The Evolution of the D&I Workgroup

When I joined Clover in 2016, I attended on-boarding sessions about how different parts of the company worked. One of these on-boarding sessions was called Diversity & Inclusion. I thought it would be run by HR. I was surprised when a teammate from Engineering showed up to lead the session. In it, we watched videos about unconscious bias and micro-aggressions, and learned about ways that Clover tries to foster a welcoming and inclusive environment. It was casual and interactive. I was glad to learn that people at Clover cared about diversity and inclusion, but at the same time, there was an unofficial feel to the meeting. I wondered why it didn’t seem to be a part of formal operations. At the end we learned about Clover’s Diversity and Inclusion workgroup: a weekly meeting run by employees to work on initiatives related to diversity at the company.

I was curious, so I began to attend the D&I workgroup meetings. The format and content of the meetings was informal and eclectic: different people came, went, then returned. Initiatives, like a desire to publish our diversity statistics, were brought up and debated. People proposed new ideas and ran with them, or not. Still, we got things done. For example, we organized a Lunch and Learn on gender diversity. We discussed ways to de-bias performance reviews. Occasionally, a company leader would attend — usually the head of Engineering, Matt Shannon, or our then-CTO, Kris Gale — and when they weren’t present, their support would appear in the form of budget, like approving a training for ally workshops.

As time went on, I saw how the D&I workgroup itself reflected Clover Engineering. It was scrappy and grassroots, with bottom-up initiatives that sometimes sputtered but also sometimes came to fruition. This made sense when I learned about the workgroup’s origins. In 2015, one of the company’s earliest engineers, Sara Packman, asked Kris about the technology team’s gender balance goals. At the time, half of the engineers were women. The team worried that growth would change this ratio for the worse. Kris brought up the idea of publishing a diversity statement to hold our management accountable; this turned into an internal discussion thread about how best to approach D&I at Clover, and participants in the discussion began to meet weekly. The workgroup was born.

After a few months in the workgroup, I started to want more focus and productivity out of my time in it. I wanted things to be more organized. In 2017, Sara and I facilitated changes to the workgroup’s format. We started a project-based approach, with formal status updates and people on the hook for deliverables. Accomplishments from this time include:

• Sara Packman and Tuong La worked with HR to launch a company-wide inclusion survey.
• Sara Packman, Tuong La and Lee Phillips worked with our PR team to publish the company’s first blog post on its diversity numbers.
• Stephanie Stroud, Jane Williams, Omar Njie and I worked with HR to incorporate practices within performance evaluations to help reduce unconscious bias.

We decided then that we were ready for Clover to hire a Diversity & Inclusion leader. In true grassroots spirit, I wrote a proposal for a job requisition, which members of the workgroup debated. And in a show of Clover’s commitment, our executive leadership approved the requisition. By the end of 2017, we (myself included) had interviewed candidates. Clover’s first Diversity and Inclusion Manager joined at the beginning of 2018.

I learned a number of things from participating in the workgroup. First, I saw how official acknowledgment matters. It was one of the workgroup’s earliest leaders, Tuong La, who advocated that employees’ work in the D&I space should not become an unpaid burden. I was busy writing software, which is my actual job. But I could spend time in workgroup activities because software engineers at Clover are expected to develop non-technical skills, particularly in ways that build company culture. Engineers get credit, including in performance reviews, for doing D&I work. Without this, workgroup members would be doing a “second shift” on top of our primary jobs. This would probably lead to burnout and resentment, which would harm the company culture.

The second thing I learned is that executive commitment matters. Having champions in leadership help with material resources, such as meeting space or budget for trainings. But more importantly, executives’ engagement and participation are signals. Without these, the company couldn’t credibly claim that it values diversity and inclusion.

Finally, I learned that progress in D&I requires organizational authority. Now that Jessie Wusthoff has joined as Diversity and Inclusion Manager, she can make inroads where workgroup members could not. For example, she’s already shepherded the workgroup to create Clover’s first official mission statements on diversity, inclusion, and equity. This was something we had attempted in the past but it had fallen by the wayside due to gridlock, and at any rate we were never sure if the company would even adopt it. Also, now Jessie is working with recruiting and with engineers to look into our hiring data, and with HR on our demographic data.

I expect that the workgroup’s role at Clover will continue to evolve. My hope is that Jessie’s and our work will lead to inclusive and equitable practices getting baked into Clover’s operations. Maybe Clover can be a leader in this space. The more I research the topic, the more I’m convinced that having engaged employees who feel included are key to any company’s success, and Clover’s success matters because that would mean improved healthcare for our members. For this reason, I am excited to be part of the progress in making Clover an inclusive and welcoming work environment.