GitLab DIB Training Certification, 27 Jan 2021

Previous Meeting Next Meeting

⏯

youtube image

►

From YouTube: M3V3 Business Support

Description

An overview of how our PBPs - People Business Partners Support the business as it relates to DIB

A

Hi everyone and welcome to this video of the third module of your diversity, inclusion and belonging training with your people, business partners at gitlab. My name is julia armandaris and I'm located in dallas texas in the united states.

A

In this video, we will share our stories on diversity, inclusion and belonging and how we support both team members and the business in our role.

A

Currently, we are a team of five and during this video each of us will introduce ourselves and give examples of how diversity, inclusion and belonging guides our work and how we support that work.

A

In previous content, you have learned about gitlab's approach with regards to diversity, inclusion and belonging and how we focus our initiatives on enabling team members growing and strengthening what we have created and having inclusive practices.

A

Understanding this can and will change as we iterate we'll share some examples of how different parts of gitlab are leveraging diversity, inclusion and belonging in their groups. Let's start with rose.

B

Thanks julie for taking us through that introduction, my name is rose stockham and as a people, business partner, I'm supporting departments in engineering um and I'm based out of the netherlands or amsterdam in the netherlands, um kicking off how we as a people, business partner, team approach, diversity and inclusion and belonging is first by our diversity, inclusion and belonging competency as part of our credit values. You might have heard that in different contexts before at gitlab. We expect that at all levels, team members display the competencies aligned with our values.

B

The diversity, inclusion and belonging competency is, for example, reflected in our talent assessment program and the way we do promotions and then our role as people business partners is to make sure that all that that is consistently applied throughout the whole organization.

B

So, besides the competencies that stem from our values, we heavily rely on input from team members for um driving our diversity, inclusion and belonging agenda. So a great example of this is how a team member in engineering, daniel croft, thanks again daniel, who discovered a diversity, inclusion and belonging training on linkedin learning, which was made freely available. So he really advocated for this training and with this ad, with efforts of daniel and this evolved into a full training issue and an okr in development.

B

Ultimately, we've achieved a 75 completion rate amongst all people, managers and leaders in engineering. The great thing about this training is that it was available for everybody at a convenient time for them, so asynchronously our favorite way of working, making it time to unfriendly and friendly for all I'll hand it over to lorna.

C

Thank you rose hi, I'm lorna webster, I'm located in atlanta georgia and I'm one of the people business partners on the team. So, as roe shared, we do rely on input and feedback from team members for driving our dib agenda.

C

Additionally, though, as people business partners, we also make an effort to be aware of and stay informed on how domestic and international events can affect us all individually, as well as the effect such events can have on an underrepresented group. The reverse ask me anything was launched in response to such events. Back in july 2020, we found it necessary to focus on a specific underrepresented group based on activities and events happening domestically and globally.

C

So, in response to that, we launched this format where black team members, any team members who identified as black, could be part of this initiative where they get to meet with leadership and share and learn from leadership, and vice versa. Leadership could learn from the team as well in an effort to become better allies in an effort to just kind of make sure we're showing our support across get lab. So the goal is to make this format available to other urgs as well.

C

For example, women in leadership or latinx team members or lgbtqt members, where the reverse ama format can be leveraged to again show support and solidarity and make sure that we're providing that safe space for everyone to contribute and to be heard.

C

Besides, the reverse, ama we've also looked at some other areas where we might be able to focus on having the teams collaborate on how the teams can grow organically and how we can also affect recruiting and retention. So with that said, I'll turn it over to carolyn to talk some more about some other initiatives underway.

D

Thank you, lorna um hi, everyone, I'm carolyn bednars. I am a people, business partner, supporting the sales organization and located in boston massachusetts. Here in the u.s.

D

I wanted to talk through one example of just how feedback from team members can really shape our programs here at git lab and how we listen through many different means, including issues one of the ways we enjoy working to feedback and really try to apply that into future programs and and how our leadership team engages with our team members in sales.

D

We had an issue specifically driven by our team members, talking about women and their experience within the sales organization, um and we felt that, based on that feedback, uh that it would be necessary for us to be more purposeful in generating those mentorship opportunities specifically for women in sales, with the the intention that that pilot would then extend to other groups and other um divisions within the company, not just specifically within sales. um So this year we launched in may our first women in sales mentorship pilot. um The pilot was was a huge success.

