Our mission—designing a more enlightened way of working—is our north star for changing the way people think about work.
Building the collaboration platform of the future requires diversity of experience, thought, and representation at all levels. In 2018, our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) team worked to build programs and projects that will help us achieve our goal of making Dropbox a great place to work for everyone.
We developed a DEI Framework with five focus areas. These pillars create a common language around diversity, equity, and inclusion for our employees and have been the foundation of the programs we have introduced this year:
- Attract: Identify and recruit top-notch diverse talent
- Retain: Know the potential of our talent and deploy strategies that keep them choosing Dropbox every day
- Culture: Create an environment that allows all Dropboxers to do great work
- Accountability: Monitor our progress, hold ourselves accountable, and correct ourselves when we get things wrong
- Community: Invest in community partnerships that enable Dropbox to prepare, attract, and recruit diverse future Dropboxers
We’re proud of the progress we’ve made towards these goals, but we know there is still more to do. We’re grateful for what we’ve accomplished under the leadership of Angela Roseboro, our beloved Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, who has decided to leave Dropbox to pursue a new role at Riot Games. Angela has made a big impact at Dropbox in her time here, and we know this will be a great opportunity for her, and she’ll be deeply missed. While we conduct a search for a new head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, we’ll stay focused on executing against the programs Angela and her team have laid the foundation for this year. We wish Angela all the best on her new adventure.
Here are highlights of our DEI accomplishments both within the US and globally in 2018:
Attract
Telling the Dropbox story in diverse communities
In 2018, we focused on attracting and engaging potential Dropboxers from diverse backgrounds and experiences by relaunching our IGNITE Apprentice Program, partnering with the Grace Hopper Celebration and AfroTech, and introducing our Ladies Who Lead program focused on building community among female engineers across Silicon Valley.
Retain
Sustaining a workplace where every Dropboxer belongs
Our DEI and People teams partnered with BlackDropboxers, one of our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), to spearhead a Career Development Pilot program that provides career growth support for Black Dropboxers. We plan to expand the program resources for our other ERGs and employees in 2019 and beyond. In addition, one of the most unique and widely popular programs we offered this year was the Language Practice Program that provides one-on-one language coaching for Dropboxers whose first language isn’t English. Dropboxers across multiple native tongues reported feeling more confident when speaking in both social and business settings and an increased sense of belonging.
Culture
Building a more inclusive Dropbox
Our ERGs continue to play an essential role in building our culture at Dropbox. In addition to increasing visibility for diverse communities during heritage months, our ERGs focus on supporting the growth of members by providing professional development, mentorship, and community outreach programs. Last year, we launched our official Employee Resource Group Playbook for running an effective ERG and building supportive communities. Our playbook helps provide guidance for those running and forming ERGs and ensures concerted efforts among ERGs to help reach company-wide DEI goals.
Taking a stand
In 2018, we joined 176 companies in a pledge to oppose efforts limiting Transgender rights, held our ground to support our LGBTQ community by protesting the Knesset bill that excluded LGBTQ and same sex couples from surrogacy in Tel Aviv, and changed our policy to no longer require arbitration of discrimination and sexual harassment claims. We’ll continue to support policies that drive diversity and inclusion in the countries where we operate to ensure all Dropboxers feel safe and empowered to do their best work.
Accountability
Setting goals and holding leaders accountable
Within Engineering, Product, and Design (EPD), our largest team at Dropbox, we developed and began executing a two-year DEI plan to attract and retain women and underrepresented minorities within the function. Our goals include holding ourselves accountable for making progress, providing transparent communication about our opportunities and challenges, and creating programs and initiatives to foster inclusion and belonging within EPD.
Community
Driving early interest in tech among underrepresented populations
We continued to invest in our early outreach programs with high school and university students. Through our partnership with Skyline High School in Oakland and Mission High School in San Francisco, we hosted panels about working in tech and workshops on engineering and coding. We also partnered with Code2040 for the third year in a row to recruit Black and LatinX talent for our Engineering Gen SWE Intern and Launch programs.
Moving forward
Our journey is just beginning. Building on the work we accomplished in 2018, here is what to expect from us in 2019:
- Build a more diverse senior leadership team. We introduced a company goal focused on increasing diversity among senior leadership and managers across Dropbox. We know that diversity of experience and representation is vital to scale our business, and we are committed to building a leadership team that reflects the makeup of our employees
- Deploy programs to build awareness and cultivate skills for our people managers to foster a culture of inclusion and belonging. Programs including a new series of unconscious bias training for leads and recruiting moderators across both the US and the UK
- Grow and expand our ERGs and align the ERG plans to support and drive company-wide diversity goals and metrics
- Extend our Career Development Pilot to Women@ and the LatinX ERGs
We’re committed to building an even more diverse, equitable, and inclusive community within Dropbox in 2019, and we look forward to sharing our progress.
The Author
