The Importance of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Twilio India

The Importance of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Twilio India

In 2020, Twilio committed to becoming an antiracist organization, leveraging its products, people and resources to create a more just and equitable world. To effectively foster a culture that is deep-rooted in diversity, equity and inclusion, we are leveraging "antiracism" as a framework to encourage leadership, teams and individuals to do this critical work. This means we will take ongoing actions to challenge and redistribute power in a way that benefits all communities.

Our current focus is to provide educational and awareness opportunities to Twilions across the globe so that they better understand what “antiracism” means, learn more about the rich, diverse communities within Twilio and push for systemic and policy changes that will make our workplace more inclusive.

In the last year, we launched our Safe Spaces Program, wherein we create opportunities for employees to engage in a psychologically-safe environment for group dialogue and to share feelings or emotions. This program has garnered great appreciation from our employees as it helps them understand one another better. Through our “Did You Know?” series, we also air DEI video episodes at every company All-Hands, where we highlight ways that Twilions can be more thoughtful and inclusive in the workplace. In one episode, we shed a light on the different, regional languages and dialects within India.

Since DEI is a global effort, we are working to build the infrastructure, tools, and resources to help us achieve success across all regions where Twilio operates. While we are still early in this journey, we are excited to build a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive global workplace where all Twilions can succeed and thrive.

To honor this, we have created a holistic and robust DEI strategy:

• Attract talent from different communities and demographics: We are seeing an upward trend and yearly improvement of compositionally diverse teams at all levels via hiring and retention
• Drive equity: Sustain yearly improvement of equitable promotion, advancement, and reward of our diverse teams at all levels
• Create a culture of inclusion: Yearly improvement of inclusion index scores by our diverse teams at all levels

Twilio’s DEI programs in India

At Twilio, we have a huge responsibility to build a work culture that fosters diversity, equity, and inclusion at every level. It’s also important that we adapt and localize our DEI strategy to meet the needs of our regional communities. In India, we are focusing our efforts on gender diversity and developing a long-term strategy to drive inclusion and support for other communities as well. Our programs reflect this in the following ways:  

• Hatch 2021: Internationally, Hatch focuses on non-traditional, underrepresented talent and provides them with an opportunity to build a career in technology. For the very first Hatch launch in India, our target audience is female candidates who are first-generation STEM learners. Furthermore, Twilio India has partnered with a non-profit organization named Ananya to offer apprenticeship opportunities. As of Q4 2021, a total of six female candidates have progressed through the interview stage, and three have been selected for the current apprenticeship program.
• India Inclusion Council: We have an 11-member council, which, apart from focusing on gender inclusion, is working on improving the psychological safety of our colleagues. The council has rolled out five informational digests in the last five months with a consistent focus on seeking employee referrals to build a diverse talent pool. The council also runs a speaker series and organized a session on the "impact of the pandemic on women professionals" to share perspectives and build allyship amongst employees.
• Talent Acquisition: There is no place for biases in our hiring process, so our Bar Raiser program ensures that interviewers are trained to remain focused on a candidate's skills, experience, and values. We have also incorporated Twilio's global 'Crack the Code' training so that interviewers are aligned to assess candidates for their skills and experience without any biases. In India, Twilio's talent acquisition team also adheres to the inclusion rule, which ensures 50% females at the top of the funnel and 50% onsite representation.
• Employee Resource Groups (ERG): Individuals have the option to either join an ERG as someone who identifies with that community or as an ally. Through our Women and Allies ERG, which is co-chaired by Saumya Saxena from India, we strive to support and encourage women and non-binary Twilions to engage in dialogue around relevant topics with everyone at Twilio. Today, women represent 39% of APJ’s workforce and our key objective is to retain and increase the number of female employees in the coming years. Twilio also launched Spectrum ERG on 20th May, 2021, to support LGBTQQIAA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, Allies) Twilions and friends. Spectrum ensures that spaces for safe self-expression are created, Twilions' career and personal goals are supported, and programmes and events are organised to build a more inclusive and diverse culture.
• Early In Careers Program: The EIC program in India is being developed to not only attract the best young talent but also to consider universities and schools that have higher female representation.
• Special Benefits: At Twilio, our employees get 12 weeks of paternity leave, 26 weeks of maternity leave, an onsite daycare allowance, a flexible return-to-work policy, a wellbeing allowance, fertility and family-forming support in partnership with Carrot, which reimburses 100% of treatment expenses undertaken by an employee (up to a set limit).

What’s next at Twilio India?

Over the next three years, Twilio India will invest in exciting software engineering capabilities across the product stack, with core R&D and end-to-end product development, and create new, innovative DEI strategies that will drive a sustainable change in our workplace.  

We will continue our unwavering commitment towards promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in our behavior and system and fulfill our promise of creating an inclusive workplace for Twilions today and tomorrow. As we grow, we will continue to think through or modify the ways to support our candidates and employees and take actions to recruit and develop underrepresented talent and value employees through inclusive benefits.

Interested in being part of this inclusive and innovative organization? Please visit our landing page to learn more about the Twilio culture in India and check out the full list of our open opportunities.

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