Celebrating Diversity and Inclusion at Workday VIBE Week

When I joined Workday as chief diversity officer, I saw a great opportunity to enhance an already amazing culture. In the 18 months I’ve been here, my goal hasn’t wavered—it’s to help every single person in our global company show up each day knowing what it means to be inclusive, so they can bring their best selves to work.

That includes rallying everyone around what we call VIBE—value inclusion, belonging, and equity for all—so that Workday is a place where each person feels accepted and respected for their uniqueness.

I’ve also spent a lot of time thinking about how we could bring even more action to this idea. I became excited about the possibility of creating an experience where our Workmates could take time out of their busy schedules to better explore how VIBE impacts their lives and career aspirations, their relationships with team members, and the overall well-being and success of our company.

That’s why from June 3-7, we’ll be hosting VIBE Week. During these five days, all of us will learn more about how to “VIBE” in our day-to-day interactions. There is something for everyone, with more than 125 events scheduled across 25 global Workday locations.

Workmates have registered to attend local hands-on workshops and discussions with Workday leaders, industry experts, and each other. In addition to site-specific events, those who don’t work at our headquarters in Pleasanton, Calif., can watch a number of panel discussions and workshops via live stream. And with fun being one of our core values at Workday, we’ll be sure to have plenty of fun throughout the week, including games, diversity-themed feature films, social gatherings with food and music, and local fairs showcasing the diversity of teams and groups at Workday.

VIBE Week is for Workday employees, but with so much great content, we’d love to share some of what we learn with others. In the coming days, we’ll cover highlights from VIBE Week on Workday’s social channels on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and post a recap at the Workday Blog.

Here’s just a sample of what we have planned:

• VIBE Week will launch with a panel discussion with Frans Johansson, CEO and co-founder of The Medici Group, which helps companies discover how diversity fuels innovation, along with Workday Co-Founder and CEO Aneel Bhusri, Chief People Officer Ashley Goldsmith, Co-President and Chief Financial Officer Robynne Sisco, and Executive Vice President Tom Bogan.
• Artificial intelligence (AI) futurist Nikos Acuña and Workday Director of AI Ethics Danielle Cass will discuss how AI can create a new era of inclusion, yet also the importance of ensuring that those individuals responsible for integrating AI into our technologies and our lives reflect the diversity of the broader population.
• At Workday, we talk about how you can “Up Your Game” with 10 inclusive behaviors that support belonging and inclusion every day, such as “Open Up” (be authentic and have empathy for others), “Step Up” (be accountable for the change you want to see), and “Wise Up” (learn from others who have different dimensions of diversity). During VIBE Week, we’ll scatter hundreds of VIBE cards across our Pleasanton campus with a written, specific action based on an inclusive behavior. As Workmates discover these cards, they can take the recommended action, and then leave the VIBE card in a new place for someone else to find and take action.
• At the VIBE Week Fair next to our new headquarters, Workmates can visit booths hosted by different work teams demonstrating their contributions to VIBE, along with some of our dozens of Employee Belonging Councils (EBCs) such as Women@Workday, the Talented Tenth (which participates in outreach and empowerment of the black community), and one of our newer EBCs, Kampi (focused on supporting our Filipino Workmates), as just a few examples. Activities during the fair include an opportunity to build prosthetic hands for those in need, and some exercises on how to focus on personal development.
• We’ll have an Accessibility Rally hosted by Joshua Klipp of Made Welcome. In this interactive workshop, people will learn more about the concepts of accessibility, with a focus on vision, hearing, and mobility. I’m passionate about this because we recently started a new EBC called Workday for People with Disabilities, including disabilities that are not always visible, such as dyslexia.

VIBE Week is a first for us at Workday, and without question, an ambitious undertaking. Yet we’re very excited about having a full five days dedicated to learning from each other, and then taking those learnings to create new activities and resources for building a lasting workplace that supports belonging and inclusion.  

We also want to emphasize the impact this important work has on our products and the capabilities we deliver to our customers, such as the Workday Diversity Dashboard. In the coming year we plan to dive even deeper into understanding where we can do more around hiring and retention at Workday using the dashboard and other tools, and will keep enhancing capabilities in the area of diversity and inclusion for use both within our company and by our customers.

Because together, we VIBE!

Learn more about our guest speaker for the Workday VIBE Week executive panel: “How Diversity Drives Innovation: Q&A with Frans Johansson.”