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2019 Diversity in the Workplace — An independent D&I report on 10 companies from 10 countries
The 2019 Diversity in the Workplace Report by Vessy.com is an independent international report covering 10 companies from 10 countries.
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Eithiriel DeMerè | Language-Market Fit
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With this report Vessy aims to help the companies that want to become more inclusive and diverse, so that they can innovate, understand and serve customers from around the world. As many of the people she interviewed said — being diverse and inclusive is just the right thing to do.
This report is for those who feel excitement about transforming a company culture, who want to feel proud of their work, who want to make a real impact on people’s day-to-day lives.
Vessy talked to 10 companies from 10 countries, of various size and D&I maturity. You can find aspects in each case that are similar to your company -- and learn from them. The smallest business consists of 20 employees and the biggest - of 16,000 people. The oldest company in the report was founded in 1820 and the youngest - just in 2017. Some of them started with D&I a decade ago, while others are just doing their first steps.
All of the companies that Vessy researched have one thing in common. They are unique because of their context. It's a mixture of their company history, values, employees, customers, proposition, markets, and objectives. What works for one of them won’t necessarily work in the other ones, and vice versa.
Creators: @vtasheva + @jnpetrov
Contributors: @adblanche, @BrianCVC, @wswannell, @checkwarner, @kelsddog, @NickyTod, @farooq_abbasi
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Great topic! Very important and the interviews are super interesting. Vessy, you've managed to organize the information so neatly and pretty. Kudos for the well done job! I hope your effort can lead as inspiration to many and more reports will follow.
@yanavlatchkova Thanks, Yana! @jnpetrov from Kickflip and his team did an amazing work to help me visualize the stories and make them accessible, so we can create an inclusive report
Very rich report! Congrats on releasing it I can see that you put a lot of work to do that and it's all for a good cause!
@uffou thank you, Vasil! It took exactly 3 months from idea to launch. I reached out to approximately 100 individuals and got to talk to 22 of them to show the state of D&I in the 10 companies from 10 countries featured in the report. 17 of those were in-depth phone interviews and there were a few that were done over the email.
Hey everyone! I'm Vessy, founder of Vessy.com and author of the "2019 Diversity in the Workplace Report". I'd absolutely love to hear your feedback!
The report doesn't answer all D&I questions. So feel free to comment here if you have a question and you can't find an answer to it in the report!
@vtasheva Hi there! Have any diversity-focused non-politically bound organisations/companies commented on this report? What have they said?
@niklaspivic666 hey Nikolas!
I have interviewed
- A) people from the following for-profit organizations: ThoughtWorks, Atlassian, Hotjar, TransferWise, Zoona, RTE, Techstars, Swedbank, Software Group, Marvel, Hubble, LimeChain, HireSpace, myAccessHub, Victoria147, Costanoa Ventures, Draper Esprit;
- B) representatives from non-for-profits such as Travis Foundation, Inclusion Ireland, Diversity VC.
I'm not sure what you mean by "politically bound". As far as I'm aware those companies are not tied to any political party or political agenda.
I have the pleasure of knowing Vessy personally and her commitment to this cause is second to none. This work is the reflection of her passion and drive and I strongly recommend it for its completeness, scope ans authenticity
@alexprest How about it's relevance? I don't hire based on skin colour or gender and I certainly don't conduct my business based on the Utopian vision of some SJW barely out of school.
I highly appreciate the efforts that @vtasheva and @jnpetrov have put into making this report! This is indeed a great project with even greater purpose! I know them both personally and I guarantee that they've put a lot of dedication to realizing this project.
As a person who has a professional interest in organizational development-related fields, I have to admit that the report is indeed a well-written thorough work regarding Inclusion and Diversity modern practices in organizations.
However, I believe there is a lot more work to be done in order to prove such kind of report as being a credible and helpful one (I honestly mean no offense by saying that) such as:
1. The report does not provide anything new; it just restates what's been well-known for quite some time now. I don't see any new content and/or conclusions been implied by neither the company representatives being interviewed nor by the authors.
An idea for improvement: it would be way more professional, interesting, and helpful to both practitioners and organizations to conduct empirical research with 10 companies, let just say, 5 of which do employ D&I practices and 5 - don't. Measuring their performance (in terms of operations effectiveness and financial results) relatedness to the inclusion practices (or lack thereof) would help you identify whether D&C truly:
- means something to anybody at all;
- helps companies become better regarding their organizational culture, norms, performance, etc.;
- is related to the success of companies, and if it is - then how and to what extent.
I propose this because by doing it, you'll be positioned as trustworthy and credible professionals who base their opinions on real data from their own research. Otherwise, using statements such as "diversity of thought fuels innovation and business success" (p. 127) - although they sound catchy and will probably help you nail a few clients - are not true, reliable, and proven.
If you successfully manage to do that and come up with measurable and validated results and conclusions, then - oh boy, you have my respect. Interviewing people who say that the company they work in is gay-friendly is definitely not worthy because:
- it's a lie;
- it gives me nothing as being a reader: so what if you're open to hiring lesbians; how is this contributing towards your employees' valuing your company, how does this helps you become a better employer... you get the idea.
