More than words: how Zoom made diversity, equity, and inclusion part of its culture

The vendor says it has restructured internal systems, processes, and policies to be more equitable

Zuleika Philips is Zoom's channel leader across Northern Europe and UKI.

Here she tells us what tangible steps the company has made to put D&I at the forefront of their business practices and culture.

Zoom and D&I

Zoom formally started its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) program in the summer of 2020.

The fact that the program launched at the intersection of a global pandemic as well as widespread social and cultural unrest made such an undertaking all the more relevant — and urgent. Additionally, the company experienced massive growth over the past two years, growing from just over 2,000 employees to over 8,000.

As the hiring accelerated, the company's identity evolved. While embracing the rapid growth, it was important to take an honest look at the ways Zoom could drive meaningful change internally and externally.

One of Zoom's core business values is Care, not only for the product and the customers but also for everyone working at Zoom and for the communities surrounding it. A DEI program had to be part of these values and reflect the commitment to care.

Having business goals around culture

The goal: building an environment where all employees are empowered to bring their unique experiences to work and achieve their full potential.

This also meant restructuring internal systems, processes, and policies to be more equitable.

This was a core consideration for Zoom, with proven relevancy given research from Gartner highlighted that a diverse workforce can improve performance by as much as 12 per cent in parallel to providing unique perspectives to challenges and problem solving in being able to relate to marginalised groups and audiences.

Zoom built its DEI program on four focus areas:

1. Workforce focuses on being intentional about seeking out a diverse pool of candidates to join Zoom, and on making fairness and equity central to the processes for evaluating those candidates.

2. Workplace focuses on assessing and enhancing how it feels to work at Zoom for every employee.

3. Marketplace centers on how to make the whole platform more inclusive by examining the go-to-market strategy and identifying ways to grow revenue and market share through intentional DEI efforts. One example is the recently announced sign language interpretation view for Zoom Meetings and Webinars.

4. Community, in partnership with Zoom Cares, the company's social impact arm, focuses on how it could use the financial resources, product, brand equity, and voice to help make the world more equitable. This, for example, includes 5M$ in global grants, announced at the yearly Zoomtopia 2022 conference.

Zoom does not only promote this healthy and caring way of working for our end customers and channel partners but it is also implemented internally with the Channel Leaders at Zoom, in using examples such as Paulina Nowak, responsible for DACH & Eastern Europe, Ashley Allen, responsible for ANZ, and myself responsible for Northern Europe & UKI, who are working mothers who would promote the ability for remote working as our primary catalyst for our happiness in the workplace.

Paulina's favourite Zoom feature is the seamless call transfer option when picking up her children from school.

With the highest quality of collaboration tools available that will support all employees with the ability to work from anywhere, the Zoom offering has been significantly adopted into the portfolio of our Channel Partners in being able to offer more than just meetings, supporting the growth from 10 per cent contribution to 30 per cent in 12 months.

But can DEI become hard data?

Success will be measured by the continued evolution, culture, and level of change, all of which happen over time, not overnight.

Moving forward, Zoom plans to continue to demonstrate commitment to the employees by enhancing and adding to the existing initiatives. For example, newly structured interview processes and return-to-work training for managers foster inclusivity and maintain our focus on the larger purpose of creating a more equitable world.

This is a sponsored post in collaboration with Zoom.