U.S. civil rights activist and poet Maya Angelou once said, “In diversity, there is beauty and there is strength.”
In the workplace, employees likewise recognize the value of having teams with different races, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, abilities and more. A 2020 Glassdoor survey found that more than three out of four job seekers consider a diverse workforce an important factor when exploring employment opportunities.
Beyond allowing teams to learn from colleagues of varied backgrounds and experiences, diversity may also strengthen companies’ bottom lines. According to a 2020 McKinsey and Company report, workplaces with ethnically and gender diverse leadership are more likely to financially outperform their less diverse competitors.
Representation, however, is just the beginning. It’s essential that companies pair diversity priorities with equity and inclusion policies that enable people of all identities to make meaningful professional contributions, receive fair treatment and evaluations, feel psychological and physical safety, and experience a sense of belonging and connection to their teams and organizations.
At the five companies featured below, employees say they are empowered to create, lead and own diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Rather than implementing top-down policies, leaders at these companies create pathways for individual contributors to voice concerns, give feedback and, ultimately, drive meaningful change.
Built In Seattle connected with Trupanion, Logic20/20, Highspot, DreamBox Learning and Identity Digital to learn more about their employee-led DEI efforts.
Trupanion is a medical insurance provider for cats and dogs.
What can individual contributors do to bring about meaningful organizational change as it pertains to diversity, equity and inclusion?
Two concrete things that an individual contributor can do in bringing about change are relationship building and creating space.
Relationship building is paramount because it allows you to get to know the other person, and it allows them to get to know you. Creating space is vital to produce meaningful change in any organization. As a diversity, equity and inclusion individual contributor, I’ve learned if you don't create spaces like employee resource groups and DEI committees, you aren’t creating opportunities for change.
While it is true that impactful and meaningful change often requires a collective effort, individuals can serve as catalysts for progress. We have one such individual who has played a critical role in advancing our DEI strategy plan by organizing and tracking our project timelines; their dedication and hard work are perfect examples of how individuals can make a difference.
If you don't create spaces like employee resource groups and DEI committees, you aren’t creating opportunities for change.”
How does Trupanion’s leadership empower employees to actively drive DEI initiatives forward?
Our leadership encouraged and empowered employee-led DEI initiatives by first hiring a DEI manager; this position is crucial to advancing the company’s DEI initiatives and allows me to facilitate the organization’s DEI strategy.
Our leadership also encourages employees to participate in our DEI plan. This plan involves not only members of our people operations team, but also any team members from across our global team who are interested and passionate about these important issues. By opening up the conversation to a wider range of perspectives and experiences, we hope to create a more inclusive and supportive workplace culture that benefits everyone.
Lastly, our leadership gives employees the ability to be vocal in our pulse and team employee surveys. They’re great ways for our employees to have a voice.
Logic20/20 is a business and technology consulting firm that helps companies tackle their toughest challenges.
What can individual contributors do to bring about meaningful organizational change as it pertains to diversity, equity and inclusion?
Individual contributors can get involved outside their immediate team and expose themselves to people in the company who are different from them in their roles, genders and interests. They can also understand what diversity, equity and inclusion means, and support the principles expressed in our company’s DEI charter.
Our principles are to grow an increasingly diverse workforce, continuously cultivate a culture of inclusion and drive positive change in our workplace and community.
Transgender people in particular are facing a physically, structurally and economically violent world. Showing transgender teammates that their colleagues care about honoring their identity helps them feel welcome, and it’s necessary in building trust within a team.
Some basic steps individuals can take are adding their pronouns to email signatures, team names and wherever else people may see names written; sharing pronouns during initial introductions; and practicing pronouns. Everyone makes mistakes, so if someone is misgendered, just correct it, apologize briefly and move on with the conversation.
Showing transgender teammates that their colleagues care about honoring their identity helps them feel welcome, and it’s necessary in building trust within a team.”
How does Logic20/20’s leadership empower employees to actively drive DEI initiatives forward?
Our CEO has never shied away from addressing controversial topics with us as a company, such as the racial tensions that erupted in 2020 and the recent overturn of Roe v. Wade. With compassion and sensitivity, he takes on these issues in a non-polarizing way, expressing his concerns from the heart.
Highspot improves sales teams’ productivity by managing their content, training representatives, engaging buyers and more.
What can individual contributors do to bring about meaningful organizational change as it pertains to diversity, equity and inclusion?
One of the main ways that individual contributors can make an impact on DEI is by advocating for changes to their leadership.
