“Mentorship programs.” “Professional speakers.” “Educational workshops.”
When asked how tech teams are participating in Black History Month this year, these company responses are becoming increasingly common — and for good reason. As diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) continues to be a prominent topic of cultural discussion within the industry, leadership teams are realizing that making a significant impact requires more than an email newsletter or a decorated office bulletin board to honor the complex history of the Black experience.
For many, embracing educational resources is a promising start.
Even as companies ramp up their DEI efforts in 2022 with ambitious recruiting goals to increase representation, Black individuals still only make up around 13 percent of the workforce, according to Built In’s research. By emphasizing the accomplishments and contributions of prominent Black innovators through speaking panels or team workshops, employee resource groups and diversity leaders are striving to turn historical events into modern messages of empowerment. After all, knowledge is power, and providing Black team members the space to feel seen, heard and supported is essential to successfully fostering equity and inclusion.
“It’s so important for Black employees to be able to openly discuss and embrace their cultural and ethnic backgrounds — not just during a single month, but throughout the whole year,” said Neal Booker, senior manager of diversity and inclusion at Yext.
That’s why Built In NYC sat down with five tech leaders to learn more about all the ways their companies are not only recognizing significant Black achievements during Black History Month, but also celebrating Black voices in their everyday lives.
In honor of Black History Month, what is your company doing this year to celebrate Black history?
The theme for this year’s Black History Month programming is education. We want both allies and identifiers to walk away with a better understanding of three aspects: the past, the present and the action.
For the past, we’re celebrating and acknowledging the lived experiences of pioneers who’ve paved the way for us. With the present, we’re going to dive further into where we are today and advance our understanding of the Black experience, race and ethnicity. And for the action, we’ve put together programming to help equip our ZocColor members with tactical, actionable advice to help them grow as people and professionals.
Our employee resource group, ZocColor, exists to create a shared sense of belonging and a safe place for all employees of color.
We’re putting together roundtables that focus on discrimination based on skin color to provide an opportunity to discuss how the Black experience isn’t monolithic.”
What other activities or charitable initiatives do you have planned for Black History Month?
We really want this year’s programming to feel like a two-way street, so participation is a key theme. While we have speakers lined up, we know that people learn better when they’re involved in the educational process, so we’ve come up with additional modalities to drive participation and community. We’re really excited about two activities this month, specifically.
We’re putting together roundtable conversations that focus on discrimination based on skin color, including skin tone nuances, to provide an opportunity to discuss how the Black experience isn’t monolithic. Many people have heard of the “Paper Bag Test,” where an individual's skin tone is compared to the color of a brown paper bag, and want to enable open, honest discussion about the topic. ZocColor will talk about what their peers are facing, both professionally and personally that we may not be privy to, and how we can best support each other.
The second activity is daily trivia. We’ve got a lot of great trivia minds and a funny, playful culture. We’ll be leaning into that with daily trivia and special prizes for our winners!
What are some ongoing programs, initiatives or benefits your company offers to support and empower Black employees throughout the year?
One initiative is our ERG programming and investments. We run consistent programming to create spaces for education, honesty and community. More structurally, Zocdoc recognizes ERG leads through a quarterly stipend and partners them with dedicated executive sponsors to help with their personal and professional development.
Another initiative is recruiting. Zocdoc aims to cultivate an inclusive team who will accelerate equity in healthcare. In 2021, we hired two diversity sourcers, and in 2022 we’ve set even more aggressive goals to cultivate a diverse candidate pool.
In regard to benefits, last year Zocdoc surveyed our employees — including demographic questions — as a part of our DEI strategy to understand how our benefits were working for all Zocdoc’rs. A couple of changes we made in 2021 to improve our benefits offerings include introducing a Sabbatical leave and floating holidays. We’ve also expanded our health and wellness offerings, giving employees free access to both Headspace and Peloton’s digital app. Lastly, we rolled out the Zocdoc-funded 401(k) match this year to help promote financial wellness.
In honor of Black History Month, what is your company doing this year to celebrate Black history?
We’re always excited about Black History Month, because it means we get to celebrate the identities and contributions of not just Black Yexters, but influential Black figures throughout history. This year, we plan to do so with a full slate of engagements.
Like many other companies, we plan to start with the baseline — refitting our company logo with the Pan-African flag colors as a nod to Black History Month — and are supporting that with company-wide actions to demonstrate how dedicated we are to our DEI efforts.
Working with our DEI, marketing, creative and leadership teams, our ERG for Black Yexters, Elevate, will lead the charge with internal Black History Month activations. Events range from more serious topics like a mental health journaling series, allyship workshop and panel discussions on African history to a litany of fun events. Some of these include Black Yexter spotlights across Yext’s social media, a video of Black Yexters discussing the personal importance of Black History Month, a game night and more.
We know that the Black experience isn’t just relevant to the U.S., so we also make it a point to consider other regions in our planning.”
What other activities or charitable initiatives do you have planned for Black History Month?
In addition to Elevate, we have several ERGs dedicated to Yexters who identify as people of color, women, parents, LGBTQIA+ and more. This Black History Month, in order to get every Yexter involved in the celebration — and to highlight the intersectionality of the Black experience — Elevate will be collaborating with many of those ERGs to introduce fun and thought-provoking activations.
Just one example is a virtual “bring-your-child-to” reading event by Elevate and Expand, our ERG for parent Yexters. Families will be able to join to listen to a reading of Sulwe, a children’s book written by actress Lupita Nyong’o about colorism, empathy and self-love.
More broadly, we’ll also be hosting an event with representatives from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to network and share information about working at Yext.
What are some ongoing programs, initiatives or benefits your company offers to support and empower Black employees throughout the year?
