Elyse Bush ’16: Giving a platform to marginalized workers

When Elyse Bush ’16 graduated, she wasn’t sure what she’d do next, but she knew it would be “in the realm of social entrepreneurship.” A little over two years and two jobs later, she launched Justus, an online platform giving voice to the most underrepresented members of the workforce.

What made this political science major take this unconventional career path? Was it her formative experiences in the Shea Accelerator? Her win in the Elevator Pitch Competition? Her passion for socially conscious, mission-driven work? Or was it just one of those early morning epiphanies? 

“It wasn’t so much an aha moment as a series of experiences layered on experiences,” Bush said. “It kind of got to a boiling point for me.”

A flashpoint and a spark

After graduating, Bush moved to New York to work as a legal intern. But still feeling the tug of social entrepreneurship, she applied for Venture for America, a fellowship that helps recent graduates learn how to build a business while making an impact. 

Soon after, Bush found herself moving back to Boston to work at a nonprofit called Building Impact. A year later, she jumped at the chance to join the team at BU Spark!, a computer science and engineering incubator that supports student-driven innovation and entrepreneurship. It turned out to be a fortuitous decision (more on that later).

Meanwhile, Bush’s work experiences had left an indelible mark. “I noticed there was diversity, but there was also a consistent theme of people we call marginalized identity groups–women, people of color, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ,” she said.

Over two dozen friends confided in her that they identified with one of these groups. The majority were just starting out in their careers in a range of different industries. 

“They all said it was a good work experience, but they were struggling with their managers and didn’t know how to approach the disconnect they were having with them,” she said.

Each of her friends had tried to talk with their managers about a sensitive issue but felt brushed off or misunderstood. They kept repeating the same refrain: there were huge communication gaps between themselves and management.

And Bush wasn’t only hearing things from others. As a woman of color, she had personally experienced problems in the workplace too.

Insights for workers and employers

So she set out to find a solution, looking at platforms like Fairy Godmother and Indeed that let employees give feedback anonymously. Bush recognized these sites were doing part of the job, but she wondered how much of the feedback they collected was actually getting to managers.

She wanted to create something that gave underrepresented groups a secure, confidential platform to speak up–a platform that respects employee identities while making employer diversity and inclusion more transparent and authentic.

Bush built a team and worked with colleagues at BU Spark! to get Justus off the ground. Since launching the site in January 2019, they’ve already begun to see the impact. Employees are using it, companies are learning from it, and the Justus team is growing.

Over the summer, they began publishing the Justus Insights Report, a monthly analysis of insights from employees. They also created surveys for companies to share with employees. Based on survey results, Justus uses sentiment analysis to assign an employee “Happiness” rating. From there, they can compare ratings of different groups and dig down “to get really granular insights,” Bush said.

In the meantime, they’ve begun to expand their network, reaching out to human resource departments and D&I officers.

Bush says while it’s still early to quantify the results, the Justus brand strategy is resonating. They’re making steady progress toward changing the paradigm for marginalized identity groups in the workplace.