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November 01, 2019
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This FinTech Engineer Values Diversity & Network Building at PowerToFly Events.
As you know, PowerToFly is a global community of people who advocate for more inclusion, diversity, and transparency in the workplace.
There are three reasons you've joined the platform:
- To find roles at major companies and startups fostering environments to retain women.
- To connect in-person with diversity and inclusion allies at exclusive events with industry leaders.
- To get access to our webinars, coaching videos and more.
We met Cynthia Tham, Head of Engineering at Identity Mind, at our recent event with Checkr in San Francisco. In this video, she highlights the power of diversity and shares the value of networking at our events.
If you're company looking to bring more diverse talent to your hiring process, or a candidate looking to elevate your career on a more diverse team, email us at Hi@PowerToFly.com.
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By the way, Checkr is hiring.
Benefits include:
- 100% Medical, Dental, and Vision Coverage
- Flexible Paid Time Off- Meaningful Equity
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From Your Site Articles
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Related Articles Around the Web
July 02, 2020
For Employers
How Your Company Can Fight Racism— Inside & Outside the Workplace
Since the brutal murder of George Floyd, the demand to take a strong stance against racism has swept the nation.
<p>However, while some companies have made statements to show up as an anti-racist company, or have put measures in place to better support Black staff and provide better messaging to their customer base, other companies have done nothing. If you work for a company that has been mostly silent, or has been vocal but has failed to accompany words with actions, how do you encourage your company to be better advocates for the Black community? How can you fight racism in the workplace?</p>
<p>Bring your concerns about the lack of messaging and action to the head of your Diversity and Inclusion department or HR department. If you work for a smaller company, go directly to the executive team, and encourage them to take any of the following steps:</p>
<h4>Encourage them to get a message out</h4><p>Company leaders must be challenged if they have yet to release a statement regarding their stance on the movement. Perhaps they <a href="https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/what-your-black-employees-customers-need-to-hear-439e69a26c9f" target="_blank">couldn't find the right words</a> or worry about offending their customer base, but the longer time goes on, the more uncomfortable it becomes. Ignoring systemic racism when it is everywhere is like ignoring an 18-inch infected gash on your leg. Employees notice. Customers notice. The gash will not heal on its own. Hard work and expertise is needed to heal both the physical wound and the emotional wound the country is experiencing.</p>
<p>Let your executive team know that not only is their inaction sending a message to the staff—particularly to their Black employees who do not feel valued at their organization—but also it sends the message to consumers that they just don't care. Mention that consumers are making buying decisions based on messaging about the Black Lives Matter movement; by staying silent, they are opening the company up for public pushback that can affect their bottom line. </p>
<h4>Suggest a company-wide implicit bias training workshop</h4><p>All forms of racism, whether it's <a href="https://blog.powertofly.com/how-to-handle-microaggressions-at-work-2641089900.html" target="_blank">microaggressions</a> or overt violent racism, start with bias. And no matter how hard we all try, we all have implicit biases that were embedded in us by our upbringing, inequitable education systems, media, and more. When we are able to check our bias at the door, we can make a true difference in how we treat our coworkers, our vendors, and our clients.</p>
<p>While diversity and inclusion training company-wide is important, having a session exclusively on implicit bias will help the team work through some of their own biases and give them steps on how to correct those issues. This should be done with a trainer who creates a safe environment to explore our biases without shame and the tools to be better.</p>
<h4>Suggest ways to support the Black community as an organization</h4><p>If philanthropy is a core value of your company, you can suggest a <a href="https://nymag.com/strategist/article/where-to-donate-for-black-lives-matter.html" target="_blank">list of organizations</a> that your company can donate to that works to bring equitable solutions to the Black community. </p>
<p>However, not all companies, especially during COVID-19, are in a position to donate money. You can suggest that instead of a donation, your company utilizes Black-owned businesses as vendors. You can also work with the marketing department to share Black-owned businesses in your company's industry that could use more support. </p>
<h4>See who's at the table</h4><p>We all know the importance of ensuring that a company's staff is diverse, but this is also very important when it comes to the leadership team. If your leadership team is not diverse, ask if steps are being taken to correct that.</p>
<p>Is your board lacking in diversity? You can suggest a few Black or BIPOC leaders that may be a good fit to join your board. </p>
