The Top 4 Things You Can Do to Attract and Retain Employees in 2022
What Diverse Talent Want in 2022
Diversity at work has never been more measured or discussed. But how can you create an environment where diverse talent can succeed?
As a company that is focused on creating opportunities for underrepresented talent, we wanted to provide companies with data-based, practical strategies to help them find, retain, and uplift diverse talent. Using our findings will help you ensure that the diverse talent already on your team wants to stay, and show diverse talent looking for new opportunities that your company is the one they should join.
To come up with those strategies, we went right to the source and conducted a survey with 490 diverse professionals across industries and career stages.
Keep reading for the four things that companies can do to improve their ability to keep their current talent and to appeal to new talent, too.
The Top 4 Things You Can Do to Attract and Retain Employees in 2022
- Be generous with compensation and learning and development offerings. 76% of diverse talent would be “very likely” to leave their job for a role that paid more, and 73% would leave for a job that offered more opportunities to learn new skills.
- Level up your DEI commitment. 69% of respondents wish their current companies would become more diverse.
- Commit to long-term flexible work. 55% of respondents wouldn’t consider staying at or accepting a job that didn’t let them work remotely at least part-time. Surprisingly, more respondents wanted to be able to flexibly schedule their 40-hour weeks than wanted a set 32-hour workweek.
- Consider intersectionality. Don’t look at employee experiences as if all employees were the same. For example, less than half as many Black respondents are happy with their company’s DEI training compared to white respondents.
Want to learn more? Read the entire What Diverse Talent Wants in 2022 report by downloading it for free here.
How Culture, Policies, and ERGs Can Support Working Parents: Insight from Zynga’s Cindy Batang
On a given weekday afternoon, you can find Cindy Batang working from the parking lot of a golf course while her younger daughter practices her swing.
She did the same thing for her older daughter. That dedication paid off not just for that daughter, who now plays college golf, but also for Cindy's career. She rose through the ranks of Zynga while raising two children, and is now the Manager of Governance, Risk, and Compliance at the gaming company.
"You learn how to multitask," says Cindy of managing both her work and her home life over the last decade at Zynga. "You find a way to get everything done."
Cindy started her career at Zynga in IT, then transitioned into security and then into management. Over the years, her daughters have worked on her lap while she fixed computers, begged to come into the office to play the arcade games, and "grown up at Zynga," says Cindy.
We sat down with her to learn more about that path, as well as how she juggles being a working parent—and what parts of Zynga's culture, including their flexible work policies and their parent-focused ERG, zParents, have supported her throughout the years.
Finding Fulfillment in Tech
Cindy and her husband have been married for 22 years and together for even longer. She credits him with a lot of what she loves about her life—including getting her into tech.
While she was still in college, he suggested that Cindy take a Windows certification course. Even though Cindy had been exposed to computers from an early age—her dad built them at home (and, when he lived in Nicaragua, also had his own shop where he would rebuild radios and TVs)—it wasn't something she considered exploring as a kid. "It's kind of funny to me that his hobby became my job," says Cindy of her dad's influence.
Cindy took the course and ended up getting a contract IT job, then leaving school to enter the workforce full-time. This was right as the dot-com bubble was heating up, she says, and when the economy crashed a few years later, right as Cindy and her husband welcomed their first daughter, Cindy decided to leave tech for a bit and become a real estate agent.
"I felt like I needed more time with her, and I couldn't do that with a nine-to-five," she explains.
In that job, Cindy recognized how much she loved working with people. But when the real estate market crashed, too, she decided she'd go back into tech—but ideally in a more flexible, more people-facing role.
She got started in a contract tech support role, then worked for a small gaming company where she really enjoyed the more laid-back culture. As a big Words With Friends fan, she'd heard of Zynga, and when someone in her husband's network said Zynga was looking for IT support analysts, she applied.
Because she'd been at a much smaller company where she wore a lot of hats, Cindy quickly took on a management role on Zynga's team. She worked in access control, which gave her exposure to Zynga's security team. She knew the company's CSO and told him she was interested in learning more about cybersecurity—and had another new role a few weeks later.
"He fast-tracked things and created a position for me as a security analyst," she says. "I wasn't expecting that!"
Cindy credits her diversity of experiences at Zynga with the long-lasting career fulfillment she's found there. "One of the reasons I've been here for so long is that I haven't been doing the same thing for ten years," she says. "I've been able to grow and expand. Now I'm in management, I'm able to take what I've learned and work with my team to give them that same kind of flexibility."
