Stephanie Mehta: Welcome, Anjali. I’m so glad you’re here us today.
Anjali Sud: Thank you, it is great to be here.
SM: At Vimeo, you a workforce of 1,300 people worldwide — you have creatives, you finance people, you have technologists. So I’m going to start with a really easy question: what it like to manage this diverse workforce through a global pandemic, a racial reckoning and a very fraught to office?
AS: Oh, it was a breeze, Stephanie. No, it was really challenging. You know, I think the constant has been change. And as a leader, you obviously — you have workforce that’s looking for certainty, and they’re looking to control what’s happening around them. And I think we all found, as leaders, no matter what company you were … responsible for, was that couldn’t offer certainty, and you couldn’t always control the environment and things around you. And so, you know, for me, it was really agility. How do we stay flexible as a team? How we communicate in real time and keep people informed as try and move through things? And then, also just how do we lead with humanity? You know, for Vimeo, one of the things I’ve really learned over last few years is we each experience the world differently. We have employees who are remote. We have an incredible team in … employees who are on the front lines, who are literally at war. On the other hand, have people in different parts of the world who are experiencing mental-health challenges or burnout, and so think it was really just — the hardest part was not being to give everyone certainty, not being able to just apply one-size-fits-all rule for everyone. But I ultimately think it forced us, as a company, to more trust, because to be agile and flexible, and lead with humanity, you have to trust each other. And so, I’m sort of optimistic actually we’re emerging from this time with a culture that is more flexible and nimble, and also, hopefully, more trust.
SM: Can you give an example of something that put into place, perhaps during the pandemic, to enhance or build trust or create a greater sense of community or even to communicate that there no certainty, that is a muscle that you think you’ll continue use in the organization far into the future?
AS: There’s couple of things that we did. One — and are a video platform, so I obviously have to talk about video, but I this sincerely — one of the hardest parts, when you’re all of disparate, is you lose context and you lose nuance when you communicate. And we did make concerted effort to move away from email and chat, text-based communication, as as possible, and actually try, particularly for our leadership team, when we communicating, to do it with your face, and your hands and your body and your emotions. And did that through live streaming a lot of communications, recording a of videos. We sent asynchronous video messages. So I send … I record screen and just send a note out to people. Every new hire does a video to and introduce themselves. A lot of our meetings we’ve actually with just quick video presentations. And actually, what that really did was the humanity and the context to come through and I think helped us a lot to, kind of, stay close. So that one, I think, really important thing.
Another important thing is, I think, just creating mechanisms to make easier to talk about when things aren’t working, because a part of being agile is recognizing we have an area that isn’t working. And so one of things that we do at Vimeo is we try — do this in all of my town halls, we do in a lot of meetings — is always talk about what’s working, what are our three things, and what isn’t working — yet. And we’ve of created, I think, a framework that sort of takes the stigma away talking about what’s not working. And when you make that normalized and comfortable people, I feel like it’s allowed us to be open, as an organization, about what do we need change, what do we need to pivot. And both those, being more video-first in our communication and being transparent and normalizing what’s not working, I think has been helpful, and certainly something we’re carrying forward.
SM: I love that advice being video-first. So many of our members of our workforce in a video world. They’re used to video as a means of communication. Which brings to my next question. You’ve talked about how the organization changed. How do you see the workforce changing? What is different the young millennials, and even, now, the first wave of Gen Z coming the workplace?
AS: I think it’s incredibly different. And, you know, one of things that we think about at Vimeo a lot is a lot of the mechanisms communication modes that we still use today, they’re really antiquated. were designed for a totally different environment and a totally different generation. I see a lot of differences. One of them, I think, is the line between personal life and work life is definitely blending. … If you think about personal life — look at TikTok. This generation is to consuming content, learning, engaging, in a very specific way. if they then have to come to work and to be trained on a job, a 300-page manual? Like, it’s not going to happen, right? if you miss the meeting, and you have to the Zoom recording of a three-hour meeting — that’s not going to happen. And so I think that there is definitely of this — you know, we talk about the “consumerization enterprise.” Those are just fancy words for saying the way … communicate and interact in our personal lives is going to translate to work. And so I think that’s an area of opportunity.
The other thing I see from of the generation, the newest generation coming into the workforce, is sort of, of mission-driven, but I think there’s a desire to really the “why” behind things. And one of our communication is we never talk about the “what” without the “why.” And I there’s a desire to — the idea that, well, there’s a hierarchy, “My boss told me that this is what we’re going do” or — that, I think, is increasingly moving away, people, they don’t just want to do something because someone with formal authority told them do it. They want to do it because they understand it matters, why it ties to the mission. And think that that forces leaders to really bring more of the “why” how we communicate and motivate people.
So those are two of the things see, and then, you know, the third I think just flexibility. I think — and this is true of all of us, particularly the younger generation — I think they’re looking for flexibility and they want and choices. And it’s not always easy and feasible to provide ultimate flexibility, but this where I try and orient it more to agility. How can we have approaches and principles and committed to things, but also know when to question, and when actually pivot?
