According to DEI leaders here in Colorado, there’s a go-to strategy for companies to launch a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) program: listening.
Gathering and implementing feedback is perhaps the most important step in making strides for DEI, as it provides employees with a voice and ensures a program’s longevity through its continual evolution. It enables employees to voice their perspective not just on recruiting but also on how people are paid and promoted, the leadership skills taught to managers and even what holidays are celebrated.
Sometimes that’s easier said than done. Naturally, conversations about how a company is doing in addressing the gender pay gap and a lack of diversity in hiring and management are more difficult to have than those about snacks and drinks. People want to know that they can safely express their opinion and that doing so will effect change
Brianna Groves, a security engineer and DEI committee lead at Denver-based cybersecurity company CyberGRX, said a “DEI company” approach helps make the conversation more comfortable. The idea is that DEI is not just something that “happens” to employees but rather that it is an open, collaborative process driven by everyone.
“Our DEI committee continuously engages employees for recommendations, information, feedback and participation regarding how we should incorporate DEI as part of our overall culture,” Groves said. “We then identify areas that resonate most throughout the company and the committee builds initiatives, with goals created around those initiatives.”
Groves is one of four local DEI leaders Built In Colorado recently spoke with about the importance of feedback to their DEI programs. Continue reading to learn how they gather employee feedback and use it to move the needle on DEI at their companies.
Healthcare providers use GHX’s supply chain automation technology to cut costs and operate more efficiently. The company also offers solutions for electronic invoicing and payments and vendor credentialing and visitor management.
How does GHX solicit employee feedback on DEI practices?
We use an annual employee engagement survey as well as interim pulse surveys to monitor sentiment. Additionally, GHX’s culture encourages employees to routinely share ideas and feedback through a DEI Slack channel and a dedicated DEI email inbox where employees can ask questions, provide feedback on initiatives and inquire about ways to get involved. GHX also operates an employee-driven DEI Advisory Council and our vice president of DEI has an open-door policy where any employee can meet with her individually.
Employee feedback has been pivotal in the creation of GHX’s DEI strategy and priorities.”
What have been some key takeaways from that feedback?
Employee feedback has been pivotal in the creation of GHX’s DEI strategy and priorities. This feedback alerted leadership that dedicated DEI resources were needed, which resulted in the 2021 formation of the DEI Advisory Council to help promote and ensure equity for all. Specifically, the Council creates and monitors measurable annual strategic goals, reviews and enhances organizational policies that impact inclusion, hosts internal DEI events and educational opportunities, promotes philanthropic initiatives related to advancing health equity and was integral in identifying and selecting the company’s first VP of DEI.
Additionally, employee feedback highlighted other areas of opportunity, such as creating a greater sense of belonging, improving our talent acquisition processes by mitigating unintentional bias, increasing our commitment to health equity and formalizing a diversity supplier program.
What actions or initiatives have been taken because of employee feedback on DEI practices? What impact did those actions have on the company, your employees and/or your community?
GHX has focused its DEI journey on four strategic pillars informed by employee feedback: culture, talent, health equity and supplier diversity. Each pillar will have annual strategic initiatives and clearly defined goals. Additionally, the company has designated Juneteenth and Veterans Day as formal holidays, allowing employees to observe these important days in history by attending educational events and volunteering in their community.
Finally, due to overwhelming employee feedback that being involved in DEI efforts is especially important, a broader DEI framework was developed. This includes the creation of a network where employees can serve as DEI champions and lead the DEI strategy in their respective departments. As a result of these actions, employee morale and involvement in DEI initiatives have increased significantly, and additional DEI awareness initiatives — including National Coming Out Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day — have been celebrated. Lastly, but most importantly, GHX now has a DEI strategy that consistently guides and measures DEI improvements in key areas year over year.
CyberGRX helps enterprise companies ensure that the third-party software that powers their businesses is safe. It does this by providing a place for these third parties to share the security risks of their software, with enterprise organizations able to analyze these risks and update their cybersecurity controls as needed.
How does CyberGRX solicit employee feedback on DEI practices?
We believe that DEI should be the responsibility of all members within the company and have made progress toward this by encouraging employees to see this as a “DEI company” rather than a DEI program with activities led by committee members. In an effort to make this program feel more inclusive, our DEI committee continuously engages employees for recommendations, information, feedback and participation regarding how we should incorporate DEI as part of our overall culture.
We then identify areas that resonate most throughout the company and the committee builds initiatives, with goals created around those initiatives. As a committee, we seek to ensure we have, at minimum, one member from each department represented so that employees have a direct line of communication and more frequent updates.
In a company-wide interest survey, an ally requested to start an LGBTQIA+ employee resource group. It has now expanded to two Slack channels.”
What have been some key takeaways from that feedback?
Our program has been running for approximately three years, with most members being fairly new to formal DEI programs. There has been a learning curve in understanding how to successfully and effectively run a DEI program, and promoting the “DEI company” ideology. As a result, the committee has dedicatedly worked to improve our knowledge around areas where we may lack subject-matter expertise through growth exercises like workshops, research, mentorship, discussion and continued experience.
