Diversity drives innovation; equality and inclusion drive diversity.

There’s ample research on the value of diverse teams, but here’s one that stands out for us. According to Deloitte's 2018 Global CIO Survey, organizations with inclusive cultures are:

• twice as likely to meet or exceed financial targets as those without,
• three times as likely to be high-performing,
• six times more likely to be innovative and agile,
• and eight times more likely to achieve better business outcomes.

For Raidboxes, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) isn't a debate, it's a business necessity. 

To highlight just two from a large number of initiatives:

Election of Equal Opportunities Representative (EOR)

According to German legislation, this is always a woman and exclusively women get to vote by secret ballot.

EORs at Raidboxes are elected for a term of four years. They don’t report to any manager directly but are empowered to carry out equity measures independently from other business objectives. They also advise People Operations and Culture Care and are a general point of contact in regards to gender equality and workplace safety for women.

Flex30 part-time model

Parents and employees working 30-hour weeks because of childcare or other caring responsibilities can flexibly increase their hours to 40 whenever it fits with their family’s schedule and get paid their usual hourly rate for those extra hours.

Normally, we give comp time and aim to reduce over hours. But we recognized part-time work isn’t always a choice, in particular for parents with smaller children (and here especially: mothers). Those parents may actually prefer working full-time when their childcare responsibilities allow them to. So for the times they can and want to work more, we pay them fairly like full-time employees. 

Two examples from a larger set of initiatives and policies:

Raidboxes Code of Conduct (CoC)

Our Code of Conduct unifies the values we commit to as a team in one comprehensive document. It forms the cornerstone of our company culture we hold ourselves accountable to in our daily interactions. New team members are onboarded to the Code of Conduct on their first day at Raidboxes. Any misconduct can be addressed directly or, if preferred, via a dedicated role at the company.

We take CoC issues extremely seriously and investigate potential violations with a clear focus on employee protection.

Fortnightly anonymous pulse survey

Giving candid feedback and putting feedback into action are critical techniques to foster an inclusive, agile team culture. In addition to regular one-to-one meetings, we run a biweekly anonymous pulse survey among all team members at Raidboxes.

Being able to give feedback anonymously can open an important channel for employees who might otherwise struggle to make their voices heard in a group situation. Based on survey data, we were able to prioritize and implement a number of people-related initiatives and improve our employee net promoter score (eNPS) from 34 to 72 within six months.