Attraction

Increase representation of underrepresented groups

Broadening our top of funnel

• We’re committed to enabling equitable talent processes to create a level playing field for all. As such, one of our responsibilities is to take steps toward broadening the top of our applicant funnels, deploying strategies that will result in a diverse slate of qualified candidates, then driving an unbiased selection process that aligns to our values. As compared to the previous fiscal year, we’ve increased the racial/ethnic diversity of those that apply to our open positions by 33.2% and increased the gender diversity of our applicants by 17.1%.

• We are taking proactive steps to increase diverse representation by attracting and hiring at every level through partnerships and collaboration with a number of different job boards, a wide range of universities, and event participation. In addition, we are intentional about sourcing through resume databases that include diverse representation.

• We doubled down on our sourcing efforts by leveraging over 1200 unique boolean search terms with professional and collegiate affiliations with demographic groups. Our employee population lent a hand in finding talent through our ERG-partnered referral jams —dedicating time to mine and refer folks from their networks.

Creating opportunities for equity and objectivity

• To ensure the language in all of our job postings is more inclusive, we’ve launched a mandatory step before posting each job, where all job descriptions are run through a gender decoder to eliminate male-coded verbiage prior to the job being posted publicly.

• Recognizing the importance of providing a great candidate experience to all candidates, we launched an “Accommodations in hiring” process, where candidates can elect to request an accommodation at any point in the recruiting lifecycle. A non-decision maker fields the request to ensure the request doesn’t introduce bias into the final hiring decision.

Driving accountability with data

• We set new targets for both gender representation and racial/ethnic representation in our interview funnels. We set a target to achieve a 10% company increase at our onsite interview stage from FY22.

• To provide transparency, we launched a new dashboard providing visibility into the diversity of our hiring funnels alongside insights into the diversity of each source where we find applicants.

• Our Executive VP-level leaders also receive an automated, detailed report on the diversity of their department’s hiring funnels on a monthly basis.

Looking forward

• We’re launching a training to ensure employees are equipped to source diverse talent, called “Diversity first in every search.”

• We plan to look ahead and focus on talent pipelining to build for the long term. We’ve created the framework to pipeline senior leaders, identifying candidates first and then looking for opportunities where they might lead.

• We’re also working to develop a talent community where potential candidates will opt-in to receiving “hot job spotlights” and regular updates and information about Samsara.

• We’ll focus on identifying inequity in our selection process and deploying targeted tactics to mitigate bias, while driving objectivity.

Development & Retention

Building an Inclusive Culture

• Developed a monthly Inclusive Workplace webinar series to enable and foster a culture of inclusion to build education, allyship and empathy, for diverse communities at Samsara.

• Launched a company-wide mentoring program called “Owl Connected” to give participants the opportunities to own their development, expand their network, promote career development, learn new skills, and support each other through shared experiences and meaningful relationships.

• Introduced a company-wide DEI training called “Inclusion in the Workplace.” This training helps participants recognize and manage unconscious bias, ensure more equitable decisions, more productive teams, and a more inclusive culture.

• Rolled out “Be Inclusive Behaviors” tied to our “Be Inclusive” company value to establish DEI expectations from all employees. Following these behaviors enhances our ability to recognize, respect, and leverage the unique perspectives of our team members—which in turn helps us create a better work experience for employees and better products and services for our customers across the world.

• Added two new Employee Resource Groups (ERGs): Samswana (South West Asian & North African employees) and Veterans at Samsara (military veterans), bringing our total to 10 active ERGs across the company.

• Deployed 6 global DEI working groups across all our largest departments. These groups lead the execution of DEI initiatives and project creation for their respective departments to ensure we are making progress against our department-level DEI goals strategy.

• Launched Owl In[clusive], a quarterly newsletter featuring all things DEI to show updates and highlights from our various programs, events, and projects to drive DEI awareness across the organization.

Oversight & Accountability

Raising our bar

• Expansion of our DEI Steering Committee: This group meets regularly to shape policies and procedures, offer advice and counsel to executives on DEI action plans, and provide governance and oversight to our DEI strategy.

• Incorporated DEI data and narratives into our Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) to communicate an all-up view of goal progress, highlights/lowlights, lessons learned, and areas of opportunity.

• Engage director and above leadership in ongoing DEI progress updates to hold leaders accountable to their teams, as well as action plan progress for current and future DEI/Recruiting programming that will help team’s department DEI goals.

• Continue to develop DEI data tracking dashboards to ensure we are able to identify trends and make informed decisions as they relate to representation, performance, attrition, and recruiting.

• Embed best practices in our performance review process for all Samsara employees that ensures bias is mitigated, ratings are collectively calibrated, and a DEI analysis is conducted to ensure scores are fair and distributed across demographic groups, departments, and levels.

In order to uplevel our DEI efforts, we must continue to:

• Source, engage, and hire the best talent from schools, networks, and industries where diverse talent is. An aggressive and strategic approach will yield explosive results.

• Train, develop, and create equitable opportunities for the diverse talent we currently have to grow professionally and secure promotion into leadership positions. Creating pathways for upward mobility and removing barriers for groups that are underrepresented in the technology industry will ensure we keep and expand the diverse talent we have.

• Continue to create awareness and education opportunities for our leadership team to understand that intentionality in DEI leads to increased innovation, better business outcomes, and increased workplace effectiveness. This level of awareness will enable our leaders to turn good intentions into reality and equip leaders to explore the impact of diversity on perspectives, assumptions, and approaches, and identify ways to prioritize change and measure progress.

• Ensure DEI is everyone’s job and embedded into the business rhythm.