Creating a culture of belonging.

We made a big push for affinity groups in 2020. The HR team was presenting to interested employees and educating them on what affinity groups are, what’s required to run one, and what support leaders will receive from HR and the executive team. Affinity group leaders receive compensation for their time and effort (they receive a stipend for professional development). Leading an affinity group is also taken into consideration for promotions as part of our ‘legacy’ promotion criterion. Affinity groups get a 10k budget per year that they can use for speakers or training that benefit their group members or the whole organization. Group leaders will meet with our CEO, COO and VP People once a quarter to share important insights and feedback.

We now have 6 affinity groups: Zenit (Meditation / Mindfulness), Black At it, Women’s Network, Mixed Identities, Remote employees. In Q3, the groups met with our exec team for the first time. Both affinity groups as well as execs got a lot out of the meeting. It’s great for affinity group leaders to get 1-1 time with the exec team and to be able to share what matters to their group. Similarly, hearing what’s on the AG leaders’ minds is great for execs to know as it can inform our thinking and strategy.  The meetings impacted our 2021 benefits strategy and we included additional employee benefits based on feedback from the groups. Our belonging score for Q4 is currently at 89% which is impacted by our affinity groups.