Providing an inclusive workplace has become a business priority since the labor shortage hit. But beyond the will, they must have reliable tools to help them improve. This is exactly what Élance offers thanks to artificial intelligence. The young shoot started last year, which is already making sales, will launch its first round of financing this winter.
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“Thanks to the key indicators that we have developed, for example employees’ sense of belonging, their satisfaction and their motivation to recommend to relatives to come and work for their employer, our platform allows companies to measure their performance in terms of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI),” explains Dahlia Jiwan, co-founder of Élance, who was one of Startup Montréal’s 2022 revelations.
This collection of data, which is anonymized, allows Élance to carry out a diagnosis for its customers which includes in particular their strengths, those to be improved and where they stand in relation to their competitors.
The start-up also offers personalized training. “We take into account the identities of the people surveyed in the organization to make recommendations,” adds Tina Pranjic, the other co-founder of the company who did the Parcours Rémi-Marcoux and the National Bank HEC Montreal accelerator in 2021.
Founded last year, Élance, which targets companies with more than 500 employees, is now continuing to evolve its technology. “Our team on the technical side, which is very strong, uses artificial intelligence, among other things,” adds Tina.
support and bias
It was while working as DEI consultants that the two entrepreneurs met and wanted to join forces to create tools to tackle the challenges of inclusion. “We always saw a disconnect between what the leaders wanted and what was really happening on the ground,” says Dahlia.
The two women in their late twenties, second-generation immigrants and queers, are also well aware that their experiences in the labor market are colored by their identity. Now in the world of entrepreneurship, they also have to live with biases.
We are very well surrounded by various resources that help us enormously, but it remains clear that women must work harder to succeed and this is even more true when we are racialized. However, we are resilient and believe that the strength of our product is a testament to our skills.
Dahlia Jiwan, co-founder of Élance
Tackle the US market
And the two entrepreneurs see far. Already, Élance has six employees, in addition to the two co-founders, and offers its services in English and French across Canada. “In the United States, the DEI market is already at 10 billion and it continues to grow,” says Tina. This gives us a good idea of what’s to come in Canada, where the boom is starting. »
Businesswomen are therefore continuing their efforts to make their mark in Canada, but they also intend to attack the American market. To achieve this, they want to offer their services in Spanish.
“It’s a big market where we think our product can carve out a place,” says Dahlia. Élance has the particularity of allowing organizations to take action that has a real impact that they can measure and then compare their performance with their peers. »