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LaDavia Drane sees herself as a builder, and she has built up the inclusion, diversity, and equity work at Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the three and a half years that she’s been leading its efforts globally. Drane said that after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and 2020 police murder of George Floyd, she was tapped to lead the AWS’s DE&I team. Drane said her work with AWS is special because unlike traditional DE&I work on HR teams focused on internal goals, she’s able to work externally as well, showcasing AWS’s stated values in communities across the globe, from Ghana or Korea to Washington, DC, so “every day truly is different and as exciting as the one before.”
What’s the best change you’ve made at work?
Employees are seeking meaning in their everyday work. A job is no longer just a job. It needs to align with our personal values and have purpose in order for us to do our best work. At AWS, we have a leadership principle called “success and scale bring broad responsibility,” which empowers us to make an impact on our communities. With this in mind, we were able to establish the AWS ID&E Innovation Fund three years ago. It provides employees with micro-grants for them to partner with nonprofits to transform the lives of people from underrepresented and underserved communities. To date, we have funded more than 50 projects reaching more than 25,000 people from all over the globe. Projects range from providing STEM education for women and girls to removing barriers for people with neurodiversity to bridging the digital divide. Given the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), one of the projects led by an employee in Korea this year is to provide generative AI skills training for women so we can increase diversity in this emerging and important field. I’m so proud of and inspired by all of the employees who are working hard and passionately with community partners to drive change for marginalized populations.
What’s the biggest misconception people might have about your job?
I think people sometimes assume that our work is a “feel good” job. DE&I practitioners get into this field out of passion, but it can be a double-edge sword. We go above and beyond because we love what we do, but it can be very taxing when we experience challenges and hurdles because we care so much. Also, people are sometimes surprised that our work is very data oriented. Of course, we prioritize qualitative feedback; it’s the best way to identify gaps in thinking and areas for improvement. But we’re also constantly taking a long, hard look at the data and are examining if there are gaps and how we can bridge them when they occur. Working at a data-driven company means that our ID&E work can’t exist in a vacuum—it must be tracked and measured to foster full transparency and accountability.
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What’s the most fulfilling aspect of your job?
Helping my team succeed is simply the best. We take innovation seriously at Amazon, and anyone can bring an idea to life by putting their ideas on paper and presenting them to their leadership teams. It sparks so much joy when my teams come up with new ideas or better ways of working and I can help them get buy-in from senior leadership. I don’t believe in winning alone, and being able to support a team that does great work is how we’ll make progress on our goals.
What trend in HR are you most optimistic about? Why?
We live in an exciting time for AI, and I think there’s a lot of potential for this technology to drive inclusion, diversity, and equity with the right guardrails. Let me give you an example: ADP, the world’s largest provider of payroll and human capital management (HCM) solutions, takes a data-driven approach to ID&E. Using AWS’s AI and data science capabilities, it developed the DEI dashboard, which allows their customers to see the makeup of their workforce and identify whether any groups are underrepresented by using a questions-and-answers format. This is just one example of AI for good. As the technology continues to evolve, there will be many ways it will transform HR’s work and improve workforce equity.
What trend in HR are you least optimistic about? Why?
Technology is evolving very quickly. For those of us in HR, we must continue to upskill and equip ourselves with the latest AI skill sets to ensure we are using it responsibly and inclusively. It’s not just up to the technologists who are building the technology. We all have a role in the responsible development and deployment of this very important innovation. So, while I’m very excited about the potential of AI to do good, we need to ensure humans are at the center of it. We also must have the right guardrails and embed an intentional and thoughtful inclusion, diversity, and equity strategy across the lifecycle when building any AI application