2. A clear and precise definition of what Inclusion and Diversity means is lacking. Seriously, I don't know why people have the impression that when D&I comes to mind, sexual orientation is the main thing that should be discussed. Yes, the diagram on p.128 from the report says differently but the common perception of people definitely points otherwise.
3. The report shows only the one side of the coin: yes, it's great to have a sushi bar at the office and hipster co-workers who smoke high-quality "cigarettes" during the break. But how open are they towards accepting different types of professionals in their community at work?
Hubspot, for example, is indeed an overbranded D&I-based place to work... or is it really? I recommend writing also about how overspeculated areas such as D&I can lead to frauds and devaluing of people's true nature and principles. As a start, reading Dan Lyons' "Lab Rats" and/or "Disrupted" would be more than a proper thing to do.
Please pardon my direct language. As I said above, I mean no offense and I do respect your work. Since I believe that you're interested in that topic, I think that you can do better and more sophisticated job in publishing a second, way more precise version of this report in due time. I allowed myself to point out some major areas of improvement because - as being a D&I consultant yourself - I guess you're open to some critical thoughts and feedback.
Good luck in your future endeavors!
@jnpetrov @lubo
Hey Lubo,
Really appreciate that you took the time to read through the entire report 🙌
Thanks for your comprehensive feedback and ideas on how to further elevate the impact of Vessy.com's initiatives.
At the start of the report, I:
- made the promise to interview 10 companies from 10 countries
- set 3 goals for the report: www.vessy.com/about
As a result, "2019 Diversity in the Workplace" is the final output of an extensive qualitative research project that explores what the state of D&I at progressive companies currently is.
With this report, we are laying the groundwork for more focused projects that will dive deeper into the major challenges we’ve identified. We will be collecting employee insights through surveys and in-person & phone interviews, as well as looking into data addressing turnover and promotions, for example.
@vtasheva, look what I found! Hope it's an interesting one. https://hbr.org/2019/02/survey-w....
@lubo Wow, their summary of 3 key points is so consistent with my findings in the report. I'm actually blown away. That's awesome to see! Thank you for sharing.
*1. Leadership commitment:* Superficial words and platitudes are insufficient – as evidenced by the 75% of employees we surveyed who see diversity programs in place but feel no effect. Leaders must build a clear case for change and set concrete goals, prioritized in concert with their diverse employees.
This is covered in my 2018 Trends.
*2. A tailored approach:* The interventions we’ve discussed must be tailored to each company, using its specific culture and starting point to determine the best course of action.
I address this in the Author's note.
*3. Metrics:* Last, top-performing companies measure progress over time and use key performance indicators (KPIs) to refine their approach and to hold leaders accountable for results.
That was one of my key points during the launch event of the report, it's also addressed in Trends under "Success Factors" and "Approaches" and I go into it in detail in the story on Atlassian.
Just stunning.
This report is incredibly well executed. Love the richness of the interviews.
What were some of the biggest challenges in putting this report together?
@koomerang1 when I came up with the idea of the report, I wanted to showcase stories and companies from countries that are very different, not just a mix of European and North American companies that could be somewhat similar. I did interview people and companies from Mexico, India, Australia, and South Africa. It was very hard to find a company comfortable to share on D&I in Asia (due to a recent PR crisis as one company in Malaysia supported LGBTQ rights and many users deinstalled their app) and in South America (due to mostly a language barrier as I found interesting companies and I was getting introed to them, but the conversation didn’t pick up).
FFS, I understand you probably want to find a use for your leftist university education but enough with the identity politics. Besides your friends that have posted here this kind of incessant garbage is making the workplace an SJW hellhole. I guarantee you that most people have had it with this constant rhetoric. I hire people based on their skills and experience. I don't care how many of each colour or gender appear on my payroll and neither should you. Find another way to be relevant.
@brett_lockhart1
Hiring people based on skills and experience is not wrong.
You don’t have to change anything, if you don’t want to.
Re personal remarks:
I graduated in 2009, so “barely out of school” would be a stretch.
@vtasheva Again, I don't need you to tell me that my merit based hiring is "not wrong".
Identity politics is the scourge of our society and it's only purpose is create relevance for an ideology that feeds on division and a permanent underclass. When injustice doesn't exist you must create it. Honestly, I'm trying to be helpful. It will not serve you or society to continuously stoke division.
A little friendly advice from someone that has been out of school considerably longer than 2009. Consider how you might provide value to others, in society or business, without such a toxic and divisive subject matter. It won't last long. We are already seeing the beginnings of a paradigm shift in societal attitudes and tolerance for this kind of thing. You may find yourself scrambling as this narrative becomes less palatable to the mainstream.
Is there anything in this report or your skill set that would help unite corporate culture instead of focusing on differences and hierarchies of "oppression" and resentment. The workplace is already a minefield of social justice nonsense that makes it very difficult to find good people.
As an aside, it would be interesting to see how diverse the diversity racket is these days. Something tells me is skews significantly towards the white, liberal female demographic.