<p>Does your company host virtual events? Check to see if the speakers your company hosts are diverse, and if not, make suggestions of great speakers that could contribute to your organization's needs. For your research, you can do a search on LinkedIn or in Black associations for your industry. </p>
<h4>Foster a company culture of empathy</h4><p>As a Black woman, I can tell you that showing up at work with the internal and external pressure to be happy and positive is a heavy burden to carry. If you have not checked on your Black coworkers since the horrific events during Memorial Day weekend, they can still use more support. Each week there is a new story of another killing or a public display of racism; when you witness something like that, it's hard to show up as your whole self. For example, just 30 miles from my home a few weeks ago, someone put up a massive "Make America White Again" sign and placed it in the middle of the town square. Trying to keep focused when I am terrified of whether I am safe in my own city is an impossible ask.</p>
<p>Let your Black coworkers know that you are there for them, and ask what they need for support. If you are a manager and your Black direct reports haven't taken any time off, encourage them to use some time. Being a key player in fostering an empathetic work environment makes people feel seen and valued. </p>
<p>While Black people are dealing with this the hardest, it's a difficult time for us all. We can all use a little more flexibility where we can get it, and some grace can go a long way as we work together to fight white supremacy and heal. </p><p><br/><br/></p><p><br/><br/></p>
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June 25, 2020
Career Advice
“Should I Join a Startup?”
Clyde's Kelly Hall Shares Tips for Moving from a Big Organization to a Startup and a Framework for Making the Decision
Kelly Hall broke a major rule of negotiation when she was interviewing for her current job at product protection startup Clyde.
<p>She'd gotten an offer to join Clyde as VP of Channel Strategy and wanted to take it, so she went to tell her previous employer she would be resigning. But instead of accepting her resignation, they responded with a surprising counter-offer. She brought it back to her hiring manager at Clyde, who happened to also be the CEO, and waited for his response.</p><p>Using a counter-offer to drive up a starting salary is a classic negotiating move, and one that<a href="https://blog.powertofly.com/how-to-negotiate-salary-2588227014.html" target="_self"> we've encouraged women</a> to consider. But the waiting was getting to Kelly—"I was losing my mind, emotionally," she remembers—so she reached out to her former employer and told them that she couldn't accept their counter, then got back in touch with her future boss and told him what she'd done.</p><p>Even though she could've kept negotiating, Kelly wanted to start her new job off with as much transparency as possible. "I believe that honest communication pays higher dividends," she says. "So it was important to me to let him know that I had officially declined the counteroffer."</p><p>What are rules good for, anyways? They're guidelines to help you get what you need, and when they work, that's great. But Kelly learned that following her instincts and her values got her to where she needed to be in the end. (Including with her offer: Clyde's CEO came back with what she calls "a very compelling addition to the original offer," even after knowing she'd turned the counter down. She accepted it and joined the team a couple of months ago.)</p><p>We sat down with Kelly to talk about her career path, the framework she used when deciding to leave a large, established company to join Clyde (a startup), and her tips for other women who are negotiating job offers with startups. </p><h2>From startups to major players and back again</h2><p>Kelly's current role as VP of Channel Strategy at Clyde has her focusing on understanding new verticals and markets, determining how to position the company within them to reach their target market. Though she's excited to be part of a fast-growing team, she acknowledges that for her, having worked for enterprise-level companies helped her to get to this point. "Personally, I think I'm in a better position to be successful because I'm bringing experience into the startup. I don't know that I would've been able to pull this off as my first or second gig; I wouldn't have had the foresight or experience to really shake things up had I made this leap earlier," she explains.</p><p>When Kelly kicked off her career in sales, it was with a small company called Hands On Systems that provided billing for mobile carriers right as mobile and internet technology were converging. "It was literally guys in their garage who built this platform," she says. She loved the fast-paced nature of scaling her sales as the market grew.</p><p>When that company was acquired by Verisign, she found herself transitioning into a much more structured environment. "It was 'small and scrappy' versus 'large and secure,'" says Kelly. "In a smaller organization, you have the opportunity to touch things more directly, which I love. But there's something to be gained from working at a larger organization that has tremendous resources and support." </p><p>Kelly then spent several years working with other big players (Asurion and AmTrust) before she met the Clyde CEO and COO, Brandon Gell and Jereme Holiman, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas this year. She'd been running into issues in her sales cycle and realized she didn't have the resources to solve them. "It started to be apparent that a partnership with Clyde could move forward some of my other deals," she says. Kelly set up a dinner with their team, thinking they could discuss that objective. She walked out of the dinner with a job offer.</p><h2>Deciding to make the leap: a framework for joining a startup</h2>
