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