The Only Diversity That Matters: Can You Do the Job?

Most companies approach diversity and inclusion like they’re checking boxes on a compliance form. They count demographics. They set quotas. They create committees.

Then they congratulate themselves for hitting targets that have nothing to do with hiring the best people.

We built Automate America on a different principle. Merit is the only thing that matters, and equal access is the only diversity metric worth measuring.

Why Traditional DEI Fails

After spending decades in automation engineering, we watched traditional approaches fail. We worked as employees, contractors, service companies, and system integrators.

We watched artificial barriers keep qualified professionals from opportunities. Meanwhile, manufacturers were forced to choose from artificially limited talent pools.

So we built something different. A marketplace where your profile does not ask for your race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or any other demographic data.

On Automate America, you are a skilled professional. Period.

You do not belong to some category used to divide us. You are a human being with technical skills. That is all that matters.

Why Your Profile Doesn’t Ask Personal Questions

When you register on Automate America, our system asks about your technical capabilities. What robots can you program? Which PLC platforms do you know?

What industries have you worked in? What certifications do you hold?

However, we do not ask about your background, your ancestry, or any demographic information. Not because those aspects of your identity are unimportant to you personally.

But because they are completely irrelevant to whether you can solve a manufacturer’s automation problem.

Traditional hiring processes collect this data to prevent bias. Then they use it to create new forms of bias in the opposite direction.

Hiring managers see demographics and make assumptions. Those assumptions have nothing to do with technical competence.

This approach fragments our industry. It creates resentment. It perpetuates the idea that people should be viewed through immutable characteristics rather than demonstrated capability.

We reject this entirely. Your profile on Automate America represents your skills, your experience, and your track record. Nothing else.

How Free and Fair Access Actually Works

Here is how the system operates in practice.

A manufacturer needs a robot programmer for a project in Tennessee. They post the contract on Automate America with the rate they are willing to pay—$85 per hour.

They describe the work: Fanuc robot programming for an automotive weld cell, three-month duration, onsite required.

Every qualified professional in our 40,000-member network who can perform that work sees the opportunity. A programmer in Detroit. Another in rural Michigan.

One in California who is willing to relocate. A woman-owned automation service company in South Carolina with available engineers. A first-generation immigrant contractor in Texas with elite Fanuc skills.

They all apply with their profiles. The profiles show technical capabilities, certifications, past projects, customer reviews, and years of experience.

The profiles do not show race, gender, age, or religion.

The customer reviews those profiles. If they want help, Automate America admin assists in identifying the most qualified candidate based purely on technical fit.

The best profile wins the contract.

There is no bidding. There is no negotiation. There is no advantage given to those with connections or membership in preferred vendor programs.

The customer posts a fair rate. Qualified professionals apply. The most capable person gets the work.

This is equal access. This is how merit-based systems actually function when you remove the barriers.

Why This Approach Is More Inclusive

Traditional diversity programs often create the opposite of what they intend. They put people into categories. They make demographic characteristics the most important thing.

They create systems where qualified professionals wonder if they were hired for their skills or to fill a quota.

Worse, traditional approaches do nothing to address the real barriers in industrial automation:

Geographic limitations. Most manufacturers only consider talent within driving distance. This excludes qualified professionals who could relocate or work remotely.

Vendor-approved lists. Many companies only hire from pre-approved supplier lists. This locks out independent contractors and small service companies regardless of capability.

Good old boy networks. The automation industry has historically operated on relationships and referrals. This concentrates opportunities among those already connected.

Artificial credentialism. Some companies require degrees that have nothing to do with whether someone can actually do the work.

These barriers fragment our industry and keep opportunities limited. They hurt everyone—the manufacturers who cannot find talent, and the professionals who never see the work.

Automate America eliminates these barriers systematically. Our platform is blind to everything except competence.

A PLC programmer in rural Michigan has exactly the same access as one from Detroit. A woman-owned automation service company has the same visibility as a multinational integrator.

An independent contractor who learned programming in a community college competes on equal footing with one who has an engineering degree from MIT.

The only question that matters: can you do the work?

Customer Reviews Build Trust

In a merit-based system, how do customers gain confidence? How do professionals build reputations that open doors?

Customer reviews.

Every completed contract generates a review. Customers rate the professional’s technical capability, communication, reliability, and overall performance.

These reviews become part of your permanent profile.

This system is fundamentally fair. It rewards competence. It punishes poor performance. It creates a transparent record that any potential customer can evaluate.

A new professional with zero reviews gets their first opportunity because a customer sees their technical credentials. They complete the work successfully. They earn a five-star review.

The next contract comes easier. Five more successful projects and they have built a reputation that speaks louder than any demographic data ever could.

This is how trust should be built. Through demonstrated capability over time, visible to everyone, impossible to fake.

Geographic Flexibility and Legal Requirements

Location does not determine opportunity on Automate America. If a contract requires onsite work in South Carolina and you live in Michigan but are willing to relocate temporarily, your geographic location is irrelevant.

Remote and hybrid options expand possibilities even further.

We have exactly one requirement: all contractors performing work in the continental United States, Canada, or Mexico must be legally qualified to work in that region.

This is not bias. This is compliance with employment law.

Beyond that requirement, your location does not matter. Your citizenship does not matter. Your national origin does not matter.

Your ability to perform the work is the only factor that determines whether you get the opportunity.

This geographic flexibility breaks down one of the most persistent barriers in traditional employment. Manufacturers no longer limit themselves to local talent pools.

Professionals no longer limit themselves to opportunities within commuting distance. The entire North American market becomes accessible to anyone with the skills to compete.

