HRD chats to the global chief people officer at HubSpot about D&I and building an innovative workforce
It’s critical for technology companies to have a diverse workforce for a number of reasons, according to Katie Burke, global chief people officer at HubSpot.
“From our perspective, building a diverse workforce is really good for our business, good for our customers and it’s great for our company in the long term,” Buke told HRD.
“Diverse teams perform better, and research shows time and time again that that’s the case.”
Burke added that HubSpot are specifically focusing on building a workforce that reflects the diversity of their customer base.
“As a company, we are trying to build a company that outlasts us for many generations,” she said.
“Doing so requires a workforce as diverse and inclusive as humanly possible.
“They are the main reasons why we are treating diversity and inclusion as a top-of-mind business imperative.”
HRD also spoke to Burke about the need to create a fast-moving culture in an agile business.
“Start-ups are great and they get glorified as amazing places. We see a lot more students coming out of university excited to work for a start-up,” said Burke.
Burke added that HubSpot is 11 years old and very much in a “scale-up phase”.
“What a scale-up is to me is something that brings the agility of a start-up environment, but with the agility of an established business and an established customer base,” she said.
“So the way I see it is the employees get the opportunity to innovate as they would at a start-up, but they also get a great brand and a solid platform from which to work.
“From my perspective, a scale-up is a great place to build your career. In our Sydney office we are giving our people a lot of latitude to do great things, get global exposure and continue to improve on behalf of our customers.”
