Ensuring DEI and Business Strategies Are One and the Same

Why did you Join the Alliance?

At Snap, we’re committed to transforming DEI outcomes – not just at our company but across the entire tech industry. That’s why we joined the Alliance for Global Inclusion.

I love collaborative work. We often say, "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."

The Alliance is an amazing Intel initiative that brings this approach to life. We will go far.

What DEI advancements have you made at Snap that you are proud of?

Often, it’s underrepresented groups who carry the burden of taking forward DEI. Since I arrived at Snap, I’m incredibly proud that we have shifted responsibility and accountability for DEI directly to C-Suite leadership, who now has more than 150 DEI OKRs tied into our business plan.

You only have a chance of success in DEI if you ensure your DEI and business strategies are one and the same. They can’t be two separate things; separate is never equal!

To further accountability, Snap recently released our 2023 Annual Diversity Report that transparently outlines disaggregated, intersectional demographic data and real stories of our employees, which you can see in the video below. We are proud of our commitment to making and leading change in the DEI space.

Tell us about the Tech Accountability Coalition (TAC) Convening. What were the learnings and outcomes?

Too often, DEI is about compliance and ticking the box instead of business opportunities, new markets, and new approaches. Snap is funding the incubation of the Tech Accountability Coalition because we believe we should all be more accountable and innovative regarding DEI.

In March, Snap partnered with the Aspen Institute to:

• Convene leaders from across the tech industry in Washington D.C. to launch the next step outlined in the Action to Catalyze Tech (ACT) Report
• Create an independent industry-level organization, the Tech Accountability Coalition
• Foster collaborative work between tech companies and drive accountability through commissioning the Tech Equity Framework

The two-day event drew senior leadership from Uber, Google, Samsung, LinkedIn, Salesforce, Meta, PWC, Justworks, Airbnb, Pinterest, Etsy, and many others.

As a signatory of the ACT Report, the Alliance for Global Inclusion had six senior leadership member companies at the event, including Applied Materials, Intel, Lam Research, Micron, and NTT Data.

The spark from this idea came from an initiative I did in the UK to measure DEI in the broadcasting industry workforce - on camera and off-camera. The UK broadcasters said, “We really care about DEI, but individually we’re not making enough progress.” So we came together and agreed to minimum data standards for reporting. We need to do the same in tech.

That was the biggest thing to come out of the TAC event: we have done the work to create DEI industry standards for tech. So, for example, we all say we want more women in leadership. But we still need to agree on a common definition of leadership.

The Coalition is proposing minimum standards and definitions, and enabling companies to benchmark where they are and track progress against the industry. That will be a huge step forward and will accelerate progress and outcomes.

There’s nothing like direct and comparable data with industry peers to galvanize the C-suite; I know, I’ve seen it with my own eyes!