<p>Kelly didn't take the job immediately. Although she was very interested, she wanted to make sure to do her due diligence. Her process for deciding went as follows:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>First, she <strong>checked the financials</strong>. She wanted to make sure that the company was well set up financially, so she asked the founders to circle back with her once they'd raised their Series A round of funding.</li><li>Then Kelly asked for <strong>investor access</strong>, with the goal of understanding their belief in the company. "The bigger the investor, the more open the dialogue, I found," says Kelly, who encourages women considering taking a high-level role at a startup to do the same. "It lends insight from another perspective."</li><li>She also wanted to make sure she <strong>liked the people</strong> and not just the investors. "I've always prioritized working in a company with people you really like. And that was my experience with the Clyde team," says Kelly, who appreciates the company's focus on creating a positive working environment with a diverse group of employees.</li><li>It was also important for Kelly to <strong>understand the role and its growth potential</strong>. "A startup gives you an opportunity to do a lot of different things—including stuff you're probably not even qualified for," she says, smiling. "I asked questions around the role itself, but also how I'd interact with other projects because I think it's really important to own your career path."</li><li>Then it was time to <strong>listen to her intuition</strong>. "It's our greatest ally," she says. "If you listen, the answers are always there." She was excited about the company and their vision and knew it was the right move for her. "It felt like their platform was just coming at the perfect time. This industry needs it."</li></ul><p>Before officially accepting the job, Kelly asked herself three questions she'd learned from a previous mentor for how to evaluate a new opportunity: </p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><strong>"Am I being paid fairly? Am I learning? And am I having fun?"</strong> </li></ul>
<p>Clyde seemed like it would check all of those boxes for her, so it was time to move forward—and into that fateful negotiation.</p><h2>Negotiating salaries at a startup as a woman</h2><p>To prepare for her salary negotiation, Kelly did start by following the "rules." First, she did her research on what the market range looked like for the role. "Sometimes we miss that step and go in with a growth percentage on top of our previous salary, thinking, 'Oh, if I can just get 10% more than I'm making now, I'll be happy.'" she says. But she wanted to have a solid base rooted in fact, so she came up with a number that she felt represented her worth and the market.</p><p>"Then you beef it up a little bit," she says. "Go for it, but don't get too crazy!"</p><p>That's the number she went into the negotiations with. As she was working through Clyde's offer, her then-employer's counter, and the final package, she had to consider equity and other benefits, too. "Even though I obviously believe in the vision, my advice is that you can't really bank on equity," she says. </p>
<p>One thing that did stand out to her as a clear pro and added value (beyond salary), was Clyde's open vacation policy. "Early in my career, I was wired to believe that being busy and not taking vacation was a medal of honor. And I learned very quickly that it's just going to burn you out. I really loved that Clyde's policy is to take as much vacation as you'd like as long as you're performing," she says. She was pleased with the company's vacation fund matching, too, where employees can allocate a percentage of their paychecks for vacations, which Clyde matches up to a certain point.</p><p>"You have to look at your package from both a financial perspective as well as flexibilities or perks that go a long way in terms of your mental space and happiness in your role," says Kelly.</p><p>Even though she was negotiating this particular offer just as the Coronavirus pandemic was beginning, Kelly didn't settle for less than what she thought she deserved. "Barring situations where your livelihood is at risk, you shouldn't lose sight of your worth," she says.</p><p>And as we revealed above, it all worked out. She suggests that women looking to join startups follow her same approach—even if it means backing off from some of the traditional ways of negotiating. "In trust-basedrelationships, there's really no negotiation," she says. <strong>"If you know your value and your company knows your value, it's really just a discussion on what will make it feel like you're making the right decision."</strong></p><p>Kelly's first few weeks with the Clyde team have confirmed to her that she did indeed make the right decision. If you're interested in joining her, follow<a href="https://powertofly.com/companies/clyde" target="_blank"> Clyde's page</a> for updates on open roles.</p>
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June 25, 2020
For Employers
How Leaders Can Support Their Black Employees
A five-step framework for addressing systematic racism at work
The world has changed in the past few weeks.
