Fostering diversity and inclusion is good for our people and good for business. Publishing diversity and inclusion data — which we’ve done each year since signing the Tech Inclusion Pledge in June 2016 — holds us accountable.

Our 2016 assessment gave us our baseline. Our 2017 assessment showed us our annual progress, and we also looked at how we compared to Boston’s population. This year, we have more data than ever.

Our 2018 assessment is the first to include department-level data, and it’s the first to include our new Denver and Paris offices. Rather than report each office separately, we’re reporting as one company and forgoing the comparison to local demographics. This is in line with what we see from other tech companies, and some countries prohibit the collection of race, religion, and other data.

There are also new questions to measure inclusion. An inclusive culture is a big reason why people stick around.

Results from Our November 2018 Survey

Diversity

Measuring race and ethnicity is complex – even the Census Bureau is unsure of how to do it best. In line with our goal to understand underrepresented minorities and with how other tech companies report race and ethnicity, here’s how we report our data here:

• “White” includes people who chose only White.
• “Hispanic” includes people who chose only Hispanic and those who chose both White and Hispanic (and no other races).
• “Other” includes people who chose one only of these: American Indian and Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, Some other race, ethnicity, or origin.

This question has evolved over time. It was a yes/no question in 2017, so here we’re representing the yeses as “Agree” and the nos as “Disagree”. It was an open-ended text response in 2016, so we’ve read and interpreted those responses, and here we’ve represented explicit responses as “Agree” or “Disagree”, and mixed or ambiguous responses as “Neither Agree nor Disagree”.

Actions We Took in 2018

Inclusion: In May, ezCater employee Onika Rouse formed Mosaic, a diversity and inclusion group for people of color, LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, plus other non-heterosexual, non-cisgender people), and allies.

CPCO: In August, we hired Janine Allo as our Chief People and Culture Officer.

Recruiting: Après and Skillist joined the growing list of organizations we post job openings to and partner with to reach underrepresented groups. In May 2018, we created “Interview 101” to help remove bias from our process.

Survey Improvements: We reworded some survey questions based on feedback to be more inclusive. We also formed a working group to help us look at diversity and inclusion from all angles and improve how we survey our employees and report our data.

Looking Ahead

We continue to analyze this data to uncover areas of opportunity, and we’re using what we learn to improve detail and accuracy for our 2019 survey.

We’re also holding ezU (ezCater University) discussions where we share data broadly, hear what employees are feeling and experiencing, and learn new ways to help everyone here flourish. We held the first of these last November, and we have more on the schedule for 2019.