It’s so important for Black employees to be able to openly discuss and embrace their cultural and ethnic backgrounds — not just during a single month, but throughout the whole year. We work hard to coordinate enriching programs and offer time off for holidays like Juneteenth to make this possible outside of Black History Month.
Every month, Black Yexters are welcome to join our dedicated co-working space to collaborate with other Black Yexters — and when they need a break from work, to attend our ongoing slate of internal events featuring speakers who entertain and educate on various topics related to the Black experience. In the past, we’ve had professors and authors share their thoughts on double consciousness in the workplace, and small business owners discuss the power of the Black dollar.
As a global company, we know that the Black experience isn’t just relevant to the U.S., so we also make it a point to consider other regions in our planning. During the U.K.’s Black History Month in October, our London team helped create a “Wall of Fame” displaying prominent Black figures in the office and a collaborative playlist celebrating diversity across the global Black diaspora.
In honor of Black History Month, what is your company doing this year to celebrate Black history?
Skillshare is excited to host, partner and market several initiatives during Black History Month in 2022. On Feb. 9th we will host a live panel discussion called “Mental Health in the Workplace for Black Employees.” This chat is partnered directly with Jopwell, a resource group for Latinx and Black professionals.
We also will be launching a Black History Month digital series about the state of Black creativity in the digital space. As a company that believes in making real-time impact, we look forward to honoring Black history through bringing this discussion to the forefront. Creative theft and exploitation have proven to be the greatest threats to Black creativity today. Too often, Black creative work is stolen or appropriated, which has insurmountable financial consequences.
The conversation and digital series entitled “Appropriation vs. Appreciation: A Conversation on the State of Black Creativity” will be led by our social media marketing manager Destiny Yamaya Davis, in partnership with 10 Black creative entrepreneurs and professionals. The series will be featured on all Skillshare platforms including TikTok, Instagram and LinkedIn during the month of February.
Creative theft and exploitation have proven to be the greatest threats to Black creativity today.”
What other activities or charitable initiatives do you have planned for Black History Month?
Every year, we create Black History Month-specific programming to educate our team while supporting and celebrating people of color. This year, we’ll be putting a spotlight on Black Skillshare teachers and bringing in Black-owned businesses for social programming at our February quarterly business review.
Skillshare is no stranger to putting our money where our mouth is when it comes to supporting and championing Black business and creativity. Throughout the year, we host several “Social Good Sprint” initiatives. Most recently, our sprint for August 2021 dedicated a total of $25,000 with a stipend for each employee to spend at a Black-owned business of their choice. We curated a list of more than 30 businesses and brands from a variety of industries including books, apparel and holistic wellness — some on the list include Bee Love, Bricks & Wood, Reparations Club and products from Skillshare Original Community Teachers.
What are some ongoing programs, initiatives or benefits your company offers to support and empower Black employees throughout the year?
The biggest advocate of ongoing programs and initiatives for people of color at Skillshare comes from our beloved WoClub (women of color). Throughout the year, WoClub hosts several professional and personal events for members of the WoClub community and Skillshare at large to celebrate and highlight the Black experience.
In 2021, the list included enlightening, empowering and hosting people of color-centered company-wide cultural events during Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Pride, Juneteenth, and Latinx/Hispanic Heritage Month. These events featured speakers, power-led discussions and live performances from artists like Amikaelya Gaston, Jasmine Saavedra and Sofar Sounds. Throughout the year, WoClub additionally hosts several “Chillshares” where all is fair in self-care, tea party hour and even Halloween themed send-offs with an expensed meal of choice.
Our next WoClub event is a workshop on financial literacy featuring special guests and personal finance community, The Pledgettes. This event is scheduled for March 17, entitled “WoClub Healthy, Wealthy Money Conversations with The Pledgettes.”
In honor of Black History Month, what is your company doing this year to celebrate Black history?
Melio is a fairly young company and it’s been very exciting to be part of a team that is building an inclusive culture. As a part of our efforts for Black History Month this year, we are doing a mix of educational and fun programming to keep things fresh in a virtual setting. Programming will include a virtual speaker series focused on Black small business owners and employee spotlight interviews for our Black employees, in addition to Black history trivia.
Our goal is to bring awareness to more Black-owned small businesses across the United States.”
What other activities or charitable initiatives do you have planned for Black History Month?
As Melio focuses on small businesses, we are going to highlight the local Black-owned businesses for our employees in NYC and Denver to support. This will include featuring current and prospective Melio customers in all categories from restaurants, the arts, accounting and more. Our goal is to bring awareness to more Black-owned small businesses across the United States.
What are some ongoing programs, initiatives or benefits your company offers to support and empower Black employees throughout the year?
Supporting and empowering our employees strikes at the heart of Melio’s company values, and we seek to provide relevant resources while sourcing new ideas directly from our Black employees. In addition to making our employees aware of the mental health resources available through Melio, we also offer safe spaces to engage in discourse, and we will be launching mentorship programming via our ERGs this year.
In honor of Black History Month, what is your company doing this year to celebrate Black history?
We’ll be sending out weekly communications focused on education on the achievements of the Black community around the world. We’ll also send content recommendations that highlight aspects of the Black experience in different forms of media: Podcasts, television, film and readings. Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Alliance will also be hosting an event with a Black speaker.
We believe in providing our employees from underrepresented backgrounds the tools to have a place, a path and a voice at the company.”
What other activities or charitable initiatives do you have planned for Black History Month?
We will donate $500 to an organization that actively helps the Black community.
What are some ongoing programs, initiatives or benefits your company offers to support and empower Black employees throughout the year?
We’re launching a mentorship program that will enable our employees to find support within the organization to strengthen key skills related to their professional and personal development. We believe in providing our employees from underrepresented backgrounds the tools to have a place, a path and a voice at the company.