We're watching corporations and organizations across the world come out in support of Black lives in droves. Many of those organizations are doing so for the first time in their history.
<p>But supporting Black people goes beyond sharing a mission statement or putting out a press release. It requires dedicated, ongoing work and resources.</p><p>As leaders in the Diversity and Inclusion space, PowerToFly has been getting questions from business leaders on what else they can do. How can they make Black employees feel supported at work? What kind of analysis should they be doing on their own processes and policies to root out systematic racism they may be perpetuating? And how can they keep these conversations about race and racism going even after the media coverage has died down? </p><p>A few weeks ago, in my role as PowerToFly's Director of Global Diversity and Inclusion, I held a chat-and-learn two weeks ago focused on how individuals could be better allies to their Black colleagues and friends. (You can watch a recording of our conversation <a href="https://powertofly.com/career/live-chats/276535-being-an-ally-to-black-colleagues-and-peers" target="_blank">here</a> and read my summary of takeaways <a href="https://powertofly.com/career/webinars/277594-how-leaders-can-support-their-black-employees" target="_blank">here</a>.) Two weeks ago, I held another webinar, this time focused specifically on what leaders—whether CEOs, executives, HR managers, or frontline team leads—can do to support their Black employees. You can<a href="https://powertofly.com/career/webinars/277594-how-leaders-can-support-their-black-employees" target="_blank"> watch a replay</a> or read on for my summary of key points and advice on the subject. </p><p>A reminder: none of what's going on right now is a Black problem. This is an American problem and even a global problem. Black people cannot end systematic racism or white supremacy, and we need white Americans and other allies to work together to end it. We need everyone in the boat with us, rowing together, if we're to see any real change. I know that fighting for that change isn't always comfortable or easy, but it's vital that we do it. It's especially important that all of you leaders, who have seats at the table to change policy and be actively anti-racist in your organizations, do it. </p><p>Thank you for joining the fight.</p><h2>A five-step framework for addressing systematic racism at work</h2><p>Most of us were taught not to discuss race, politics, or religion at work. But times are different now, and ignoring how race and racism impact work is the wrong thing to do. It's vital to address racism in the workplace not just for your employees, but also for the general public, who are noticing which companies are speaking up for what's right and which companies aren't. It'll be increasingly important in the future for leaders to commit to this change as workers and consumers alike seek to align themselves with organizations that share their values. </p><p>To aid you as you start doing that work, here are five steps you can take to start addressing racism at the workplace.</p><h3>1. Get comfortable with having candid conversations about race.</h3><p>There's no such thing as being colorblind. Saying so is problematic. We can't address the things that need to be fixed if we don't see color. Start by acknowledging that there are certain groups of people who are treated differently or haven't had the same opportunities. Start by accepting that you don't have all (or even any) of the answers, but that you're committed to working towards them.</p><h3>2. Do regular, mandatory training on inclusivity, sensitivity, and other race-related topics.</h3><p>Most workplaces have certain courses that are required, at least for managers and leaders, like sexual harassment courses or compliance training. If you want to make it clear that race is important and that racism won't be tolerated at your workplace, you need to invest in mandatory inclusivity training.</p><p>It has to be more than just a check-the-box activity. Your approach can't be, "Oh, everybody took unconscious bias training, we're good to go."</p><p>Just like anything else in your business that you really care about, you'll need to devote money and time to actively dismantling systematic oppression. That looks like monthly or quarterly workshops, having a speaker series where you invite SMEs to take on diversity topics, and investing in a D&I leader or in a resource group and partnering with them to regularly train and educate your workforce.</p><h3>3. Address systemic issues in how you hire, pay, and promote employees.</h3><p>A Black Lives Matter press statement is necessary but not sufficient when it comes to addressing racism at your company. It's a great first step, but if you don't start addressing and making changes beyond the company values section of your website, it's all for naught.</p><p>Start by looking at your salaries. Is there equity in what you're paying Black employees compared to white employees? Don't assume that there is without taking the time to analyze the situation.</p><p>Do the same for employee promotion rates. Who is moving up into bigger management jobs—and who isn't?</p><p>Look at project allocation, too. Are the same people getting the same chances to appear and present in front of executives? Are your Black employees getting opportunities to work on stretch projects?