Experiencing a Family-Friendly Work Environment
Cindy's daughters were three and nine when she joined Zynga, and now they're in high school and college, respectively. As her career evolved, Cindy says she always felt like her family was welcome at work.
"I'd bring them to the office, especially when I was working in support and didn't have somebody to watch them," she says. "Zynga was a big playground for them, with the pool table and the snacks. My managers never had any issue with me bringing them to work as long as I got the job done."
"[My kids] would ask me, 'Mom, can I go to work with you?'" remembers Cindy, smiling.
Beyond an open and kid-friendly office, Cindy enjoyed getting to set her own hours. If she needed to take an hour off to do school pick-up, she was able to finish her day at home later in the evening. "I liked that they let me step out and understood that at the end of the day, I'd get the job done," she says.
She also took full advantage of zParents, Zynga's ERG for working parents.
"zParents events were the highlight of [my kids'] day," says Cindy. "When the opportunity came up for volunteers, I immediately jumped on board." She currently plays a leadership role for the ERG, which includes putting on family friendly events and supporting employees by sharing available company resources.
Over the pandemic, zParents expanded to Zynga's global offices with virtual resource-sharing and events. "In our Slack channel, you'll find a very active parent support group," says Cindy. "From new parents asking for advice on how to get babies to sleep through the night to parents asking for help with complicated math homework!"
It's the community that Cindy values most when it comes to finding support at work. "When you have your first child, you don't know what to expect. You don't know what's going to happen. You have this life that relies on you heavily, and it kind of stresses you out," she says. "But you know what? It's okay. We've all been new parents and you figure it out."
4 Tips for Paying it Forward as a Manager of Working Parents
Now that Cindy's own children are older, her day-to-day is a little easier to manage (golf practice parking lot laptop sessions aside).
She knows that's not the case for her whole team, though.
"I know that things come up at the last minute, so I focus on giving [employees] the flexibility that I also received," says Cindy. "I encourage people to take the time with their kids, because they're only young for so long. Work will always be here, you know? It's important to spend time with your family."
Cindy also shares advice with working parents on her team, including:
- The importance of communication. Cindy highlights that this should go two ways: communicating with your kids, and letting them know you're there to support them and that they come first even if work responsibilities need to be worked around; and communicating with your management, to set expectations upfront around schedules and flexibility.
- Spend time wisely. There will always be more work than there are hours in the day, says Cindy, who suggests making daily and weekly priority lists and tracking project deadlines against them.
- Don't compare yourself to other working parents. "It may seem that other parents have everything under control. But don't compare yourself. Everybody has different circumstances and a different style of how they manage things. What works for them may not work for you."
- Take care of yourself, too. "People struggle with trying to take care of everybody else and then they fail to take care of themselves," she says. "If you need downtime, take a nap, read a book, go for a walk, do something just for yourself. Something as simple as that can change your perspective for the rest of the day."
She would add one more tip: apply for a role at Zynga! "This is a great company to be at for raising kids," she says. "I can't speak highly enough about the ways that Zynga enables you to be able to manage your work-life balance."
Best Work-From-Home Companies 2021
It's no secret that remote work saw a huge surge in 2020; the question now is, which companies will stay remote-first in 2021, and how will they ensure that employees who work from home are set up for success?
We hope that our list of best work-from-home companies for 2021 will put you one step closer to finding a job that affords you the flexibility you crave, while avoiding the common pitfalls of some remote jobs (such as limited support/resources/benefits, poor communication, etc.).
As always, our list includes a mixture of totally remote and hybrid work-from-home companies. The 20 companies below were selected because:
- They offer flexible work-from-home roles (and plan to continue to do so in 2021)
- They know how to make remote workers feel like they're part of the team
- They offer competitive compensation & benefits
- They're committed to fostering diverse and inclusive workspaces
PowerToFly's Best Work-From-Home Companies 2021:
Zapier (100% distributed team)
What They Do
- Zapier is on a mission to democratize automation by making it incredibly easy and universal. They do that by connecting the apps you already use at work - apps like Trello, the GSuite, Hubspot, and 2000+ more - to automate your workflows and move data between them.
Why We Like Them
Their team is the essence of remote work - living and working across 30+ countries. They meet as a team during annual retreats and discuss everything from their hiring process to team dynamics to combatting unintentional bias. You can read more about their diversity and inclusion efforts here. Plus, they offer:
- Competitive salary (they don't use remote as an excuse to pay less!)
