Top Tech Companies Join Forces to Push for Diversity and Inclusion at Vendor Organizations
SurveyMonkey leads effort along with 23andMe, Age of Learning, Box, Chime, Eventbrite, Genesys, Headspace, Intuit, Leaf Group, PagerDuty, Slack, Tile, Tinder, Upwork, and Zoom to add diversity, equity, and inclusion metrics to vendor selection and renewal processes
SAN MATEO, Calif., Aug. 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today SurveyMonkey announced that 23andMe, Age of Learning (creator of ABCmouse), Box, Chime, Eventbrite, Genesys, Headspace, Intuit, Leaf Group, PagerDuty, Slack, Tile, Tinder, Upwork, and Zoom are among the major tech companies joining SurveyMonkey’s new initiative to track the representation of traditionally marginalized groups working inside their vendors, including law firms, technology services suppliers, food suppliers, landlords, marketing agencies, investment banks, and auditors.
Unlike vendor diversity programs of the past (which are typically limited to tracking minority ownership), this new initiative will use a simple survey to also track the representation of women, racial minorities, and LGBTQ individuals within a vendor’s employee base, leadership team, and board of directors. It will evaluate the vendor’s use of inclusive practices for recruiting, retaining, and advancing members of traditionally marginalized groups as well.
“Improving diversity, equity, and inclusion is an industry-wide challenge for the technology sector,” said Zander Lurie, CEO of SurveyMonkey. “We have work to do within our own businesses to become anti-racist. We also want to help upend the systemic bias we know still exists in the broader business community. This new initiative enables us to turn diversity, equity, and inclusion into a business metric that will drive accountability in the organizations we rely on to power our companies. Better data will lead to more accountability and—ultimately—progress on critical diversity initiatives.”
Participating organizations have agreed to begin laying the groundwork for collecting diversity and inclusion data from new and existing vendors within the next 30 days, and to incorporate supplier diversity into decision-making over the long term. The companies will continue to collaborate and develop best practices for using their budget to push for change within the broader business community.
Of the initiative, dean of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and SurveyMonkey Board Member Erika James said, “This is a critical piece of the puzzle when it comes to untangling the complicated factors that lead to underrepresentation across corporate America. There’s power in these companies coming together to take a stand and leverage their budgets to make an impact. No one company can have the impact that the collective can.”
The program was created in collaboration with the social impact consultancy The Justice Collective, which will continue to provide support to participating companies and their vendors. Additional resources and a link to the vendor workforce diversity survey template can be found at surveymonkey.com/equity.
ABOUT THE JUSTICE COLLECTIVE
The Justice Collective (TJC) is a 100% Woman-of-Color owned social impact consultancy that centers racial and social equity. Founded in Oakland, CA, and led by Danielle DeRuiter-Williams, Ellie Tumbuan, and Lena Carew, TJC formed in response to the Movement for Black Lives and growing concerns of persistent injustices. Since 2015, TJC has evolved into a company that empowers and equips leaders and teams within organizations, companies, and movements to take measurable steps towards a bolder vision for our workplaces and our communities.
ABOUT SURVEYMONKEY
SurveyMonkey is a leading global survey software company that enables organizations to turn feedback into action. The company’s platform empowers over 17 million active users to measure and understand feedback from employees, customers, website and app users, and the market. SurveyMonkey’s products, enterprise solutions, and integrations enable more than 335,000 organizations to solve daily challenges, from delivering better customer experiences to increasing employee retention, thereby unlocking growth and innovation. Ultimately, SurveyMonkey's vision is to raise the bar for human experiences by amplifying individual voices.
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