SM: Yeah. Anjali, can you share a few examples of ways that you Vimeo have tried to really be proactive when it comes to addressing or understanding your next generation of employees are going to want, either in terms purpose or in terms of benefits or in terms of flexibility? Are there programs or processes you’ve in place that really speak to this big sea change we’re seeing in of values from the workforce?
AS: Firstly, of course, it’s about listening, right? And I think, like many organizations, the way we’ve tried to and understand our workforce is very similar: it’s Q and As and surveys, and things like that. And some of the things that we’ve done, have a people and culture NPS, net promoter score, same way we have for our users, for our teams. But I would say one of the things we’ve really tried to do is appreciate that when we get inputs from our employees, 1,300 … you can’t look at the averages. You can’t look it all in totality and try and pull out an “Oh, this is how everybody’s feeling.” Because what you actually — you really dig into it and truly listen and do focus and talk to people — what you’ll find is actually there’s very different experiences and desires your employees. And so, I think for us, what we’ve just tried to do is have a bunch of different listening mechanisms and then the urge to conveniently pull, like, “Oh, this is everyone’s feeling, let’s just do this thing as the action.” it’s hard, and we’re still kind of figuring it out, but I will tell you, some the things that we’ve heard from employees have changed our to hybrid work or travel or even things like our to compensation or our approach to DE and I. I think it’s more just like I said, that listening, constantly really understanding what’s happening, but not treating as, like, an average or the same. And for us, it’s particularly stark because we have offices and teams in so many different countries the differences, they’re substantial. They’re really substantial, about the we solve different things. And we used to have a very, of, “One Vimeo” global approach in the name of consistency and fairness, and what we is we have to be more localized. We really do. have to design mechanisms to support our teams in a different way, because their experiences and the world around them is different.
So I think that’s definitely been one, and will tell you, it has involved a lot of — as an executive team and team — it’s involved a lot of trying things, it not working, and changing them. And a great is our Q and A. I feel like every leader I know has a perspective on whether they open Q and A or anonymous Q and A, or real-time Q and A. We’ve changed approach there multiple times, and I know we will again, because we’re still figuring out the right way listen and have a dialogue with a very diverse workforce.
SM: I want to stay on newcomers the workplace for just another moment, because another thing I hear from CEOs of my generation older is a concern about making sure that we not just providing our youngest employees with the flexibility and the that they need, but also the training and the wisdom that comes, oftentimes, being in close proximity to a mentor or to somebody who’s done the job for more years. What is your philosophy and take on making sure that transfer is happening?
AS: I think it’s a major challenge that I don’t that everyone will sort of have a solution for. think about that all the time. We have a distributed workforce at Vimeo. We have people in over eight countries. My executive is entirely distributed. So I’ve really realized the benefits being able to have a distributed workforce and being to attract talent and just be more inclusive. On flip side, there’s definitely, I think, a lack of the same of learning opportunities and mentorship, particularly for the youngest folks that are entering the workforce. I think it’s a challenge. One of the approaches we’ve been taking, and what’s sort of nice, is we’re modeling it at the top. if my entire executive team is distributed, that means have to learn how to provide real-time feedback, mentorship and development a whole set of new executives who have just joined. We have sort of changed the executive team almost entirely in the last twelve months. So I’ve had to deal with same challenges. And we’ve had to literally — we it our operating system — we’ve had to design an operating system, an executive team, for how we’re going to work in that environment. How do we share real-time feedback? How do we the right communication loops? And so I think, from perspective, it’s more we have to be able to do it ourselves and model it and then, think it’s a more proven mechanism for young people. I will say, like companies … I do believe that in-person collaboration is really for learning. We do have — we bring people an office. If you’re remote, we ask folks to in and spend time in a room with their team, do activities, all of those things. I don’t think they go away, nor do I think they should. But, you know, candidly, it’s an area I don’t think we’ve really figured out perfectly and I think it’s really critical as leaders, we do that, so that this next generation is able get the same growth opportunities that we all had.
SM: Well, and it’s interesting — the tools that you mentioned the very beginning of our conversation, around video, can be really helpful there. I’ve heard of number of organizations that have really encouraged their young to present, as a way of having to go out and find information they need. And then, because we have video tools available us now, you know, they have an opportunity to share ideas with a large group of people, but first, kind of going through the fact-finding the research, and then sharing their ideas. In an earlier comment, you talked a bit about mental illness and the different things that people are to work, whether it is, you know, exhaustion, burnout. During the Lives Matter protests, we had a lot of people coming to the office feeling trauma, feeling really personal issues bubble to the surface. I’m wondering if can share a little bit about how you deal with this increasing personal — know, when people bring their whole selves to the office, which we encourage, sometimes, they bring things, of themselves that are challenging.
