Many companies are starting to wind it back and consider how they can leverage their tools to give back to their communities and the environment. What’s better? When social impact is built into the company ethos from the very start. Surinder Singh has founded and co-founded several successful social enterprises. His most recent venture, Turnout, is a platform that streamlines community event organization and helps Employee Resource Groups (ERG’s) measure their progress and impact on employee inclusion and belonging. We reached out to Surinder to learn more about what inspired him to start Turnout and how this platform helps to drive ERG engagement and effectiveness.
CFW: As a serial entrepreneur, you’ve already started several successful ventures. Is there a common thread connecting your approach to starting a new company?
SS: Yes, there is absolutely a common thread! What really excites and inspires me are ideas that have the potential to grow into successful and sustainable companies that have a meaningful social impact.
With Jugglebox, we deliver reusable plastic boxes for residential and commercial moves that we collect after they’re unpacked, then reuse. This not only simplifies and de-stresses the moving process, but to also has a positive impact on the environment by reducing waste.
At Soundmind, we customize voice-enabled devices to give senior living residents access to information on nearby events and communication. Ultimately, this reduces social isolation by increasing participation in social events and keeping seniors socially engaged. My latest venture, Turnout, is a platform we designed to integrate and streamline the organization of and participation in Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and related Diversity and Inclusion (DE&I) Initiatives. When companies invest in ERG and DE&I programs, they create opportunities for engagement and a sense of belonging, which have been shown to improve employee satisfaction and retention.
CFW: Tell us a bit more about Turnout and what inspired you to start it.
SS: At Turnout we are inspired by the fact that more companies, their boards and their investors are actively pursuing DE&I hiring initiatives and investing in ERG programs as a top priority. There are some truly staggering stats highlighting the importance of DE&I initiatives and ERG communities to employee recruitment as well as inclusion and belonging. For example, 65% of employees are more engaged and feel a greater sense of belonging when their companies have ERGs and DEI-focused communities, and companies see a 10% increase in retention when employees (across all groups) feel a sense of inclusivity. With inclusion and belonging being so closely tied to employee satisfaction, the presence and effectiveness of ERGs initiatives ultimately impacts a company’s ability to retain their employees, mitigating one of their costliest problems: attrition. The problem is that, while management knows it’s important to ensure these groups succeed, it remains a major challenge for them.
Companies often struggle to engage new hires, measure employees’ satisfaction and belonging across the organization, and to collect data attributing proper ROI to their DE&I initiatives and ERG groups. This results in higher attrition rates and diminishes the value of DE&I initiatives. Additionally, ERG leaders often have limited resources to help them succeed. For example, many ERG leaders use a disjointed set of tools and systems to manage their communities and events. With inefficient event coordination, valuable data stuck in silos, and no feedback loop on events, it can be really difficult for an ERG leader to know whether they are making a difference.
Knowing this, we created an integrated solution to address all of these pain-points. Turnout provides companies and their employees with an easy-to-use platform to build communities and affinity groups. Our simple, effective community and event management tool allows DE&I and ERG leaders to centralize their coordination efforts in a single platform, makes it easy for employees to find, join and participate in ERGs, gives DE&I and ERG leaders access to a network of leading experts in relevant fields, and provides management with insights from participants on how their ERGs and communities are driving inclusivity and contributing to their employees’ sense of belonging.
CFW: What advice would you give to people looking to join a startup as an early employee?
SS: A diverse, inclusive, and equitable company culture, especially at an early stage company, can be a strong indicator of how successful they will be in the future and how likely it is that candidates will enjoy working there. I would encourage candidates to research the founders’ principals and their priorities when it comes to DE&I and ERGs as well as the specific actions they plan to take in the short term and long term to bolster those efforts.
CFW: When you and your team at Turnout consider the future of DEI work and how technology can be used to support it, what are you most excited about?
SS: We are very excited that DE&I is finally at a stage where it is expected and embraced by all stakeholders, and that ERG programs are recognized as an important part of a company’s commitment to the health and welfare of its employees. We feel the future of DEI work will involve companies like Turnout integrating with HR platforms and using AI to help provide valuable insights on the successes and areas for improvement within a company’s DE&I programs and ERGs so they can ensure they’re on the right track when it comes to creating a sense of community and belonging for all employees, increasing company-wide retention along the way.
Surinder Singh is a serial entrepreneur who has founded and co-founded more than three successful startups with a focus on social impact, including Jugglebox, Soundmind and, most recently, Turnout. He’s taught undergraduate and graduate level courses in Entrepreneurship and Finance as a Visiting Professor and Adjunct Professor for more than 20 years. Surinder has a BS in Computer Science from Hofstra University and an MBA from Columbia Business School. He is also on the Board of Directors at Brooklyn Community Housing Works, a non-profit that provides formerly homeless residents a way to successfully maintain their housing with BCHS or move on to greater independence.