the change makes them more engaged in the process (Bonet, 2016; Hamel, 1996).
Research shows benefits from implementing practices of taking a moment to step back and pausing before responding (Dutra, 2012; Cashman, 2017; Gerdeman, 2020). Pause and reflect is a method that improves the quality of communication in leadership (Dutra, 2012; Cashman, 2017; Gerdeman, 2020).

Lara’s Analysis

Certn is developing DEI across the organization. This is aligned with literature showing that DEI is linked to engaging and maintaining talent, increasing innovation, and improving financial performance (Mondal, 2020; Lorenzo et al., 2018; Clarke, 2021). The company wants to protect their positive company culture. Since research illustrates that diverse working environments are likely to make collaboration within teams more challenging and feel less comfortable, it is crucial to employ a culture-friendly change model (Rock, 2016).
Appreciative Inquiry offers a positive psychology approach to change suitable for maintaining a positive company culture (Stravos et al., 2016; Tocino-smith, 2020; Rose, 2014). Additionally, Lewin's straightforward model of unfreeze, change, refreeze is an effective model for solidifying change (Belyh, 2015). This can be accomplished by managers clearly communicating the need for change (unfreeze), helping employees “unlearn” behaviours that are no longer relevant (change), and modeling the desired behaviours (refreeze).
The literature illustrates that companies with diversity in top leadership positions experience the most benefits (Mondal, 2020; Lorenzo et al., 2018). However, Certn has not yet embraced diversity in top leadership positions thus, showing room for future benefit. Still, Certn’s change initiative is coming from the top and is also emerging from within the organization focused upward. Research shows that change is most likely to be successful when it is being pushed from the middle and supported at the top levels of the organization.
Results also show favourable, only slightly less so, when change is initiated from top levels with middle management engaged in the process (Heyden, et al., (2017). The company has an informal, small coalition of employees bolstering in the DEI initiative. Ehin (2004) demonstrates that informal, self-organizing social networks are far more effective than what can be achieved through formal hierarchical structures.
The company has begun embarking upon this initiative with a primarily homogenous environment and many employees ambivalent about DEI. The literature reveals that involving employees in creating the change process produces a higher level of engagement (Bonet, 2016; Hamel, 1996). Thus far, the company has not begun engaging employees in the designing the process.
Finally, Certn has noticed that the more subtle voices are not being heard in meetings. Research shows that pause and reflect practices are beneficial for improving listening and engagement (Dutra, 2012; Cashman, 2017; Gerdeman, 2020). This is an area that Certn can benefit from implementing these processes.

Academic Discussion

Certn and Inovia are prudent to be prioritizing DEI. Research shows improved talent acquisition, increased innovation, and improved financial performance are linked to a strategic and operational focus on DEI (Mondal, 2020; Lorenzo et al., 2018; Clarke, 2021; Rock et al., 2021). The successful implementation of DEI would thus benefit future and current employees and the organization.

Ditch the hierarchy

The literature emphasizes that power of influence is not always at the top -it is also found in individuals without formal authority and those that self-organize organically (Ehin, 2004; Duan et al., 2014). Ehin (2004) argues that informal, self-organizing social networks are significantly more effective in achieving desired outcomes than what can be achieved through formal hierarchical structures. Supporting and encouraging the self-organizing coalition of employees that are leading change from within can therefore be advantageous. Furthermore, by identifying hidden influencers within the organization and actively engaging them in the change process the likelihood of success is considerably increased (Duan et al., 2014).
Two change models present a good fit for Certn. With its emphasis on generative, engaging, and forward-looking change, Appreciative Inquiry is well suited for protecting and retaining Certn’s existing positive company culture (Stravos et al., 2016; Tocino-smith, 2020; Rose, 2014).
Additionally, Lewin’s model with its simple and effective unfreeze, change, refreeze can benefit anchoring learnings made through formal DEI training workshops (Bonet, 2016).
Leadership at Certn is looking to improve communication to allow subtler voices to be heard in meetings, and research indicates a pause and reflect method is effective (Dutra, 2012; Cashman, 2017; Gerdeman, 2020). Furthermore, mindfulness training has proven successful for application in management (Todnem et al., 2015).
Research is conflicted as to whether formal DEI training is beneficial, best practices point towards focusing workshops on building DEI capacities and capabilities instead of focusing on raising awareness (Bonet, 2016). As Certn continues to hire for diversity, the company can explore a culture-add instead of culture-fit approach with attention to further advance and protect the company culture (Rock et al., 2021).
Lara recommended several practices to Certn included in our take away package below. The top reccos include:
• Implementation of Appreciative Inquiry Approach
• Seeking out DEI workshops for employees
• Apply Lewin's change model unfreeze, change, refreeze
• Implementing a company survey

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DEI Research Takeaway

About the Diversity Motherboard

Chic Geek’s Diversity Motherboard is here to help you put Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging to practice in your organization! Chic Geek exists to build gender diversity in technology, a sector that’s shaping the world we live in. Our mission is to engage, retain and support intermediate women so they can thrive in their technology careers. Welcome to Chic Geek, your space to thrive!

Certn delivers fast, friendly and comprehensive background screening that helps businesses make fact-based hiring decisions, lowers hiring costs and improves the user experience for applicants and recruiters.

Inovia Capital is a venture firm that partners up with audacious founders ready to build enduring global technology companies. Inovia Capital manages over US$1.9B across early and growth-stage funds and holds offices in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, San Francisco and London.

Special Thanks To

This resource is proudly brought to you through funding from Alberta Enterprise Corporation (AEC), which promotes the development of Alberta’s venture capital industry by investing in venture capital funds that financial technology companies. Learn more at alberta-enterprise.ca

Alberta Innovates is a provincial research and innovation agency that expands the horizon of possibilities to solve today’s challenges and create a healthier and more prosperous future for Alberta and the world. Learn more at albertainnovates.ca