We Care About You, Not Your Ancestors

Most traditional diversity initiatives spend enormous energy discussing historical injustices. These conversations often devolve into debates about who suffered more.

We take a different position. We do not care what your parents, grandparents, or long-dead relatives went through.

We care about you, right here, right now. What are your skills? What can you do? What problems can you solve?

This is not callousness. This is respect for your dignity as an individual.

You are not defined by your ancestry. You are not limited by historical circumstances. You are not helped by being viewed as a victim.

You are a skilled automation professional with agency, capability, and the power to build your own future through demonstrated competence.

The best way to honor anyone who faced barriers in the past is to remove barriers in the present. That is exactly what Automate America does.

We create a system where your skills matter more than your story. Where your capability matters more than your category. Where your future matters more than your past.

No Bidding, No Games, No Bias

Traditional staffing models create adversarial dynamics. Vendors bid against each other in races to the bottom. Negotiations favor those with better sales skills.

Customers never know if they are getting fair rates or being gouged.

We eliminated this entirely. Customers post contracts at the rate they are willing to pay. That rate is public.

Every qualified professional sees the same number. There is no bidding. There is no negotiation.

There is no advantage for smooth talkers or good salespeople.

This removes bias in both directions. Customers cannot lowball professionals based on assumptions. Professionals cannot get rejected because they asked for too much money.

Everyone sees the same opportunity with the same terms.

The customer then chooses the most qualified engineer for the job based on technical fit. It is as simple as that.

You Are Not a Category, You Are a Human

Modern corporate culture has developed a strange habit. It reduces people to demographic categories.

You are not an individual with unique capabilities. You are a member of various groups. Those group memberships define how you should be treated.

We reject this dehumanizing approach entirely. On Automate America, you are not a man or a woman. You are not a color or a race.

You are not defined by your religion, your ancestry, or any other immutable characteristic.

You are a human being with technical skills. You are an automation professional. You are someone who can solve real problems for real companies.

That is your identity here.

This perspective honors your humanity more than any diversity program ever could. It says that what you have accomplished matters more than what category you belong to.

It says that your capabilities define you, not your demographics. It says that you have agency and control over your professional trajectory.

Skills Training for Merit-Based Success

In a merit-based marketplace, continuous skill development matters. Whether you’re advancing your automation career or entering the field, technical training gives you the competitive edge.

For professionals looking to strengthen their credentials, Coursera offers courses on workplace inclusion that help you understand how merit-based systems create fair opportunities.

Additionally, LinkedIn Learning provides DEI training that explores how equal access systems benefit both professionals and employers.

However, the most important training is technical. Your PLC programming skills, robot programming capabilities, and automation expertise are what win contracts on Automate America.

The Results Speak for Themselves

Since launching Automate America, we have connected over 40,000 automation professionals with manufacturers across every major industry.

We have filled contracts in automotive plants, food processing facilities, pharmaceutical manufacturers, aerospace companies, and hundreds of other sectors.

We have placed independent contractors who spent years locked out of premium contracts into Fortune 500 projects. We have helped small automation service companies compete for work previously reserved for multinational integrators.

We have enabled professionals from every background imaginable to access opportunities based purely on their technical capabilities.

We accomplished this without demographic quotas. Without diversity committees. Without any of the traditional apparatus of corporate DEI programs.

We accomplished it by removing barriers, creating transparency, and building a system where merit is the only currency that matters.

The manufacturers get access to the best available talent. The professionals get access to every available opportunity.

Everyone wins when the system is actually fair.

The Philosophy of Equal Access

At its core, Automate America operates on a simple philosophical truth. Human beings deserve to be judged on what they can do, not who they are.

The automation industry does not need more demographics committees. It needs more qualified professionals solving real manufacturing problems.

It needs manufacturers who can access talent without artificial barriers. It needs professionals who can access opportunities without gatekeepers.

Traditional employment creates a binary choice. You are either permanently employed with all the overhead and risk that entails, or you are locked out entirely.

The professional gig economy, done correctly, creates a third option. Flexible engagement based on project needs. Fair compensation based on market rates. Access based on capability.

This model respects both the manufacturer’s need for predictable project costs and the professional’s need for consistent work across diverse industries.

It acknowledges that automation projects do not follow predictable staffing curves. Traditional employment models force companies to pretend they do.

On-demand expertise will always outperform permanent headcount in project-based technical work. That is not a controversial statement. It is an economic reality.

The question is whether we build systems that honor this reality while maintaining fairness and equal access. That is exactly what Automate America accomplished.

Join the Only Marketplace That Treats You Like a Professional

If you are an automation professional tired of being reduced to a demographic category, Automate America is built for you.

If you are a manufacturer tired of limited talent pools and vendor games, Automate America is built for you.

Register your profile. List your skills. Build your reputation through excellent work.

Access every contract you are qualified to perform. Get chosen based on your capabilities, not your characteristics.

This is diversity that matters. This is inclusion that works. This is what a merit-based system looks like when you actually commit to removing barriers.

We are not asking you to believe in some utopian vision. We are showing you a system that works right now, today, connecting tens of thousands of professionals with real contracts from real manufacturers.

The results prove the concept. Equal access works. Merit-based selection works. Transparent pricing works.

The only question is whether you are ready to compete on your capabilities rather than your demographics.

Thank You for Reading

I hope this post provided actionable insights into how merit-based systems create genuine equal opportunity. The automation industry needs professionals who can solve problems.

Automate America exists to connect those professionals with the manufacturers who need them. No barriers. No bias. No games.

If you have questions about how the platform works or how to maximize your opportunities, reach out directly.

 

Tony Wallace

Co-Founder, Automate America

586-770-8083

info@automateamerica.com

 

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