One area we recently discovered needed improvement is the frequency we provide information to the company around our initiatives and the ability for more than just committee members to get involved. We now share committee progress at monthly all hands and have opened up DEI initiatives and events to any interested employees. We were overwhelmed by the response and eagerness of employees to be more involved!
What actions or initiatives have been taken because of employee feedback on DEI practices? What impact did those actions have on the company, your employees and/or your community?
Due to employee feedback, we have expanded the committee to be more inclusive to the entire company. We established “DEI allies,” or employees who are not formally on the committee but who are passionate about a specific initiative or event. For example, in a company-wide interest survey, an ally requested to start an LGBTQIA+ employee resource group. It has now expanded to two Slack channels, one for members of the LGBTQIA+ community and one for allies.
We have also begun incorporating additional DEI-based training and interview questions into the hiring process to enhance our DEI hiring and retention practices. This allows us to begin the conversation about DEI as well as build awareness with potential candidates around our program and goals. DEI is becoming a subject candidates care to discuss before joining a company, and discussing this during the interview process gives them the insight they need.
Xero’s accounting software is designed to help small businesses and accountants keep better books. The company also provides solutions for online payments, payroll and inventory management.
How does Xero solicit employee feedback on DEI practices?
Our ERGs are engaged consistently when we develop new D&I focus areas, programs, policies, and more. We hold a bi-monthly check-in with all of our ERG leaders to discuss what is going well, how we can improve and to ensure we have an intersectional lens. We also engage our ERGs when creating new policies that will have a broad impact; an example of this is the recent development of Xero’s Inclusion Principles, which are the North Star for all Xeros when navigating people and social justice-related topics. We held a session for our ERG leaders and members to provide feedback, ask questions and help craft the principles prior to formalizing them.
Another system we use to solicit feedback is an Inclusion Index, which we piloted with our Americas-based employees this year. It allows us to identify systemic areas where we have an opportunity to improve based on areas of identity.
These communities have become central to our D&I program and ensure everyone has access to community and a sense of belonging.”
What have been some key takeaways from that feedback?
It is critical to hold the space for multiple perspectives to be heard. It’s also important to engage the local leader in solutions. We can have senior leadership all the way bought in but we need to make sure all managers have the capacity, support and capability to ensure things are being brought to life every single day within teams.
It’s also important to understand the intersectionality of experiences: Looking at things through one lens or aspect of identity may make you miss things that others are experiencing in the organization. The last takeaway is that the majority doesn’t always rule. You may have a small, underrepresented community within your organization that you need to amplify the voices of to ensure policies are equitable and support the success and well-being of everyone within the organization.
What actions or initiatives have been taken because of employee feedback on DEI practices? What impact did those actions have on the company, your employees and/or your community?
Our ERGs exist because of employee feedback. An initial ERG, Black Xero, began organically and expressed the need to our leadership team for us to expand the program as well as to stand up other ERGs, add structure and support, and ensure the budget was allocated to each ERG. Because of this, we have a thriving ERG community, with over 65 percent of our Americas-based Xeros participating in at least one.
These communities have become central to our D&I program and ensure everyone has access to community and a sense of belonging. They have also helped us expand our talent pipeline, reach more customers and establish new partnerships, including with the National Association of Black Accountants and the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Companies use Workiva’s platform to simplify regulatory, financial and environmental, social and governance reporting. The company’s customers include Delta, T-Mobile and Google.
How does Workiva solicit feedback on DEI practices?
Our annual “Tell Us More” survey encourages employees to provide feedback on our belonging practices. We are able to customize some of the questions to help ensure we get well-rounded feedback. The belonging team regularly attends team meetings to provide updates on progress as well as asks for feedback through one on ones, office hours and listening tours.
In 2022, we launched inclusive leadership training for managers and will be adding a similar training for ICs in a future roadmap.”
What have been some key takeaways from that feedback?
Some of the themes from the feedback we’ve gathered include increased representation in leadership, maintaining connections in remote and hybrid environments, an interest in additional diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEiB) training for individual contributors (ICs) and people managers, and a review of pay equity policies.
What actions or initiatives have been taken because of employee feedback on DEI practices? What impact did those actions have on the company, your employees and/or your community?
The following themes have been addressed or are ones we are actively looking to address in our future roadmap. First, our overall leadership metrics from a gender and ethnicity standpoint have improved. Next, we recently launched a policy allowing employees to work 25 days on a rolling 12-month basis in almost any country in the world. In 2022, we launched inclusive leadership training for managers and will be adding similar training for ICs in a future roadmap. We’re reviewing and updating our job architecture program, which will give managers a better framework when making pay decisions.
In 2022, we also launched seven business employee resource groups (BERGs), which focus on elevating historically marginalized communities. At Workiva, we are using a five Cs — career, collaboration, community, customer and culture — and allyship model. Over 25 percent of the company has already signed up to be a member of a BERG and we look forward to those numbers growing in 2023. Finally, we rolled out a belonging table talk video series where I provide bite-sized learning to Workivians globally on a bi-weekly basis.
