ATF 2023: GrindTea founder Wandile Mthiyane on workplace diversity

GrindTea Founder and CEO Wandile Mthiyane spoke to Connecting Africa Associate Editor Matshepo Sehloho at Africa Tech Festival in Cape Town about how the startup is shaking up job search by connecting women and people of color with workplaces that are diverse and inclusive.

"What GrindTea does is that current employees rate their workplace on how inclusive or not they are to help other employees who are in-between jobs, or recent graduates, to find workplaces where they are truly valued in order to make an informed decision about their next workplace," Mthiyane said.

He explained the reason GrindTea was formed and why he thinks there is a need for this kind of app: "Three in four millennials and Gen Zs look for inclusion as the number one item when looking for a workplace, but we don't have a barometer of what an inclusive workplace is."

Companies are also able to create profiles on GrindTea to show what measures they are taking to change company culture to be more inclusive.

"According to McKinsey data it will take 95 years for us to reach job parity across race, so we can either wait for the companies to change in 95 years or we can change ourselves and force that change by pointing each other in the right direction," Mthiyane explained.

The platform works globally, but the company's current focus is on users in South Africa and New York City in the US, with plans to expand across Africa and in the US.