Editors’ Note

Lynnetta Smith joined ServiceNow in November 2018 and currently leads efforts around Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (DIBs) and is responsible for building out and executing the strategy for the engagement of communities and allies globally, both internally and externally. Prior to ServiceNow, she spent nine years at LinkedIn where she worked to move forward the company’s Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging efforts by managing the company’s Employee Resource Groups, providing guidance and supporting their growth. Smith earned a BSBA in marketing from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Company Brief

ServiceNow (servicenow.com) is making the world of work, work better for people. The company’s cloud-based platform and solutions deliver digital workflows that create great experiences and unlock productivity for employees and the enterprise.

How do you define the role of a Chief Diversity Officer and how critical is it for the role to be engaged in business strategy?

Big-picture, I believe that meaningful, sustainable change through diversity, inclusion, and belonging is most successful when every employee embraces it as an element of the culture. Every leader plays a role in modeling behaviors that advance diversity and inclusion, and a collective leadership commitment is important. But real results come from more than just an HR agenda.

That’s where I’ve seen chief diversity officers have the most impact. When they pause to listen and learn about employees’ experiences, and to hear their stories. This spans business operations issues like recruiting, pay, and promotions, as well as the emotional, human, and real barriers that underrepresented communities continue to face. That level of business acumen, empathy, and understanding transforms chief diversity officers into strategic thought leaders and partners within their organizations, where they can influence areas like hiring, equitable policies, and creating inclusive environments, and tap into employee emotions and personal experiences to build cultures where everyone feels like they belong.

Would you provide an overview of ServiceNow’s diversity and inclusion strategy?

We believe diversity and inclusion are table stakes. Belonging is the breakthrough. When employees feel like they can be their authentic selves and that their voices will be heard and respected, they create magic. We have been on a mission to create change for our employees, our customers, and our communities that starts with a multi-year strategy to enable and empower our people, engage our communities and allies, build talent and brand, and hire inclusively. The events of 2020 – the global pandemic, systemic racial injustice, civil unrest – deepened our commitment to do more and inspired us to co-create, along with our employees, our 5-point plan, which aims to accelerate our efforts with a focus on certain actions:

1. Workforce training: Building inclusive skills and mindsets for our employees;
2. Equity for all: Creating and evolving our equitable processes, policies, and practices;
3. Giving employees a voice: Fostering a sense of belonging and space for dialogue;
4. Lobbying for good: Advocating for change with support and direct action, both locally and systematically;
5. Recruiting and career advancement: Increasing representation and inclusion across all levels.

Where our focus goes, our progress goes.

How ingrained is diversity and inclusion in ServiceNow’s culture and values?

“Embrace diversity, create belonging” is a cultural value and a business imperative. We’re humbled that our culture has been recognized by a number of third-party organizations for our commitment and actions to drive change. For example, we scored 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index, which measures great workplaces for LGBTQ+ employees, and we were named to the FORTUNE® 100 Best Companies to Work For™ 2021 list. Our work toward equity for all means that we believe everyone deserves to be treated fairly and respectfully, and that there should be equity across the entire talent ecosystem – from hiring to career advancement. To achieve that, we build and scale equitable people practices that result in inclusive and fair outcomes for all employees.

How do you engage your employees in ServiceNow’s diversity efforts?

We make sure employees know that their opinions matter – that they’ll be listened to and that their feedback will inspire real change. For example, after the killing of George Floyd, one of our employees emailed ServiceNow’s executive leadership team, challenging us as a company to say more, to do more. Instead of speaking for him, we gave him the mic. During a global company meeting, he spoke live to ServiceNow employees and described the hurt, desperation, and anger he and so many others felt. This type of trust and ongoing dialogue has empowered employees to break their silence, giving the whole organization greater awareness and understanding – and uniting us in action.

We are committed to making sure these conversations, our work, and our progress continue. My team regularly hosts workshops and brings in speakers to lend their perspectives on social issues and inspire change. Early in 2020, we developed a training on race and allyship amidst COVID-19 to discuss the increase in hate crimes against Asian and AAPI communities, pervading anti-Blackness, and the pandemic’s devastating impact to Black, brown, and immigrant communities. The training featured several of our employees speaking from their own experiences, as well as outside experts who provided historical and current context as well as strategies for allyship and tools for shared liberation.

Facing the realities of continued and unacceptable anti-Black racism in the U.S. and around the world, ServiceNow dedicated Juneteenth (June 19, 2020) to learning and becoming agents of change. Leading up to Juneteenth, we hosted a company-wide “DIBs learning sprint” with action-oriented trainings, virtual volunteer opportunities, donation campaigns, and guided team discussions to educate employees about racial justice, courageous conversations, and ally skills.

We also formed our DIBs Community – with an intentional focus on intersectionality – and launched Belonging Groups, which are safe spaces for the unique employee identities at ServiceNow.

Building a high-performing, healthy community in partnership with external organizations and customers, where diverse talent authentically experiences a sense of belonging and trust, allows our employees to flourish, be brilliant, and unlock their collective productivity.

Is it critical to have metrics in place to track the impact of ServiceNow’s diversity and inclusion initiatives?

Metrics are essential to building a just, sustainable, equitable system for all. They serve as a guide, highlighting what’s working, as well as the areas where we need to grow and invest. For example, because pay equity is so dynamic, especially in a high-growth company like ours, we manage it on an ongoing basis and do regular analyses and adjustments. This approach has led us to achieve systematic pay equity company-wide and ensures we maintain that pay equity on an ongoing basis.

In your role, how valuable has it been to have the engagement and commitment of ServiceNow’s board and senior management in its diversity and inclusion efforts?

We have a collective leadership commitment to drive change. It’s one of the elements that sets us apart. In fact, for each of the four years that we have published our annual Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Report, our entire leadership team has signed the opening letter as a signal of this commitment to action.

What are your key priorities as you look to ServiceNow’s continued efforts in regard to diversity and inclusion?

We will continue to stand united with our 14,000 employees who believe in our purpose to make the world of work, work better for people. It is our responsibility to ensure our collective voice represents that world. Last year, the world experienced something together that no one was exempt from. Since we couldn’t change the situation, we focused on changing our mindset. Our focus remains on executing against our diversity, inclusion, and belonging strategy and our 5-point plan. We’ll continue to build on the pillars of the 5-point plan with programs, policies, and more that drive real change. For example, the first pillar of our 5-point plan, led by my colleague Megan Kollar Dwyer, is Workforce Training – designing and building inclusive skills and mindsets for our employees. We plan to expand a program we piloted last year – “DIBs Impact Labs” – an augmented reality simulation that creates scenarios so employees can experience new situations (as a different race or gender) and better understand microaggressions and racial biases. We’ll continue to advocate for change – both locally and systemically – with support and direct action.

We have a long-term strategy for our DIBs work and we continue to build on it to drive even more positive change.