Reflecting on HubSpot’s 2021 Diversity, Inclusion, & Belonging Report, and Where We’re Headed

By Celeste Narganes, HubSpot’s Director of Diversity, Inclusion, & Belonging

When I first joined HubSpot over three years ago, I was focused on ensuring their commitment to diversity and inclusion, and more broadly, to making a positive impact for its customers, partners, employees, and communities, was real. At the time, HubSpot had just published their second annual Diversity, Inclusion, & Belonging Report and the Culture Code shared the company’s deeply held values. But I didn’t stop my research there. I spoke with employees, customers, partners, competitors, and the message was almost always the same: HubSpot has work to do, but they are transparent about where they fall short, and they are truly intent on getting it right.

This held true then, and continues to this day. In a year when racism and inequality have been at the forefront, I am prouder than ever to work for a company committed to transparency and doing the hard work required to truly move the needle on diversity and inclusion.

This year marks HubSpot’s fifth anniversary reporting out on Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging and I’m excited to share some meaningful progress, while also recognizing this work is far from done. In addition to employee demographic data, the fifth edition of the report includes trends in employee data over the past five years, new expanded self-reporting categories, as well as a snapshot of the key initiatives and investments we made in 2020, with a focus on supporting our Black community and helping employees and their families navigate COVID-19.

We continue to be humbled by the challenge of building a community we can be proud of, and are more determined than ever to do so. As we reflect on our journey over the past year, here are some highlights from our diversity data, and some areas we’re actively working on:

• Since 2017, HubSpot’s BIPOC representation in the U.S. has grown by 12% to 27.4%. While our G&A and Marketing teams notably doubled the representation of Black employees on their teams since last year, every single team across the company increased their BIPOC representation. These strides are notable and we are extremely proud that this work has been consistent and improving over time. Increasing our BIPOC representation globally will remain a core priority in our DI&B and Recruiting efforts.
• Over the past 5 years, we’ve seen a 6% global increase in female & gender neutral representation. Company-wide, female and gender neutral-identifying employees represent 45.8% of our total population. Where we’ve really moved the needle is on the leadership end, with ~50% female & gender neutral representation at the Manager and Director levels, as well as four women in Executive Leadership roles and three women on our Board. In 2020, we were also recognized as a Best Workplace for Women by Fortune.
• We know how critical it is to have diverse representation at the Board level, and we were grateful to welcome Nick Caldwell to our Board of Directors, who brings deep technical expertise to our team, as well as a sharp focus on diversity initiatives through his work with /dev/color and Color Code. We also launched a Black Advisory Board, including four global leaders we deeply admire: Leslie Forde, Dr. Claudia Igbrude, Jeanine Francis, and Dantley Davis. Their perspectives and feedback will guide us in building more inclusive go-to-market strategies, recruiting and retention plays, and more.
• Over the past five years, we’ve added seven new self-reported categories around gender identity, LGBTQ+ self-identification, parental status, disability, military status, and first-generation identity. Of the 50.6% of respondents this year, almost a quarter of our employees identify as parents, and 12% of respondents identify as LGBTQ+. 0.7% of those who responded identify as transgender, an increase from last year, while 1% self-reported as non-binary. It is truly exciting to see how we’re growing across all these categories and to get more insight into the makeup of our employee base beyond our initial 3 categories of age, ethnicity and gender. We’re honored to be a company where individuals of all genders and sexualities can thrive, and we were humbled to be named a 2020 Best Workplace for Parents by Great Place to Work and a Best Company for Work Life Balance by Comparably.
• In addition, of the U.S. respondents to the self-reported survey, 50% identify as first-generation. Of those folks, 25% were born outside the U.S., and almost 19% are the first in their generation to work in the corporate world. We are proud to be a company that welcomes individuals from non-traditional backgrounds, and are actively expanding on programs like HubSpot’s annual First-Gens in Tech event to provide more resources and connections for first-generation professionals.

Areas for Growth

• Our overall gender composition appears balanced, however we have work to do in several key areas. On our Tech teams in particular, we remain heavily skewed male. The good news is that we’re heading in the right direction with an increase in Female and BIPOC hiring on these teams this past year, but it still remains a big opportunity for improvement. While we do not report on this data by region, we also acknowledge that we have work to do to increase the number of Female & Gender Neutral employees in certain geographies, particularly in JAPAC and LATAM. We’ve made strides in increasing gender representation in Director+ roles in EMEA, however this continues to be an area of opportunity across JAPAC especially. Our gender recruitment efforts extend to include women of color, LGBTQ+ and non-binary folks, and/or women of all ages and backgrounds.
• While several teams have made great strides in increasing their Black employee representation, Product & Engineering and Sales are still below the company average. Across all our teams, representation of Latinx/Hispanic employees remains low, particularly in Product & Engineering and Marketing. In 2021, we will continue to focus on BIPOC hiring in the U.S. and are examining our recruiting strategies and opportunities as a result..
• This is the first year that we’ve included retention in our Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging Report, as retaining our BIPOC talent is critical to ensuring our workforce remains diverse, but also to ensuring all employees feel a strong sense of belonging. Our BIPOC retention was 1.2% less than the overall U.S. average, and ensuring this is equal to our less than our non-BIPOC employees, is something we are holding ourselves accountable to. As such, the DI&B team has added a focus on inclusion as a key priority alongside increasing diversity.
• Globally, age diversity continues to be an area of opportunity. While HubSpot’s Returners Program is not geared specifically towards age diversity efforts, it welcomes people back to the workforce after a career break of any kind. Started in EMEA, the program is now in EMEA and the U.S., and has connected us with incredible candidates-turned-employees on our Sales, Services, and People Operations teams. Outside the program, our recruiters are focused on ensuring we think of entering and re-entering tech as age agnostic, and this is an area we hope to show greater improvement on, over the next year.

Looking Ahead

Diversity, inclusion and belonging is everyone’s job. It is an ongoing, sustained effort that goes far beyond having a diverse workforce. We know innovation and transformation happen when people from diverse backgrounds intersect and reconsider entrenched ways of thinking, exchange ideas, experiences, and practices. But this can only happen if our employees feel valued and are given every opportunity to grow and succeed.

In 2021, our priority is to balance our focus on hiring, with a focus on inclusion and belonging. We are working towards building a company-wide Inclusion & Belonging playbook that considers both the communities our employees choose, and those they are a part of due to the nature of their work, while enabling and training people managers on the behaviors, processes and programs that lead to more inclusive practices and spaces. We have defined what diversity, inclusion & belonging means at HubSpot, and have more clarity on how to best measure our effectiveness in these efforts and better hold ourselves accountable.

Change doesn’t happen overnight, especially the sustained, lasting change we are striving for at HubSpot. We have spent the last five years pushing ourselves to do better, to be better, and we are truly beginning to feel that impact. This is not easy work, but we are determined to do what it takes to create a company our employees, customers, partners and communities can be proud of.

View HubSpot’s 2021 Diversity, Inclusion, & Belonging Report here.