- Profit sharing
- 2 annual company retreats to awesome places
- 14 weeks paid leave for new parents
- Unlimited vacation policy (2 weeks REQUIRED!)
Who They're Looking For
Elastic (distributed by design)
What They Do
- "We're the company behind the Elastic Stack — that's Elasticsearch, Kibana, Beats, and Logstash. From stock quotes to Twitter streams, Apache logs to WordPress blogs, we help people explore and analyze their data differently using the power of search."
Why We Like Them
Elastic is driven by diversity, and understands that "life happens in the background while we have meetings and catch up on email. This might mean a kid on your lap as you give a demo from the couch, a dog playing fetch beside your desk, or a partner banging the pots and pans in the background while making dinner." You can learn more about their approach to managing distributed teams here.
They also offer great benefits like:
- Toast to your health - Health coverage for you and your family in many locations.
- Craft your calendar - Flexible location and schedule for many roles.
- Embrace parenthood - Minimum of 16 weeks of parental leave.
- Savo(u)r time for you - Generous number of vacation days each year.
- Amplify your impact - Double your charitable giving — we match up to $1500 (or local currency equivalent).
- Give back your time - Up to 40 hours each year to use toward volunteer projects you love.
Who They're Looking For
Hopin (fully remote)
What They Do
- Hopin is the first all-in-one live online events platform where attendees can learn, interact, and connect with people from anywhere in the world.
Why We Like Them
"We are a remote team of passionate individuals committed to improving the way people connect online. Just as Hopin events are creative, diverse, and empowering, so too is our company — we believe collaboration is the key to success, no matter how many hats we have to wear.
Each team member has a huge opportunity to make a big impact, and together, as a distributed and connected team, we support each other in every area of the company to achieve it."
Who They're Looking For
DigitalOcean (remote reliant)
What They Do
- DigitalOcean is a dynamic, high-growth technology company that serves a robust and passionate community of developers, teams, and businesses around the world. They're on a mission to simplify cloud computing so developers and their teams can spend more time building software that changes the world.
Why We Like Them
They have a "no jerks" rule and take it very seriously. They're also committed to being a welcoming and inclusive place for everyone: "we are intentional about making sure people feel respected, supported, and connected at work—regardless of who you are or where you live. Diversity fosters innovation and helps us provide the best experience possible to our community." They also offer:
- Competitive compensation
- 401K with employer match
- Remote employees have the opportunity to take an all-expense-paid trip to our office to get quality in-person time with the team at least once a year
Who They're Looking For
Guru (remote friendly)
What They Do
- Guru is a dynamic, fast growing start-up committed to reinventing the way people connect with meaningful information at work.
Why We Like Them
Guru is committed to creating a positive, inclusive, and knowledge-driven culture. They also offer:
- Competitive salary
- Employee Stock Option Plan
- 401k Program
Who They're Looking For
Contrast Security (remote friendly)
What They Do
- Contrast Security is the world's leading provider of security technology that enables software applications to protect themselves against cyberattacks, heralding the new era of self-protecting software.
Why We Like Them
With a global team of 100+, Contrast understands how to work flexibly and efficiently across timezones. They empower team members to solve complex challenges and shape company culture.
Who They're Looking For
Pluralsight (remote friendly)
What They Do
- Pluralsight is the technology skills platform organizations and individuals in 150+ countries count on to innovate faster and create progress for the world.
Why We Like Them
They've pledged to drive significant, lasting social impact by equipping people and nonprofits with essential technology skills, and they don't let fear, egos, or drama distract them from their mission. They also offer:
- 100% premiums paid medical coverage
- Unlimited paid time off
- Remote Workspace Reimbursement program
- Tuition reimbursement
Who They're Looking For
Chainalysis (globally distributed)
What They Do
- Chainalysis offers cryptocurrency investigation and compliance solutions to global law enforcement agencies, regulators, and businesses as they work together to fight illicit cryptocurrency activity.
Why We Like Them
A globally distributed team, they understand the ins and outs of remote and asynchronous work. They also offer great benefits like:
- Health insurance coverage for you and your family
- 15 vacation days
- 14 holidays including International Women's Day, Juneteenth, Harvey Milk Day, and International Migrant's Day
Who They're Looking For
ActZero.ai (remote friendly)
What They Do
- ActZero's mission is simple: stop cyber threats, protect the world.
