DEI Manager, Laura Zubick on Shared Accountability of DEI Values Across The Org…Not Only on the People & Culture Team

Welcome. This is a multi-part series where we share insights, inspirations and lessons from the humans behind the brand — Unbounce. If you’ve ever wanted to know how a campaign was pulled off or the methodology behind personal wellness days, who better to speak about tech company mysteries than Unbouncers themselves.

Happy new year! And I can greet you in this manner because we’re still in January (that’s the rule) but after the 31st — it’s good day, how fare ye? And how fare the Unbouncers Uncovered chronicles, you ask?… Well, we’re bringing it back! Stay tuned as we continue to highlight the humans behind the brand, the role they play, and the inspirations and lessons at Unbounce—a Vancouver-based marketing technology company. We haven’t posted on our Unbouncers in a while and they got a lot to say—so strap in.

Laura Zubick

For our 2022 inaugural edition of Unbouncers Uncovered, we’re kicking it off with Laura Zubick, our diversity, equity, and inclusion manager. She is a purpose-driven communicator, strategic thinker, and relationship-builder who is passionate about driving corporate citizenship and more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces.

Outside of remote work life, Laura loves reading and listening to all things Brené Brown, exploring new countries in her pursuit of visiting every continent (Argentina or New Zealand are next on her list), hiking in the Rockies, and packing up her red Rav-4 (fondly named ‘Clifford, the Big Red Rav 4) to go camping with her partner in the great outdoors of Vancouver. All of this while also being a key contributor to the Brands for Better Foundation.

When Laura joined Unbounce two and a half years ago, she was focused on social impact and working intimately on the Pay Up for Progress initiative. She found the experience aligned so closely to her own personal values that it set her on track to facilitate structural DEI change at Unbounce.

Laura shares:

“My positionality is that of a white, straight, cis, ablebodied, neurotypical woman and as such I approach the work from the perspective of using my privilege and power to challenge existing systems. And create the spaces and structures for those who typically have less privilege and power in our society to then come in and lead.

My goal is to build all programs and initiatives with a mantra of ‘nothing about us, without us’.”

While Unbounce’s formal journey into DEI work began about 5 years ago with a focus on gender diversity and inclusion, in 2020 an opportunity was identified to think bigger and do better. Since then she has been heads down building out our long-term DEI strategy.

And the results speak for themselves. From our strategic focus on DEI over the years, Unbounce has been able to:

• Reach gender parity org-wide (including at SLT and people leaders level)
• Achieve a 33% lift in the number of women in technical roles (43% total)
• Evaluate for pay parity across gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, caregiver status, and identification as a newcomer, immigrant, and/or refugee, concluding a 0% adjusted pay gap
• Provide all Unbouncers with ongoing DEI learning and development workshops, including Inclusive Leadership Training for all People Leaders through the consultation and guidance of Bakau Consulting
• In 2021 we saw a 33% increase in the percentage of new hires who identify as Employees of Colour which resulted in a 9% increase in representation org-wide (for a total of 39%) and a 5% increase in representation at the People Leader level (for a total of 26%*)
• Improve measured feelings of inclusion and belonging by 5% for women and other marginalized genders, and 7% for Employees of Colour.

*And you will continue to see these as an area of improvement for Unbounce in our strategic priorities for 2022.

Today, we’ve matured our DEI strategy and efforts to lead with a much more intersectional approach. While 2021 was all about solidifying and building the foundations, 2022 will be focused on these 4 priorities:

1. Continue to provide Unbouncers with DEI learning and development opportunities
2. Encourage shared accountability of our DEI value across the organization
3. Improve feelings of psychological safety, inclusion, and belonging for all Unbouncers
4. Improve representative and equitable hiring and internal growth

A peek into the Unbounce 2022 DEI strategy

In a recent LinkedIn article, “Jobs on the Rise 2022: The 20 roles that are growing in demand in Canada”. Diversity and Inclusion Manager made #2 on their list. It’s now more than ever a critical role for companies to budget for. Remember when everyone was scrambling to hire for DEI?

Social movements such as #BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo and #StopAAPIHate helped catapult that search and prompted a myriad of discussions on racial and gendered inequities in society and workplaces. According to The Conference Board, the DEI manager hunt rocketed between 2015 and 2021. “DEI ads increased by 127 percent, with a 36 percent jump between 2019 and August 2021 alone.”

