Learn more about Pendo’s DEI journey and progress
2022 report on diversity, equity, and inclusion at Pendo
Pendo is on a mission to elevate the world’s experience with software. To meet our mission, we need people of all backgrounds, from all lived experiences, and with all different perspectives working together.
As we enter new regions and expand our product offerings, we know a diverse group of Pendozers leading these efforts will be key to our continued success. This is why we are building a culture where Pendozers can be authentic, do their best work, and thrive together. We know that diversity coupled with a truly inclusive workplace – where employees can bring their whole selves and perspectives – can unlock innovation, creativity, and bold ideas.
As such, we focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion in everything we do – from hiring, to creating culture, to engaging with our community. And because a core value at Pendo is to be direct and transparent, we are committed to measuring and reporting on our progress across these three areas.
In coming months and years, we will experiment with new partnerships, programs, and processes to improve representation and foster an inclusive culture at Pendo. We look forward to sharing our progress and learnings along the way.
What Pendozers have to say
A look at where we are: Representation at Pendo
Each quarter, our leadership and people teams review representation data across race, ethnicity, and gender identity. We share quarterly progress updates with our employees, and detail areas of focus for the quarter ahead.
Ultimately, we know DEI is best measured in actions, not graphs. But by sharing this data publicly, we hold ourselves accountable to becoming a more diverse and inclusive company.
Here’s a snapshot of the progress we made in 2021.
- 38% of technical managers (engineering and product) self-identify as women and 29% of technical employees self-identify as women.
- Almost doubled the number of women in our C-suite, with 44% of C-team leaders identifying as women.
- More than a 10% increase in managers that self-identify as women.
- More than a 50% increase in managers that self-identify as Black / African American, Latinx / Hispanic, Asian, or two or more races.
- More than a 25% increase in employees that self-identify as Black / African American, Latinx / Hispanic, Asian, or two or more races.
Here’s a deeper dive into the progress we’ve made over the past five years at the employee level.
We started tracking data at the manager level in 2020.
Representation at Pendo: Gender
From 2017 to 2021, the percentage of employees that self-ID as women climbed from 32% to 41%.
Representation of Managers at Pendo: Gender
From 2020 to 2021, the percentage of managers who self-ID as women climbed from 38% to 42%.
Gender Representation in Technical Roles and Technical Manager Roles – 2021
Representation at Pendo: Race / Ethnicity (US employees only)
From 2017 to 2021, the percentage of employees that self-ID as Black / African American, Latinx / Hispanic, Asian, or two or more races climbed from 6% to 24%.
Representation of Managers at Pendo: Race / Ethnicity (US employees only)
From 2020 to 2021, the percentage of people managers that self-ID as Black / African American, Latinx / Hispanic, Asian, or two or more races climbed from 8% to 14%.
Expanding our diversity and inclusion metrics
We are excited to add to the metrics we track in 2022. Below are key areas of focus.
Enabling employees to self-ID in new categories
This year, we have launched a global effort to expand the demographic data that we capture to be more inclusive of our employees’ identities. Employees will be able to voluntarily self-identify in the categories below.
By improving our data collection, we can better understand our workforce representation and continue tailoring our DEI programming. We also hope to improve the accuracy of our race and ethnicity data globally. Finally, this will help us better understand the intersectionality of our employees at Pendo.
- Age range
- Gender identity
- LGBTQ+ / GSRM community member
- Military / Veteran
- Pronouns
- Parent and caretaker
Data on talent mobility and growth
One of our goals at Pendo is to provide our employees with opportunities for advancement. In accordance with our DEI focus, we want to build a diverse pipeline of managers and leaders. So in mid-2021, we started reviewing trends in talent mobility by gender, race, and ethnicity. We will begin reporting on our progress annually in 2023.
2021 recap: Embedding DEI in all we do
Diversity is about celebrating the uniqueness of our individual identities and experiences. Equity is about providing equal access and opportunities. Inclusion is about creating a space where employees feel they are empowered, can thrive, and are valued. While we aren’t perfect, we have made a lot of progress on our journey to building a truly diverse and inclusive company. Beyond the numbers, here are additional highlights of our work in 2021.
DEI in our hiring
Introduced new recruiting practices to reduce bias
- Implemented a structured interview process – including standard templates, interview guides, competency-based questions, and structured interview debriefs.
- Provided company-wide interview training to highlight ways to reduce bias in the interview process. In the past 6 months, over 65% of managers, and 45% of all employees, have completed this training.
- Completed 1:1 meetings with hiring managers in every department to discuss diverse recruiting practices, partnerships, and ways to reduce bias in the interview process.
Launched new initiatives to ensure a diverse talent pipeline
- Expanded the reach of our recruiting efforts by holding early career events across North Carolina, including events with local HBCUs and community colleges.
- Created or expanded recruiting pipeline partnerships with organizations like HBCU20x20, Women in Sales Everywhere, Meet & Innovate, Momentum Learning, The Diversity Movement, Black Men in Tech, Wake Tech Community College, North Carolina Central University, and Fayetteville State University.