Why We Like Them
They understand work-life balance ("We know that all people need time away to recharge and focus on their personal lives. As such, we request that you utilize Do Not Disturb features when you are off for the day, and we maintain core business hours for scheduling meetings and working sessions so you can keep your personal time your own"), and their culture and benefits help to make it a reality:
- "Unlimited Vacation: We want our employees to take as much vacation as they need to maintain their physical and mental well-being. You will receive unlimited vacation, and are actively encouraged to utilize it.
- Monthly Wellness Stipend: We believe that wellness encompasses physical and mental health. Therefore, we offer a monthly stipend usable toward a host of things to make your life less stressful outside of the office, like child care expenses, dog walking or even our Corporate Class Pass plan.
- Health/Vision/Dental: We want you to know that your insurance is available when you need it most. As such, we offer three generous and comprehensive health care plans to fit your needs. We pay up to 90% of the plan cost for both you and your family.
- Flexible Scheduling: In line with our focus on Work/Life Balance, we offer flexible hours to allow for you to take care of tasks and yourself or your family as necessary. Being an in-office culture does not mean "everyone works 9-5" and we expect some variation as life demands. Schedules are discussed and approved with your manager, and we are happy to work with you when adjustments need to be made."
Who They're Looking For
Equinix Metal (remote friendly)
What They Do
- Equinix Metal™ is the result of a unique combination. In 2020, Equinix acquired Packet, a bare metal leader and champion of cloud native, open-source, and developer ecosystems. Equinix was on its own journey, investing in metal internally to help digital leaders more easily participate in its unique ecosystem. Packet and Equinix joined together with a vision for foundational infrastructure. The result is Equinix Metal, a globally-available bare metal "as-a-service" that can be deployed and interconnected in minutes. Underpinning our product is a deep passion for building ecosystems, a strong set of core values, and an amazing team.
Why We Like Them
Equinix is committed to building an inclusive culture in which our LGBTQ+ employees and all who support equality in sexual orientation and gender identity feel that they are safe, they belong, and they matter. They also support their global team with great health and financial benefits.
Who They're Looking For
Gainsight (remote friendly)
What They Do
- Gainsight is a venture-backed, fast-growing tech company revolutionizing Customer Success for businesses.
Why We Like Them
Gainsight believes that diversity breeds creativity and that "your job should never be a barrier to your happiness—it should be an avenue to achieve it." On review site Comparably, women gave Gainsight's culture an A+ (it also got an A+ for diversity). Plus, Gainsight offers:
- Medical, dental, vision, short and long term disability, and life insurance
- Paid maternity and paternity leave
- 401k after first quarter of employment
- Flexible PTO
Who They're Looking For
Stack Overflow (remote friendly)
What They Do
- Stack's mission is to help developers and technologists write the script of the future. They are an open community for anyone that codes.
Why We Like Them
40% remote pre-pandemic and wholly remote until at least July 2021, Stack Overflow is committed to a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace where all employees feel valued and respected. (Learn more about their commitment here.)
They also empower their team members to do their best work by offering benefits like:
- Home office reimbursements and internet stipends
- Paid parental leave
- An annual professional development budget of up to $2,500 for continuing education, conferences, and memberships
- Full health coverage for you and your family. That means that Stack Overflow pays 100% of your premiums.
Who They're Looking For
Mural (remote friendly)
What They Do
- MURAL is a digital workspace for visual collaboration.
Why We Like Them
As the designers of a collaboration software that enables modern teams to solve challenges together visually, MURAL understands how to help their own team collaborate virtually, as well! They're growing quickly (in 2018, Inc. Magazine named MURAL one of America's top 500 fastest growing private companies) and are looking for more collaborative folks to join their team!
Who They're Looking For
Karat (remote friendly)
What They Do
- Karat is on a mission to engineer a better technical interview and assess the world's talent.
Why We Like Them
Part of their mission is to remove bias from the hiring process. Plus, they want you to work from wherever you work best and will pay for the equipment you need to make that a reality. They also offer:
- Meaningful equity
- 100% coverage for health, dental, and vision insurance
- Unlimited time off
Who They're Looking For
Help Scout (remote friendly)
What They Do
- Help Scout is the messaging platform designed to keep your customers happy and your team in sync.
