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 ezCater, the most trusted provider of corporate food solutions and is purpose-built for business. ezCater's corporate food platform and flexible, scalable food solutions allow organizations to centralize and track their food spend, and fulfill everything from daily employee meals to client meetings and company all-hands. ezCater backs this up with business-grade, best-in-class, customer service and an unmatched nationwide footprint. We're backed by top investors including Insight, Iconiq, Lightspeed, GIC, SoftBank, and Quadrille
Please provide a high level statement supporting your DEI mission and objectives?
ezCater promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion as it is crucial to the development and success of our organizational culture where everyone has equitable opportunities to succeed and thrive. By valuing diversity and celebrating our differences, we can build stronger communities and foster a culture of respect, empathy, and understanding where everyone is encouraged to bring their authentic self to work.
What is ezCater doing to attract a more diverse workforce?
To attract a more diverse workforce, we are taking proactive steps to create an inclusive and welcoming workplace culture. This includes developing diversity and inclusion initiatives, such as affinity groups, unconscious bias training, and inclusive leadership programs. ezCater is also intentional about our recruitment process to provide an equitable experience by creating job descriptions that are inclusive, partnering with and reaching out to diverse organizations and networks, and building diverse interview panels to incorporate a range of perspectives when making a hiring decision. We are setting diversity goals and metrics, regularly reviewing and refining recruitment and retention strategies, which includes surveying our employee population 2x per year to gather continuous feedback, and striving to uphold a culture of open communication and feedback. Ultimately, creating a diverse and inclusive workforce requires an ongoing commitment and effort across the entire organization, and is a shared responsibility for every ezCater employee. This work never stops.
Can you share all the importance of Affinity Groups at ezCater?
Our current affinity groups range from racial and linguistic identity to parental identity, and they consist of slack based dialogue to virtual and in-person meet ups. We aim to provide safe and inclusive spaces for employees to connect with others who share similar experiences in a way that is most effective for that community. All spaces are employee initiated and developed in hopes that employees will feel connected in our hybrid/remote work environment regardless of where they are in the country.
What other programs do you have to support your DEI initiatives?
In addition to our module based Unconscious Bias course, we offer live workshops for all employees to continue learning in the DEI space. We strive to make this learning as experiential as possible during facilitated workshops and through our cultural speaker series. Managers are expected to take courses through She Geeks Out and LifeLabs Learning which teach inclusive leadership. These skills are incredibly important to continue building an inclusive environment for our teams and establish a space where employees feel comfortable sharing their thoughts, feedback and opinions. The workshops not only offer employees a forum for continued learning, but also teaches them how to speak out and share feedback in various situations.
Do you have any data that you’d like to share that demonstrates your diverse workforce?
Self-identifying demographic data offers us an incredibly important lens through which to understand the diversity of identities and experiences that exist within ezCater. We can gain a deeper understanding of how employees experience our culture and what we can do to make it stronger. 90% of our employees elect to provide us with their gender, race/ethnicity and sexual orientation. 57% of our population self-identified as female, 40% male, 1% non-binary and 2% selected “other.” 20% of our employees identify as being part of the LGBTQ community and our racial breakdown is 72% White, 6% Hispanic, 6% Black, 6% Asian, 4% two or more races, and 4% self selected “other” for racial identity.
For more information and data points, we published our 2022 DE&I survey results which can be found here.
