Amy Dawson

DE&I has been a passion of Amy Dawson’s (she/her; third from right)) throughout her nearly 30 years in the staffing industry. And when joining LinkedIn five years ago, she loved that it was part of the company culture — but she realized there was an entire group being left out of the conversation.

“Being in the role I’m in with contingent staffing, DE&I has never been prevalent in the contingent workforce,” Dawson says. “You talk to different companies about their diversity programs, and it’s all on the full-time side.” She aimed to change that.

Dawson partnered with LinkedIn’s diversity, inclusion and belonging team that handles programs for full-time staff employees to develop a six-month pilot program and secured buy-in from legal as well as executive leadership. The program officially launched in the US in 2021; it focuses on supplier-sourced talent and impacts 700 to 800 contingent workers.

The program was so successful that Dawson and the DIB team have been able to expand it further into Canada, the UK and Ireland; taking the program to India is next on her list. “What I’m proud of is that after two years, we continually see 100% participation from our suppliers,” she says.

It’s about providing opportunity to all workers including contingent workers. To be able to give them a better way of life, better way of helping and taking care of their family.

Dawson has set her sights on advancing DE&I in the contingent workforce in other ways, too. In her time at LinkedIn, she has increased spend with diverse certified suppliers to 20% and is working to increase diverse candidate placements from all suppliers by 25%.

She also partnered with Consciously Unbiased to create a CW Diversity Council, peer groups for companies to come together and share experiences and best practices for DE&I. Currently, she is working with ClubVMSA on a group project to compile documentation for its members on how to go about starting a DE&I program for contingent workers.

Dawson aims to provide an equal playing field for everyone and to give people an equal shot at success.

“It’s about providing opportunity to all workers, including contingent workers,” she explains. “To be able to give them a better way of life, better way of helping and taking care of their family. And just seeing them succeed and grow, because that support is going to transfer to the next person and the next person.”