How diversity & inclusion can improve the customer experience
At Elsevier, we strive to create an environment that brings the power of inclusion and diversity to life. As a global leader in information and analytics, we help researchers and healthcare professionals advance science and improve health outcomes, striving to create a better future. As part of that mission, we aim to foster a culture where all colleagues feel included and valued and have equal opportunities to grow and thrive. Ultimately, this culture helps us better serve our customers worldwide.
We recently invited people from across the company to share their thoughts on why inclusion matters to them — and how it can make for the best experience for the people who use our products and services.
“Passionately, we believe diverse teams make better products for our customers”
Neela Das
Vice President of Technology Optimization
The power of diverse perspectives in product development
One of the core ways to deliver better products lies in having diverse product development teams. By embracing diverse perspectives, organizations can tap into a broader range of insights and experiences that ultimately lead to more innovative and user-centric products.
Speaking on a podcast, Elsevier’s Vice President of Technology Optimization, Neela Das, explained why diverse teams make a difference for the people who use and benefit from Elsevier's products and platforms.
“I've been working in technology for a long time, and for the first 15 years of my career, I was so used to being the only woman in the room,” she said.
She recalled her experience in 2008 with the development of a major new health app, which launched with substantial fanfare.
“You could track every aspect of your health. And the people around me were saying, ‘Isn't this amazing?’ until someone pointed out that 52% of the world could not really use it effectively because it had absolutely no options for any kind of menstrual cycle data, which most women would want to track.
“There was a health tracker from one of the biggest tech companies with absolutely no mention of any kind of women’s health.”
Neela contrasted this with her experience of how product development has changed. An emphasis on including a diverse team of technologies means that companies will rarely make such mistakes.
“When I contrast that to one of our Elsevier products like Complete Anatomy (pictured), which helps train the next generation of doctors, I see that it has the most advanced female anatomy available. It helps improve the learning outcomes for future health professionals. It gives me so much pride that as a company, we’re doing that, but also it speaks to me about the journey that we’ve been in on technology. Because in some ways, I’d like to think no large company would ever make that mistake again — release something for everybody with half the population missing.”
Listen to the podcast
“The richness we gain from representing such a diverse community means we keep our customers’ needs top of mind.”
Embracing collaboration: Drawing on the collective wisdom of a diverse team
For Melissa Fulkerson, Vice President of Reference Solutions at Elsevier, connecting with people from other parts of the world has given her a deeper understanding of customer needs.
“I started out in marketing in our Science & Technology Books unit; my role was focused on face-to-face events with consumers of our books. Through this work, I was able to meet people of diverse backgrounds. I learned about libraries, books, publishing and higher education in the context of regional priorities, customs, government regulations, politics and more.
“I took my first international business trip in 2010, visiting London for a conference in one of our fields of publishing. My colleagues and I spoke to customers, learned about their work and their needs, and generated ideas for how we could engage with them in the future.”
Now, she said, her global team has helped her develop skills and insights on both a business and personal level.
“This year, I just celebrated my 15-year anniversary with Elsevier. I am now the General Manager of two products in our reference content portfolio that have a global reach, and I’m supported by a team of 18 incredible product, commercial and data professionals across six countries and time zones! It’s a unique challenge to get calendars synced up, but the richness we gain from representing such a diverse community means we keep our customers’ diverse needs top of mind. I feel fortunate to have had an opportunity to hold different functional roles during this time, as I know it has made me more well-rounded and a better leader.
"Through these experiences, I learned greater financial and commercial acumen, I learned how to be an authentic leader, and I gained the confidence to set big goals and take risks. I’ve made mistakes and had the safety net of my managers and other leaders at Elsevier, which has helped me learn and continue to grow. I take the responsibility of being a female senior leader at Elsevier seriously and spend a good amount of my time mentoring and coaching other women in our global business to ensure they have the same level of opportunity I had.
“This is how our business will continue to grow. Fostering talent in all places, from all backgrounds and with all skill sets makes us better and more well-rounded as an organization. I know I’m a better listener, a more creative thinker and generally a better leader because of the diversity I’m surrounded by daily.”
“I’m a better listener, a more creative thinker and generally a better leader because of the diversity I’m surrounded by.”
Read Melissa's story
“This inclusive environment helps us propel innovation.”
Gladys López | Customer Success Manager, Clinical Solutions
Watch Gladys's video
Innovation is powered by inclusive thinking
As Customer Success Manager for Clinical Solutions — and through her leadership in a variety of employee groups — Gladys López has experienced firsthand how inclusivity drives innovation and makes healthcare more inclusive:
“We embrace a multifaceted approach to all dimensions of diversity encompassing race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, ability and cultural backgrounds. This inclusive environment helps us to propel innovation, as diverse teams bring a plethora of viewpoints and problem-solving techniques to the table, leading to creative solutions and ground-breaking advancements.”
An example of that approach is Shadow Health, a nursing education tool designed to put the patient at the forefront of the learning experience with high-fidelity, screen-based simulations.
Shadow Health has a wide range of simulated virtual patients that allow nurses to practice clinical skills from medical and surgical to mental health. Because of the patented Natural Language Conversation Engine within Shadow Health’s Digital Clinical Experiences™ (DCEs), students can practice authentic conversations with a diverse representation of patients, which students may not encounter in the clinical setting.
The tool also incorporates virtual LGBTQIA+ training modules.
Including those with disabilities
That concept of inclusive thinking powering innovation extends across Elsevier’s portfolio of products in research and in health. ScienceDirect, the world’s largest platform dedicated to peer-reviewed scientific and medical research, ranked number 1 as the most accessible homepage by the WebAIM Million study in 2023, out of the top 1 million websites on the internet. Elsevier's technologists put accessibility at the heart of the user experience for individuals with disabilities and impairments, including auditory, cognitive, physical, speech and visual disabilities.
Astrid Van Hoeydonck, Senior Product Manager for Accessibility & SEO, and Ted Gies, Accessibility Manager, explained what that meant in practice:
"With a better understanding of end user needs and pain points, we have developed user personas — a design tool that creates empathy and informed design decisions. Elsevier has created at least eight personas based on members of our researcher community who experience disability. For example, ‘Kayla Howard’ (pictured below), a university librarian who is visually impaired, uses screen magnification and text-to-speech to help in her role helping students to find sources for academic papers.”
“Other examples of personas include a scientific researcher with hand tremors who struggles with using a mouse, so we look at how easy it is to navigate the site using a keyboard. And ‘Ryan Watson’ [pictured, right], a health sciences researcher with a cognitive disability due to Long COVID, uses speech-to-text software such as Dragon Naturally Speaking to transcribe notes and send emails to coworkers and a digital notetaking program to send themself reminders and take notes during meetings.
“While everyone benefits from a site with consistent layouts and terminology, people with cognitive disabilities will be especially impacted when it is not done right. There are many people on the disability spectrum, and we are continually learning how to meet specific end user needs. We will continue to expand our personas as we learn from usability research together with the disability community.”
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