</p><p>Once you understand where the inequities are in your business, address them. These issues have deep-rooted causes and won't go away overnight. You'll need to come up with an action plan and start working against it.</p><h3>4. Review your employee referral program.</h3><p>While employee referral programs can be great, they are often not the best way to attract diverse candidates. If you have a mostly male white workforce, then your employee referrals are going to reflect that. The majority of companies don't have diverse workforces, which warrants a closer look at how these programs are implemented.</p><p>Consider running specialized referral programs through employee resource groups for underrepresented minorities. If you have a Black or Latinx group, for instance, work with your HR or Recruiting teams to source referrals from those pools.</p><h3>5. Create executive sponsorship opportunities for Black employees.</h3><p>Sponsors can make or break a career path. They can fast-track someone to a leadership role, create opportunities, and give an employee cover to try something new. But if Black employees haven't had a chance to get in front of executives—if they aren't playing golf with them, going out to dinners and lunches with them, or working with them on high-priority projects—they won't get those benefits. Add an explicit diversity focus to current sponsorship initiatives, and if none exist, create them in partnership with ERGs.</p><h3>Tips and guidance to inform your approach</h3><p>In implementing the above five steps, you may find yourself feeling unsure or uncomfortable. That's natural, especially if discussing race is something you haven't done before. Remember that to do this work well, you need to be willing to listen and to learn. Below, I've provided answers to some community-sourced questions on how exactly to do that.</p><p><strong>How can I navigate a conversation with Black employees in a way that makes them feel supported?</strong></p><p>As business and HR leaders, you might be wired to be very solution-oriented and to want to fix things for your employees. But you can't immediately fix racism or fix an employee's experience with it at work.</p><p>When talking about race with employees, do not make it about you. If an employee is talking to you about what they're feeling or going through, you can say things like, "I'm so sorry you're going through that" or "I hate that you're feeling that way" or "I care about you." Do not say "I know what you're going through" if you don't. Do not apologize on behalf of the white race or in any other way make it about what you're feeling, whether that's guilt or frustration or anything else. Just listen.</p><p><strong>How can I—or should I—check on Black employees without disrupting their privacy?</strong></p><p>Keep in mind that Black people have been taught to assimilate and blend in as much as possible, especially at work. Being called out at work specifically for being Black is not going to be a comfortable thing for many people. Do not zero in on the one Black person on your team in a meeting, for instance, and ask them how they're doing with everything that's going on.</p><p>If you are going to do a check-in, do it in a one-on-one setting. Give your employee an opportunity to give you cues. Are they bringing up what's happening in the news? Are they sharing that they went to a protest? If not, maybe they don't want to talk about it.</p><p>If you decide to check in anyway, don't direct the conversation. Tell them that you're there to help if they want to talk and that you want to know how they're feeling. But if they don't want to engage, let it go. Remember, this is not about you and what you think you need to do to be a good or inclusive leader. This is about your Black employees and what they are feeling.</p><p><strong>How can I address colleagues who have implied or explicitly stated that they are not allies?</strong></p><p>Be conscious of your energy. There are policies to create at work. There are protests to attend in your neighborhood. There are kids to raise and jobs to do. Investing time in someone who does not care or opposes who you are or what you believe in is not good for you, so minimize those debates and focus on what you can change.</p><p>That being said, don't change your message to make people comfortable. Now is a time to take a stance. If your colleagues aren't willing to do that, it might be time to leave them behind. </p><p><strong>How can a primarily white team or organization support the Black community right now, especially if financial levers like expanding hiring aren't available?</strong></p><p>It's important to move towards creating a more equitable workplace and culture even if you don't have a Black employee on your team. It's the right thing to do. Remember that allyship is essential, and that white allies can have huge influence within organizations and communities. So start with the five steps above. If you have a budget beyond that, invest it in additional D&I training. Provide resources for doing anti-racist work in-house. Dedicate time every week in your team meeting to talk on topics relevant to the Black Lives Matter movement, whether that's defining what being an ally is, learning about systemic oppression, or brainstorming ways to get involved in your local community.