3y
Across our many avenues for feedback (a quarterly all staff pulse check, bi-annual performance reviews, a staff council, a confidential feedback form, exit interviews, all hands calls, quarterly 1-1s with leaders, team level 1-1s, etc.) we have never received any charge of racial bias for any individuals or teams in India or anywhere we operate across the globe. In our most recent quarterly anonymous Pulse survey, the Mumbai team’s Net Promoter Score for working at Vera was +60 (considered ‘excellent’), so this reviewer’s experience certainly diverges from what we hear from the rest of the team.
We are a diverse team committed to improvement across Vera; one of the great joys of our work is learning from each other’s experiences and being exposed to perspectives and ideas that we haven’t encountered before. We take any accusation of discrimination or bias very seriously, so we’re eager to better understand the reviewer’s experience, especially since the review provided only incendiary labels and little detail. Frankly, it’s startling and disappointing to hear this charge raised in an environment where we can’t readily dig in to understand what’s happening and, if necessary, make improvements.
The only example cited in the review speaks to the choice of our office location, and the implication that this had anything to do with ‘racial bias’ stems from a misunderstanding of our approach. We selected the location of our Mumbai office using the same criteria we use for office selection in any location. Leaders from the local team - in this case, a diverse group of five representing multiple teams and nationalities (majority Indian) - work with our Facilities team to evaluate options based on safety & security, transportation, accessibility, convenience for all staff, and business terms. It’s a difficult balancing act.
As we reopen our offices coming out of a period of fully remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic, we recognize that circumstances have shifted across the globe, around Vera, and for us individually. Therefore we’ve employed a hybrid model with significant flexibility for those staff in offices and empowering staff who prefer to move to remote work to ensure we provide structures that work for everyone.
We do not take lightly the claim of incompetence for any staff member or team, regardless of seniority or tenure. We use an objective, holistic approach to performance management, using a sophisticated competency framework that combines core and role-based competencies for all roles across the company to support growth and development and identify areas for improvement. The charge in this review is not reflected in the competency scores or peer feedback for any managers (in India or otherwise). That said, people do struggle from time to time. When they do, we use a performance improvement plan designed to turn around performance.
We’re committed to transparency and always eager to receive constructive feedback that can help us improve - that’s why we’ve created so many internal feedback channels. If the reviewer is reading this response, I’d be eager to connect with them and dig into more specific information so we can better understand the concerns and how we can address them.
