Workiva is committed to celebrating diversity, elevating equity and embracing inclusion across our global organization. We listen and learn from one another, lift up all voices to be heard, and speak up for justice and racial equality. We stand in solidarity against racism, violence and injustice.
Our company culture encourages fairness, teamwork and respect among all employees. These are just a few reasons why Fortune magazine named Workiva one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For® in 2021--for the third year in a row.
Our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) efforts actively shape our organization to strengthen our culture, and ultimately, our shared humanity. We give our employees the freedom and resources they need backed by our culture of collaboration and diverse thought to keep breaking new ground. At Workiva, we know we can only be successful if our employees are supported in a place where everyone belongs. We are making progress, but we know we need to do even more.
Workiva takes meaningful, actionable steps to influence positive change across various parts of the business, including recruiting, learning & development, employee programs, retention and supplier diversity.
Our Recent Progress
Recruiting.
Since we started reporting diversity demographics in Q3 2020, employees from under-represented minority groups increased by 2% in the U.S. and 5% across leadership positions in the U.S.*
Year to date, 27.5% of new hires have self-identified as underrepresented minorities. We’re also proud to share that Workiva’s 2021 summer intern class is the most diverse in the company’s history with 49% self-identified as females and 43% self-identified as underrepresented minorities.
We have continued broadening university recruitment efforts, growing our partnerships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other minority-serving institutions (MSIs).
We’re also expanding our talent pipeline through partnerships with multicultural organizations, including the National Society of Black Engineers, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Women in Science & Engineering, Grace Hopper and Power to Fly--to name a few.
Learning.
We pride ourselves in providing learning and development opportunities for our employees to make us better. We recently rolled out an interactive Inclusive Leader Training program that focuses on unconscious bias and creating a culture of belonging. To date, we have trained nearly 500 employees at the manager and above level with plans to reach all Workiva employees by the end of the year.
In addition, we share micro-lessons each week, helping employees learn more about diversity, equity and inclusion topics and how they contribute to a culture of belonging. And, through continued content across our intranet, Slack channels and virtual events led by our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), we bring DE&I conversations to the table on a regular basis.
In April 2021, we rolled out a new interactive, companywide intranet to Connect our employees across the globe. As part of this launch, we elevated our DE&I content with a robust site dedicated to education, connection and celebrations. Each ERG has a site and slack channel making it easy for members and allies to come together
This year, we also introduced a companywide DE&I video, which is posted on our Intranet and is now part of our new hire onboarding program. We want all employees to know that DE&I is more than an initiative -- it’s part of who we are.
Programs.
Workiva supports seven active ERGs that not only connect members through various communications channels but also through monthly activities to engage employees and celebrate diversity holidays and awareness months. From Black History Month in the U.S. to the Dragon Boat Festival in Hong Kong, we celebrate diversity and foster inclusion around the world.
We also invite employees to participate in VOCAL, which stands for Voices of Change Advancing Leadership, to explore topics related to DE&I. Each quarter, VOCAL focuses on a different topic through e-learning, virtual events and small group discussions. This is one more way we integrate DE&I into the fabric of our culture and support a culture of belonging.
We empower female leaders and employees from underrepresented groups through executive coaching and sponsorship programs. For example, our Women of Workiva Leadership Academy identifies high-performing female leaders and supports them through a year-long program of development activities that relate to the opportunities and challenges women in leadership positions face. In 2021, 34 women leaders have been selected for this elite program, which is led by an external partner.
Retention.
We continually evaluate our employment practices to keep employee satisfaction and retention high. As a company that stands for truth, trust and transparency, it’s important that the playing field is level for all employees, especially when it comes to pay equity and benefits. Through our robust total rewards program, we offer paid parental leave, flexible work arrangements and paid volunteer time off -- to name a few. This is on top of our comprehensive health and well-being plans.
Suppliers.
We hold ourselves and our suppliers to a higher standard and recently updated our Supplier Code of Conduct to keep diversity, equity and inclusion practices aligned with our values of integrity, inclusion and accountability.
We have a robust RFP process that seeks to include businesses - small and large - owned by minorities, women, veterans and other underrepresented groups. We believe we are better when our suppliers are representative of our employees, our customers and our communities.
Listening.
We stand behind our people and our culture. We encourage people to speak out when they see or hear an injustice, with no fear of retaliation. Workiva provides multiple options for employees to report issues, including anonymous surveys, an ethics hotline and our continuous improvement program where we collect, evaluate and implement our employees’ feedback and best ideas.
We act upon bi-annual engagement survey results to improve our employment practices with a focus on impartiality, fairness and equity.
In our February 2021 employee engagement survey, employees said they feel:
- their manager supports a culture of inclusion (96%)
- their manager is committed to and supports diversity (96%)
- DE&I is a priority for Workiva (94%)
And, according to the 2021 Great Place to Work Trust Index Survey, employees said they feel:
- treated fairly regardless of sexual orientation (97%)
- treated fairly regardless of race (96%)
- treated fairly regardless of gender (94%)
- treated fairly regardless of age (95%)
- people care about each other (95%)
Our ERGs do more than educate our workforce and celebrate important dates, Workiva utilizes these groups for thoughtful input and perspective on equality and fairness issues. In fact, due to feedback from our Ethnic Diversity in Tech ERG, Workiva added Juneteenth as a permanent paid company holiday in the U.S.
*Race and ethnicity data is not available outside of the U.S. in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). That said, approximately 80% of Workiva’s employees are located in the U.S.