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. ----  This episode was brought to you by Great Place to Work. Learn more at greatplacetowork.com/mpl. ---- 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 ---- 📬 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get key learnings & career advice from Modern People Leaders 💡 Follow The Modern People Leader on LinkedIn 😊 Follow Daniel Huerta on LinkedIn 😊 Follow Stephen Huerta on LinkedIn