How a data-centric approach supports women’s advancement at Interac

A few months ago, Jessica Lerro attended a Feminine Leadership Workshop at Interac Corp. (Interac), the Canadian FinTech where she’s the head of technology business management & client services. The workshop, part of programming at Interac to support and advance women in the workplace, offered a compelling perspective that piqued Lerro’s interest.

“One of the biggest learnings for me was about how our society has been designed for men,” says Lerro of the session, led by neuropsychologist and women’s health expert Kayla Osterhoff. “Historically, it’s been a man’s world, and all of the data that has been used to design systems, policies and processes has been based predominantly on men’s data.”

This workshop, launched by Interac as part of its advancing women in leadership programming, sought to redress that imbalance with a deep dive into the different ways that females are wired, says Lerro, empowering its attendees with knowledge that enables them to thrive at work and outside of it. Much of the teaching revolves around the menstrual cycle and hormone changes that lend females a range of “superpowers,” enabling them to excel at certain tasks at different times in their cycle.

When estrogen is at higher levels, for example, females tend to feel more energetic and social, may be filled with creative ideas and more immune to distraction, Lerro says. When estrogen levels are lower, by contrast, your body might be pushing you to rest, reflect and re-evaluate.

“It’s definitely an unconventional way of thinking – connecting women’s physiology to work, but it makes so much sense and can be a powerful tool,” she says. “The workshop was educating us to be in tune with where we are, listen to our bodies and lean into things that may present as natural strengths at certain points in time and avoid things that work against what our body wants to do, which often contributes to burnout.”

Lerro says the workshop is just one example of the valuable programming she’s been able to take advantage of in the six years she has worked at Interac. She left the session more aware of her overall physical and mental well-being and how it might affect her work, as well as how other female colleagues may be affected by the changes they experience with their physiological state.

“It helps me become a better supporter and leader for my team,” she says.

Data that drives growth and development

While the workshop might be a bit unusual, it’s not an outlier when it comes to Interac’s passion for using data to advance and support women in its organization.

Just ask Sophia Dhrolia, the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion lead. She’s the mind behind Count Me In, a voluntary data collection campaign that the company launched to better understand Interac’s employee base and the gaps that exist within its lifecycle.

“On my first day at Interac in 2022, I sat down with the chief people & culture officer and she said, ‘We need to get more information on who our people are,’” says Dhrolia. “I said, ‘We need to understand who they are, but we also need to understand how they feel.’”

This conversation led to a significant update to the human resources information system (HRIS) that asks seven key demographic questions of employees, such as an individual’s gender identity and whether they have a visible or invisible disability. That data formed the bedrock for understanding organizational questions like: Is Interac representative of the Canadian labour market in technology? Are there discrepancies between groups on promotions, retention and performance reviews? How engaged is the workforce and do levels of engagement differ by demographics?

“It’s really looking at equity from a data-centred approach,” says Dhrolia. The initiative clearly resonated. Seventy-one per cent of the company’s workforce self-disclosed, a “pretty incredible” number for this kind of corporate initiative, she adds.

The information has been used to “fill gaps” in the Interac workforce, Dhrolia says. “Because Interac supports nearly every Canadian in moving their money and data securely and efficiently, we want to look like who we are serving.”

Beyond that, Dhrolia says, it’s about retaining employees by ensuring growth opportunities are available to everyone and taking an intersectional approach with the data. For example, while the Count Me In data found that Interac was doing well with representation of women when compared to others in the tech industry, it was important to further break down the data to see if there was a gap when it came to women of colour, particularly in senior leadership roles.

By looking at this data holistically, Interac is able to make better decisions on how the organization supports internal growth and development and the talent acquisition strategy to ensure we’re going beyond the traditional hiring pool, says Dhrolia.

‘There was this buzz that you could feel’

Interac boasts a raft of other initiatives to help women thrive at work – many of which were spurred on by the Count Me In data. The company is a corporate champion of HeARTwork, a leadership policy framework created by Conscious Economics that helps organizations eliminate barriers diverse women might face in their careers in Canada. Interac is also a supporter of ACCES Employment, an organization that supports jobseekers facing employment barriers to enter the Canadian job market.

Internally, there is a Women’s Employee Resource Group (ERG) that takes a grassroots approach to understanding the needs of the women of Interac and implementing initiatives that provide the necessary support for women to be successful. The ERG launched a women’s mentorship program, which was such a huge hit that it was brought back for the fourth consecutive year with last year’s program pairing up 80 women across the organization.

There are also numerous flexible workplace policies including “Quiet Hours” – times at the beginning and end of the workday where meetings are not to be booked – and a hybrid work environment, which internal and external research has shown to benefit women, who often hold the caretaking roles at home.

Recently, the company also held its first-ever women’s conference. Naturally, its programming – which included special keynote speeches from influential women leaders, an intimate fireside chat with the women of the Interac Board, networking and professional headshots – was built using direct feedback from a survey sent to the company’s women. Lerro was one of the conference organizers.

“It was an event for the women of Interac by the women of Interac. We wanted to ensure that we curated the entire day for exactly what the women of Interac wanted,” she says of the event.

“The energy in the room – there was this buzz that you could feel. So many women approached me during and after the event to share with me that they appreciated working at an organization that was supportive of this type of initiative. They could see that Interac was making an investment in them by providing the women of Interac the opportunity to connect, learn and grow together.”

Lerro has spent her whole career in tech and says she knows what it’s like to be the only woman in a room: feeling invisible, not being taken seriously. She believes that women need to support one another and that by doing so, the systemic barriers that women face continue to chip away. She says it’s made such a difference to spend the last six years at a company that values her for who she uniquely is.

“If I had spent the same amount of time at a different company without the inclusive culture that Interac has and access to these resources and programs for women, I’m not sure I would be where I am today.”

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Advertising feature produced by Globe Content Studio with Interac. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.