For example, I learned that requiring college degrees in job descriptions inherently biases the candidate pool because it excludes candidates who chose different paths after high school. I talked to our vice president about it, and within two hours she went to the recruitment team and had them remove the college degree requirement from all of our job descriptions.
In another case, my teammate pointed out that our product didn’t have any place to indicate pronouns. A sizable portion of our employee base works with clients and prospects every day, so it’s important to set expectations for how team members should be addressed. My colleague added the feature to our product — not just for our company to use, but for all of our customers.
Here at Highspot, our senior leaders have talked at all-hands meetings about their experiences with ADHD and dyslexia.”
How does Highspot’s leadership empower employees to actively drive DEI initiatives forward?
Highspot formed employee resource groups to create communities dedicated to supporting DEI initiatives and ensured these groups had sizable budgets. This allows them to host events, bring in speakers and build support networks for the community.
Last year, I was asked to co-lead “Minds of All Kinds,” an ERG focused on neurodiversity and mental health. Through building this community, we’ve created an open and honest resource for team members to talk about their experiences, get support and advocate for accommodations that make work easier. In corporate America, neurodiversity used to be a topic that was reserved for hushed conversations with HR, but here at Highspot, our senior leaders have talked at all-hands meetings about their experiences with ADHD and dyslexia.
Leadership also includes ERG efforts as part of the conversation for annual reviews; it is viewed as real, impactful work that is worth the time investment away from day-to-day roles. We also built DEI-specific questions into our anonymous annual surveys to get open and real feedback on the progress we’re making.
DreamBox Learning provides students with personalized math and reading programs.
What can individual contributors do to bring about meaningful organizational change as it pertains to diversity, equity and inclusion?
One of the most impactful actions that any individual contributor can take to further the work of diversity, equity, inclusion and justice is internal reflection about their views, biases and opportunities to improve things in their sphere of influence. The strength of any organization is its people, and when employees are reflective about these topics, company culture and awareness improve.
One positive change brought about by a reflective DreamBox employee was to change some long-standing engineering terminology, such as “master” and “slave” device controls. They were not inclusive and unnecessary.
This action quickly led our company to introduce AllyBot, a Slack plugin that privately messages employees when they use a non-inclusive or potentially offensive term and explains why it's problematic. It provides a moment for employees to privately reflect and learn, and it has resulted in further conversations with colleagues. There can't be any growth or learning without creating opportunities for meaningful reflection about new ideas.
There can't be any growth or learning without creating opportunities for meaningful reflection about new ideas.”
How does DreamBox Learning’s leadership empower employees to actively drive DEI initiatives forward?
At DreamBox, we have monthly sessions open to all employees called “proximity and purpose dialogues.” During these sessions, we focus on a theme and break into random small groups of four to discuss a question or conversation starter. The questions are focused on individual reflection and community actions.
By providing employees with the opportunity to first reflect on their journeys and then hear their colleagues' perspectives, these conversations lead to great ideas about what we can do better at DreamBox and in our communities. During these sessions, individual employees are given an open mic to share their thoughts, and we've been working on different ways to take notes.
When the initiative started in June 2020, we spent a year compiling an extensive page of resources, including readings, videos and podcasts, on our internal Wiki to support employees' learning. As the executive sponsor for this work, I'm thrilled to learn with and from my talented colleagues as we figure out new ideas for how we can ensure our company is inclusive and help the world become a more just, equitable place.
Identity Digital offers a portfolio of domain names that enables people to build their digital brands.
What can individual contributors do to bring about meaningful organizational change as it pertains to diversity, equity and inclusion?
Employee resource groups and clubs are ideal actions that can bring about awareness, involvement and recognition for those passionate about DEI initiatives. Allowing our teams to lead these efforts affords them opportunities to build relationships with others from different backgrounds, experience new points of view and drive a more equitable and inclusive workspace.
Employee resource groups and clubs are ideal actions that can bring about awareness, involvement and recognition for those passionate about DEI initiatives.”
How does Identity Digital’s leadership empower employees to actively drive DEI initiatives forward?
One of our company’s core values is, “We work as one team.” This means we work together and think differently, creating a flexible and inclusive space for people of all backgrounds to thrive through honest communication, personal growth and shared success.
Diversity of thought is one of the greatest outcomes of providing employees with opportunities to think differently, be creative and be their authentic selves at work. Supporting this value through education, programs and team experiences will continue to drive our DEI initiatives forward.
