One of the top goals for many companies in the tech industry is to focus on building a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce. It is also one of our top goals at VentureFizz in terms of helping to support companies on this important mission.
Companies have different approaches as it relates to how they are addressing their diversity, equity, and inclusion goals, so we thought that it would be valuable to profile companies and what they are doing to accomplish their DEI initiatives.
We connected with GitLab, an open core software company that develops the most comprehensive DevSecOps Platform used by more than 100,000 organizations. Our mission makes it clear that we believe in a world where everyone can contribute. We make that possible at GitLab by running our operations on our product and staying aligned with our values.
Please provide a high level statement supporting your DIB mission and objectives?
Mission: At GitLab, we believe everyone can contribute. We think global and act local. The Diversity Inclusion and Belonging Team are building a scalable strategy which focuses on intentionality in how we hire and retain our team members as well as engage with our customers and the open source community, By providing avenues and opportunities for GitLab & team members to meaningfully contribute to our community and society. By holding our leaders and team members accountable to commit and answerable for the outcome. We are building scalable ways to govern our work, actionable processes which inform our program development/execution and making sure our Internal efforts are reflected externally.
Vision: The Diversity Inclusion and Belonging value empowers everyone to contribute.
Strategic objectives
- Cultivate an inclusive culture - focusing on accessibility, neurodivergence and global inclusion
- Improve leadership representation & accountability
- Increase pipeline and readiness of URG/Women
What is GitLab doing to attract a more diverse workforce?
- Partnering with organizations that support underrepresented communities, eg. Dev Color, AnitaB/Grace Hopper, European Women in Tech, Women Impact Tech, etc.
- Set Industry leading Corporate Aspirational hiring goals globally focused on underrepresented groups (Ethnicity (US) and Gender). We measure overall representation, Representation in management* and representation in Senior leadership*
- Set a goal with our CEO and Chief Technology Officer to increase our URG representation at the management level and set stretch goals. Why management? It is where we had the biggest gap in representation and for GitLab it starts at the top and then scales to our division leaders. It is also the pipeline to Director and internal progression.
- We start at the top and scale to our divisions. We took a divisional goal with our Chief Technology Officer for the Engineering org to increase our URG management representation but the expectation would prove difficult without alignment with Talent Acquisition. Therefore along with the goal, we also invested in sourcing diverse candidates by partnering with external sourcing to help widen the net on where we were looking for our talent.
*Management refers to Team Members who are People Managers of at least 1 employee, whereas Senior Leadership denotes Team Members who are in Director-level positions and above
Can you share all the different Employee Resource Groups at GitLab?
The full list can be found at https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/inclusion/erg-guide/
- Asian Pacific Islander - To promote the advancement, cultural awareness, talent recruitment, retention, and professional development team members of Asian & Pacific Islander descent
- DiversABILITY - seen or unseen physical, neurodivergent, mental diversity that impact our team members
- Gente - Latinx community and culture
- Pride - LGBTQ+
- Generational Understanding - build a bridge for Team members of all ages to communicate, educate, unite & share wisdom across generations
- Women - support those who identify as women to connect, professionally develop, advance and support each other.
- Veterans - Support our Global team members that have
We launched a TMRG Governance model that has shifted the value of our TMRGs. They now provide advocacy, education and solidify our hiring practices. We have TMRG leads who craft strategies, provide yearly budgets for their community, utilize their executive sponsors as a voice to the e-group and help in retaining our team members. We launched 3 new TMRGs in support of our team members. Global Voices represents our team members that reside outside of the US providing a voice, visibility and advocacy for cultural observances, TM benefits and a sense of community. Caregiving - Provides a safe space for every GitLab team member to better understand the role of being a caregiver and to build a network of caregivers and their allies at GitLab. Black@ GitLab provides community, advocacy, career development, leadership and a safe space for our TMs. Finally, to increase our reach and leadership accountability, we secured 13 Director+ leaders from every division and across all regions and launched out Leadership DIB Council: A strategic group of Senior leaders Leaders who assist the DIB team in implementing the Corporate DIB strategy locally and provide insights to the DIB team on the Division's strategic imperatives. Finally, we have Team Member Advocacy Groups that work across our TMRGs whose purpose is to promote team member engagement, well-being, retention, mobility and equity
All our Team Member Resource Groups are non-exclusionary and all GitLab team members are welcome to join.
What other programs do you have to support your DEI initiatives?
Retention efforts -
1. Stay Interviews for Underrepresented Groups:
- Provide insight to executive group leadership as to what is important to individual team members which we can address directly with the team members.
- Provide insight into trends across the cohort which we can take actions to address and align with other engagement surveys
- Provide an opportunity to proactively address topics, engage leadership, and put actions place that may scale from our underrepresented groups to the broader company.
2. Sales Sponsorship Program to support our underrepresented groups progression and promotion
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Handbook page
Do you have any data that you’d like to share that demonstrates your diverse workforce?
- Set Industry leading Corporate Aspirational hiring goals globally focused on underrepresented groups (Ethnicity (US) and Gender). We measure overall representation, Representation in management* and representation in Senior leadership*
- Set Industry leading Corporate Aspirational hiring goals focused on our overall underrepresented groups (URGs), URGs in management and URGs n Senior leadership (Director+)
- Set a global goal with our CEO to increase our URG representation at the management level from 11% to 13.3%
- Divisional goals with our Chief Technology Officer for the Engineering org to increase our URG management representation from 6% to 8%
*Underrepresented Group definition: An underrepresented group describes a subset of a population that holds a smaller percentage within a significant subgroup than the subset holds in the general population, eg. Black team members make up a smaller population of the company's tech population than the overall population in that country.
**Due to data and or legal limitations, this is not an exhaustive list of all of our underrepresented groups. Those with disabilities, those that identify as LGBTQIA+, etc. who choose not to disclose or underrepresented ethnicities outside of the US.
Where can I find more information about your Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives?
On our Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging page here: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/inclusion/
Hear From Our Employees
Leo Curiel, Customer Success Manager:
From having a company-wide call on the topic of Arepas to hosting Practice Spanish Speaking Sessions, Gitlab’s DEI initiatives have allowed me to utilize my special skills as a member of the #Gente TMRG. Not only does being a member allow me to feel included, but more importantly, it motivates me to add my valuable experience and my unique perspective as an added asset to Gitlab. By far, the best part of being a member of one of Gitlab’s TMRG is having direct calls with our CEO to talk about how we can continue to support initiatives that we consider important for the betterment of our society and company.
Sheela Viswanathan, (API TMRG Lead) - Manager, Sales Systems:
At Gitlab, everyone can contribute. Gitlab’s DIB initiatives focuses on providing a safe space for every GitLab team member to better understand how diversity can be leveraged to contribute to strategic objectives and global success.
I’m very much honored to lead the `Asian and Pacific Islander` TMRG to promote the advancement, cultural awareness and professional development for members by giving a voice to the diverse backgrounds of the API communities within GitLab. A few of our recent events were Diwali, Chinese New Year, Holi & more! GitLab’s DIB initiatives establish a sense of belonging where team members feel more connected at work, promoting a healthy working environment.
