SYDNEY - 12th August 2020 ​ - For years, the world has witnessed and experienced the brutal violence and racial attacks against Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour communities. Now, against the backdrop of a devastating pandemic, racial and social disparities have intensified. That is why today, leading workforce management platform, Deputy, is proud to debut a series of product releases focused on amplifying diversity, equity and inclusion in the workforce.  

Over the course of a week, the company zeroed in on how it can improve product experience to be more equitable and inclusive for the 200,000+ workplaces using Deputy. As a result, the company is introducing four new products focused on the following: 

• Timesheet Reviews for Employees: to help keep building transparency between managers and employees.
• Preferred Name in Employee Profiles: allow staff to be represented by the name they feel most comfortable with.
• Removing the Gender Field: to ensure staff don’t feel biased or pressured for personal, unnecessary information.
• Archiving Employees (to replace “discard”): because people aren’t objects, and the company acknowledges that words matter. 

Alongside product updates, the company also led internal sessions focused on how Deputy can facilitate a more diverse, equitable, inclusive place to work that offers opportunities to people from all backgrounds, particularly those underrepresented in the technology industry. The company also explored how it can better amplify the voices of BIPOC communities and help charities and organisations in need. Results from these sessions to come soon.  

For a detailed description of the new products and services, see below: 

Timesheet Reviews for Employees

• Deputy has introduced a timesheet history review log for employees, detailing any changes that have been made to their start or end times, whether it was a manager change or a system change.
• The review log also complements any comments that have been left by the manager approving the timesheet, which allows the manager to explain to an employee why their timesheet has been adjusted at the time of approval.
• A new “review timesheet” notification setting has also been built so managers can remind employees to check their timesheets prior to payroll. 
• Encouraging employees to review and understand changes, rather than finding out only when they check their bank balance, is an important step towards improving transparency in the workplace.

Adding preferred names

• Key updates to employee profiles have been made to allow employees to add their preferred name, whether this is their first name, a nickname, or however they feel most comfortable identifying.
• This preferred name will then be reflected internally as a display name across the Deputy platform, while also retaining the employee’s legal name for payroll and reporting purposes on the manager’s end. 

Taking out the Gender Field

• Deputy has not removed the ability to capture employee gender altogether, as the organisation recognises that this may be part of company policy, or in some countries,  part of mandatory government payroll reporting.
• However, this field has now been made optional. Meaning that businesses will need to turn it on if they wish for it to display to their employees. 
• Further, there is also now an option for managers to delete all gender data currently in their account, which can help to reduce the risk of discrimination or breaching the privacy of employees. 
• To ensure the inclusivity of all genders should this be a mandatory field, additional options have also been included enabling employees to select “non-binary” and “prefer not to say” in addition to male and female. 

Archiving employees

• The term "discard” has now been changed to “archive" when referring to the removal of an employee. 
• This not only more accurately reflects what is happening to the employee’s profile and access (in that it is hidden and restorable, rather than thrown away), but also creates a better experience for managers who need to remove employees from their accounts, without the negative connotations. 

Mat Beeche Global Strategic Communications Director

mbeeche@deputy.com