Why We Like Them
Help Scout is a remote-first company with about 105 people in 74 cities all over the world. "We come from diverse backgrounds and are united by an enthusiasm for great products and delightful customer experiences." Plus, they offer great benefits like:
- Paid parental leave, including adoption
- Flexible vacation
- Personal development stipend
- International benefit stipend
Who They're Looking For
Smartsheet (remote friendly)
What They Do
- Smartsheet delivers a leading cloud-based platform for work execution, empowering organizations to plan, capture, track, automate, and report on work at scale, resulting in more efficient processes and better business outcomes.
Why We Like Them
Smartsheet doesn't just talk about diversity and inclusion — Comparably named Smartsheet one of its best companies for diversity and its CEO one of the best CEOs for women in 2019. Smartsheet also offers:
- Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision with fully paid premiums
- 15 vacation days per year to start (with unlimited rollover), flexible sick time, 10 paid holidays, and paid parental leave
- Competitive pay, an Employee Stock Purchase Program with an option to purchase Smartsheet (SMAR) stock at a 15% discount, and a 401k with traditional and Roth options.
Who They're Looking For
Avaaz (fully remote)
What They Do
- Avaaz empowers millions of people from all walks of life to take action on pressing global, regional and national issues, from corruption and poverty to conflict and climate change.
Why We Like Them
Our cofounder Milena Berry used to be Avaaz's CTO -- she can vouch first-hand for how inclusive and multi-lingual (17 languages and counting!) they are. Plus, they offer:
- Sustainable salaries
- Excellent work-life balance
Who They're Looking For
RebelMouse (fully remote)
What They Do
- RebelMouse is a revolutionary new all-in-one platform for supercharging content, growing audiences and building loyal and lasting communities.
Why We Like Them
RebelMouse's leadership takes flexibility and diversity seriously. Their founder and CEO, Andrea Breanna, is trans and sets the tone to provide a safe, positive, and loving environment.
Who They're Looking For
Wikimedia Foundation (fully remote)
What They Do
- Wikimedia builds technology to help people everywhere access Wikipedia, across devices and in nearly 300 languages.
Why We Like Them
They look to offer an optimal remote experience by providing equipment including a laptop, monitor, plus a one-time stipend to cover any additional needs to make sure you have the best work from home experience. Wikimedia also offers great benefits to their U.S. employees, including:
- Fully paid medical, dental, and vision insurance premiums for employees and their eligible families.
- Family-friendly policies: Includes 100% paid new parent leave for seven weeks, plus an additional five weeks for pregnancy.
- Wellness program: $1800 annually for fitness memberships, babysitting, continuing education, student loans, and more.
- Professional development: We offer course reimbursements, in-house sharing sessions, language program reimbursements, and other opportunities.
- Retirement: 401(k) retirement plan with matched contributions up to 4% of annual salary.
- Time off: Includes vacation days, sick leave, and volunteer time. To make sure there is shared time off every month, we offer 19 holidays per year.
Who They're Looking For
MoveOn (fully remote)
What They Do
- MoveOn is a diverse and vibrant community of millions of people working together to create progressive change in America.
Why We Like Them
MoveOn takes care of your home office, providing a cell phone and internet stipend, a monthly home office subsidy, and everything you need to set up your home office. MoveOn also understands the value of putting its team first, and to do that, they offer:
- Competitive salary
- Full medical, dental and vision care costs for employees and their children, as well as partial coverage for spouses and domestic partners.
- 401(k) retirement benefits with employer contribution, for when you're done changing the world (for a living, at least).
- "We want you to take time off! We work hard and fight for important causes, but we also realize the need to take time to recharge. That's why we offer four weeks of paid vacation per year, 10 sick days, 6 flexible holidays, and 4 all-staff holidays, on top of the flexible schedule that comes with working in a virtual office."
- 18 weeks paid full-time off (for birth, adoption, and foster care placement) plus 4 weeks of 4-day weeks upon return.
- And more!
Who They're Looking For:
---
Don't see what you're looking for? Check out a fill list of 500+ open remote roles here!
"My kids have popped up on Zoom meetings" — Finding Work-Life Balance in the New "Normal"
PTF Answers
Aimee Carlotto, D&I Account Executive at PowerToFly, answers some of the questions we received from our community about how to improve work-life balance, find flexibility, and be present for yourself and your family.
She's sharing her definition of work-life balance, tips on how to avoid burnout, and advice on how to set clear boundaries between work and home, and, most importantly, how to stay sane in the meantime!
How do you find work-life balance? Share your tips and tricks in the comments!