D

We had 16 mentor, mentee pairs over 130, minute mentor, mentee meetings and we we facilitated five coaching panels on five different topics that were specific to the cohort of mentees that we had participating in the first pilot. This is just one example of how feedback can help shape our programs here. um So please keep the feedback coming and we enjoy hearing more about your experience and what what's working and what we can do better here at gitlab.

D

I will turn it over to julie, to talk about an example in finance.

A

Okay, thanks carolyn, so um in part of finance, we kicked off a 90-minute training session so that we could begin the discussion on diversity, inclusion and belonging, and we focused on several areas in particular, including power and privilege, naming and sharing our fears and then allyship through psychological safety, and it was a really powerful session where team members really took risks and shared some of their personal experiences, both within and outside of the workplace.

A

We also talked about tangible things that each one of us can do to continually improve our work experience.

A

So this includes things like using the information that was discussed in this session in future conversations and referring back to the learnings from those sessions, also just being intentional, with recognition and thanks both within and outside of your immediate team, positive encouragement and acknowledgement goes such a long way um and even something as small as acknowledging that the positive emoji can really make someone feel heard and valued, and that was actually expressed in the session, which I thought was interesting.

A

Other ideas were having skip levels with indirect reports to help build the trust, transparency and vulnerability at all levels.

A

um Speaking up when you see others being treated unfairly, being comfortable being uncomfortable and assuming positive intent, so these were some really great uh lessons that that we sort of walked away with as a team and things that we committed to- and this was with a small group in finance and so based on how that feedback goes, that we receive from the team. We hope to roll this out uh across different parts of the organization and other teams that are interested as well.

A

So at this point, I'll turn it over to juliana.

E

Hey everyone, I'm juliana people, business partner at gitlab based out of chicago in the us currently supporting development and product teams. I wanted to highlight something: that's sort of an ever-present consideration from a diversity, inclusion and belonging perspective at git lab, which is cultural awareness, so the global organization with over 60 countries represented through our team members.

E

The importance of cultural awareness is really crucial in our day-to-day interactions and it's our diverse backgrounds that really help us live our diversity, inclusion and belonging value and alignment with our company values that allow us to collaborate as a team.

E

So it's this balance of maintaining respect for each team, members, individual culture and gitlab's cultures, because the gate, labs culture are the values that unites us so inspired through research through culture experts, we put together sort of a cultural dimensions table tailored to gitlab, ranging from things like communication, style, feedback approach, leadership expectations, navigating disagreement and the like understanding where get lab students as a company and also cultural tendencies of team members based on their backgrounds, is really important to ensure that we approach situations from an empathetic lens.

E

So, as a people, business partner, personally, I found this resource really useful when partnering with leaders to navigate team member relation situations involving people from different parts of the world found that the awareness that comes from understanding another person's perspective and a little bit more about the. Why? Behind communication style, really helps create a path for shared understanding and connection to move forward, and with that I'll hand it over to lorna.

C

So, thanks to all my pbp peers for sharing the examples of current and past initiatives and before we close just a reminder that we can all contribute to upholding git labs diversity, inclusion and belonging effort by fostering an environment where everyone can thrive. I know for me personally there's a real sense of belonging and a real sense of psychological safety here on my pvp team and by extension, the people group team and I'm hoping it's the same for your experiences at get lab, as well as a people, business partner team.

C

We strive for an environment where team members can show up as their full, authentic selves each day and just contribute to the best of their abilities.

C

If you have an idea for an initiative which contributes to that mission, specific to your team, your group or get lab as a whole, don't hesitate to loop us in we're here to help and we're here to help move it forward, because it does foster an environment for all of us.

C

We will be able to help you find the right channels if we don't specifically have the time or the resources to be involved. So definitely just make us aware of any idea you have also, if there's something that gets in the way of you showing up as your authentic self or true self or if there's something in the way, contributing to the best of your ability, preventing you from doing so. We're here to help and support, make sure we're aware of that and make sure we we're your advocate in that area as well.

C

So that's all for now enjoy the rest of this dib training and we look forward to collaborating with you on div dib initiatives going forward. Thank you. Everyone.