Flexential: A place where you can belong
Belonging in the workplace has become a highly discussed initiative as companies consider how to build more inclusive cultures. Our thoughts? Well, it’s about time!
For years, companies have looked at employees and candidates for how well they fit into their existing company culture. With new and more diverse perspectives coming into the workforce, that script is being flipped. Businesses are now asking, “How does our culture fit the people and talent we need?”
When we set out on our DEI journey, we wanted our workplace to truly be an environment where employees could bring their whole selves. As we reflect on this year’s Pride month, it’s important to acknowledge that not everyone has always felt safe being their full self in different circles. For many, that’s still an uphill battle.
For us, this is the basis of inclusivity and belonging. Without a safe space where everyone can be who they are, inclusivity can’t happen. And without inclusivity, belonging is just a fancy word strategically placed on a website or in a corporate narrative. To ensure belonging is always ever-present at Flexential, we wanted to do things differently with Pride month this year. Setting an intentional foundation of creating an atmosphere that is welcoming, inclusive, and safe, we are proud to look back on all the great work we did in June and are excited for how this will continue to propel us all year long.
We are PROUD
Pride month marked a critical time for us in our DEI journey. We launched our rebranded FlexPride Employee Resource Group (ERG) across our employee community, as well as conducted a Watch & Learn discussion group to promote education and allyship. We watched this video and joined a discussion group on June 9, sponsored by our FlexPride ERG. We created a welcoming atmosphere where employees could come to have real, honest conversations, regardless of how they identify. We leveraged our Workplace platform to share educational messages and updates on what’s next throughout the month.
For some fun, we shared a #FlexYourPride frame and encouraged employees to take photos of themselves, in teams, or with others to share across our Workplace channel. We closed out the month with a hybrid Pride parade, inviting employees to come in person or virtually in their fun Pride gear. For those in person, we handed out rainbow swag and treats and sent these to employees joining virtually.
Along with our parade invitation, we were proud to announce Flexential’s donation of $3,000 to the National Center for Transgender Equality. To further help this amazing organization, we gave all Flexential employees the option to leverage their FlexPoints to send donations. FlexPoints are an exciting internal recognition system, powered through Kazoo, that gives everyone a bank of points per quarter that they can gift to another person – from birthdays to appreciation on a job well done, to work anniversaries and beyond, these points can then be redeemed for gift cards, items, or even gifted to charitable organizations. It's a fun and interactive way to say "congratulations!" or "thank you," but most importantly in this case, it’s a meaningful way to say, "I see you, and I support you."
Our Pride in action
While Pride month presents a specific point in time to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community, we know that allyship and the work being done to spread belonging and inclusivity is an all-year commitment. Our focus on creating a work environment that is welcoming, inclusive, and safe does not stop come July 1. We are actively implementing new initiatives in our workplace that enact real change for our employees. For example, all new-build office facilities will have gender neutral bathrooms and we are in the process of updating signage on bathrooms at existing facilities.
Listening to our people and understanding what they need from us as an employer and what they want to see in their workplaces is something we are deeply committed to. We’re working to create tools to help navigate name changes for employees who are transitioning. We are also building resources around gender-neutral pronoun usage and developing further education to help de-bias our language. We’re excited about how these resources will be able to support the LGBTQIA+ community at Flexential.
Looking to the future
As we lean into our focus on belonging, these foundational concepts motivate our work. What we’re doing along our DEI journey can’t fully be actualized without our employees feeling welcomed, included, and safe. While this is not an overnight process, it is one we are deeply committed to. We hope you’ll stay tuned with us as we put even more of our words into action to recognize and elevate our diverse community.
Would you like to be part of this community? See our open positions by visiting flexential.com/careers
Veena Bricker
Chief People Officer
Veena leads Flexential’s People and Culture team to support the overall business plan and strategic direction of the company. She has 20 years of experience in all aspects of Human Resources, including talent management, learning and development, total rewards and change management. Veena joined the company in 2020.
Before Flexential, Veena was a principal and managing director at Blake Street Group, offering talent and organizational consulting services to corporate clients, private equity and venture capital firms. In the past, she led HR at Optiv, CoreSite and worked with several other companies in various HR capacities.
Veena holds a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and a master’s degree from Cornell. She also completed the Advanced Human Resources Executive Program from the University of Michigan.