</p><p><strong>How can I use levers to make sure my internal and external recruiting is as diverse as possible without being discriminatory?</strong></p><p>First of all, there's nothing discriminatory about asking for a diverse slate of candidates, whether you're asking an external recruiter or an internal team. You're not promising anyone a job based on their identity; you just want to make an effort to see a range of candidates. Hiring diversely doesn't happen by chance. You don't post a job and then just see a flood of resumes that perfectly represent all races and identities. That's called the "post and pray" approach and it's destined to fail.</p><p>If you're hiring internally, start by going to employee groups and encouraging group members to apply. Ask if they have anyone they'd recommend for the position. Make an effort to ensure that people know about open opportunities and what you're looking for.</p><p>If you have a recruiter or sourcer working with you, tell them that you want to look at a diverse pool of candidates.</p><h3>Going forward</h3><p>These are tough subjects to tackle and doing so will require sustained focus and resources. Thank you for doing this work. If there's anything we at PowerToFly can do to help as you continue down the path towards becoming an actively anti-racist organization, please feel free to reach out to me and my team at answers@powertofly.com!</p>
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June 24, 2020
Diversity & Inclusion
Finding Community at Work: How Viasat's Suzanne Marchi Leans In and Lifts Up Women and Families
About a decade ago, Suzanne Marchi sent an email out to all of the managers on her floor. She was a technical operations manager at global communications and satellite internet company, Viasat, and reaching out to managers to garner support for the participation of women on their teams to connect with other women in similar positions to build a community.
<p>Unfortunately, not a single woman received her email. That's because ten years ago, all of the other technical ops managers at Viasat were men.<br/></p><p>That's no longer the case, thanks to Suzanne's organizing and Viasat's commitment to diversify their workforce and foster an inclusive environment for all.</p><p>Now, as Viasat's Director of Technical Service Operations, as well as the founder of the Denver branch of Viasat's Women in Technology employee resource group (ERG), Suzanne's emails regularly get read by hundreds of women interested in supporting each other at work. She's also the founder of Viasat's Families Helping Families ERG, through which she organizes information sessions, bonding opportunities, and mutual support for parents and families.</p><p>We reached out to Suzanne, who took our call from her beautiful Denver garden (complete with birds chirping and chickens pecking at the ground!), to discuss how she found and fostered community at work, how her career has developed over 13 years at Viasat, and how her management style has adapted to the challenges of the coronavirus crisis.</p><h3>Creating the community she wanted to see—with support</h3><p>As you may have guessed from Suzanne's title, her role requires significant technological know-how. She manages Viasat's Network Operations Center, which is responsible for identifying and resolving systems issues. She works with a team of engineers and oversees everything from training and documentation to incident management and capacity planning.</p><p>Suzanne remembers two specific "lean in" moments in her career. The first was the event that prompted her to send the email mentioned above. She was in a meeting with 20 people and realized she was the only woman in the room, and not for the first time. "Up to that point in my career, I thought it was just something I had to deal with. Then I realized that it was something we should fix, because women bring so much to an organization and a team," she remembers.</p><p>Suzanne started with the women on her floor, and then partnered with Viasat's People & Culture team to identify women across the company, in management, technical and support roles, to set up introductory meetings.</p><p>"In that first meeting, the group of attendees was inspired, engaged and it ultimately grew into the ERG it is today, with the goal of educating, empowering, mentoring, and increasing the presence and influence of women at Viasat," says Suzanne. They accomplish that goal by hosting classes, informal get togethers, speaker series, movie nights, webinars, and a book club.</p><p>It was when her Women in Technology group was reading <em>Lean In</em> together that Suzanne had her second personal "lean in" epiphany. "I started to look around the room [in meetings] and see that we had those side chairs and that a lot of women were sitting on the edge," says Suzanne. "That gave me an opportunity to coach them and bring them to the table and help them realize that they needed to be there."</p><p>Suzanne credits the Women in Technology ERG's success to having the full support of the larger Viasat team and its culture of prioritizing community and learning. The ERG's partnership with the People & Culture team has helped make candidates and new hires feel welcome to Viasat from day one.