We sat down with Laura to explore her role and insights for the future of DEI. (And yes, there’s certainly more than meets DEI … 👀)

1. What do you notice changing most about the role of DEI in companies?

Advocates have been pushing for change (with many wins along the way), but it seems to have taken a strong social movement, especially related to racial justice and equity in 2020 to wake up many companies (and people) to the change that still needs to happen and the responsibilities companies have to their people to act on creating that change.

While it’s unfortunate that it has taken so long for companies to get here, it is exciting to see the attention being paid and the progress being made. A groundswell of accountability has developed, forcing companies to be a part of the change or risk being left behind.

I’m personally very excited to see a redistribution of power shifting to employees and empowering them to hold employers to new more equitable and inclusive standards. We’ve seen a further progression by many companies from awareness and verbal importance being placed on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion to tangible action plans being formulated.

The companies who are properly resourcing the talent and strategic plans necessary to embed change at a structural level and engage leaders across the organization are the ones who will see long-lasting transformational change.

2. You developed DEI Strategic Priorities for 2022, which one do you foresee being the most difficult to implement?

“Encourage shared accountability of our DEI value across the organization” is perhaps the most challenging priority to bring to life in a meaningful way.

Meaningful success in DEI is when it is taken up by every single employee across the organization — not something seen solely as the responsibility of the people and culture team. DEI is fundamental to the success of each team across the organization, with each leader understanding the importance, having an action plan in place, and being held accountable to the value, performance and metrics of success their team is responsible for.

For us all to get to a place where we can action this—will take a few steps:

1. A dedication to providing DEI-related learning and development across the organization, and specifically for our leaders.
2. Working with teams to connect the dots between the personally held understanding of why DEI is important and how that applies to (and benefits) their day-to-day work.
3. Evaluating the systems and structures in place that people look to for accountability—things like defining the DEI behaviours and competencies someone must exhibit to meet performance expectations and grow in their role, as well as embedding the DEI-related metrics teams and leaders will be held accountable to delivering on.

This requires commitment, resourcing, and leading by example from the very top, amidst many competing priorities. Having DEI as a company value at Unbounce with a CEO who believes this value is crucial to the success of the business has enabled this work to happen.

3. When we talk about the third DEI Strategic Priority “Improve feelings of psychological safety, inclusion, and belonging for all Unbouncers”, what is challenging and what are you most proud of?

The Challenge…

The challenge here is that feelings of psychological safety, inclusion, and belonging depend entirely on the daily interactions team members are having with each other on a personal and professional level, in a multitude of spaces.

You can never have control over the experiences people are having on a daily basis. So the challenge is ensuring:

• We have proper feedback loops in place to surface situations and address them
• We’re building a culture of collective accountability, so team members can call each other in when they see behaviours that don’t align with the values we hold as an organization

Most Proud of…

We had a goal in 2021 to build an employee resource group model for Unbouncers that would…

1. Provide Unbouncers who belong to marginalized groups, spaces for social connection, support, and processing with those who share similar lived experiences.
2. Foster an environment of co-creation and shared responsibility between Unbounce and Unbouncers to build a diverse, equitable, and inclusive company culture that leads with a mantra of “nothing about us, without us”.

The result was a combination of our DEI Committee and Courageous Conversation framework.

• Our DEI Committee is an employee-led group for folks who are passionate about advancing DEI at the organization, can come together to discuss, ideate, deliver feedback, and take action.
• A Courageous Conversation is a conversation any Unbouncer can host to bring together a group of people who have a similar lived experience to them, and/or with whom they would like to discuss a certain topic that is challenging them emotionally, personally, at work, and/or in response to anything happening within the world. These spaces may be open or closed to allies.

Last year we saw Unbouncers host 7 different Courageous Conversations on topics ranging from discussing the latest McKinsey and Co. Women in the Workplace Report, to residential schools, to sharing favourite traditions from holidays that are meaningful to our diverse Unbounce team.

4. How can a company structure an ERG that focuses more on impact over (well-meaning) intention?

Involve leadership

It’s so important for leadership to be involved for a few reasons:

• Participating in these groups will increase their awareness of what is top of mind for employees and areas of improvement the business needs to pay attention to. It also helps to build deeper empathy and understanding for why it’s so important to employees that these things be addressed.
• Having support and sponsorship at the leadership level provides a direct path for ERGs to be able to propose action items and have them properly resourced by the business.

