What is Environmental, Social and Governance at Indeed?
Inside IndeedNovember 3, 2021
Learn about ESG at Indeed and how we intend to accomplish our ambitious goals to make a positive impact on each other, our society and the planet.
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Learn about ESG at Indeed and how we intend to accomplish our ambitious goals to make a positive impact on each other, our society and the planet.
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As the world continues to change, customers are becoming more conscious of the impact that companies have on the world around them. This requires those companies to do some soul searching and ask tough questions, such as how are we creating an open and safe space for employees? How are we making decisions that don’t hurt the environment? How does our company improve the lives of our customers?
For Indeed, a big part of this is looking at the equity of opportunity in job search. With all the data available to us, we know that while there is so much talent out there eager to find their next big job, opportunity is not evenly distributed. Rather than just studying and analyzing this data, we’ve built a team to define and deliver on ambitious goals to make our products and workplace more equitable, accessible and sustainable for all.
From IRGs to ESG
In 2016, Indeed began hiring a small Inclusion & Diversity team dedicated to organizing and empowering communities of underrepresented groups within Indeed. These groups were called Inclusion Resource Groups (IRGs). This was the first step in a long journey toward becoming a company that not only recognizes the value of different backgrounds and viewpoints, but gives them a safe space to discuss their challenges and perspectives in an open and inclusive environment.
LaFawn Davis, Group VP, ESG
Fast forward to 2019, when we hired LaFawn Davis to lead the team. As then Vice President of Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging, she brought “belonging” into the equation to help amplify these important perspectives, making them a part of the fabric of everything we do.
In 2020, Inclusion & Belonging was defined as one of five core business values at Indeed. LaFawn became the Group Vice President of a new global effort called Environment, Social & Governance (ESG), taking the idea of belonging even further to encompass all teams and programs dedicated to making a positive impact on our company, our society and the planet. This includes Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging (DI&B), as well as programs such as our charitable donations program, Good Deeds, along with other corporate conscious initiatives such as ethical AI, environmental sustainability and product accessibility.
Our global ESG commitments go beyond tackling these tough issues because it’s the right thing to do. We’ve set ambitious goals to hold ourselves and our partners accountable. We’ve collected data to show trends and opportunities in areas such as gender, race, age, and pay gaps. Our ESG teams used this data to build a foundation for setting actionable goals to make a positive impact on the world around us.
Darren Carfano, Business Intelligence Manager in NYC, sums up how many Indeedians feel about these lofty goals. “Indeed’s ESG launch and its commitments for representation for our job seekers, both here and globally, is a truly ambitious and inspiring way to create real, positive, and systemic change in how we help people get jobs. It doubles-down on Indeed’s ideal to be the north star – the platinum standard – for employers to model after.”
ESG Pillars
While ESG stands for Environmental, Social & Governance, there are six pillars under this vast umbrella:
Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging (DI&B) – Creating fair and unbiased opportunities for Indeedians, job seekers, and our clients. We use data, insights and education to evaluate and improve every stage of the employee life cycle and drive cultural accountability with the support of our Inclusion Resource Groups (IRGs).
Social Impact – Expanding access to opportunities for millions of job seekers facing barriers around the world. This pillar works to better the products on the Indeed platform, manage large-scale partnerships, and initiatives in cities where Indeedians live and work.
Environmental Sustainability – Transforming how Indeed operates to achieve Indeed’s commitment to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030
AI Ethics – Collaborates with teams across Indeed to advance data science applications that promote fair and inclusive hiring.
Product Inclusion & Accessibility – Embed inclusive thinking and practices throughout the business so that all Indeed products and offerings are inclusive and equitable
Governance – Build sustainable equity for our people and policies and ensure we achieve our objectives sustainably and consistently.
We have well-defined goals under each umbrella to reinforce these pillars and guide us toward actionable change.
Environmental Impact
Environmental sustainability means a dedicated effort to conserve natural resources and protect global ecosystems with a focus on the health and wellbeing of everyone. It’s thinking about what we can do today, but also how we can carry that into the future.
Our goals to cut down our environmental impact include:
Achieving carbon neutrality by the end of 2021, which we’ve accomplished!
Achieving net zero in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030. We will also be working to greatly reduce our footprint in the areas where we have the most impact:
Business travel
Commuting
Leased transportation
Procured goods and services.