</p><h3>What "family" really means at work</h3><p>Suzanne's success in building communities didn't stop with her work with the Women in Tech ERG. While at a baby shower for a coworker, she realized that there were ways to actively and systematically support parents-to-be that would give working women the best chance of successfully coming back to work, if that's what they wanted. "It makes it so much more pleasant and attractive to stay at Viasat when you have support and a community," says Suzanne, who has been a working mother herself for all of her career.</p><p>With this in mind, she started another ERG, this one called Families Helping Families, with the goal of providing a supportive environment, resources, and respect for parents, future parents, and families. It's now spread to several other Viasat offices as well.</p><p>Families Helping Families hosts learning sessions, where they explain Viasat benefits and resources like the company's parental leave policy and the nursing rooms available in-office. They organize gifts and assistance for new parents—everything from baby blankets to prepared meals—and give people space to share advice, problems, and stories. "People are able to realize they're not alone, and that their challenges are exciting and taxing all together," she says.</p><p>Celebrating life is a big part of what the group does, but Suzanne notes that their goal is to "support families in all seasons of life." Personally, she struggled last year with the stillborn birth of her grandchild. She organized a candle lighting ceremony and support circle last October 15th, during infant pregnancy and loss month, to connect with other parents and grandparents who had experienced similar losses. "One of the people who came to the event in Denver said it was the first time he'd ever told anybody about his loss," Suzanne recalls.</p><p>The Families Helping Families ERG has grown organically within Viasat that employees now sometimes go to Suzanne to help them find support within the group. Recently, after a coworker reached out to her, Suzanne organized a private Slack channel for couples who had to pause or give up on their IVF cycles during the current pandemic, as the treatments weren't deemed essential. </p><h3>Always evolving: managing through COVID and beyond</h3><p>Suzanne has now been at Viasat for 13 years, and in that time, she's seen a lot of change. "Being an engineering company, innovation is our focus," she says. Throughout her path into different management roles, Suzanne says her inspiration has always been to "take a team, make it better, and move to the next thing," which she says helped her develop "as well as serve the company."</p><p>None of that change quite prepared her to manage during a pandemic, though. Luckily, Viasat's been there to support Suzanne and her peers, offering seminars on how to manage remote teams, flexible scheduling options for employees, and upgraded screen-sharing and video conferencing software.</p><p>With her own team, Suzanne has increased their team meetings from weekly to multiple times a week to check in on how everyone's holding up. One of the team meetings has no agenda aside from bonding and stress relief—they've even done show-and-tell sessions and remote scavenger hunts.</p><p>Through the Families Helping Families ERG, Viasat and Suzanne are offering virtual panels on how to juggle work, parenting, and teaching, as well as increased resource-sharing and support. "It's helping us not feel so isolated and fearful and desperate," she says. "I think that connection to the outside world and to work is really a lifeline to a lot of people."</p><p><strong><em>If Viasat's commitment to their employees sounds appealing, check out their open roles</em><a href="https://powertofly.com/companies/viasat" target="_blank"> <em>here</em></a></strong><em><strong>.</strong></em></p>
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June 24, 2020
CSL
Saving Lives Through Biotherapy: Watch Our Conversation with Leaders from CSL
The core of CSL's mission is to save lives. They are at the forefront of finding biotherapeutic solutions for illness, and not just any kind— the rare and serious are their forte. During this unprecedented global pandemic, we'd be hard pressed to think of a better company than CSL to sit down with for a wide reaching panel discussion featuring several of their leaders.
WATCH OUR VIRTUAL EVENT WITH CSL HERE
Speakers from CSL included:
- Melissa Bradford, Senior Director, Global Talent Acquisition
- Wlenyeno Elliott-Browne, Division Director- CSL Plasma
- Rebecca Mims, Director, QA and Compliance
- Sophia Yu, Product Manager- HAE Marketing
- Jasmin Senior Bostic, Senior Manager, Global University Relations & Recruiting
<p>PowerToFly recognizes that "saving lives" carries a heavier weight given the current COVID-19 pandemic. We're proud to partner with a company that is not only implementing measures to protect its employees but is working aggressively to combat COVID-19 across the globe. CSL Behring is developing a vaccine candidate alongside the University of Queensland, formulating a novel immunotherapy with SAB Biotherapeatucis, developing a plasma-derived therapy for virus treatment with COVID-19 Plasma Alliance, and more.</p><p>To learn more about CSL, including their open roles, visit their <a href="https://powertofly.com/companies/csl" target="_blank">page on PowerToFly</a>. </p><br>
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