AS: Yeah … I’ve always the responsibility of a leader is to empower people to do their best and the responsibility of a company is to empower our people to do their best work. so, of course, we have a real role to play supporting things like mental-health issues or burnout. And, you know, way I think, like many companies, the way we probably sought to do that was more, you know, you’re a problem and you’re reacting by trying to provide mental-health resources or support or time off. And, think — and empathy, just empathy. I think that’s important. And I always say, to so many of our … just care. If we just care, a lot things get easier. You don’t have to design a hundred mechanisms if you have the right people in place who care. At the same time, I say what we’re realizing now, in sort of this next phase, is that that’s a reactive approach actually the root cause — that we can control at Vimeo — the root cause of lot of stress and burnout is sometimes people either don’t enough … focus, we’re asking people to do too many or they don’t feel like they’re supported in doing things. And that, I think, is actually where we be spending more time — is how do we actually the right prioritization and focus. There’s some issue there, right? There’s root cause there that’s a “Oh, I feel like I’m stressed because there’s much going on. I don’t feel equipped to solve it.” Then, we should get into the “What the detail there, and do we need to do things differently?” And, know, one of our themes at Vimeo this year was “Do less, better.”
SM: As the economy starts to, maybe, move sideways, you think that there are going to be stakeholders say, you know, “Out with all of this touchy-feely, the workplace-as-a-family stuff. are my results?”
AS: Absolutely. I think the pendulum has swung pretty clearly. I mean, I work in SAS, as a service, so we already went from “growth at all cost” to “profitability,” know, pendulum swing. My perspective on this — and it hasn’t changed — I think the leaders and cultures deliver results and treat people well. And I think, if you treat people well, with kindness and empathy, will get better results. And so, you know, for me, I think I observed over the last few years is — that part, think, hasn’t changed and shouldn’t change. There were, I think, lot of times when companies, we did things because maybe it was lip service or felt pressured. And that’s not going to be sustainable. But that’s not — ultimately, that’s not what people need, in any case. So, you know, I sort of see as — the way you channel how you are caring towards your employees and how you are empathetic, should be in service of helping people do their best work, which will results, which will be good for the bottom line. And you to believe that. You have to be committed to and if you use that consistently in your decision-making, should not be a trade-off. These are not mutually exclusive things.
SM: Anjali, how have you been taking care of yourself during period of tremendous turmoil and change, but also growth? You mentioned just had a baby. There’s a lot on your shoulders. How, as a leader, do practice some self-care or how do you make sure you’re getting the balance you need to be the most effective you can be?
AS: I think — recently, the phrase I use a to myself is “two things can be true, both can be true.” I this a lot. And for me, I think of as, like, “This job is hard, and it’s gotten harder.” went public at the height of the pandemic and year, market volatility has been tremendous. You know, we’re going through a ton with post-pandemic, we have a team Ukraine going through a war — all these things that have happened. so, it’s a hard job, and it’s an incredibly privileged job. It’s a gift, right? And so, I for me, it’s sort of acknowledging both of those things helped me a lot. The way I’ve tried to of lead, has been — it’s always been this way, is, for me, it’s I have to have passion. have to have passion. I have to believe so that what Vimeo is doing is important and matters for the world. And if have passion, I have energy and then I will — can kind of move through anything. I have to find joy in team. I feel like, especially in hard times, I back at my career and actually, some of my most fulfilling times in work when — in the hardest business situations. But it’s it brought a group of people together all on one team, so I think that’s been, you know, a really big part of it. then, yeah, like, you have to be a little selfish sometimes, and take care of yourself. And am really fortunate. I think I have a great network around me and I do … My husband I have a deal, where on Sundays, I disappear for a couple of hours. just disappear and I walk around the city and I listen my music and do whatever I need to do, and that’s important.
SM: So you talked about how hybrid work is going to look very different in future than how we describe it today. It’s basically in a couple of days, work from home a couple of other days. Tell us a little bit more what you could potentially see that evolving into.
AS: I think the idea of an office as a and place completely goes away. And I think it’s really going to people are going to want to work from anywhere, anywhere the world. Even the concept of where you’re located is going to change. And then idea of like “I’m going to work on this time zone” or “I’m going to attend meeting that’s scheduled on this date” — I think that’s going go away. And I think what you’re going to find is more and more work, from knowledge workers, is going to be done anywhere, anytime. Communication and will happen asynchronously and we will be using tools technology — whether it’s video, whether it’s AI — basically enable that at scale among many people, anywhere in the world. And I think leadership, leaders are going to look different. Because I think it’s going to require — if think about the skill set to be a global CEO 30 years ago versus what that will require — I think in the future … the skill set is going to like, “How do you communicate with diverse, global audiences employees across time zones in a way that is effective, that context and alignment at scale? How do you organize programs, it’s compensation, whether it’s, you know, training?” All of is going to look very different. But I think the thing you’ll see is just … there were these constraints that we’ve with, whether it was time or place or budget, in some cases. I think those constraints are going to go away. the promise is that if we are flexible and smart and we technology in the right way, that we’ll actually come away much more evolved and efficient workforce.
SM: Well, I think just showed us some of the passion that you’ve talked about as the thing that gives you energy to lead that organization of 1,300 people worldwide. Anjali, thank you much for being here today.
AS: Thank you. This great.