As a fast growing company, we recognize that how we approach issues such as climate change and clean water affect how our clients and job seekers see us, so it’s important that we are transparent about our commitment and our plans for corporate sustainability.
Valeria Orozco, Head of Environmental Sustainability
“There’s a piece around looking at the future and future-proofing Indeed, and then there’s the reputational piece, too. There are reputational risks for not addressing environmental sustainability,” says Head of Environmental Sustainability, Valeria Orozco.
Earlier this year, Indeed announced its commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by the end of 2021. Carbon neutral means a business supports carbon offset projects in the same amount as its carbon emissions. We not only achieved our goal of carbon neutrality, we did it five months ahead of schedule!
There are three ways we believe we can have a positive impact on society through our products and we have a plan to get there.
Make job search faster and simpler
Help 100M job seekers get hired
Shorten the duration of job search by 50%
Remove barriers to employment with technology
Help 30M people facing barriers get hired
Reduce inequalities in hiring
Support first-time job seekers in India through product innovation and partnerships
Establish a standard for measuring and improving work happiness
Increase the number of people who are happy at work
Two core product innovations will help us get there:
Indeed Hiring Platform – allows job seekers who meet hiring criteria to schedule an interview in minutes and helps employers automate time-consuming recruiting tasks so they can focus on the highest-value activities.
Indeed Interview – maximizes the number of interviews hosted on Indeed which will allow us to gain unprecedented insight into what’s happening in the hiring process so we can make it better and more efficient.
With the ability to hold interviews virtually and companies opening more remote roles, this will allow jobseekers to interview and work on flexible schedules. This will help alleviate the stress of busy parents on job searches and open up new opportunities for those with transportation barriers.
Indeedians can’t wait to take on these challenges. “I am very proud to be a part of an organization that demonstrates real commitment to literally making the world a better place. The action to reduce inequalities in hiring alone can help save thousands of lives and that’s why I’m here and excited – to do what needs to be done to help us hit these goals,” says Stacy Peters, Global Enablement Manager in Stamford.
Employee Lifecycle Director Jessica Hardeman recently joined us on our Culture Matters podcast to discuss what Indeed does to attract and keep employees and dives into some of our DI&B and ESG goals.
Governance entails building a workforce inside Indeed that reflects the job seekers we serve and making sure we are doing it equitably and sustainably.
Our goals for governance include:
Increasing Indeed’s workforce representation of women globally to 50% and underrepresented ethnic minorities in the United States to 30% by 2030
Launching a supplier diversity initiative focused on women, LGBTQ+, veteran, people with disabilities and minority-owned businesses
Elevating Sustainability oversight to our parent company, Recruit Holdings’ Board of Directors
This is all part of setting a standard for hiring to remove bias and barriers from our hiring process, ensuring our workforce represents the eclectic interests and abilities of the job seekers we serve.
You belong at Indeed
Indeedian Sarah conducted a neighborhood cleanup during Earth Week
As a foundational part of ESG at Indeed, our DI&B team continues to grow and evolve, guided by the voices of our IRGs. Together, they work toward a common goal to bring a sense of shared purpose and belonging.
All of this is reflected in the passion that Indeedians feel for their work and their desire to make an impact.
“Indeed’s ESG goals align with my personal values and commitment, and they’re also an imperative for the world,” explains Senior Manager of Product Marketing, Sherrie Nguyen.
“As a mom and activist, I hold corporations accountable for better outcomes for our environment, communities, and employee wellbeing. I’m optimistic to see these commitments and will do my part to help bring them to life.”
In the end it comes down to providing a sense of belonging in our work where people feel safe and valued enough to make their voices heard.
“Our ESG goals and commitments give me another reason to be proud to work here. In my time with the company I’ve seen SLT’s dedication to our mission, our people and our world through the goals they set and the actions they take to accomplish them,” says Senior Program Manager of Software Engineering in New York, Candra Simon.
“I’m excited to see the ways we continue to implement positive changes that will continue to promote and build sustainable equity for all Indeedians!”
“Knowing we are working towards having a positive impact on our planet is important to me as an Indeedian,” Trainings Program Specialist,Jamie Brawer, adds. So many people with barriers face challenges searching for a job and are overlooked by companies. Our commitment to helping those with barriers get hired feels like we are making a big difference.”
With more than 60 people, our global ESG teams continue to grow and show Indeed’s dedication to doing this transformational work.
