Building a New Normal in the Workplace with Inclusion at the Forefront

A conversation with Dionna Smith and Jelena Djordjevic

When Dionna Smith joined Thumbtack as our Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion last October in the height of the pandemic, she expected to eventually relocate her family from Atlanta to San Francisco. Like the rest of the world, we all still assumed everything would go “back to normal.” But as we settled into a new way of working, we realized that working from home had the potential to work even better for us — and decided to embrace a virtual-first model coupled with high-quality events.

Dionna and I sat down to chat about the ways in which her own thinking evolved during the pandemic and what excites her most about our decision to re-architect the workplace.

Jelena: When you joined Thumbtack last October, you’d just had your fourth baby and were prepared to relocate. How did you, personally, feel about the shift to a virtual-first workplace?

Dionna: I was open to moving, and excited to transition from working with traditional Atlanta-based companies to a Silicon Valley company. But my whole family is here in Atlanta and I have four kiddos, so it would have been bittersweet to leave our community. The fact that I am able to do this work that is so important to me and stay close to home honestly feels like the best of both worlds.

J: When we were debating what work would look like at Thumbtack after the pandemic, you raised strong objections to a hybrid model. Why?

D: I was concerned that a hybrid model would create more disparities, particularly for communities of color. A big focus for us in 2021 is to recruit and hire more Latinx and Black employees, which means that a lot of our new hires will likely be from the East Coast, South, and Southwest. Imagine if you’re one of those employees and your manager calls a meeting in San Francisco — part of your team is in the office face-to-face but you’re on video. No matter how good our intentions, we wanted to design our model to provide the same opportunities and visibility for all to their managers.

By embracing a virtual work model with quality in-person events, we’re working to ensure all of our employees have equal access to professional growth, regardless of where they’re located, while still fostering the in-person interactions that reinforce team building, cross-functional visibility, and more.

J: What excited you most about the potential of committing to virtual-first?

D: I’ve spent my career in DEI, and it’s always felt like I was trying to retrofit a broken system. Now there’s not only an opportunity but an imperative to build a completely new corporate culture from the ground up — with inclusion at the forefront. To make a virtual workplace successful, you have to actively work to ensure everyone is included and feels like they belong; it can’t be an afterthought. It’s a big paradigm shift.

J: Can you share some examples of what it looks like to rethink the workplace through a lens of inclusion?

D: Sure. Take the way we do trainings. In most companies, especially in the pre-pandemic world, it was pretty standard for only a select few senior-level people to receive DEI training. But as our leadership team was thinking about how to keep everyone connected in a virtual-first workplace, we knew we needed to make inclusion training core to our culture. Now we have a series of ongoing sessions for all employees about addressing unconscious biases and creating psychologically safe meetings and environments. Everyone is receiving training on how to make sure all voices are heard.

J: What about recruiting?

D: It’s game-changing. With our HQs previously in San Francisco and Salt Lake City, our pre-pandemic teams could only be as diverse as the populations in those cities. This new shift to virtual-first gives us the opportunity to not only look outside of those cities for great people, but to set goals and have a clear strategy around diversity in recruiting.

With DEI, especially DEI recruitment, you have to be intentional. Whatever you focus on is where you’ll start seeing incremental changes. I’m really excited about our partnerships with historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and hispanic-serving institutions. I also think it will help us grow tremendously with folks who are differently abled, for whom coming into a physical office would have been a burden.

And in the same way that I felt a sense of relief that I wouldn’t have to uproot my family, I think virtual-first will open the door for people who wouldn’t have been open to relocating, or who have realized the importance of being close to family after the last year. As a minority in the workplace, you’re always going to experience a feeling of not belonging or impostor syndrome. But keeping your family, community, and comfort zone close can make a world of difference.

J: Is anything keeping you up at night as we make this transition?

D: Right now, I’m really focused on onboarding and building a culture of connectivity. Without being face to face, there’s a risk that women or minorities who historically don’t speak up as much could become invisible and thus not have the same opportunities to build rapport with their managers. If I’m up at night, it’s because I’m thinking so much about belonging and how to avoid creating disparities in this new way of working.

But I really feel strongly that the goals we have around DEI will be served so much better in a virtual-first environment. It’s why I am thrilled and was really opinionated about this process. It’s an opportunity for Thumbtack to lead the way and really make a significant difference.