- Hired a dedicated recruiter focused on vice president level roles and above, with a commitment to ensuring an inclusive hiring process.
“Show me the data” – investments in recruiting operations and data
- Hired a recruiting operations leader to track pipeline and representation data across all hiring stages. They now provide data back to our recruiting teams to inform future recruiting efforts.
DEI in our culture
Over the past year at Pendo, we have focused on building equity in our processes and creating an inclusive culture.
Breaking bias in our processes
- Over 75% of employees completed unconscious bias training within their first three months at Pendo.
- Created new transparent career frameworks for each department to drive consistency and best practices in our promotion process.
- Provided manager training on the types of bias that show up in performance reviews and how to break these biases.
- Conducted bias audits during performance reviews to check for biased language, and offered specific, actionable feedback.
Reimagined our values to be more inclusive
- Completed a six-month effort to refresh and revise our company values. One of our goals was to make sure our values were inclusive.
- To do this, we worked with a diverse group across office, tenure, role, and lived experience to survey our employees and use their feedback to refresh our values.
Check out our refreshed values here.
Increased awareness & action through our affinity groups
- Increased involvement in our five affinity groups. In 2021, more than 62% of our employees were involved in one or more affinity groups.
Affinity groups at Pendo
Increased awareness & action through our affinity groups
- Our affinity groups hosted guest speakers, educational events, and fundraisers that helped us build community internally and make a difference in the communities where we live.
Examples of these workshops include:
- Building Inclusive Products – Annie Jean-Baptiste, head of product inclusion at Google
- Black History Month Lunch and Learn – Jim Sills, CEO of M&F Bank
- Virtual International Civil Rights Museum Tour
- Reflections from a Transgender Advocate – Mimi Lemay, author of What We Will Become
- Juneteenth: Reflecting on Our Progress – Internal Town Hall
- Celebrating Neurodiversity during Autism Acceptance Month – Magnus Hedemark, technology executive at Gap Inc.
- Women In the Workplace Session – Kathryn Kuhn, partner at McKinsey and Gina Cardazone, Lean In. Org
- Standing Up Against AAPI Hate – Internal Town Hall
- Our affinity group co-chairs have also introduced more inclusive Slack emojis, shared information about significant cultural holidays and customs, and suggested allyship actions Pendozers can take.
Expanded health and wellness benefits
- Increased parental leave to 16 weeks for Pendozers and added a stipend for fertility benefits.
- Increased the number of company holidays and added three mental health days off.
- Provided a quarterly stipend for “Life at Home“ and personal development.
- Launched a mental health services platform, Modern Health, to provide resources ranging from digital courses and meditations to certified coaches and licensed therapists.
DEI in our community
Giving back to our communities
We have led efforts across our global offices to give back to the communities where we live and work. In 2021, we:
- Donated over $2,600 to District C to fund a Pendo Fellow, a public school educator who will get trained and certified to implement District C’s Teamship program at a local high school.
- Donated over $2,900 to The Trevor Project in collaboration with members of the GSRM Affinity Group.
- Donated over $2,000 to Code the Dream to support the next generation of talent in coding and STEM.
Making our products more inclusive
Pendo is working to make sure our products are inclusive, too. We’ve continued our focus on web accessibility by:
- Partnering with a trusted third party vendor to generate Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPATs) and help us prioritize items on our accessibility journey.
- Prioritizing the accessibility of key Pendo platform features like end-user guides and the Resource Center, enabling our customers to make their products more accessible.
The work ahead: Continuing our DEI journey
As we kick off FY23 at Pendo, we will continue to embed DEI in all we do. This means ensuring the work of DEI remains a key priority for our leaders and employees.
Going forward, we will continue to focus on DEI in our hiring, our culture, and our community. This means ongoing work to build community partnerships that engage diverse, quality talent at all levels. We will continue to invest in programs to support the next generation of talent, including boot camps, community colleges, and apprenticeship programs. At the same time, we will work to expand our reach and network to build diverse pipelines for senior and executive-level roles.
Another focus will be the growth, development, and career progression of Pendozers. In 2022, we will increase mentoring and coaching opportunities for employees, starting with a pilot with Tribute, a virtual peer-to-peer mentoring platform. Our affinity groups will also provide professional development programming with outside speakers and tailored content for members and allies.
We will expand our DEI training with partners like The Diversity Movement, which offers workshops on Inclusive Talent Management, Inclusive Language at Work, and Active Allyship.
In our hometown of Raleigh, where half of our employees are located, will continue to work with organizations like NC Tech and Wake Invests in Women to increase DEI in tech. And as we continue our global expansion, we will look for ways to support diversity and inclusion efforts in the other cities where we operate.
The work of diversity, equity, and inclusion is ultimately about people. We celebrate the work of so many Pendozers who are making Pendo a more diverse and inclusive place to work and look forward to the new connections, learning, and community-building work to come in 2022.