Speaking of…you need to properly resource the ERG

• In order for an ERG to create meaningful change, they need access to a budget. They also need time allocated within working hours so the ERG work does not become a “side-of-desk” expectation.

Structure ERG participation so that it doesn’t feel like “volunteer” work

It’s important that companies appreciate and recognize the contribution of time and emotional energy by ERG members. Participation in an ERG should be recognized as a job responsibility for those who take it on and be treated as such by their people leader. This means:

• Members should work with their people leader to incorporate their ERG work into their current workload, professional development goals and action plan.
• People leaders should account for ERG work in their understanding of work priorities on an employee’s plate.

For example, at Unbounce we support the work a DEI Committee member takes on by:

• Providing two annual paid days members can book for committee work. As well as, an expectation to be able to set aside four hours of additional time each month for ongoing committee work and development.
• Access additional professional development budget to be spent on things like DEI training.

Ensure ERGs are working from an intersectional lens

The lines of communication and collaboration should be open between ERGs at your organization—so that an intersectional lens is taken to the work they’re doing to support underrepresented voices in the workplace.

Instead of each ERG implementing an individual action plan, are there ways they can build an action plan together that maximizes impact to all groups represented at the org?

And lastly, centre the voices of marginalized folks in ERG work and ensure allies understand their role in this space.

5. What has had the most impact on your perspective as a DEI Manager? (personal or professional)

Hands down, it has to be hearing other people’s stories!

Operating in a silo, I can only bring the perspectives that have shaped me through my specific social positionality, identity, and lived experiences. Which wouldn’t be very useful in the pursuit of truly creating diverse, equitable, and inclusive spaces.

Therefore, listening to the stories and perspectives of folks who identify in different ways and have different lived experiences from my own has had a huge influence on the way I approach my work as a DEI Manager. It continually broadens my perspective, challenges my ways of thinking, and deepens my capacity for empathy.

I aim to surround myself with a diverse group of voices in all aspects of my life. Here are a few of the resources and humans that have been personally relevant to my growth:

• Lily Zheng a DEI strategist and consultant - I recommend following on LinkedIn.
• The Person You Mean to Be—a book by Dolly Chugh
• So You Want to Talk About Race — a book by Ijeoma Oluo
• The McKinsey & Co series of Diversity in the Workplace reports
• Karen Catlin’s Better Allies newsletter
• Decolonize First — led by Michelle Nahanee (Also on Instagram)
• Kory Wilson — Executive Director, Indigenous Initiatives and Partnerships at BCIT
• Indigenous Canada — a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) from the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta that explores Indigenous histories and contemporary issues in Canada
• Pride at Work Canada

Finally, Cicely Belle Blain, CEO of Bakau Consulting is one of the individuals who has and continues to make a massive impact on my work in this role. I began learning from this organization and individual during their Stratagem Conference. And continued learning from them as a partner on our Pay Up for Progress initiative, as well as, a consultant on our DEI strategy.

I make it a practice to dedicate time to learn from and share credited knowledge that I’ve been fortunate to have shared with me from DEI experts, teachers, books and shows I watch (the list is truly never-ending!).

6. What’s the hardest part of a DEI Manager’s job today? And what nugget would you share with future DEI Managers?

Hardest part…

There’s a lot of progress to be made and it can often feel like the work is never done, or isn’t a perfect solution. The sheer volume of strides necessary to create anti-oppressive and truly equitable and inclusive workplaces keeps climbing.

A nugget for future DEI Managers…

It’s important to remind yourself this is a long game—many before us, especially folks from marginalized communities—have been doing the work for decades. And advocates will continue to do the work for decades to come.

Focus on progress over perfection while keeping your eyes on the end goal and celebrate small wins along the way.

It also helps to find your peers and champions in the work! I regularly connect with a group of other DEI managers and advocates to share best practices and lend support. It’s a refreshing reminder that we can make more impact together and that you’re actually part of a larger team working together towards something bigger.

7. Finish this sentence. If I weren’t a DEI Manager, I would be…

I often think it would be fun to run some kind of boutique B&B property!

I love hosting and thinking about how to create meaningful experiences for people. I think it would be really fulfilling to build a space where folks can come and create memories with loved ones. Or simply, have an intentional space for themselves in our fast-paced world.

Thanks for getting to know more about our Unbouncers. If you’re interested in joining the team, check out our careers website. And don’t forget to hit the follow button to be notified when the next Unbouncers Uncovered comes out.