Dalana Brand, Twitter’s vice president of people experience and head of inclusion and diversity, believes social media can help employees have frank conversations about inequality.
Brand wants Twitter to be known as a company where you can bring your whole self to work. And so she’s helped expand opportunities for its employees (known internally as “tweeps”) to talk about D&I topics that affect them personally.
Twitter has internal forums called FlockTalks, where employees can host public discussions on pretty much any issue or topic that resonates with them, and Tea Time meetings, or smaller conversations where leadership and employees discuss topics that interest employees.
They’ve been a crucial way to bring together members from different employee-resource groups, which include Twitter Parents, a community for employees who are caregivers; Twitter Stripe, a community for military spouses and veterans; and Twitter Faith, a group that celebrates different religions.
The town halls have also been a valuable way to have open conversations on controversial topics and current events, Brand added. Twitter employees have hosted discussions in the wake of mass shootings, and on topics such as pay equity and religious discrimination.
The executive wants to continue hot-button conversations, but in a way that protects employees’ privacy. Twitter recently launched an anonymous survey to ask all its Tweeps how they feel about working at the company. The questionnaire explored topics around gender, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, immigration, socio-economic status, and religion. The data the company gathered from this survey will guide future D&I investment, Brand said.
“I am most excited, and incredibly inspired, by the fact that we have just scratched the surface,” Brand told Business Insider. “So, even though these conversations have been happening for many, many years, I think the outcomes and the opportunity that can come from truly having a workforce that is diverse, global, truly inclusive, and that creates a sense of belonging for all of the employees — the power of that has not yet been seen.”
